Our thrifty parents

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

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?"

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.

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."

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

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.

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.

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.

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).

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! -

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

In 1946 my DH and I were married after being in the Forces with nowhere to live, very little clothes, and only our gratuities so,had to be very thrifty and I am still the same even though I a m well off. At the moment I am wearing a sun dress I made forty years ago from a remnant off the market stall. I cannot abide waste and this throwaway society.

I've just sorted out my airing cupboard and have a pile of old duvet covers and towels - not good enough to give to charity shops, but what do I do with them? It grieves me to just throw them in the bin! I just can't bring myself to do it! Help!?

If they go to the charity shop they may sell them because people buy them for the fabric Hooty.
Otherwise they get so much per ton (or whatever) from the rag man.
I gave mine (quite good ones, bright and cheerful, but very unfashionable!) to a group of ladies who were making pretty bags to cover drain bags for the local hospital (those horrible things you have after surgery).

Towels - Dogs' homes are always glad of old towels and old duvets.

Oh Hooty someone will be very glad of those-even the charity shop, they get paid for "rags" by weight.

X post Newquay

Of course not only but also, unheated houses. My feet were wrapped in an old jumper in bed and I never went up without a hot water bottle. Ice formed on the inside of windows and the living room fire had to be cleaned and prepared every day. Sauce pans boiled on the cooker for the weekly bath and all the other things already mentioned.

Legs getting blotchy from sitting by the fire - the rest of the house like an igloo.

I never throw anything away if it could be useful. I darn holes in socks and tights and mend holes in clothes.I use empty jam jars for my white spirit and oil painting medium. (I am an artist) I eventually throw out old newspapers,but not before I've gone through them and cut out anything which might be useful. I sell good clothes I don't want any more at a dress agency and I've been known to buy something in a charity shop and then sell it at a profit at the dress agency. We still have my parents' dining suite and several bookcases and their double bed. Why throw things out if they are functional?

Mrs Mopp. Billy Connolly called them "corned beef legs"

I used to get a new bought dress for Whitsun,it fell about the same time as the Sunday school anniversary so it was for that, and it was my best dress for the year. All my other clothes were home made.

That's lovely!

Hootsmcowlface, why not seek out a craft group, they will be glad of the duvet covers. They cut them into hexagons and sew them up as patchwork quilting. I've never done it but you could ask on the crafts board on gransnet for advice?
Pensionpat

Oh, Stansgran, that quilt is beautiful. And being made of old clothes, every square has meaning. What a lovely idea.