Wise Bread: 30 Signs You Were Raised by Frugal Parents
Speaking of frugal parents, how many times did you hear “money doesn’t grow on trees” growing up? Stock photo.
Wise Bread is one of my favorite financial websites. It has inspired many of my columns and is a great resource for money-saving tips. The site also publishes funny columns from time to time, like “30 Signs That You Were Raise by Frugal Parents.”
Now, this list isn’t meant to be taken too seriously. I got a few laughs out of it. My parents weren’t overly frugal, but they’re definitely bargain hunters and do-it-yourselfers — clearly it rubbed off on me.
To read the full column click the link above, but I’ve pasted the 30 signs below. The numbers in bold apply to myself, and I’ve left a few comments in Italics. Which can you relate to?
1. You skip the headlines in the Sunday paper and head straight for the sales inserts.
2. You’ve washed (or seriously considered washing) tin foil to use it a second time.
3. You remember smuggling homemade snacks into the Saturday matinee.
4. You know how to buff your shoes to high shine by adding a bit of water or heat to the polish.
5. You’ll still stop to pick up a penny. (Confession: only if it’s heads up)
6. You ignore the suggested use or recommended quantity directions on most products.
7. There’s a coupon organizer in your purse or car (extra credit if it includes a calculator). (No calculator in my coupon book, but the one on my phone comes into play often)
8. You save rubber bands or twist-ties.
9. The chocolate milk you were served as a kid was heavily diluted with regular milk.
10. You have a loyalty card to any thrift store chain.
11. You can sew a button, darn a sock, or repair a seam.
12. You firmly believe that vinegar and bleach are the only two household cleaning products anyone really needs. (Maybe not the ONLY cleaning products anyone needs, but these two products are life savers with universal uses)
13. Your family holds a contest to guess how much money is in the change jar every six months.
14. A little mold on bread or cheese doesn’t cause you to immediately toss it.
15. There’s an almanac somewhere in your home.
16. You know the technique for properly canning food.
17. You know what Green Stamps are.
18. Your medicine chest has at least two hotel soaps or bottles of shampoo in it.
19. You know how to change the oil in your car (even if you don’t always do it yourself).
20. The primary toys of your childhood were wooden blocks, the great outdoors, and a tire swing. (I had plenty of traditional dolls, Barbies, etc., but I lived to play outside as a kid and loved to swing)
21. You know the balance of your checking account (within $5.00) at all times and without looking.
22. Negotiating the price of a used car inspires a sense of adventure and thrill.
23. You know the secret magic that’s contained in every bottle of furniture scratch cover.
24. You have a secret stash of used, neatly folded gift wrap from previous holidays and birthdays.
25. You regard empty butter and yogurt containers as a reuse challenge, not trash.
26. At least three pieces of your household furniture were acquired through dumpster-diving, a yard sale, an estate sale, or thrift store.
27. You brag to friends about how much you saved instead of how much you spent. (This probably gets really old after a while, but I’m not sorry)
28. You can calculate any product’s price-per-ounce in mere seconds.
29. Your dryer sheets have three times the life expectancy of other people’s.
30. You rinse out laundry detergent bottles and cut open toothpaste tubes to get at the last bit of product.
So, which of these do you fall under? What would you add to the list?
February 20, 2013 - 6:00 AM
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I must admit to most of these. I don’t wash tinfoil, but rewashing ziplock bags is one of my habits; and I have so many reused plastic containers it gets a little ridiculous!
The ones I can relate to in my current state are 1, 3, 4 (learned this trick in ROTC), 5, 6 (we get 2-3x the longevity with laundry soap, and our clothes still get clean), 7 (we have a full 3-ring binder!, and I often use my phone calculator to calculate unit price differences at stores that don’t list them), 10, 11, 12 (we don’t use bleach though, but vinegar and alcohol, plus a small bit of soap and a couple drops of orange oil, and water to fill out the bottle makes an excellent all-purpose cleaner), 13 (ok, we don’t have a contest, but we have a jar with a counter built in…), 16 (we just don’t do it often), 18, 19 (I just don’t have the time now, but I can also change spark plugs, batteries, ignition coils, a myriad of sensors, various gaskets, fuel filters, brakes, etc), 21, 22 (5 of my cars I bargained to under $2000, 3 of them $1000 or less), 23 (we make our own), 25 (sometimes, usually we just rinse and recycle…but they do make great containers for other things), 26 (we don;t get from dumpsters, but Freecycle and thrift shops yielded a bunch of great furniture finds, not to mention that practically my entire wardrobe is from Goodwill and the Y Thrift Shops, along with almost all of our specialty stemware and book library…Macklemore’s Thrift Shop song…check Youtube, NSFW language though, is awesome), 27 (we often compare stories, our friends are avid savers and thrift shoppers), 28 (sometimes I need my phone to help), 29 (they always go at least 2 cycles), 30 (there’s a lot of product still in there!).
I’ve heard of people rinsing and re-using disposable cutlery and plates, Ziploc bags (we will re-use them, but only if we’re immediately putting something similar in them, like cheese)…I would also add if you’re a master of adjusting the antenna and using aluminum foil or other metallic objects to boost signal strength…I did this as a kid, and still do it now. I refuse to pay for cable when we can watch practically everything for free online, or at a greatly reduced rate using Netflix and Hulu. We also re-use shipping boxes and packing materials we get from Amazon and other soruces, when we ship stuff to friends and family. Why pay for new boxes and bubble wrap when they give it to you for free??
I drank from empty jelly jars. I still use coffee mugs that were given away by gas stations, and glasses that were given away by restaurants. I ate cereal from repurposed margarine tubs. I use the select-a-size paper towels, but still only tear off exactly the amount I need for the job. Those little frozen meals that steam in the microwave? I save the container and steamer insert and use it to steam a variety of things. I have a hoard of plastic Chinese food containers instead of Tupperware. I’ve been known to get up to six completely different meals out of one beef roast.
All of this was instilled in me by my parents, who were raised in the coalfields of West Virginia and schooled by that old Depression-era maxim, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
Other John: I’ve never retrieved anything from a dumpster either, but I love Goodwill and yard sale furniture finds. Also — Macklemore’s song “Thrift Shop” is my new bargain shopping anthem!
Jeff F.: We used to save the jelly jars with cartoon characters printed on them. They were the perfect size for juice in the morning.
To add to this: I’ve started making my own laundry detergent, replaced my fabric softener with white vinegar and I use a ball of aluminum foil in my dryer instead of dryer sheets. My hubby and kids can’t tell any difference in the laundry. All 3 of my kids, ranging in age from 4-15, clip coupons and look for sales on items. I have been known to make my own toothpaste and facial scrubs too. The toothpaste, however, has not been a good sell with the kids LOL.
Just heard on today’s’ news that my home state Maine has one of the highest rates of happiness.That Yankee thrift ,coupled with an abundant outdoors to recreate and forage in ,plus
small town life is something to be happy about.
We never felt poor but knew no matter how tough it was nobody was hungry,homeless or cold as long as they allowed themselves to be helped.Never did hear anyone brag about what they had or who they helped either.
We had a couch that lasted 20 some years too.Does anything last that long now?
90% apply to me. I will pick up anything of the side of the road if I think I can fix it up and use it or resell it for extra $$. Using pint mason jars as drinking glasses and for canning. Collecting the water you are waiting for to get hot so you can wash dishes in a clean milk jug and using it to water plants or in the washing machine. Saving extra screws, nuts/bolts, nails, and washers from items you buy that have to be assembled.
We do most of these things, but are rank amateurs compared to my folks (in their late 80s) who still use the same dinnerware I ate off of as a kid in the 1950s. IIRC, it was bought a piece at a time at the supermarket (A & P). Mom still cuts Dad’s hair (what’s left of it) with a kit she got with S & H Green stamps in the late 50s or early 60s. They still have the jelly jar glasses with cartoon characters. Every container in Dad’s workshop is a re-used can, cigar box, or similar item – no store-bought organizers allowed! Visiting them is like going to a mid-20th Century version of a pioneer museum!