WalletRehab - Ways to save money

Growing up, I remember that we had a pile of unloved socks in my house. It’s not that these socks were ugly. They had no holes, and were perfectly serviceable socks. In spite of being good socks, my brother and I simply could not wear them.

The problem, as you have no doubt already guessed, is that each sock was alone, and my brother and I had lost the other one. We felt bad about throwing away a perfectly good sock, so we just kept them around. Like a big sock orphanage, with socks waiting to be picked up by their errant siblings.

And the pile kept getting bigger and bigger.

In college, it was worse. Eight boys turning into men doing laundry by themselves, for themselves, for the first time, can lose a lot of socks. Our living room was full of orphaned socks, and we never knew what to do with them. Some became cat toys, and others were temporary towels to mop up spills. But for the most part, they just collected dust.

It was only a couple years ago as I was preparing to go traveling for three months in Japan that I came upon a solution. I went out and bought eight pairs of the same sock, the black GoldToe ankle athletic sock. Having a baseline, or vanilla sock has made laundry so much easier. Gone are the days where I have to root through my laundry trying to match socks.

Having only one kind of sock saves me time and money. Sure, my socks become a commodity and not a style statement. But luckily, my friends and loved ones only worry when my socks aren’t clean. Not whether or not they are the newest fashion socks (whatever those are!).

And what’s best? When I lose a sock, I don’t automatically have to throw it out. And I am not wasting my valuable time matching 14 pairs of socks.