Bigger Results From Your Money and Time
The Nose Dab
Is Toilet Paper Cheaper to Use
Than Facial Tissue?
[Prices updated 11-18-18]
The question of the day is: When you need to dab your nose, does it really save money to grab a few squares of toilet paper instead of one whole sheet of facial tissue?
Sometimes there is a real reason to grab a couple of squares of toilet tissue instead of facial tissue - like a genuine sniffle emergency or because you don't want to walk all .. the ..way .. to the .. next... room to get a facial tissue. (That's called being lazy.) But sometimes there is a choice and it just seems logical that grabbing two squares of toilet tissue instead of one whole facial tissue would be the frugal thing to do.
And like so many things where cost is involved, I wondered, does this really save money? I decided to do the math.
Advance Warning: The potential savings here will probably not fund your child's college savings plan.
First I had to get some costs. Our local Martin's Supermarket has Angel Soft Bathroom Tissue - a package of 12 rolls - for $7.99. The same store also has Our Family brand Facial Tissue - 3 boxes for $4.69. **
Ok. First the toilet tissue - Angel Soft Double Rolls have 264 squares (sheets) per roll. So 12 rolls would have 3168 squares. At 3168 squares for $7.99, that makes one square cost $.002522. Using two squares to dab your nose would cost $.005044, or about 1/2 of a penny.
Now for the facial tissue. The Our Family Facial Tissue has 160 sheets (tissues) per box. (ohhhhh... I can already tell we've got a cost savings brewing). 3 boxes would be 480 tissues. At $4.69 for 480 tissues, that makes each tissue cost $.009771, or almost a penny each.
Therefore, one facial tissue costs $.0047 more than two squares of toilet tissue.
In other words, using two squares of toilet tissue instead of one facial tissue will save almost 1/2 of a penny every time.
So. If I choose 2 squares of toilet tissue over 1 facial tissue every day for a year, I will save a total of $1.73 at the end of the year. Hmmm.
I was hoping for a little more savings.
Still, now we know that we can justify substituting a square or two of toilet tissue for a facial tissue when we just want to dab something. Like a nose. Or a mascara or lipstick smear. It really does save a bit of money.
However, if we use 4 sheets of Angel Soft toilet tissue, it will cost about the same as 1 sheet of Our Family Facial tissue.
On the same note in an upper scale, using 2.25 sheets of Charmin Ultra Soft toilet tissue costs about the same as 1 sheet of Puffs Facial tissue.
On another bright side, the toilet tissue is designed to be much more degradable than facial tissue. So substituting a couple of squares of toilet tissue for the facial tissue is theoretically easier on the landfills and therefore the earth.
So there. A bit of cost savings and a green earth savings, too. Now that's The Fat Dollar way.
** Price as of 11-18-18
For more details and pricing information, read The Fat Dollar Bog Post The Great Toilet Tissue vs Facial Tissue Cost Savings Calculation
Article by Patti Tokar
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