Economy, economy, economy

In honor of the recession-that-shall-not-be-named, I bring you an anecdote about thriftiness.

On the way out of the archive, a friend and I were chatting and he briefly interrupted the conversation to pat himself on the back for reusing a resealable sandwich bag to carry his lunch to the archive for two weeks. Not one to be outdone, I had to answer back: I have been using the same sandwich bag to ferry my lunch to the archive since I arrived in Italy. I have washed it three or four times, but haven't really been counting. This impressed him. But what put me over the top and set him to cracking up was this: I did not pay for this sandwich bag. No, I received this plastic bag for free at SFO because I had forgotten to put my liquids in a separate bag for the flight. When I needed a sandwich bag, I cleared out my toiletries, gave the bag a cleaning, and went to town. Any guesses what I'll be packing my toiletries in when it's time to come home?