My mother and father were the biggest "thrifts".
Mom saves rubber bands, popsicle sticks, string from the cat food bags, ziplock bags and washes them out to be re-used, same with aluminum foil.
She boils pasta and saves the "noodle juice" and freezes it for soup. I got tons of ribbing from my friends for that one.
She's had two cars in my 40 year old lifetime. A 66 Plymouth Fury III that she sold in 1988 to buy her current car, a Honda Accord.
Always finishes leftovers, rarely did food have time to go bad.
Saves batteries, working or not. Dumpster dived. Would take broken chairs, tables, etc. that people were throwing away.
Her brother did the same thing. He somehow ended up with an rocket propelled grenade launcher. I don't know how he got that because the nearest base was probably 2 hours away and he couldn't drive.
She kept all her old shoes and clothes since I was born. She'd buy new clothes on sale at discount stores occasionally. She'd also get clothes and shoes for her and my dad from people who'd died. She loved that!
She would cut envelopes from junk mail or bills or whatever and use them for scratch paper. She'd recycle stamps that weren't "canceled" by the USPS. She never threw pens or pencils away. They literally have hundrends and hundreds of pencils and pens, working and not.
Kept plastic margarine tubs for tupperware.
Rarely bought name brand food items, mostly generic stuff.
Never used coupons because it "embarrased" her! That one I could never figure out! She's the cheapest woman on the earth!
She could pick a piece of fried chicken clean, no meat left.
Karl
Mom saves rubber bands, popsicle sticks, string from the cat food bags, ziplock bags and washes them out to be re-used, same with aluminum foil.
She boils pasta and saves the "noodle juice" and freezes it for soup. I got tons of ribbing from my friends for that one.
She's had two cars in my 40 year old lifetime. A 66 Plymouth Fury III that she sold in 1988 to buy her current car, a Honda Accord.
Always finishes leftovers, rarely did food have time to go bad.
Saves batteries, working or not. Dumpster dived. Would take broken chairs, tables, etc. that people were throwing away.
Her brother did the same thing. He somehow ended up with an rocket propelled grenade launcher. I don't know how he got that because the nearest base was probably 2 hours away and he couldn't drive.
She kept all her old shoes and clothes since I was born. She'd buy new clothes on sale at discount stores occasionally. She'd also get clothes and shoes for her and my dad from people who'd died. She loved that!
She would cut envelopes from junk mail or bills or whatever and use them for scratch paper. She'd recycle stamps that weren't "canceled" by the USPS. She never threw pens or pencils away. They literally have hundrends and hundreds of pencils and pens, working and not.
Kept plastic margarine tubs for tupperware.
Rarely bought name brand food items, mostly generic stuff.
Never used coupons because it "embarrased" her! That one I could never figure out! She's the cheapest woman on the earth!
She could pick a piece of fried chicken clean, no meat left.
Karl
