Cheeky Savings

By Dian Vujovich

While backpacking through Turkey in the early 1970s, I learned first hand about one of the many luxuries I’d taken for granted here at home in America. Don’t laugh. I really tried the backpack thing and believed all the books that assured me I could see Europe on $10 a day. That, however, turned out to be a bunch of crap.

And now that I’ve broached the subject, let’s talk toilet paper.

If you’ve ever experienced a WC without toilet paper, or at best had to work with cardboard-like 3×3 inch pieces of seemingly zero-ply might-be- sandpaper something or other to tidy your bottom up with following one of nature’s frequent calls, you’re well aware of the harshness not having some soft tissue around can cause a buttocks.

That said, when it comes to the tender care of one’s derrière- here’s some good news: Using the really soft stuff can save you money. And during times like these, when the economy is, well, in the tank, what could make better sense.

It took the folks over at Consumer Reports (CR) to figure that out for us.

I’m not sure if all was hands-on bottoms-up research but what CR did was compare things like price, strength, ply, softness, etc. The outcome: Costco’s Kirkland Signature and Wal-Mart’s White Cloud brands cost about half of what you’d pay for others like Quilted Northern, Charmin and Cottonell. Over the course of one year, they estimate that cost savings to be about $130.

Guess that strange toilet paper squeezing Mr. Whipple’s contract cost more than we’d imagined. God rest his soul.

Other research from CR showed more plies don’t necessarily mean more softness, some tissues like Charmin Ultra Strong don’t disintegrate quickly and recycled paper can have more bark in its wipe then most of us would like.

Find out more at:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/may-2009/home-garden/toilet-paper/overview/toilet-paper-ov.htm?EXTKEY=AAOLMFP09