Extreme Cheapskates: woman saves money by not using toilet roll
A woman from New York, who saves money by not using toilet roll, takes thriftiness to a whole different level in an upcoming series of Extreme Cheapskates.
Setting herself a stringent budget, Kay reveals how she uses a combination of soap and water to rinse herself off after visiting the bathroom.
While demonstrating her frugal cleansing ritual in front of the cameras, she states that she doesn’t believe in buying “something that you’re just going to throw away”.
In the first episode, which airs on TLC on October 16, she displays how she might use a small block of soap and a plastic water bottle to clean up.
She explains: “If I took a dump then I also grab soap, wipe myself down with the soap, then I take the water and rinse off the soap.
“I don’t believe in spending money on something that you’re just going to throw away such as toilet paper or paper towels.”
She also informs viewers that she hasn’t done laundry for the past three years and instead washes her clothes by hand while she takes a shower.
She then hangs items up in the bathroom and lets them dry naturally. She claims that the hand-washing technique saves her a total of $6 a month.
“Whenever I have dirty clothes I try to wash them while I’m showering. Today I’m using a free sample of detergent I got.
“Once I’m done showering then I lather up the clothes. I think the last time I did laundry was maybe three years ago,” she says.
Kay explains that as well as saving money her clothes stay looking better for longer as drying machines shrink fabrics and “wears clothes out faster”.
She is just one of the subjects to appear in the latest series of Extreme Cheapskates.
Others to star in the show are Jeff and his wife from Accokeek, Maryland. They endure a “fiscal fast” that sees them not spend a single cent in a whole week, living instead from their cupboards and some ingenuity.
Jeff uses his bicycle as his primary means of transportation and claims he’s saved over $50,000. He also takes low-cost vacations by couch surfing.
Mother-of-five Vickie from Ashton, Idaho, refuses to shell out cash for a telephone, a television or even new clothes for the children. And for meal time she scours the local area for road kill.
While Greg from Ohio, only flushes his toilet once per week and reuses free plastic cutlery despite making a good living from teaching Zumba and participating in medical tests.
However self-made millionaire Victoria from Columbus, Ohio demonstrates how years of saving can eventually payoff, although her boyfriend Steve finds her extreme budgeting methods hard to handle as he moves in on a trial basis.