Things your parents did to save money

[momof2gr8kids]

My mom would draw the line at tongue, tripe and giblets but my dad would still buy them occasionally.

OMG - forgot about the tongue. Getting the heebie jeebies thinking of what that felt like in my mouth .....

 

[momof2gr8kids]

canned pork and beans with sliced hotdogs stirred in

That's one of my dh's "must haves" when we go camping.

 

[mjkacmom]

Hamburger helper and creamed tuna on toast - I made HH once for my kids, and they were totally grossed out! And we always had fried spagetti with the leftovers.

 

[Vivianne]

Four words: Chunky Soup over Rice.

My mother could squeeze a quarter until the eagle screamed for mercy.

 

[luvsJack]

Hamburger helper and creamed tuna on toast - I made HH once for my kids, and they were totally grossed out! And we always had fried spagetti with the leftovers.

Mom used to make "tuna gravy" and rice. It was one of my brother's favorite meals! She would sometimes add leftover peas to it and put biscuits on top and then leave off the rice.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

I am glad my parents were frugal. I am too, and it really helps in these lean times. Like Amy D of Tightwad Gazette says - frugality is all about creativity. It's not deprivation. One of the reasons this country is a mess is because people overspend - just charge it and worry about the bill later. Didn't work, huh?

I agree. I'm glad my parents taught me that "stuff" isn't important. Our kids have enjoyed many fun vacations and quality family time because I learned from my parents how to be frugal. (Even w/o the watery ketchup on spaghetti! lol)

 

[roadtripper]

We were a family of 8 with one salary, so Mom was really creative at stretching a dollar:
Powdered milk that Mom poured back into the jug to "fool" us
No name brands for food or clothes
No junk food, soda, etc, except for birthday parties
Iron on patches when we wore through the knees of jeans
Yard sale, thrift store, day old bread store shopping
"Let me see if I have a coupon" was her favorite saying
Hand-me-downs from anyone and everyone-- I was the oldest, and I wore hand-me-downs from Mom's friends' children
One scary clothing factory outlet in a real factory (before outlets became fashionable) that I can still smell to this day. I hated that one.
Out to eat once at year at Christmas time
We bought our own clothes with babysitting money starting at 13 years old
BUT
We went on a one week vacation to the beach every year and stayed in a cottage on the ocean
Went to WDW in 1976 and 1978--drove from MA
Drove cross country in 1982 for four weeks
Got one special thing that we wanted for Christmas (and other little stuff) every year
Were told to work hard, and we could go to whatever college we could get into.
I wouldn't trade the lessons learned for anything. Thanks Mom and Dad!

 

[Judy in Texas]

We had one car. If my brothers and I needed to go someplace we walked or rode our bikes.

My mother also cooked all the meals from scratch. If she cooked it, we ate it or went hungry. This was the 50's and early 60's. Fast food hadn't been invented yet. I remember being hungry in the evening and the only snack option was bread torn into pieces and put is a glass, then covered with milk. YUCK!

Mother canned peaches, tomatoes, greenbeans, etc in the fall.

We had a "Party" phone line. It was cheaper than having a private phone line. We had to pay attention to the ring tone pattern and only answered the phone when it was ours.

Presents were for Christmas and birthdays. We rarely got anything in between. Oh, when the Sears Christmas Catalog came out! How I lusted after the Easy Bake Ovens and all the extras you could buy - pans and utinsils, mixes.

Memories...

 

[cdrn1]

We were never allowed to eat between meals. We got a snack at three o'clock. It was usually a popsicle home made from frozen Tang but sometimes we got a real one. We always had jello (remember jello 1-2-3?) or pudding for dessert but it was always too thin because it had extra water or milk to stretch it.
We never, ever ate out. We did go on vacations (usually a lake cottage) and Mom would buy an extra can of whatever was on sale and put it in a box in the pantry and we took our own food along. Even when we went to WDW our groceries travelled all the way with us from Indiana to Florida.

Man. I am feeling really spoiled and wasteful.

 

[cdrn1]

We had a "Party" phone line. It was cheaper than having a private phone line. We had to pay attention to the ring tone pattern and only answered the phone when it was ours.

Wow! I totally forgot about that one! We were two longs and a short.

 

[luvsJack]

Four words: Chunky Soup over Rice.

That was one I did when my boys were young. My mom even balked at that one and still teases me about it. Seemed like it tasted better then. Now I don't even like Chunky Soup!

 

[Cindy B]

We had no AC-- lin the car it was 4 x 55 conditioning, and at home it was "It's hotter in (insert any hot climate place).. get used to it!"

Vacations-- HA! We did two in 17 years-- one was to Canada, and one was to CA to see my aunt and uncle. My first trip to WDW was for my senior trip which I paid for myself.

I was told that I needed to start working at 12 and be out of the house at 18. True to word, they took keys at 18 and we had to have enough to live on-- like it or lump it.

 

[NVDisMom]

Open face spam and american cheese sandwiches under the broiler was my dad's idea of cooking. YUCK! I learned how to cook at a very young age! My children have never tasted spam, probably don't even know what it is.

 

[Vivianne]

I remember our snacks were a hunk of cheese and soggy bread in milk..actually at the time, I thought it was good.

I enjoyed the movie "Mother" with Debbie Reynolds where she freezes the cheese and argues with her son over the cost of food in the supermarket.

My mom did teach me to be frugal and it has paid off. I always think of need vs wants. Although, I always go on vacation yearly.

 

[IDoDis]

This is really gross, but we were pretty poor. When we were kids my mom had us

1) Share the bath water -- one kid would get out and another would get in the tub.

2) We'd all share a wet rag at dinner time when eating messy foods like sloppy joes or BBQ chicken. Saved money on buying napkins. We'd just say, "Please pass the rag." We'd all wipe our mouths and faces with the same wet rag!

 

[Anne34]

Oohh, 40 years later and I still remember the foul taste of that powdered milk!

ME TOO!!!!!!!!!

That is the only thing I remember my parents doing -- except a meatless meal once in a while.

 

[NC State]

I was born in 1964 and I do remember that my parents made me wear undershirts in the winter under my clothes. Me a girl wearing undershirts! We also had to wear socks on our feet in the winter time because with bare feet you would catch cold and then it's a doctor's bill. They didn't want to run the heat so it was turned down lower than what I would like it to be. Plus we would have a fire in the fireplace....I hated to bring in the wood. Paper, I remember that daddy saved every piece paper if you didn't write on the back...it was saved and you would write homework assignments or things you needed next time you went to the store.

 

[luvsJack]

Open face spam and american cheese sandwiches under the broiler was my dad's idea of cooking. YUCK! I learned how to cook at a very young age! My children have never tasted spam, probably don't even know what it is.

With my dad it was fried Spam sandwiches; no cheese. He also liked fried eggs w/spam. Dd tasted Spam for the first time after Hurricane Katrina, and she loves it! She likes it sliced on crackers. I suspect it is the saltiness that she likes. I let her have it very rarely.

 

[momejay]

We grew our own veggies...
No one can beat what my mom called...eggplant glop. Diced eggplant & zucchini with Italian seasoning or Italian salad dressing & tomatoes. Bread crumbs sprinkled on top. (Some times with green bell peppers) Baked in the oven (with cheese if we were lucky) Eggplant parm gone all wrong...IMHO!

We did the concentrated OJ with an extra can of water & sugar.

Sun tea...Put a gallon container outside on warm day with teabags in it. Saves heating the water? (just pick out the bugs floating on top)

We had a fireplace & spent our summers collecting, chopping & stacking wood for the winter. We each had crocheted wool blankets on our beds. We kept the heat set at 62.

My mom had a second job at a local fast food place. She would bring home expired hamburger meat that she was supposed to throw away. My aunt would steal/take her share of feminine products from the bathroom at work & bring them home to us. (given for free to employees) My dad would bring home cases of batteries from where he worked. (especially at Christmas) We would grab extra packages of ketchup everywhere. My uncle was a trucker occasionally we would get a case or two of something he lifted/had too much of. My grandfather hunted & we ate some strange things at times.

I'm not the middle child, but I was the mid sized child. My brother handed me down his jeans, jackets, sneakers...I had to add a belt or pink shirt to feel feminine. Then, I handed them down to my sister.

 

[englishteacha]

My parents were very frugal. I'm the youngest of 8 kids, so I was lucky that my siblings had all grown up and moved out and they didn't have to pinch pennies quite so tightly!

I grew up in second-hand clothes. I got my first "brand new" winter coat when I was 17, and my first "brand new" ski pants at age 26! I used to love going to the church rummage sale...I could have anything I wanted! (all clothes were priced under $1)

My mom cooked dinner at home every night. We had breakfast for supper often, lots of pasta dishes, and whatever was on sale. Breakfast was cereal (generic), lunch a sandwich of some kind (usually PB and J), and dinner was cooked by mom.

My sister still laughs that for my 7th birthday, she said she was going to take me somewhere special. I got all excited and asked if we were going to McDonalds! Even better...we went to FunTown, a small amusement park. I was so excited, and she took me to McD's for supper, too!

We traveled in our pop up camper, again with mom cooking every meal, and dad and I planning our road trip around rest stops for picnics. My parents also have a camp on a lake. No running water, etc. My dad built it himself in the 1960s from scrap lumber and homosote. We spent lots of time there.

I never realized we were "poor" until I filled out my financial aid paperwork for college. I always had what I needed and a few of my wants.