One of the best frugal ways to have fun with your kids and my "favorite things #2" is to pick up an “end roll” of paper from your local newspaper company. When newspapers are printed, the paper that it is printed on comes in a get big large spool. The paper rolls off of the spool, is printed on and then cut and is then folded to make the newspaper that you read everyday. At the end of the day some of the spools will have a small percentage of the paper still on the roll (this is usually hundreds of feet of paper still.) Because it is more expensive and more time consuming to have to stop the press and change the roll in the middle of printing, the people running the press will just remove the mostly-used roll at the end of the day and replace it with a full roll, so the next time the press is used they won’t have to stop it early on to replace the roll.
So what happens to the leftover rolls? They hand them over to their front office, which sells them to the public for close to nothing. Seriously, stop by your local newspaper office and ask about their "end rolls." Most newspaper companies sell them, and what you will get is a huge roll of blank newspaper for probably under a $1.
I tried this out back in June and was able to buy an end roll for $.50 per inch. They measure their inches from the tube the newspaper is wrapped around to the outside of the paper so I was able to get hundreds of feet of paper for only $.50 per inch, and it was worth every little penny!! I bought the smallest roll I could find and only paid about $.60 for it and I have still probably not even gone through half of the roll!!
This has definitely been a great investment in our house. I love being able to just throw the roll onto the table and cover the whole area and just let my kids go at it while we are making dinner. They are entertained forever!
I have also used this paper quite a bit lately to wrap birthday gifts for my little boys friends when he goes to parties. He thinks it is fun to color on the paper and draw a picture for his friends to see and they get a little personalized gift wrapping!
Some other ideas for using this paper could include:
Make large signs to hang up for kids birthdays or any special event.
Using it as a table cover for BBQ's or while getting together with friends.
Making Large Paper Airplanes
Making Paper dolls
Using it for Paper Mache projects
Making Paper Hats
Making Large Room decorations
Doing Origami (you could google origami designs and learn how to make different patterns)
Making Paper Boats
Doing full body Silhouettes (I loved making these when I was in grade school!)
Using it for packing your breakable items while moving
And probably hundreds of other ideas!
Has anyone ever used these end rolls before? I would love to hear any other ideas for using this paper.
So what happens to the leftover rolls? They hand them over to their front office, which sells them to the public for close to nothing. Seriously, stop by your local newspaper office and ask about their "end rolls." Most newspaper companies sell them, and what you will get is a huge roll of blank newspaper for probably under a $1.
I tried this out back in June and was able to buy an end roll for $.50 per inch. They measure their inches from the tube the newspaper is wrapped around to the outside of the paper so I was able to get hundreds of feet of paper for only $.50 per inch, and it was worth every little penny!! I bought the smallest roll I could find and only paid about $.60 for it and I have still probably not even gone through half of the roll!!
This has definitely been a great investment in our house. I love being able to just throw the roll onto the table and cover the whole area and just let my kids go at it while we are making dinner. They are entertained forever!
I have also used this paper quite a bit lately to wrap birthday gifts for my little boys friends when he goes to parties. He thinks it is fun to color on the paper and draw a picture for his friends to see and they get a little personalized gift wrapping!
Some other ideas for using this paper could include:
Make large signs to hang up for kids birthdays or any special event.
Using it as a table cover for BBQ's or while getting together with friends.
Making Large Paper Airplanes
Making Paper dolls
Using it for Paper Mache projects
Making Paper Hats
Making Large Room decorations
Doing Origami (you could google origami designs and learn how to make different patterns)
Making Paper Boats
Doing full body Silhouettes (I loved making these when I was in grade school!)
Using it for packing your breakable items while moving
And probably hundreds of other ideas!
Has anyone ever used these end rolls before? I would love to hear any other ideas for using this paper.
4 comments:
I had no idea that you could do this! What an awesome idea! Thanks!
my mom used to buy these rolls then make shapes (stars, christmas tree's, bells, etc) out of sponges. We would dip the sponges on a plate of paint and use them as stamps on the paper. We would then use it for our christmas gift wrapping paper. It is a awesome memory I have and I am going to continue it with me children. Your ideas are great too. I need to go get me some of that paper!
This is great! I grew up with a roll of paper just like that and always wondered where I'd be able to find one for my kids. Thanks! One idea is to make a giant greeting card out of it. It isn't very sturdy but it's a lot of fun. You can also make a giant envelope for the card.
We used to get these when we were little kids, but I recently tried to find some when we were moving to use as packing and apparently the news paper place had a contract with someone else who would buy their end rolls and then sell them at a much more marked up price. The paper no longer would sell them to individuals which made me sad. I wonder if it was only a local thing or if it's a trend happening all over??? I'd love to be able to get these again, because as you've pointed out there are SO many uses for them!!!
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