I am just back from Costco.
While browsing its aisles, I suddenly remembered that I was darn near out of cotton swabs. I steered my battleship-sized shopping cart to the appropriate part of the store and bought the smallest (and only) package of Q-Tips offered there. It contains three smaller packages of Q-Tips, each of which contains 625 Q-Tips. So I just purchased 1,875 Q-Tips.
If I use one per day, it will take me five years, one month and eighteen days to use them up. I still have nine swabs from the old package left so I'll run out on Friday, October 16, 2015. That's assuming Carolyn doesn't sneak in and "borrow" some.
Maybe I'll go back tomorrow and get her a box. That way, I know I'm set through 10/16/15. In a world where so much in uncertain, it's nice to have one thing in your life you can count on.