Things your parents did to save money

[NeverlandClub23]

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 -

That made me tear up . It sounds like you had a great childhood. I'm sure your parents knew how grateful you were/are. (and thanks for the reminder to give both of my parents an extra hug when I see them )

 

[lougoofy]

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.

Utensils from Wendy's were useful at my work tonight for use with store bought food. I wasn't able to come home (for a fork or two) between eating at Wendy's and working my shift. (they get bulk pricing on plastic stuff)

 

[Disney Ella]

Does anyone remember the generic foods with the plain white labels and black writing? We ate that quite often.

We always had generic vegetables. My dad insisted that they were the same thing as the major brands, but they weren't. The green beans were mostly ends and the corn was tough and dark yellow.

My mother tried powdered milk once and nobody would drink it. We ate lots of chicken and spaghetti and once or twice a year had "steak." It was round steak that my mother cooked in the pressure cooker until there was no moisture left in it. People used to give us unwanted chicks that they got for Easter because we lived in the country. We considered the chickens our pets, but my dad was thinking of them as food. He cut the head off of one of them and my mother served it for dinner, but none of us would touch it. That ended the whole raising chickens idea.

We got jeans at the beginning of the school year. If you grew during the year, too bad, no new jeans for you until August. We did the adding cloth at the end of the jeans thing too when they got too short, but I always envied the kids in my school who only had two or three kids in their families and got new clothes when they needed them.

No one ever told us we had to leave as soon as we turned 18, but there was that unspoken message that we should find our own places or go to college after graduating from high school. I got about 1/3 of my education paid for with grants because of my parents' financial situation. Still it was hard being a new college graduate, not making much money and having to come up with the money to pay my loans. I was jealous of some of my co-workers whose parents not only paid for college, but then gave them the money for a down payment for a house, all while I was living in a rundown, roach-infested apartment complex and taking the bus and subway to work.

Mrs. Pete, I think it would be impossible not to resent your parents in your situation. What a cruel way to treat your children.

 

[punkin]

Grandma used to buy chicken backs on sale for $.19 per pound and make a delicious stew. I remember the price, because one day they were on clearance for $.14 and Grandma bought out everything they had to freeze. Since we didn't have a car, I remember carrying those things home!

A pound of the chicken wings would feed a family of 4 for 3 days. We would first have them with potatoes, the next day leftovers would be served over noodles and the third day whatever was left would be mixed with rice. She could also stretch a chicken over 3 meals as well.

...and boy did we eat beans...

Grandma never used powdered milk and we drank a lot of water.

I never remember going hungry.

It's funny, I never see chicken backs in the stores anymore...maybe we got them because we lived in a poor area.

We never dumpster dived for food, but Grandma was a great scavenger for clothes and furniture.

 

[Mrs.Reese]

My mother used to send my brothers into the dumpster behind a Nabisco Factory to get the garbage. It was all sealed food just past expiration. That was a running theme buying bread, meat, milk that was about to expired. It must be why I am absolutely neurotic about expiration dates.

Now my husband's parents never used the air conditioning despite living in Florida.

 

[Poohbear5]

Did anyone else get to use Wonderbread wrappers held up by elasctic for boots in the winter??
My mom used to fuss that we were to hard on the bread wrappers because they only last a few days of walking to school!!

 

[akcire]

All the dumpster diving comments reminded me of one of my mother's favorite tricks.

Often times at night, my mother would go for her walks, in the morning I would awaken to lovely flower bouquets in the house. Now at some age I realized that stores were closed at this time, and she was too cheap to buy them; frankly, I just assumed she cut them from someone's garden.

Boy was I wrong! In 8th grade my school friend Sarah gave me the scoop, yes you guessed it Sarah's family lived near the local funeral home. My mom used to walk to the funeral home after "big wakes" and pick the flowers she liked out of the dumpster and make arrangements (from flowers from the big sprays and standing things that they could not take to hospitals) at home. Sarah was the youngest of 5 and my mother's night time activities inspired her older brothers, who never again went on a date without a bouquet of flowers. Sarah said that sometimes her brothers would even meet my mom in the alley to get flower advise--yes that is my mother the local neighborhood alley florist!

Now I think it is funny, at the time I was mortified and swore Sarah to secrecy.

 

[AndreaDM]

It's so funny reading some of these because it brings back so many memories! What's different in my situation is that my parents weren't poor, but they were the thriftiest people I ever knew (still are). They grew up during the depression so they saved and used everything. We grew and canned all our vegetables and fruits. We always had tons of meat because they would buy half a beef every year and fill the freezer - we actually had 2 deep freezers, one for meat and one for fruits and veggies plus all the canned stuff. I'm convinced we could have survived a year without going to the grocery store. My mother tried the powered milk on us and it did not go over well!! We could have also gotten free milk from my uncle's dairy farm, but we didn't care for it either. Clothes were homemade and/or hand me downs, Christmas was one gift each with a few smaller things like socks and mittens. My mom would take a trip to the Hostess outlet once a month or so and buy bread and things then stash them in the freezer - those hostess apple pies were such a treat but we never got them unless they were day old! Vacations were in a borrowed motor home to a camp ground - the once or twice we went to a hotel was such a treat!

However, we all (4 kids) went to private school, my parents paid cash for their cars (drove them into the ground though) and I found out as an adult my parents also paid cash for the home they bought when I was in first grade (early 70's) that they still live in. It is a 4 bedroom split level on 2 acres that cost $65,000 then. I can't imagine paying cash for any home, even if it only cost 65K!!! They certainly didn't fritter away money on little things, but kept their eyes on the big things like a home and retirement.

 

[Cindy B]

Did anyone else get to use Wonderbread wrappers held up by elasctic for boots in the winter??
My mom used to fuss that we were to hard on the bread wrappers because they only last a few days of walking to school!!

You brought back memories.. I do remember walking to kindergarten with my wonder bread wrappers!

 

[marcyinPA]

Did anyone else get to use Wonderbread wrappers held up by elasctic for boots in the winter??
My mom used to fuss that we were to hard on the bread wrappers because they only last a few days of walking to school!!

YES!!! (I grew up in NH, by the way! I was born in Nashua and lived in Manchester until I was 11) I remember how my feet would sweat so bad in those bread bags!

 

[Heidijs]

My parents had a car that didn't go in reverse. That was fun.

I'm laughing so hard at this!!!! I can totally relate. One of my first cars, something broke in the tranny and it wouldn't go in reverse! I had to like "plan out" where I was going to park at the grocery store or gas station!

 

[tinkermom23]

My parents had a car that didn't go in reverse. That was fun.

I'm laughing so hard at this!!!! I can totally relate. One of my first cars, something broke in the tranny and it wouldn't go in reverse! I had to like "plan out" where I was going to park at the grocery store or gas station!

We had an old blue station wagon and the transmission stuck or something, we were about 10 miles from home and we lived in the country, I just remember we had to drive IN REVERSE the whole way home, and my mom was NOT in a good mood....

 

[Heidijs]

--Thank goodness we never did the powdered milk thing....we had a milk man that brought milk twice a week.

--G'ma made "orange noodles" = Campbell's tomato soup, add American cheese slices while cooking....then pour over noodles.....cheap and yummy.

---Frequently ate Creamed Chipped Beef over toast....AKA = S.O.S or Sh*t on a Shingle.....is that just a Midwest thing?

I'm from Minnesota and I remember having SOS once in a while too!

 

[Ava]

Hand-me-downs from anyone and everyone-- I was the oldest, and I wore hand-me-downs from Mom's friends' children

Same here, I think most of the clothes I wore until I was a teenager were hand-me-downs from older cousins. My sister wore them after me, then they went on to a younger cousin.

I'm still big on hand-me-downs though; my neighborhood has a clothing swap a couple times a year, so the kids all wear each others' hand-me-downs, lol.

 

[FLA NUT]

Did anyone else get to use Wonderbread wrappers held up by elasctic for boots in the winter??
My mom used to fuss that we were to hard on the bread wrappers because they only last a few days of walking to school!!

OMG, I forgot about that!! My kids don't realize how spoiled they are, they actually have snow boots (not that we ever need them here in SC anyway)

 

[mamo-4-wdw]

I am an only child and both of my parents worked. My dad was a mechanic in the army and always fixed our cars. He was the son of a farmer and always had a large garden which he loved to tend to. He was an excelent marksman and would go to turkey shoots and win our Thanksgiving and Christmas Turkeys.
My mom would go out in the patch of woods by our house and cut down a christmas tree every year for Christmas. She made some of my clothes, I remember having a yellow dress she made me in 1st grade.I loved that dress. She learned to make any thing with out patterns,she grew up in the depression with 9 sisters. Her mom would show the girls, yes 10 girls the Sears catalouge and they would pick out a dress or two and she would make it for them without a pattern and out of other clothes, no fabric store or money for fabric.
She would can and freeze food from the garden.
My dad didn't like rice or noodles so I never had mac n' cheese or spaghetti.
All meat had to be identifiable, no meatloaf here.
We never ever ate out, I always brought my lunch from home.
When money was tight we ate lots of potatoes : baked, fried,mashed,french fried..........
and biscuts, homemade with every meal.
We got a free coupon in the mail for a burger king whopper and i begged daddy to go get it, mom agreed and we went. The man in front of us had ordered 4 whoppers with fries and drinks. I wanted us to get 3 whoppers and fries and drinks but no! mama said get this whopper and bring it home and we will try it. I was so embaresed. We tried it and mama made us go back and get whoppers and fries for everyone.

 

[Judy in Texas]

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

We had S&H Green Stamps and an orange stamp from another grocery chain. Ohio also had Sales Tax Stamps that Wikipedia says were issued from 1935 to 1961. They were given in exchange for sales tax paid to the state. My mother put them in a jar in the cupboard until she had a collection. It was our job to sort them by denomination and then take them to school and proudly present to the teacher.

 

[Heidijs]

I just LOVE this thread...

I'm the youngest of 8 so by the time I realized what was going on, most of the kids were gone...most of my siblings flew the coop at 16-17 but my one brother hung around till his 20s and now my oldest brother is back at home at age 54...

So I didn't really see the scrimping like most people but I remember the stories and did live some of it. We didn't have soda...we drank koolaid...we made our own popsicles from juice...I too had to wear wonder bread bags inside my ugly rubber boots! I hated those things! We did get to go out to eat once in a while to the local greasy spoon and McD's when we went out of town. I went grocery shopping with my mom every Friday and she always had coupons and a list she went by. I usually went cus it meant a trip to McD's between stores

I remember her telling me how when all the kids were little though, she used to reuse her vacuum bags. She'd cut the ends off and empty them and sew them back up!!!! She used to wear a wig instead of having her hair done...my sisters used to hang the wig on their bedroom door knobs to keep me out cus I was so scared of it! Mom made my siblings clothes...hand me downs were normal...mom stayed home with the kids, dad worked at the Robin Hood flour mill down the street...always had decent meals but cheap ones some nights like S.O.S and goulosh, always had Totino Pizzas on Weds night and we sat in front of the TV and watched Mutual of Omaha and ate pizza... We only had one car...a giant station wagon...we owned a pop up camper so dad took us all over the US during his time off from work in the summer, usually a week...that was great!!!! Mom always cooked in the camper of course...the older I got though the more spoiled I got because I was so much younger than the rest... We always had good Xmas gifts and never really went without...every year for school I got a new pair of Fastback sneakers from the local clothing store...I hated them...

 

[Judy in Texas]

We always had good Xmas gifts and never really went without...every year for school I got a new pair of Fastback sneakers from the local clothing store...I hated them...

We had Red Ball Jets sneakers!!! And I couldn't wait to graduate from those stupid round-toed ones with the rubber strip across the end of the toes to the pointiers ones without the extra rubber. I think the extra rubber was supposed to make the little kid version wear better/longer.

 

[NotUrsula]

It's funny, I never see chicken backs in the stores anymore...maybe we got them because we lived in a poor area.

Yes, you did. You can still find them at small local markets in poorer neighborhoods. When I was in grad school I lived near my urban campus and did not have a car. I used to be able to get whole stewing chickens for 29 cents a pound, about a dollar less than what I would have paid at a suburban supermarket. Of course, was a tough as old boots. I also see organ meats much more frequently in shops like these; I actually make a special trip to "budget butcher" just to get them -- I happen to like organ meats. We had them frequently growing up, and they were cheap, but Mom would not have bought them if Dad had not loved them.

I actually do the baggie-boots thing with my kids, but it's newspaper baggies, not bread wrappers. They have warm shoes, but we usually only get one snow a year that is deep enough to require snowboots. I can't justify buying snow boots just for one use per year, as they are still growing. They don't use the baggies to go to school, just to play outside. (The route to school is shoveled enough.)

My parents were not overly cheap when it came to food, though we did live off the land quite a bit. They had dealt with food rationing for years during WW2 in England, and after eating petroleum jelly tarted up as margarine, they were adamant about decent food. They cut corners in lots of other ways, but not that one. My dad was one of those people who could fix anything, and my Mom was a professional tailor -- we wore Chanel in high school. (Mind you, it was Chanel that my aunts in NYC fished out of rag bins and Mom cut down to fit.)