Trash bags are a necessity in households, period. We use them for large trash, small trash and everything in between. The cost of trash bags does not necessarily speak of frugality. In fact, depending on the brand and style of trash bags you purchase, as well as how many you use in a week, you will probably pay somewhere around $15.00 to $20.00 a month for them. That might not seem like a lot, but when you add it up, at the end of the year that comes to around $180.00 to $240.00. Wouldn’t you rather save at least half or maybe more for something else?
Recycle
You can save money on trash bags by recycling other bags. Plastic grocery store bags make perfect liners for bathroom trash cans. It also makes it easy to take out the trash. In addition, depending on how strict your trash company is about using actual garbage bags, you can reuse paper bags from the grocery store as well. They make terrific kitchen trash bags – they are the perfect size and are free.
Change How You Throw Things Away
Instead of just tossing things into the trash, consider if there is a way to compact it a bit. For instance, boxes for cereal as well as other cardboard items, can be torn apart and put in the trash in pieces, rather than whole. If you have Styrofoam items or other paper items, again – tear these things into pieces and place them in the trash. This will save you a lot of room and constantly filling up a trash can with a new trash bag.
Change What You Throw Away
Don’t throw away items that can be disposed of differently. For instance, if you have a fire pit you enjoy using as a family, paper and cardboard make excellent fire starters as well as helping to fuel the fire once in place. Most food items can be thrown down the disposal. Paper items like magazines, newspapers and some mail fillers can be taken to local schools and dumped into large recycle bins.
If none of these ways work for you, and you absolutely have to purchase trash bags, don’t buy fancy, name brand bags. If you can get away with buying the cheapest bags, do so. Many consumers believe that cheap trash bags will break easier, and won’t hold up, and while that can be true, if you take greater care of how you throw things away and what you throw away, you should have no problems.
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