Been a bit careful about things since some roommates wrecked my stuff back in school.

People with a "poverty mindset" don't use disposable stuff, if they can help it. It gets to be expensive. Real poor people go to the Goodwill and buy the mark down plates, and use them until they break.

I use whatever I am gifted.
I did miss the "buy" part of the OP and got a little huffy at the term (which I don't understand).

we feed a fair number of strays and have a small house / one sink; I like to throw the plates away, rather than bring ceramic bowls or other plates back into the kitchen - I'm worried about cross-contamination with the strays and my indoor babies.

If it were just my kitties, I'd use regular plates / bowls.

People give me party leftovers and I found lots of uses and reuses for paper plates.

The really rich people are frugal. The ones that have money for generations.

Not the ones that win the lottery or have a hit record or play a few seasons in some pro sport and blow all their money.

It is less wasteful economically and environmentally. It isn't really an inconvenience to rinse off a paper plate to use later to feed a pet. I would think the poverty mindset wouldn't use paper plates. It's much cheaper to use and wash real plates.

I think some of those word definitions have shifted. Good point.

For me, it depends on what I am eating off there. If it's something that is not messy (ie a bagel, etc) then I'll totally use it again.

Ever since dubya ruined the country (and I, among countless others, lost my job), I have been in that frugal mindset.

Avid recycler-- me, too.

Also, I'm mostly Scots, so it comes naturally to me.

Why dirty a dish or have to deal with ants (i.e., a dedicated bakelite, ceramic or tin outdoor kitty dish) if you don't need to. And after two/three uses, the paper plate is ready to bio-degrade as it is.
BTW, plastic is not good for feeding or watering critters out of; unless it's specifically made to eat off, too many plastic container "cat food dishes" have been linked to kitty dermitis or zits around their chins.

We do the same thing with paper plates in our house.

Haele

indoor kitties have bad reactions to vaccinations so they have their rabies shots but as they're indoor only, I skip the others ...
so my main goal is to eliminate any cross contamination which is why I use and toss paper plates once the cats, indoor or out, have eaten off them.

The dry kibble and water for my indoor kids are all Goodwill-purchased cut glass or crystal. Lol. I had plastic water bowls at one time but one kitty girl got awful blackheads along her chin and our vet also said that plastic may be the culprit. As soon as I got rid of their plastic bowls, her kitty acne went away.

When I have spare $$, I capture the strays, have them neutered / spayed and vaccinated, but in the meantime, I'm extra careful.

But yes, if they just had crumbs, those get shaken off. Hell, I reuse paper plates for my food if I'm not slobbing. Its not so much a poverty mindset as the environmental foot print. If i have to use paper (say, after a move but before the kitchen is unpacked), they get well used.

I don't use the plastic ones at all -- they don't recycle here and I can compost any of the cellulose type.

Having said that, paper plates don't qualify as frugal in my book. Whether you re-use them or no. Don't get me wrong, in my day I justified the use of paper plates for this, that, and the other, but in the fullness of time I've become quite militant about what qualifies as "Friend of the Earth" type behavior, and paper plates don't pass muster.

Why would I use a paper plate when I can use an actual plate or dish that I bought for that purpose? I kind of wash as I go, so it's no big deal, the food doesn't get crusted on it or anything like that. But the same idea for plastic cutlery, why use it when you have nice stainless cutlery that you bought sitting in the drawer. And why waste a paper towel, when a sponge will do just a complete a job, and you can use it again?

Even at my remote cabin, I've slipped into a routine where disposable stuff is persona non grata, the more durable, lasting stuff you can find to stock it with the better.

I wonder who you're talking to that they brought up "poverty mindset" thinking. I don't think I ever would have approached it from that direction. You hanging out with the Drysdales? (Yes this dates me, I've dealt with it, now it's your turn.)

and until I know they're healthy (usually after I catch them and haul them to the vet for their shots and to be "fixed&quot , I try to reduce any sort of cross contamination by tossing plates.

My cats tend to be indoor only, but the male occasionally goes out to sun himself and I don't want him anywhere near dishes used by strays, and I don't want to bring those dishes into the house to wash them, either... I want no chance of any germs mixing with my indoor cats. I only have one sink in the house (well, one kitchen sink, and one bathroom sink), so there are very strict cootie boundaries.

Otherwise, were it not for my pets, I wouldn't use paper plates. Ever. I don't like the disposable mindset, either.

Of COURSE you can and should re-use paper plates if possible.

I confess that I put plastic utensils in the dishwasher and re-use them!

I'm an avid re-cycler. You rock for being careful and savvy...

the old saying is, "Waste not, want not."

I'm a tightwad, and an environmentalist, but probably more of a tightwad.

I'll get a few uses out of a paper plate and then I use it for something gloppy and toss it. Here in California we are experiencing a severe drought, so I figure not using water to wash dishes is for the greater good.

I used to be poor and it totally sucked ass. As long as I live, I'll never take a dollar for granted.

Just saying.

you're truly conservative.

Plastic contains toxins that leach out into the food that are a lot more dangerous to dogs and cats than humans.

You should use only metal, ceramic or glass plates or bowls to feed your pets and not store foods meant for your pets in plastic containers.

Further you should also be feeding your pets with clean and sanitized dishes. Merely rinsing off a dish doesn't clean or sanitize it and can harbor bacteria detrimental to your pets.

Feel free to re-use plastic plates properly cleaned for other uses if you wish, but not for your pets. There's nothing wrong with re-using things... we're a wasteful society as it is.