$3 Lint Roller

And speaking of practicing for retirement...

As you are aware, I am in the RED ZONE for retirement planning.  This weighs heavily on my mind so I am always looking for opportunities to cut our household expenses.  In my quest for savings, I have turned to "The Dollar Store" (insert appropriate brand name here) for certain items.  One of the said items is the sticky lint rollers you tear off in sheets.

I have 2 cats so fur and lint management is high on the list of things to do in my home.  I keep lint rollers in my closet, suitcases, tote bag and car.  It's amazing how cat hair can show up on your clothes in New York when you defuzzed yourself thoroughly before leaving home, while riding to the airport, in the airport bathroom, and in the hotel room before leaving.  But, sure enough, during a crucial part of your presentation you look down and there is a big fat cat hair riding on your boob.  Could throw you off of your game OR you can pretend it is a part of your accessories and saw Carrie Bradsaw from Sex in the City wearing the same thing on one popular episode.  You get the point.

During an especially busy time in our lives I let our lint roller stock get low.  To be honest, every lint roller stick was bare. Not a sticky sheet to be found, even in my secret stock I hide from my husband.  Luckily, there is a Target right across the street from my office so I breezed by and picked up a dozen on my way home.  Just whisked in there with my pants on fire, talking to 3 people on the phone, typing up a proposal on my iPad and weaving a blanket while stalking and buying those jewels.  Never even knew what the total price was until I got home and reviewed the ticket.

"$36! $36!  You got to be kidding me!  I paid $3 a piece for lint rollers!  (It's ok to suck all of the air out of the room while reading this.  Resume when ready).

My mind began to run the calculations in my mind.  No sweet tea for the next 24 meals, work another 12 years, buying cheaper cuts of meat.  Horrors!  What have I done to my family?  I dare not tell my husband as we might have a hospital bill on our hands from shock therapy.  So I put those little precious items in their appointed places (closet, car, tote bag, suitcases etc.) and pretended nothing had happened to adversely affect our budget.

The next morning I nervously grabbed the lint roller, unveiled the sticky paper and rolled it across my black pants.  What, what??  One roll and the cat hair dissipated.  It was surely a fluke so I tried again, this time across my gray jacket.  Eureka!  Gone.  Then the true magic happened.  I grabbed the used sticky sheet to reveal the next layer and it came off straight and neat. 

No rolling around in the floor to get the used sheet to release, no tattered and torn sides as it ripped halfway revealing part of the stickiness of the next layer, no using 50 sheets to get one unfuzzed leg.  I might have stumbled upon the 13th wonder of the world.

That is when it dawned on me that I could actually save money by using these $3 lint rollers.  It also dawned on me that the reason I was always covered with cat hair was from rolling around on the floor fighting with the cheap ones.

Needless to say, I was relieved to discover my initial panic was unnecessary.  Our budget would survive and sweet tea can be consumed at future meals.  Life is good.