Maybe you already own it

Save time and money by using what's around the house

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that when you need something, it is possible
you already own it, or could use something you already

(00:23):
own instead. You might be able to save time and
money by avoiding a trip to the store, or at
least buying less while you were there, or shopping online. Now,
I will begin this episode by confessing that I just
purchased a three whole punch off Amazon because I absolutely
could not find my existing three whole punch. I looked

(00:47):
all over my office, and I looked at my kids desks,
because sometimes supplies from my office mysteriously migrate to other
people's spaces. But no, it was gone. I'm quite sure
I now own two three whole punches, but since the
first has never turned up, I'm using the new one

(01:08):
for my various paper punching needs. But for a lot
of things, I am guessing most of us have spent
time and money unnecessarily because we just didn't look or
didn't think about what else might work. You are at
the store and think, hey, there's the toothpaste I use,
and people need toothpaste, So you buy a tube and

(01:31):
get home and realize you've had that exact same thought
the last eight times you have gone to the store.
There are a few ways to avoid this and realize
that maybe you already own it, or at least something
like it. First, if you are going to the grocery
store somewhere like Target, make a list what do you
actually need? Look in your fridge, look in your cupboards,

(01:56):
think through your daily activities. You could actually make your
self a do not buy list if you think you
won't necessarily stick to the actual list you create. This
is where you note that you have already purchased four
giant things of cooking spray, so when you go to
Costco next time, you don't need to purchase anymore. Your

(02:18):
cooking spray needs are going to be met for the
next five months at least. Now. This does take a
few extra minutes, but it usually doesn't take that long.
If five minutes keeps you from spending twenty dollars at
the store, that's actually a pretty good hourly rate. And second,
think about whether something you already own can meet whatever

(02:41):
need you currently believe you have. For instance, maybe you
assume you need to stop at the grocery store on
the way home from work, because you don't know what's
for supper. But if you spend two minutes in the
morning looking in your fridge and your pantry, you might
see that you bought those pre marinated salmon filets month
and they have just been sitting in the back of

(03:03):
your freezer. You can take a minute to move them
over to the fridge. Note that you have a big
package of frozen corn that could be heated up quickly
as a veggiean Wow, you can now push that shopping
trip forward another day. While you are in the freezer,
you might even see that you have a few links
of Italian sausage. And since you see you have pasta,

(03:24):
sauce and pasta in your pantry, you can have that
for dinner tomorrow. Amazing. We've started shopping our current school
supplies before buying new ones in the fall. Now, I
will admit that some of back to school shopping magic
is about getting kids excited for the school year, and
if a new two dollars three ring binder can do that,

(03:46):
I believe that is a reasonable price to pay. That said,
it is also possible that we own a few three
ring binders that never got used or were used very briefly.
A short set with the pencil sharpener made a lot
of pencils look like new. Maybe you already own it.

(04:07):
With a little repair or TLC. A lot of things
you already own might still be usable. For instance, I
recently bought a fabric shaver. I had some sweaters that
were looking a little old. Now they look better. Shoes
can be resold or at least polished. You don't need
to buy things like dress up clothes for your kids

(04:27):
if you've bought Halloween costumes in the past. If you're
looking for some art, maybe you already own something interesting,
like a page in an old book that you could
cut out, or you could print up a photo from
your phone and use that. And sometimes you can make
a reasonable substitution with something you already own. If you're

(04:48):
doing make your own pizza night and you're out of
pizza sauce, but you have Maranera sauce or even cans
of tomatoes, you can probably figure this out. A stir
fry works well with lots of different kinds of protein.
Whatever the recipe you are looking at happens to say,
lots of us feel like we have more stuff than
we probably need. Most of us feel like we'd like

(05:12):
to have more time and money. Figuring out if you
already own something you can use can feel very satisfying.
Less waste, more utility. It's a win all the way around.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for

(05:41):
listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
from us iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

(06:04):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.