The great handkerchief debate

The Frankenstorm came and went. DC has returned to normal. The sun is shining...aaaaaannd I'm at home with a runny nose and a fever.

I don't know about you all, but between November and April I average about one cold a month. The rest of the year I do a good impression of Snow White's dwarf Sneezy. I'm just allergic to everything.
I go through a LOT of tissues in a year.

Or at least, I used to. I made the great handkerchief switch about a year ago right after I bought a 12-pack of kleenex boxes at our Costco warehouse club. There were three problems with this in my mind. I think the 12 boxes cost about $25. I could easily spend over $50 on Kleenex in a year. Not to mention the waste! Oh, and tissues take up a huge amount of space. I have, er, fond memories of going into the linen closet as a kid and having my father's stash of 24 kleenex boxes topple onto me. No thank you. I desperately want to stop stockpiling.

But alas, I'm also a medical librarian. I understand the germ theory of disease, though obviously not well enough to keep from getting sick six times a year! I've worked in hospitals. Handkerchiefs seemed like a really, really bad idea when it came to hygiene.

I looked at when I tend to use the most tissues. Easy -- when I'm home sick I can go through a box in a day.  I now use handkerchiefs when I am sick and quarantined at home. The husband doesn't mind because he never seems to get sick! When I go out in public I use tissues instead.

And what do you know? That stack of 12 tissue boxes has lasted a long time.  Now I use six boxes a year instead of 24 and I figure I save around $35.

I keep my handkerchiefs in a pencil case I got at Harrod's which you can see in the picture. It's one of my few souvenirs of a college trip to London. I'm glad it now serves a purpose and I don't have to declutter it. The pouch takes up less space in the cabinet than a single box. In the future I hope to only keep a couple spare tissue boxes on hand.

Now that I've grossed you all out...what do you think about handkerchiefs? Do you use them? What works for you? Or was there a product that you used to stockpile but now you have something reusable instead? What is it?

minimalism / frugality FAIL

Let's play a game of Simon Says, as answered by the minimalist in me, and the frugal chick in me.

Simon says: I want bread.

The minimalist's response:	The frugal chick's response:

Simon says: I want a vacation.

The minimalist's response:	The frugal chick's response:

Simon says: I want a manicure.

The minimalist's response:	The frugal chick's response:

Joanna's stomach says: I want yogurt. Every day.

Joanna's wallet says: 

 

$23 yogurt maker, pays for itself in five weeks.

The more I read simple living blogs, the more domestically bipolar I become. I can pay money to have other people make stuff for me so that I don't have to own gadgets and machines and pans and bottles and potions. Or I can own the made-in-China-with-slave-labor contraptions that allow me to make my own gosh darn yogurt and stop throwing out ten plastic containers a week. 

Our cabinets in our tiny kitchen are full with all of the contraptions we have to make practically all of our own food (though I draw the line at milling my own flour). I'll have to get rid of some mugs or something for this to fit. 

My internal frugal compass and my minimalist conscience are at war. I own a good bit of stuff (particularly in the kitchen) just because it lets me be frugal. Where do you draw the line?