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Comment by throwaway22032 | Hacker News Reader

throwaway22032

Right. It's difficult to compare because the quantities involved are relevant.

If paper were 100x more expensive today, e.g. it would cost £1 per A4 sheet rather than £0.01, but it was the only way to take notes, then I would still buy it and just moderate my use.

It's not like you need thousands and thousands of sheets of paper.

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My parents' habits were formed from the Depression, and they always conserved paper. I'd receive letters from them written on the back sides of junk mail flyers, and the back sides of mimeographed papers from work. The writing went right to the edge of the paper.

Those habits rubbed off on me, and I still have a box of scrap paper I use.

I do that too! I tear napkins in half, sometimes quarters, then I keep the small bits and use them later. Or use the napkin from the table to mop up spills if it didn't get used much. That sort of thing.

Back when I could still read my own handwriting, and back when I printed things with regularity, I used to use failed prints as scrap paper for my math homework. I figured that the paper was wasted, so getting any more use of out if was less wasted money.

Yes! Waste not want not.

> I would still buy it and just moderate my use.

I think I'd still use it exactly the same amount (I fill 1-10 pages a day) but I'd be more careful about letting unused pages go to waste.

I would think thriftyness would actually end up influencing your handwriting.-

  PS. That'd make for an interesting study ...

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