This is a little post to give you a glimpse into our household.
About 9 months ago we needed new garbage bags for our kitchen can, Zoe’s diaper pail, and other waste receptacles. At the time we still shopped at Sam’s, so we headed to the appropriate aisle in the warehouse. They had normal kitchen bags for a decent amount, but Zak wouldn’t let us get them because he spotted other bags that were probably about .05 cents per bag cheaper. It was a box of 1,000. A big box. A Sam’s size box of garbage bags. We got home, opened the box, and realized that they were made of extremely thin plastic and were pleated at the bottom so they didn’t really fit our garbage can. They are the types of bags that you’d use in a small office trash bin. Not your kitchen can. Most importantly, they did not include any sort of twisty tie to secure them closed. So now we’re stuck with 1,000 bags that are too flimsy and we can’t close. Do we say, “Bummer. We screwed up that one. $11.56 down the drain.” and buy new ones. Noooo. Instead, we’ve been using them since February.
When they rip, we have to double bags them, which solves the flimsy problem enough, but we’ve had to come up with a creative solution to close them. We steal. Yes, we steal. From Jewel. We swipe extra twisty ties each visit. Instead of using just one twisty tie for the produce bags we use two. Or three if we’re feeling really dare-devilish. Zak will only snatch extra ones on items that are priced per item rather than prices per pound. Wouldn’t want to have to PAY for our garbage bag closures.
It’s hard to go shopping now. Not only do I have to keep a pretty constant eye on Zoe so we don’t end up with extra apples in our cart, but I also have to carefully eye the people around me, making sure they aren’t paying attention to my thieving. I then fumble around with the cup that holds the twisty ties to align two together, then quickly wrap them around my bag. I hate checking out, constantly fearing that the cashier is going to say, “Ma’am, you have used too many twisties. The manager would like to talk to you.”
Last time I went to the store, Zak noted what a great job I had done this week. Only in our house. We have about 575 more bags left, so we’ll be stealing for about another year. Next time your in the produce section, try to pick up a few twisty ties for us, or at least think about us and our garbage bag situation.
