Meanest/ thriftiest thing you’ve ever heard of

I know how to be frugal, never mean, just frugal. Born during the post war rationing years. Eldest of 6 siblings, lived in a terraced corner house on a cobbled street in Liverpool. A shilling had to stretch a long way. Knew how to sew and cook by 7 and saw my mum iron christmas wrapping paper, make everything from scratch with bacon bits and the like, while a neighbour fed cod to her cats

We all got into grammar schools and we all went on to become professional people but frugality and being thrifty is ingrained, no meanness at all but we don`t waste money. Personally I do like to spend money on my hobbies and on the best food I can get. My dh and I went from living on home grown broad beans, tomatoes and parsley sauce and camping for lovely family holidays, to having 4 horses and a lovely united family, who pulled together

Nowadays I have passed on sums to my AC and to my DGC, without fuss. None of them are extravagant but again are professionals and have lovely fulfilling family lives, all have gone onto a shorter working week, to keep that work/life balance. Me and my late husband could not do that, it was a different era then, as was the era before

Nothing wrong with being frugal, it is how many of us came to be living a comfortable old age. Being mean is not in my life, nor that of my family or extended family

I was certain I posted this yesterday evening but it's disappeared so I'll try again.
When I was around 4, just before I started school, we moved house.
We arrived at the new place on a dismal, dark winter afternoon and I can remember my parents' outrage when they discovered thae previous occupants had removed all the light bulbs and the loo roll.

When we were young marrieds with a baby, we had no CH and an immersion heater for our hot water. I used to have “first bath” (no smellies or bubbles allowed) and DH would have second while I saw to our DD. (Our flat didn’t have a shower)
Sometimes her needs and time dictated other way round and then I would top up the hot water and add bubbles!
We saw nothing unusual in this but I think young marrieds today would see this as grinding poverty.
Oddly enough sharing a bath has always been viewed as acceptable 🤣🤣

A married chap I worked with back in the 1980s used to bring a packed lunch in to work every day, wrapped in tin foil which he would carefully fold after eating his sandwiches and take home, to be used again the next day, and the next, until it only became fit for the rubbish bin.

That makes sense to me. Tinfoil can be reused or take a Tupperware box.
With the current generation’s emphasis on “saving the planet” by better recycling, minimal waste, the end of single use containers or bottles is this not the way we should be going?
Reusing gift wrapping where possible, especially those horrendously overpriced gift bags - often £4 or more each - ribbons instead of paper ties, lunch boxes and cool bottles or coffee flasks instead of clingfilm, tinfoil, takeaway coffee or plastic water bottles.
What was thrifty common sense is now equally valid in “saving the planet” and don’t get me started on shopping bags!

I am on holiday in USA at the moment and it is still very much a throwaway culture. Breakfasts in hotel are mainly served on disposable plates and cups and throwaway plastic cutlery. It feels hugely wasteful.

I think what this thread highlights for me is that sensible “thrift” is a far cry from out and out “meanness” which is often accompanied with a certain kind of meanness of spirit. Most of us will have known folk like that in our lives, it’s not an attractive trait! Though for some it’s become that way due to awful times of deprivation in their past.

i reuse my tin foil..wipe it clean or, rinse it under tap...its fine! And I rinse out my handsoap bottles and top up the new

It gets to me only one other person in my group leaves a tip when eating out. They have the money. I like their company
and if I didn't see them my social life would suffer. They are out frequently and make a starter do as a main, it makes me feel mean. I leave a tip with one other, but when its 6 or 8 eating out it looks and is paltry.

I reuse my hand soap bottles but never wash them because I never get to the bottom. And, it's soap.

My bottles are all pandemic years old.

When I was in my late teens, I went out on a date with a lad who I knew was a bit ‘tight’ We went to a nightclub and he grudgingly bought us both a drink. I’d finished mine after a short time but he still had most of his in his glass. I watched what he did the next time he took a drink and he was regurgitating it back into the glass to make it last longer!

Needless to say, there wasn’t a second date….😳

I was born during the war, and when we moved from a flat to a rented house, my parents could not afford to run a bath, so we each had to have a strip wash at the kitchen sink.

This also happened when I shared a flat in Dundee with three others. We could not afford the money.

Our flat was two doors away from M&S, and during the years I lived there, I never entered the store once because I couldn't afford anything. It would be rather different now.

My share of the rent was £6 a month without bills and food. I was not earning £30!

*
My father in law recorded every time he changed bulbs, we inherited an electric fire from them when they moved house and over a 15 year period he had recorded every single time he’d changed the bulb, and the make of the bulb he had replaced. He was not short of money*
Casdon That's bizarre, why? What a waste of time and effort. Would he complain to try & get a refund if the bulbs expired in a certain time frame or was he testing which makes of bulbs lasted longest?

I've just remembered another, when was moving overseas, the Packers told me about a bloke in New Zealand living in a hoarders hovel/shack who was moving to Australia. When they asked what was to go he said 'just the whole heap of sh*t guys'. The packers said 'yeah mate it is sh*t and we ain't wrapping it up'. He agreed & took everything including bathroom fittings, door handles, light bulbs, cups with mould in, old wood, threadbare carpeting, literally the whole shebang.

I don’t have any idea why he did it*DollyRocker*. He was ex army, and very organised in every aspect of his life. My guess is that he wanted to buy the best bulb, and calculating how long it would last enabled him to buy the next one at the right time in the life cycle of the old one, so the light was always kept on - but I could be wrong.

Casdon I wonder if it was at the very beginning of long-life domestic bulbs?
The ones that were looped tubes - I assume they were compact fluorescent lights.

I remember buying two of those at great expense and not believing they would last x years. I wrote on mine the date I fitted them. One went on way past the 10 years or whatever it was. The other went within the year and I wrote to the company.
They sent me a free box of 6 which was worth a fortune then. I actually gave one to my mother and father and also my father-in-law!
I think it must have been the late 1970s. I bought them in an upmarket shop at a “green” event.

They were the sort that had to “warm up” like strip lights used to and then they grew brighter over a couple of minutes.

Casdon

I don’t have any idea why he did it*DollyRocker*. He was ex army, and very organised in every aspect of his life. My guess is that he wanted to buy the best bulb, and calculating how long it would last enabled him to buy the next one at the right time in the life cycle of the old one, so the light was always kept on - but I could be wrong.

My dad did the same thing Casdon. He also wrote the date on every battery he used

I was invited to a 60th birthday party in an ex-colleague's garden a few years ago. We were all asked to bring whatever we wanted to drink, something for the BBQ and either a pudding or a salad. She would provide the garden! More recently, I was invited to a friend's anniversary in a village hall where we were asked to bring whatever we would like to eat and drink, our own table decorations and even our own crockery and cutlery.

Oh and I should add that neither of the party givers were short of money!

You may have it NotSpaghetti, as he did start recording in the late 1970s. I wish now that I’d asked him. Did you ever ask your dad why he did it eddiecat?

Scribbles

I was certain I posted this yesterday evening but it's disappeared so I'll try again.
When I was around 4, just before I started school, we moved house.
We arrived at the new place on a dismal, dark winter afternoon and I can remember my parents' outrage when they discovered thae previous occupants had removed all the light bulbs and the loo roll.

When we moved up into our first house the vendors (same ones who took the plants with them), had not only removed all the light bulbs but the ceiling roses in some rooms too, leaving bare wires.

up?
Where did that come from?

*Casdon" no I didn't. He was a great one for writing the date on things he bought! He would probably have said he was just interested in how long things lasted. (After he died we inherited a huge stock of light bulbs. That was 6 years ago and we've still got some!)

There’s thrift and there’s miserliness isn’t there?A certain amount of thrift is a good thing, miserliness never is.

fancythat

Dont get me started.
A relative used to be jumpy if he cut off too much string!

When I was a child, parcels came wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. One of our jobs was saving, smoothing and folding the paper to be re-used. The other, was collecting all the used string, tying the ends togegther and rolling it in to a ball, to be re-used. Nothing was ever thrown away, everything recycled. A rag and bone man used to drive round in a horse and cart shouting his trade, and if you had any rags or bits of metal you couldn't make use of, he'd take them and pay with a few pennies or a bar of whiting for the step.
My grandmother made all her rags into rugs on sacking ( the only coverings they had on the floors). Old clothes worn out by to adults were often cut up so the less damaged bits used to make smaller clothes for children. By the time Granny had finallt "retired" the last scraps of material, we cut them into strips for her to make rugs. Knitted jumpers with holes in, were unravelled , the wool rolled into balls and re-knitted into something else.

Olivia51

Oh and I should add that neither of the party givers were short of money!

Now you know why!! 😂