Cheap tricks: tissues

I have to admit, I had sort of decided to stop blogging because there are so many awesome bloggers out there, and with Pinterest and Facebook, I didn't really see a reason for me to keep writing.  (Also, I don't think I have any readers) My mind was changed by a friend who came to visit me last week and kept saying I had all these clever little ideas that I honestly hadn't thought of sharing. She asked me to share them so that she could do them; so these are for you, Ash :)

I decided to call them cheap tricks because these really are cheap tricks. There are lots of little things a person can do to save a buck here and there, and for a low income student family of three, EVERY buck counts and I do just about everything I can to stretch a dollar. Now, don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to put Kleenex out of business or tell you that you shouldn't buy actual tissues. This is just one little thing to save on when the budget is tight.

I did the math one day and discovered that tissues cost about twice as much as toilet paper (based on Sams Club pricing and assuming you use 2-3 squares of TP for one tissue). Growing up, we actually always had a roll of TP on the kitchen counter in place of a box of tissues. I took this idea one step further and put my TP in a box just because it was slightly more convenient and I think it looks a little better.
I took a wipes dispenser (buying Huggies wipes in bulk comes with an empty dispenser in each box and they are useful for so many things) took the top flap off

and folded one roll of TP into the dispenser. 
Then I made a paper cover to label the tissue box and dress it up a little. Done and done. :) cheaper than tissues and not as tacky as keeping a roll of TP on the counter.

I also really like this for the car, in fact, this is one case that I would use this over a regular box of tissues.  I  leave that top flap on and the box never gets torn or dirty from kicking around the car (I leave off the paper cover). You could probably even put a regular box of tissues inside one of these cases.  I do love these containers. :)

*update 6/15/13*

Another way to do this is to just put a partial roll of TP in your container. 

 

Quick and easy :) if you don't have any containers like this lying around, start thinking of different containers you could use. A reused tissue box would work great! Get creative :)