Puhleeeze.
Money can be spent on MUCH more useful objects than TP.
Whatever DID we do before TP? I, personally, can remember using magazine pages in an outhouse and I can tell you that in the Philippines the use of waste water for washing your behind is still an option.
The Washington Post, New York Times, Time, Newsweek, The Audacity of Hope, Dreams of My Father, and the Koran are all suitable as well.
“...waste water for washing your behind is still an option.”
What type of wastewater are you talking about?
The very last thing you want to invite during a crisis is an infection “down there” or anywhere, for that matter.
A second point to ponder. Have you priced TP and paper products lately? Around here it has nearly doubled in price this past year. It’s not ALL about prepping for a SHTF scenario, it’s a matter of saving money. We’re still using TP from the three cases we bought last year when it was on sale.
Same with food. I almost passed out last week when shopping at Walmart. Last year at this time JIF peanut butter in the large size ‘double-pack’ was $7.88. Last week it was $12.78. We were forced to buy Walmart’s “Great-Value” brand.
Mrs. panax and I have a saying around here...”buy two today ‘cause it’s only gonna be more expensive tomorrow”. 99% of the time that proves true. Few food items are dropping in price.
I agree that some good folks out there are taking this ‘prepping thing’ to the extreme, but common sense says that buying an extra item now and then isn’t going to hurt you.
Here’s an example. My neighbor drives to town every few days just to buy a single gallon of milk. It’s 15 miles to the nearest store. That’s a gallon of gas one way in his truck. With gas at $4.00 and him using 2 gallons round trip, he’s paying $10-$11 for a gallon of milk! Why he doesn’t buy two gallons at a time, I’ll never know.
The way I look at it is that anybody that has a savings account at the bank is a ‘prepper’ of sorts. Preparing for rough or possible lean times is smart.
Rambled long enough....
The canna rhizome is rich in starch, and it has many uses in agriculture. All of the plant has commercial value, rhizomes for starch (consumption by humans and livestock), stems and foliage for animal fodder, young shoots as a vegetable and young seeds as an addition to tortillas. The seeds are used as beads in jewelry.[12] The seeds are used as the mobile elements of the kayamb, a musical instrument from Réunion, as well as the hosho, a gourd rattle from Zimbabwe, where the seeds are known as "hota" seeds. In more remote regions of India, cannas are fermented to produce alcohol.[13] The plant yields a fibre—from the stem—it is used as a jute substitute.[14] A fibre obtained from the leaves is used for making paper. The leaves are harvested in late summer after the plant has flowered, they are scraped to remove the outer skin and are then soaked in water for 2 hours prior to cooking. The fibres are cooked for 24 hours with lye and then beaten in a blender. They make a light tan brown paper.[14] A purple dye is obtained from the seed.[14] Smoke from the burning leaves is said to be insecticidal.[14] Cannas are used to extract many undesirable pollutants in a wetland environment as they have a high tolerance to contaminants.[15][16] In Thailand, Cannas are a traditional gift for Father's Day. In Vietnam, canna is called dong riềng and its starch is used to make cellophane noodles known as miến dong.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canna_(plant)
The ancient Romans used sponges where we use TP. However, TP is always high on all the preparedness lists I've seen.
“Whatever DID we do before TP?”
Well the Romans used to carry around a stick with a sponge on it. They built rows of public toilets over a trough of running water.