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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that when you need something, it is possible

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Speaker 1: you already own it, or could use something you already

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Speaker 1: own instead. You might be able to save time and

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Speaker 1: money by avoiding a trip to the store, or at

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Speaker 1: least buying less while you were there, or shopping online. Now,

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Speaker 1: I will begin this episode by confessing that I just

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Speaker 1: purchased a three whole punch off Amazon because I absolutely

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Speaker 1: could not find my existing three whole punch. I looked

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Speaker 1: all over my office, and I looked at my kids desks,

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Speaker 1: because sometimes supplies from my office mysteriously migrate to other

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Speaker 1: people's spaces. But no, it was gone. I'm quite sure

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Speaker 1: I now own two three whole punches, but since the

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Speaker 1: first has never turned up, I'm using the new one

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Speaker 1: for my various paper punching needs. But for a lot

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Speaker 1: of things, I am guessing most of us have spent

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Speaker 1: time and money unnecessarily because we just didn't look or

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Speaker 1: didn't think about what else might work. You are at

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Speaker 1: the store and think, hey, there's the toothpaste I use,

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Speaker 1: and people need toothpaste, So you buy a tube and

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Speaker 1: get home and realize you've had that exact same thought

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Speaker 1: the last eight times you have gone to the store.

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Speaker 1: There are a few ways to avoid this and realize

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Speaker 1: that maybe you already own it, or at least something

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Speaker 1: like it. First, if you are going to the grocery

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Speaker 1: store somewhere like Target, make a list what do you

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Speaker 1: actually need? Look in your fridge, look in your cupboards,

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Speaker 1: think through your daily activities. You could actually make your

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Speaker 1: self a do not buy list if you think you

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Speaker 1: won't necessarily stick to the actual list you create. This

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Speaker 1: is where you note that you have already purchased four

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Speaker 1: giant things of cooking spray, so when you go to

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Speaker 1: Costco next time, you don't need to purchase anymore. Your

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Speaker 1: cooking spray needs are going to be met for the

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Speaker 1: next five months at least. Now. This does take a

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Speaker 1: few extra minutes, but it usually doesn't take that long.

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Speaker 1: If five minutes keeps you from spending twenty dollars at

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Speaker 1: the store, that's actually a pretty good hourly rate. And second,

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Speaker 1: think about whether something you already own can meet whatever

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Speaker 1: need you currently believe you have. For instance, maybe you

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Speaker 1: assume you need to stop at the grocery store on

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Speaker 1: the way home from work, because you don't know what's

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Speaker 1: for supper. But if you spend two minutes in the

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Speaker 1: morning looking in your fridge and your pantry, you might

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Speaker 1: see that you bought those pre marinated salmon filets month

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Speaker 1: and they have just been sitting in the back of

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Speaker 1: your freezer. You can take a minute to move them

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Speaker 1: over to the fridge. Note that you have a big

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Speaker 1: package of frozen corn that could be heated up quickly

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Speaker 1: as a veggiean Wow, you can now push that shopping

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Speaker 1: trip forward another day. While you are in the freezer,

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Speaker 1: you might even see that you have a few links

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Speaker 1: of Italian sausage. And since you see you have pasta,

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Speaker 1: sauce and pasta in your pantry, you can have that

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Speaker 1: for dinner tomorrow. Amazing. We've started shopping our current school

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Speaker 1: supplies before buying new ones in the fall. Now, I

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Speaker 1: will admit that some of back to school shopping magic

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Speaker 1: is about getting kids excited for the school year, and

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Speaker 1: if a new two dollars three ring binder can do that,

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Speaker 1: I believe that is a reasonable price to pay. That said,

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Speaker 1: it is also possible that we own a few three

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Speaker 1: ring binders that never got used or were used very briefly.

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Speaker 1: A short set with the pencil sharpener made a lot

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Speaker 1: of pencils look like new. Maybe you already own it.

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Speaker 1: With a little repair or TLC. A lot of things

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Speaker 1: you already own might still be usable. For instance, I

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Speaker 1: recently bought a fabric shaver. I had some sweaters that

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Speaker 1: were looking a little old. Now they look better. Shoes

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Speaker 1: can be resold or at least polished. You don't need

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Speaker 1: to buy things like dress up clothes for your kids

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Speaker 1: if you've bought Halloween costumes in the past. If you're

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Speaker 1: looking for some art, maybe you already own something interesting,

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Speaker 1: like a page in an old book that you could

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Speaker 1: cut out, or you could print up a photo from

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Speaker 1: your phone and use that. And sometimes you can make

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Speaker 1: a reasonable substitution with something you already own. If you're

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Speaker 1: doing make your own pizza night and you're out of

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Speaker 1: pizza sauce, but you have Maranera sauce or even cans

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Speaker 1: of tomatoes, you can probably figure this out. A stir

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Speaker 1: fry works well with lots of different kinds of protein.

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Speaker 1: Whatever the recipe you are looking at happens to say,

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Speaker 1: lots of us feel like we have more stuff than

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Speaker 1: we probably need. Most of us feel like we'd like

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Speaker 1: to have more time and money. Figuring out if you

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Speaker 1: already own something you can use can feel very satisfying.

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Speaker 1: Less waste, more utility. It's a win all the way around.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

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Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

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Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: from us iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.