Thrifty Thursday

My grandmother had three babies at the end of the depression. She also had a husband who was 32 years older than she was. He had a stroke. And she had to make do with whatever she could find to make do with.

As a child, our home had an abundance of everything, from food, to clothing, to furnishings and automobiles. And I used to laugh at the things that my grandmother did.

She saved bread bags. I couldn't imagine why, but she felt it was something we should keep. She stored everything from children's wet swim suits in them, to homemade biscuits.

She would even, (gasp! horror!) send my sandwich to school in them if we ran out of sandwich bags. (No children, this Grandma did not have Ziploc sandwich bags back then! Take a look at the following.)

She also saved the tie wraps for the bread bags.

She used these for everything from tying up loose hair to make a ponytail, to securing the bread bag she'd cut short to make a sandwich bag out of.

She saved old jelly jars.

These she would use to put left over soups in. Or can more jelly if she was in the mood. Or even drink lemonade from in the summer time.

She always wore white sneakers.

I once tried to get her to pick out a pair of colored shoes rather than the plain Jane white ones. She told me they were too hard to keep clean. I will admit, Grandma's white sneakers were always a beautiful white! How could she keep them so clean?

Baby powder! Every morning when she was dressing, she took a powder puff and dusted the outside of her sneakers with it. Since her sneakers were canvas, they absorbed the powder and kept the shoes brilliantly white!

Grandma also saved aluminum foil.

Grandma would say just because it was used once (or twice!) didn't mean it couldn't be used again! As long as it was cleaned, the wrinkles were smoothed out, and the foil folded neatly and placed in the kitchen drawer for future use.

I look back now, and realize that Grandma taught me a lot more than I ever dreamed of. She taught me to value every penny in a dollar. To this day, even if it's only a penny and I spy it on the ground, I pick it up and add it to my piggy bank. (More than once those pennies have pulled me financially from the fire!)

She taught me to appreciate what I have. From the extravagant diamond my husband gave me when we were engaged, to one of those silly little bread ties. They all have a purpose and a use.

She taught me to use it up. Wear it out. Then you buy more.

So, I am happy living in a humble mobile home, and am considering downsizing even! I don't need all this space! I once had a huge closet full of clothes and shoes. Not any more. They went the way of the Goodwill. I only need enough to see me through for three or four days, and then they all get washed. When I buy something new, it's because I've worn out what I already have. Literally.

Yes, Grandma taught me a lot. You don't need vitamins, if you know what foods to eat to start with! Dandelion greens, turnips, spinach, poke (only you country folk will know what that is!) crabapple jelly, mulberries. Eat only what you've canned or frozen yourself from fresh. Never over eat. Eat only until you are comfortable.

Waste not. Want not.

Boy, do I ever wish I'd paid more attention to my Grandma! What a woman she was!

Here's to you, Grandma!