Mum Explains Why Her Family Doesn't Use Toilet Paper

A thrifty mum has revealed that she and her family cut out toilet paper, saving themselves hundreds of dollars in three years. 

YouTuber Amber Allen, who runs a channel named 'The Fairly Local Family', says she decided to start looking into alternatives for toilet paper after realising that she was ‘literally throwing money down the toilet’. 

In the clip, from 2020, she explained that the zero-waste family hadn’t used toilet paper for three years for several reasons, one of which was the cost. 

Amber said: "We’ve used cloth instead of toilet paper for the past three years. 

"We started not using toilet paper for several reasons. We were trying to get out of $70,000 (£56,017) of debt, so we cut anything out of our budget that we could.

"One day it occurred to me, why are we using toilet paper? We are literally throwing our money down the toilet. 

"I just couldn’t wrap my head around why we were doing that."

Amber started looking online for alternatives and came across the idea of cloth wipes, but to save even more money, Amber got creative and made her own using old clothes that were destined for the bin.

However, she found out that wipes made from these materials weren’t lasting very long, so she invested in some second-hand flannel blankets that do a much better job. 

Despite not using it themselves, Amber did say they stock traditional toilet roll for guests who visit their home – having previously implemented a ‘BYOR' (bring your own roll) rule. 

Alamy

In the three years since the family ditched loo roll, Amber says they’ve saved $1,200 (£960) to $2,100 (£1,680).

Offering advice for anyone else who might fancy giving it a go, Amber strongly suggests that you wash your cloth wipes separately from the rest of your washing.

She followed that advice with a cautionary tale about the time her other half ‘made the mistake of washing used cloths with our clothing’ saying that there was ‘no coming back from washing your soiled cloth with clothing or bedding without soaking everything in a bathtub with baking soda’. 

Well, at least you learnt a lesson, eh?

Amber also warned that it can be time-consuming to use cloth wipes over toilet paper, admitting that three years in she and her family were ‘kind of getting tired of it’. However, for the time being she said she wanted to ‘keep going’ despite the extra work involved.

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Topics: Money

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at UNILAD who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats.