Things your parents did to save money

[Liberty Belle]

I was absolutely not offended at all....it just struck me that what one family thinks is "normal" and another family's "normal" can be so different. And how each of our "normal" can change too.

It's funny now, that my mom doesn't use hand towels in the bathroom or kitchen, she only uses paper towels!

When I was about 9-10 yo. I went to a restaurant with my Aunt & cousins. My one cousin was a few years older than me and I wanted her to like me so bad, but she thought I was a pest. Anyway, when we were leaving the restaurant I noticed she had forgotten a bunch of quarters next to her plate. I thought I would make her day! I collected the change in my pocket and when we got to the car I gave it to her saying " You forgot your money on the table, I got it for you" needless to say she called me an idiot, that it was the tip for the waitress, and I felt very stupid. I just didn't know about tips since our family didn't eat out.

I was raised by a single mother from age 2 until age 10. She worked as a hair stylist. My dad sent little to no child support. My mother grew up very poor and her parents didn't have much, but I know my granny helped when she could. She'd watch us (for free, of course) while my mom worked.

I really don't know how in the world my mom did it, but I don't remember lacking for anything. We always had good dinners, cute clothes (not name brand, but I didn't really know any better - until I got a rich best friend...), and my single mom managed to take us on so many vacations and day trips. She took us to Disney World twice while single. We rented apartments, but always had toys, plenty of dental and doctor visits, etc.

As far as food goes, I don't remember much skimping. We drank milk or koolaid. Lunch usually was a soup and sandwich. Dinners were always good. I remember mom used to put carrots in our mashed potatoes, because we wouldn't eat them on their own. I was pretty old (12ish) before I realized mashed potatoes didn't naturally have orange in them!

Again, I really don't know how she managed like she did. She remarried when I was 10 and things were a bit different then, but not much. My stepfather owned a house in a nice neighborhood and that was pretty cool. I guess that's an age when kids naturally start wanting more name brand clothing, etc., so it all worked out.

 

[mrsklamc]

I experienced many of the things people have mentioned here...One thing sticks out to me that my family did that I haven't seen mentioned.

I grew up on a farm, and well.... you know that phrase 'like a chicken with it's head cut off?' I have personal knowledge of what that looks like.

 

[FLA NUT]

Does anyone remember the generic foods with the plain white labels and black writing? We ate that quite often. We also had a large garden and chickens, so we always had plenty of veggies year round and eggs and chicken. And of course, the famous SOS, but sometimes when we had a little extra money we would use hamburger meat in it instead of the chipped beef

I also remember wanting a pair of Calvin Klein jeans so bad in the early eighties. I did manage to get a generic brand from a store that sold knockoff's and seconds. I don't remember going without anything I needed. It just may not have been new or name brand.

We only drank water, and not bottled water like today. We never had sodas in the house.

 

[SillyOldBear]

Ok, I just read this whole thread and I think I got everyone beat. My parents would take us dumpster diving. We knew that the local bagle shop threw away the day old stuff at the end of the day so my parents would drive around the back of the store to the dumpster and my little brother would climb in and throw the bagles out to us. Luckily they were in plastic bags. To this day I am embarrassed about this. My parents still think it is funny.

 

[Vivianne]

Ok, I just read this whole thread and I think I got everyone beat. My parents would take us dumpster diving. We knew that the local bagle shop threw away the day old stuff at the end of the day so my parents would drive around the back of the store to the dumpster and my little brother would climb in and throw the bagles out to us. Luckily they were in plastic bags. To this day I am embarrassed about this. My parents still think it is funny.

Don't get why your parents would think it's funny. I won't guess why.

However, here's for you and your brother. Many people struggle in this world and sadly the children suffer the most.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Ok, I just read this whole thread and I think I got everyone beat. My parents would take us dumpster diving.

OK, you've got my vote. Not , but some of these replies are making me

 

[timzagain]

The post about milk got me thinking ...

What are some things your parents did to stretch a dollar that you just can't bring yourself to do now that you're an adult.

Mine - powdered skim milk. I remember my mom always mixing this up - sometimes it would be "fresh" and not so cold.

Watering down the ketchup and salad dressings when it was near the end. Or throwing every leftover imaginable into a pot of campbell's tomato soup. Nothing like tomato corn/bean/rice/noodle soup on a hot day.

Dh was laid off for a while and went back to school, and even during the bleakest times my mom would say "buy powdered skim milk to save $$". Uh, no thanks!

We grew up in a rural community. My big "thing" was the farm-fresh, straight-from-the-cow, unpasteurized milk my mother would buy from our neighbours. UGH! I tried it again as an adult and I still couldn't stand it. If the fresh milk wasn't available. my mother would dilute evaporated milk! Yuck - it's no wonder that I don't drink milk willingly to this day!

My mother also used to buy these awful canned meat spreads for us for lunch - they were supposed to be different flavours, (beef, ham, turkey) but as far as my palette could tell, they were all the same nasty indescribable pinkish sludge!

My parents were frugal out of necessity and I'm glad that I grew up under my mother's expert tutelage! But the milk and the meat spreads definitely were not my fondest childhood memories!

 

[Mad4Mickey]

I swear I thought milk was powdered untill I spent the night at a friends in JR High . I went home marched in and asked why we had WIERD milk? My Grandma didnt miss a beat and said for the same reason we have cans with no lables on them .
I didnt ask why till after I figured out we were very poor LOL . It was powdered because it was what the goverment gave you for free much like the cheese that never melted

My sister and I talked about this a few months ago and we think the powdered milk is the reason neither of us drinks milk .

 

[Minniemama350]

My mom cut the toes out of my shoes so I could wear them longer!

 

[MrsPete]

When I was about 9-10 yo. I went to a restaurant with my Aunt & cousins. My one cousin was a few years older than me and I wanted her to like me so bad, but she thought I was a pest. Anyway, when we were leaving the restaurant I noticed she had forgotten a bunch of quarters next to her plate. I thought I would make her day! I collected the change in my pocket and when we got to the car I gave it to her saying " You forgot your money on the table, I got it for you" needless to say she called me an idiot, that it was the tip for the waitress, and I felt very stupid. I just didn't know about tips since our family didn't eat out.

Reminds me of the first time I went on a date to the movies . . . I'd been to movies when I was very, very small -- always the free movies for kids type things -- but I really didn't know what to do in the theater. So I sort of tried to fall behind my date and follow his lead, but he was trying to be a gentleman and let me go first. I didn't know if my ticket was for a specific seat or general admission. I just didn't know what to do, but I didn't want to admit it! Awkward. I also remember going to a boyfriend's house for dinner, and I didn't know how to eat shrimp. It was embarassing being me as a teenager.

We did that too! Those where the days... when we thought it was fun to run as fast as we could, then hurl our wet, soapy bodies down a hill, on a burning hot piece of black plastic, only to slide off the side into the grass, but we were laughing the whole time and ready to do it again!

We had a hill that we LOVED to roll down. We never used water -- just rolled. We did it over and over and over.

One thing I remember are the stamps given at checkout in the supermarket in the '60's. My mother let me fill the books, it was fun to look through the catalog. I think she got a sewing machine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S&H_Green_Stamps

Yep, I'd forgotten sticking those things into books for my mother. I loved doing that.

I am very sorry you had to go through this. My mother had no money either and I qualified for huge financial aid for college, but I always had a place to live and home-cooked food and help and just someone to talk to.

My DD17 is a senior in high school this year and I just cannot imagine kicking her out. I did tell her that if she wanted to take a year off before college, she had better have a job from day one. I am not subsidizing laziness!

Thanks, if I'd had a place to live and guidance, it would've been wonderful. I know it came from not having enough resources to go around in a large family, but it was very mean-spirited. It was also tied into passive-aggressive anger that I really WAS ready to go to college right out of high school, whereas my mother hadn't been ready at my age. I understood quite well that a small part of her -- a very small part; she wasn't a monster, but she was human -- wanted to see me fail so that she'd feel justified in having flunked out of college herself. I'd never treat my daughters that way, though I do totally agree with you that I wouldn't subsidize laziness either!

I grew up on a farm, and well.... you know that phrase 'like a chicken with it's head cut off?' I have personal knowledge of what that looks like.

Me too!

Ok, I just read this whole thread and I think I got everyone beat. My parents would take us dumpster diving. We knew that the local bagle shop threw away the day old stuff at the end of the day so my parents would drive around the back of the store to the dumpster and my little brother would climb in and throw the bagles out to us. Luckily they were in plastic bags. To this day I am embarrassed about this. My parents still think it is funny.

I am 100% certain that my parents didn't do this for one reason only: They never thought of it. If they had thought of it, they'd have been all over it, especially at the point that they had five teenagers all at once.

Something food-related that I found embarassing: On the very first day of high school I learned that you had to walk through and say out loud "I get free lunch". So for the rest of high school I pretended I was dieting and didn't eat. It was a long 4 years.

 

[Mad4Mickey]

I just wanted to add I respect some of you more tonight then I ever have after reading this thread.

We have all made it through to the other side otherswise we would not be here posting about it.

Being poor was just the way were my Grandma loved me very much and I am so happy that I never felt any different then anyone else. I did figure out that my Mom was not a good person when I saw how she treated my Grandparents over their choice to keep me . When I write a check to help with my Grandmothers care every month I do not feel one bit bad about my Mom and how she struggles . You get what you give ! I just wished my Grandpa would have lived to see how different I made my life because of his choice to keep me no matter how long it had been since they finished raising their own little ones.

 

[sndtrklvr]

DH and I had very similar childhoods and we are both at this thread because we remember so many of these things. But also:

Never, ever having brand name cookies like Oreos.

Home made popsicles in the summer. And we never got Kool aid although we begged for it.

Hash, hash and more hash. We had a meat grinder and all the bits and pieces of meat were ground up, mixed with mashed potatoes and that was Saturday night's meal.

When I was little you had to wear dresses to school. And my mother would make me wear slips. But I only had one slip and it was too long, so my mother would tie thread around my waist and pull the slip over the thread. It was usually hanging below my dress within a few minutes of school starting.

Saving wrapping paper and boxes at Christmas. God forbid a store should go out of business and you couldn't use their box.

We would go out to eat only a handful of times in a year. HoJos at birthdays because you got a free meal and then a "fancy" steak house for Mother's day.

Three pairs of shoes a year. Back to school, Easter and sneakers. And that was it.

 

[mousebymarriage]

My mom was a young teenager when I was born so I was raised by my grandparents. My "mom" lived with us as did her siblings so, there were 9 children in the house (that included me, my mom and her siblings).

My "grandma" washed clothes many many times in the bathtub (going to the laundromat was too expensive).
-We had 3 bedrooms in the house (1 for my "grandparents". 1 for the boys and 1 for the girls), and we slept 2 in a bed, I didn't have my own bed until I was 12.
-We didn't have cable T.V. until I was 16.
-No a/c in the summer.
-We ate potatoes with dinner almost every night except once a week when it was pasta night.
-We ate alot of meatloaf, which I absolutely hate. I have no idea how my "grandma" was able to turn 1 pound of ground beef into 5 pounds of meatloaf.
-I lived in hand me downs
-At christmas you got 1 toy for yourself and some other sensible things like underwear, socks, gloves etc. and the rest was family gifts like board games.
-We always brown bagged lunch (PB & J, or bologna)
-Dessert was always homemade, nothing from a box (pie or cake etc.)
-No vacations, no public pool, no amusement parks
-Noodles with brown gravy could be considered dinner
-You ate what was served or you went hungry
-We didn't eat out EVER
-Lots of No Frills brand canned goods(the ones with the white lable and black writing).
-no cool school supplies(scented erasers, funky design notebooks) in the beginning of the school year just the basics (pencils and a plain notebook)
-no soda or snack cakes from the store
-no name brand anything
-new sneakers when school started and they weren't the cool ones
-in H.S. and middle school I was too embarrassed to brown bag my lunch (everyone else bought lunch) so I just pretended I wasn't hungry.

 

[Ephany]

My parents grew up poor; your new pair of socks for winter was your Christmas stocking with an orange and a bag of marbles if you were lucky for my dad and not much better for my mom. I really do think one of the reasons they got married young was to escape their families. My mom had 9 younger siblings she was expected to take care of while my dad 'gave' his paycheck to my grandparents.

I chopped firewood and kindling every day after school, I started working at 12 baby-sitting after school, nights and weekends during the school year and all day during the summer. By the time I was 14 I was working under the table at a local greenhouse, and I had my first 'real' job the day I was legally old enough. I also picked rocks out of fields for local farmers, and picked the fruit my mom canned. I swear she made friends with everyone in the county who had berry bushes or fruit trees growing wild; she'd drag us all over the place to pick fruit for free. She worked in a cannery and I remember being dropped off way before dawn at a neighbors so we wouldn't be left alone to get ready for school. We replaced our own roof (that was fun actually) and we'd re-tar the driveway every summer (that was nasty). Mom'd make our clothes too; I'm still scared by my shorts splitting down the back seam during a basketball game in front of everyone.

I know we didn't get chips/snacks/soda until we were old enough to buy it ourselves. We ate A LOT of rice, breakfast for dinner and my mom had us convinced that yogurt was a treat. It came in these huge plastic tubs and always separated into these funky layers. I also hated field trips where you were expected to bring money for lunch or for stopping on the way home for snacks, because until I was old enough to earn the money I'd have to lie and say I wasn't hungry or that I'd forgotten mine and do without. I remember being excited when we started a new school after my parents briefly split up because no one knew us, so my mom let us get free lunch and breakfast. I no longer had to worry about my brother and sister before school or make their lunches, I was in heaven.

 

[snowwhitesmom]

I'm from Central PA and we love creamed chipped beef here.
If you go to any local diner, it's on the menu for about 5.95. Comes with toast and homefries.
It was actually a treat to have that at our house growing up.
But, we go out to eat every Sunday morning, and I always get it.

Love it!


When I was growing up, my grandparents wouldn't let any part of a vegetable/fruit go to waste. They pickled watermelon rind. AGH!

That was terrible .

I LOVE watermelon rind pickles!
We all wore red rubber boots over our shoes in the winter - there was a system - socks, shoes, then BIG knitted socks, then empty bread bags for a water resistant liner , then the red rubber boots - my feet were never cold, and rarely wet. They were even warm when wet, because Mom had made the big socks from wool, and wool keeps you warm even when wet - say, if we got snow in our boots sledding.
I look back now and remember times when Daddy wouldn't eat until we were all done to make sure there was enough for all of us - and if my Mom bought herself one lipstick a year, that was huge.
We always drove to some historical place each summer and camped nearby for a day or two - that was our vacation.
We went to HoJos once a year and McDonalds once a year - usually on Halloween - so that was a double treat. I always felt taken care of and happy and that was the rich part of our lives.
Mom has been gone a year this week, and it will be 5 years for my Dad in a few weeks. I wish I had thanked them more for all they did - all they sacrificed - and all they taught me -

 

[busyshrew]

This thread made me smile! I am the daughter of immigrants who came over with NOTHING. You can see how the family fortunes improved by how much furniture started showing up in our pictures! First year... one chair. Second year... one chair, one couch, and a table....

My family was pretty typical of the times:
Lived in a teeny-tiny house with only one bathroom that we all shared.
Cooked all our meals from scratch.
Grew a garden in the summer to supplement our groceries.
Never ate out, except for once or twice a year, on special occasions.
Only owned one car, always purchased used.
Mom sewed most of my clothes.
Vacations were car trips, air travel was for rich people.
No extracurricular activities except piano lessons (which they thought was an important part of my education).

But all that is nothing compared to an ex-boyfriend's family. They were farmers, and they were THRIFTY:

Grew all their own vegetables, including potatoes (and some fruits) - and preserved food for year-round.
Raised chickens & sheep for family eating - those farm eggs were THE BEST!
Traded their beef to the neighbour's for pork. (Pigs is fussy)
They would purchase cold cuts on occasion - but only the "ends".
Saved & reused tinfoil.
Saved & reused milk bags as food storage bags.
Collected (from friends) & reused milk cartons as food freezer containers
Saved the inner bags from cereal boxes - cut them open for wax paper.
Saved & reused string (of course).
Saved & reused paper.
Used cloth hankies instead of kleenex.
Patched everything three times over and darned their socks.
Party line phone.
Washing machine that was rigged to recycle the water.
Never used a dryer.
Never threw out a teabag - they got reused until you couldn't *squeeze* a drop of tea out!

What a great thread!

 

[AuntMinnie12]

-Noodles with brown gravy could be considered dinner/QUOTE]


OMGoodness....I totally forgot that we sometimes ate Gravy Bread for dinner. Every now and then, we'd have whatever inexpensive on-sale cut of beef for Sunday dinner.....and then we'd have Gravy Bread for dinner for the next couple of days.

Have no idea how she got so much gravy from that.......must be like the multiplying meatloaves!

 

[luv2nascar]

my mother was one of 5 and my grandmother is where I get my thrifty ways from mostly. She didn't have a drivers license and never owned a car. She walked or took the bus.

She never had soda. It was Tang or Kool aid.
She made everything from scratch including noodles.
She washed out the plastic bags bread and rolls came it and hung them on the line to dry.

She didn't own a clothes dryer. She hung everything out.
She never bought wrapping paper. She used tin foil or comics.
My grandma worked in a school cafeteria and nothing got wasted there. Somehow she'd bring it home instead of throwing it out.

My mom made all my clothes when I was young. She also made me Barbie clothes for my dolls. I remember her making my dad ties too.
She made homemade fruit juice popsicles.

 

[MickeyP]

Did anyone other than my parents "take" loads of sugar, small creamers, jelly packs, napkins, and straws when you went out to eat. I guess we had to get our money's worth. It was embarassing to see McD's napkins in our napkin holder.

Lots of pens/markers and other office supplies wound up at our house as well.

 

[PaulaSue]

I'm from Central PA and we love creamed chipped beef here.
If you go to any local diner, it's on the menu for about 5.95. Comes with toast and homefries.
It was actually a treat to have that at our house growing up.
But, we go out to eat every Sunday morning, and I always get it.

Love it!

That was terrible .

Yep, Love it!