Our thrifty parents

Oh dear, mrsmopp, I have just had a flashback to my teenage secret smoker years when my friends and I did indeed do just that (the tab end thing). All I can say now is yuck

Postmen remove the elastic bands from their bundles of letters and toss the elastic bands on to the pavement. I have found loads like that. DH thinks I am barmy but I tell him I have never bought a packet of elastic bands - ever.
Is there any hope for me?

But I have never been reduced to picking up old fag ends off the street to rescue a bit of unsmoked tobacco, and use it in a roll up, but I have often seen it done in days when most people smoked. Every little helps as Tesco tells us! -

Our dining chairs were bought (probably on the never never) by my parents when they moved out of my grandparents home in 1951.There was a matching table and Jacobean sideboard (long gone). I have a chest of drawers that was part of my 3-piece bedroom suite when I was about seven. My grandfather would spend ages undoing string on parcels, he would never ever cut it. When my grandparents moved house they brought the curtains and carpets with them. I hoard all sorts of things that might be useful. When the laundry detergent is 'empty' I put it upside down in one of the detergent balls, often almost enough comes out for another wash. I used to have a mould into which I grated bits of soap to make a new bar. Old tights and pop socks are used to tie up plants in the garden. Toilet roll insides are filled with compost for seedlings. DH is always puzzled about the number of empty plastic containers from cream etc that I keep. You never know when something will come in useful. My hockey boots from when I started grammar school in 1959 are in the garage (and they were second hand).

My first bra was my aunt's old one. The problem was it measured 38b cup and I was 32AA. Still it cost nothing was the attitude.

I remember my grandmother squeezing the last drop from tubes by feeding them through the mangle which was a permanent fixture between her 2 old Belfast sinks.

I hate the waste by a lot of people these days - it must be easy come easy go. They throw away, don't recycle or send to the charity shop, even good clothing, etc. When I have a tube of, say, hand cream, it gets to a point when no matter how much you squeeze nothing comes out. I put the tube upside down and when everything has gone to the top, cut the bottom of and slide it back over the top half - use slide it off and dip your finger in. Its amazing how much is left in there - I can get days, if not weeks, use out of it. I balance shampoo, shower gel and conditioner containers on top of each other. So much gets left in the bottle I just cant throw it away.

Ah yes, Tricia the thrift badge. I vaguely remember having to make a toy from scraps of cloth.

When I was a teenager mum used to do cleaning for a well off family. They had two daughters, one a bit older than me and one a bit younger. Mum used bring their cast off clothes home for me.

I loved it. My favourite items were a short red jacket, a pair of red high heeled shoes and a skirt with a pineapple print.

Anything I didn't want was sold to friends or neighbours and the items I kept had to be paid for - about 10 shillings an item.

Now I come to think of it the woman of the "big house" was a bit of an old meanie selling the things and not giving them away, but as dad used to say "that's how the rich get rich."

I still love second hand clothes and am a regular customer in Charity Shops and also donate clothes and shoes.

I had a friend who used to collect all the scraps of soap and boil them in a saucepan to make one bar.

When we made cheese on toast we used to grate the cheese onto the toast. When I went to my boyfriend's mum's to eat, I was surprised that they cut the cheese into big slices. It seemed very extravagant, but I guess by grating the cheese mum saved "a few bob."

My mother also saved and ironed gift wrapping paper and ribbon. When she died I took over her stash and do use some. Occasionally my children recognise a bit of "Nanny's Paper" and they particularly relish the (very old) Spastic stickers on the back of their Christmas card envelopes. She certainly never joined the PC generation.... She also had a drawer full of recycled white card and paper for shopping lists, pieces of string, re-usable envelopes and elastic bands.
She was not a knitter, but was a very skilled seamstress and made us the most wonderful dresses when we were children, using remnants from the local market. I particularly remember a seersucker blue and white fitted drop-waisted dress with a full circle skirt. She also made our school summer dresses in the regulation patterned materials, copying the styles exactly but using much nicer fabrics with a higher cotton content. My maternal grandmother took it a step too far, knitting our school jumpers complete with coloured stripes at the cuffs - which was beyond embarrassing.
Both of them regularly used hair to repair their stockings and tights - my mother was doing this until her death in 2010. She really enjoyed darning and I used to save our mending up for when she visited.
What could be more sensible than old T-shirts for dusters? I don't find towels much use as they tend to disintegrate, creating more mess than they mop up.

Narrowboatnan That reminds me of a story of someone watching a sculptor shaping a figure out of a block of stone and asking in amazement "But how did you know to choose the block that had the statue hidden inside it?"

Wow! lovely rocking horse.. love making thinsg from scraps of anything...

Narrowboatgrandad had some pine window frames given to him. They were brand new and about to be thrown out. He made a beautiful rocking horse with them. Apparently you just stick all the flat wood together and then hack off all the bits that aren't a rocking horse.

I still do most of that. Apart from the shoes and the woolly unraveling. Knitting yarn is cheap enough these days and the machine knitted garments of today just don't undo the same. I also reuse clothing that is no longer required. My lovely blue fleece made two little dog coats for my elderly terriers, edged with smart red binding.

My parent did all these things. Mum would cut up old underwear to use as dusters. The one thing she wouldn't do was rip out old sweaters to reknit them. After living through the war she never wanted to do that again. She started working in an office aged 14 and had to wear her school gym slip until she grew out of it. How embarrassing for her. There's a programme on channel 4 in the afternoons. It's hosted by Gok Won and is about recycling and filling your house for free. It's really interesting.

I sometimes think my parents took it to extremes. Their (huge) house was packed full of newspapers, old clothing (you never knew, there might be another Depression, and clothes might come in handy), jars of nails, boxes of used cards, wrapping paper and string for reusing. Towels were never reused for floorcloths- they were made into sanitary pads for my sister and me...we had to wash them by hand in cold water and keep them well hidden from the menfolk in the back washhouse. I wore my mother's old clothes and shoes, she cut the hair of everyone in the family except Dad, we kids weeded the enormous vege garden, painted the house, mowed the lawns and fed the chickens. Bath water was restricted to about 2 inches, sheets were turned, 'botting" fruit was a ritual for all women - stirring huge cauldrons of boiling peaches, plums and vegetables in the searing summer heat. All clothes were homemade or hand-me-downs. A tiny piece of fabric was made to go further by edging armholes with bias binding instead of proper facings. One tin of baked beans fed 5 people. Socks and woollens were darned and redarned till there was more darning than original.Nylon stockings were repaired with human hair or nailpolish. Only mother was allowed shampoo-we had to make do with soap for our hair. This was the prosperous 50s and 60s, and my dad worked in a very well-paid profession. Mother was given a marriage settlement by her parents when she was married in 1947 - "a woman must always have her own money" said Granny. The amount was enough to buy a house, but was not used for such - it was "her" money. Very odd financial choices.

How I agree with you. We are having to move to a small retirement flat soon and I have started to have a clear out. Can't believe how much 'junk' we have collected.

RAF you had a car??
and your mum drove? even more

Monday night was always bubble and squeak, yummy!
It still is sometimes Mrsmopp

I wore my cousin's outgrown clothes (she was three years older than me, and my aunt was 'comfortably off').My Mother spent very wisely but I remember her being absolutely distraught one day when her purse was lost and she had nothing for the rest of the week - there was no 'spare' money in those days. I still have to unwrap soap and let it harden - if I dared to use a new tablet I am sure my Mother would materialise to chastise me. Dad mended our shoes on a last, and the same 1930s furniture, carpet, bedding etc. was around for the whole of my childhood and teenage years.

My mother used to save my worn out thick cotton school knickers for dusting cloths. Including keeping one pair in the car glovebox to wipe the mist off the windscreen. I was mortified when schoolfriends on the school run found them and started waving them out of the window!

Yes my father had a set of lasts to mend shoes. I do not use old clothes to make dusters. I buy e cloths. Old clothes make beautiful (to me) quilts

Jayh - I earned a thrift badge too. The only thing I can remember from it was to light the fire using only one match!

Our garden was completely given over to growing veg. No room for playing or sunbathing, dad had rows of potatoes, runner beans, salads and mum kept chickens so we never went hungry. Monday night was always bubble and squeak, yummy!

I never buy clothes unless they are reduced in the sales. Pay full price? Whatever for?
I might see something I like and I think, well, I'll wait until the sales start.
I get upset in January when all the Christmas gifts are suddenly half price. Have you ever returned an item then bought it again for half price?

All of the above and still do some of it. We are the original recyclers.