Things your parents did to save money

[momof2gr8kids]

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!

 

[Poohbear5]

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

 

[Cindy B]

in 1982 my mom was in a car accident and was on disability for a short time. During that short time, she accumulated the most MASSIVE coupon file ever known to man. Back in 1982, coupons were fairly "new" and she used that and rebates like they were going out of style. Her coupon cart covered the ENTIRE lap thing of the cart. Since this was out of the norm then, people would stop and stare at her cart and ask her about it.

Would shop at Sears Surplus.. How I hated going there for school shopping!

Free government cheese that really wasn't Velveeta... enough said about that.


Dad would do everything himself to save money. He actually built with his two hands and tools a five horse barn, house deck, pool deck, rabbit cage, fencing, and a large drive in garage (5 car). The one time my time would hire somebody, he would watch them like a hawk and figure out how to do it from there (he hired an electrician once and went from there)


My dad would fix our own cars to make them last longer-he was forever changing oils, tinkering with engines, etc.

My dad always had odd jobs and sometimes he would bring damaged goods home for us. One time it was a case of cans with no labels.. You had to shake them to figure out what they were. Whatever was opened we ate.. I got good at determing to sound of fruit cocktail in a can vs. peaches!

We would also shop at odd food stores. There was a store that sold surplus frozen airline food and Army MRE's. We would eat those quite often-- so I never got how people hated airline food.

 

[NeedaVacation03]

Mine is chip chopped ham. I know some people really like it, but we had it so much that I can not stand it. I think my parents must have known someone who supplied it to them, cuz it never seemed to go away. I still can not buy it or eat it today. My kids have never had it, so they will probably think it is good. Have noticed that my parents no longer have it either. They must have gotten us kids out of the house and changed to better meat.

 

[Cindy B]

I remember chip chopped ham as well.. we were always being stuff like that in the store. There was always the "strange" ends of all the lunchmeat packaged in on in the deli case that was always reduced. My Dad would always buy that! My mom would draw the line at tongue, tripe and giblets but my dad would still buy them occasionally.

My mom made this casserole we all loved.. egg noodles, cottage cheese and cooked bacon. It was one of my favorites and we ate it a lot! I made it once for my DH and kids and they couldn't even eat it.

My grandmom would put watered down ketchup on noodles and call it spaghetti.. imagine when I went somewhere and found that spaghetti sauce was not ketchup and had meat in it.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

We used to get season passes every year to Busch Gardens at Christmas growing up. We practically lived there when they were open for the season but we knew we were never allowed to ask for any treat or food while there. Sometimes when we would leave my parents would stop by Wendy's and get a small frosty for my brother and I to share. I hated it growing up but now I'm proud of my parents for being such great frugal parents.

My Mom would also open all of the poptarts and individually wrap each one (as well as Little Debbie Cake snacks) as we were only allowed one. Also when she made our lunches for school we had sandwiches with one (or sometimes) half a piece of cheese and one or half a piece of lunch meat. And mixing water with the last bit of O.J. or Kool-Aid.

The funny thing is I thought all of this was "normal" growing up. I guess I never noticed other people's lunches or asked what other kids got when not at school. I sometimes wonder if I would've been an overweight kid if my Mom hadn't been frugal and conservative.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

My parents had a rather large garden and fruit trees. I was always being sent around the block to various neighbors with bowls of cherries or rhubarb and waiting while they rinsed out the bowls. They canned everything left for the winter, I wish I'd learned to do that.

My Mom cooked pretty much everything from scratch. We never had Twinkies, pop tarts or anything like that in our house.

All of my school clothes came from Kmart or garage sales. Most of my toys were from garage sales.

We lived in town so we would walk everywhere, especially since my Mom didn't drive. It didn't matter what the weather was, either.

 

[irish_trip_mom]

We were a family of 6 kids (three brothers who could eat their weight). We laugh now at the fact that my mom would take a Chef Boyardee pizza kit and make it on a regular cookie sheet. Talk about thin crust!

But as we laugh at all of that, my parents sent all 6 of us through 12 years of Catholic school and college on my father's salary alone. We always knew we weren't rich, but we definitely weren't poor and didn't go without. Three girls in one bedroom, three boys in the other, but we all played sports and did outside activities. Going to McDonalds after one of my brother's games was a huge treat. Wouldn't change a thing about it!

 

[cdrn1]

Wonderful thread! Brought back lots of memories and renewed admiration of my mother and her efforts to raise seven kids on a meager salary. We ate well, never realized we were poor, and went to Disney World the year it opened! Ate our breakfast on the tailgate of the station wagon, and traipsed back out to the parking lot to eat our lunch as we couldn't afford the Disney food!
We, too, endured that awful powdered milk, though she cut it 50/50 (or maybe 70/30...) with the real stuff.
Pancakes (with a half pound of browned bulk sausage mixed in, cause she couldn't afford enough for each kid to get a patty) for supper, canned pork and beans with sliced hotdogs stirred in, 4-for-a-dollar loaves of bread and lots of casseroles made with leftovers. Somehow Mom made it all taste good.

 

[Swmr359]

In the summer we didn't use AC. In winter we would cover the windows with plastic, turn down the heat, and use the fireplace. One winter my dad actually put insulation in my window, boy that was a dark winter!

 

[rumrunnergirl]

.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

We did have powdered skim milk at one time but I don't remember it for more than really one occassion. We rarely ate out. We shopped sales. We always had good shoes though. My Mom would spend $90 on a pair of shoes for us but sneakers never. We hardly ever wore sneakers though so she didn't feel that was a priority and looking back I agree with her. We had sneakers but they were not the cool ones if you will.

 

[RangerPooh]

Thankfully we never had to endure th epowdered milk, but my mom often retells us about how growing up that's what they had to drink. My husbands family also had the governemnt cheese every now and then, like a PP mentioned. Same with the pork and beans. Only his family added mustard to it and called it Beanie Weenie Casserole He said that his family would make dinner for about a dollar, when he tried to make it for our girls they declined to eat it, and I don't blame them.

In our house bread came form the day old bakery, and I thought that it was normal. We ate lots of hotdogs (not a huge fan of them today), and when money was tightest plenty of pancakes or waffles as mom always had buisquick on hand. My mom was and still is a coupon shopper, and she's taught me well Spagetti was the worst though. We knew that the money was tight as my parents would make a HUGE pot of it and we;d be eating it for a week. Just noodles and canned tomatoe sauce. If we wer elucky there would be hot dogs in it. If there was any left in the freezer then ground beef would be added, that was preffered over the hot dogs.

 

[akcire]

The #1 way my parents saved money was by exercising self control, for themselves and for me, they had a very good income. There is no one on this planet that can say "NO" better than my parents. The rarely bought anything, and if they did buy something it was a crazy special deal or day.

I remember wanting a Cabbage Patch Kid one year for Christmas. Somehow my father came upon two of them in early December. He brought me into our spare room and told me I could have 1, but not both. I was 5, I had to pick my gift (and not get it for three more weeks). I picked the doll I wanted, and I am certain he sold the other one for the cost of the two.

The other thing my Dad was really good about was free transportation. He would buy gently used cars and bargain like a madman, drive them for 1-2 years and normally sell them for as much or more than he paid. He kept a list in the garage of expenditures. Throughout the 80's I swear my parents had a Chevy Caprice in every color and with every option (just in 8 different cars). I laugh now because sometimes when they would pick me up from school I did not recognize it was them, silly me I was looking for the big red car and we now had a big blue car.

Also he bartered with people. If he could not fix something, someone he knew could. Sometimes I swear he "became" friends with people just for their skill set. I mean does every man know: a master electrician, a master plumber, a post office maintenance supervisor (also a safe cracker), roofer, appliance repair man, dry waller, and a concrete guy? My dad in addition to his job, did HVAC so he had a trade to bargain as well.

One thing that was odd about my parents, keep in mind this was the late 70's early 80's was they did not drink. We had tons of booze in house, but if I saw my mom have 2 cocktails out at social events it was a big deal, that's in a year (not 2 drinks in one event). I still don't know if I have ever seen my father drink any alcohol. Also many of their friends, not my fathers little trade guild, but their regular friends would routinely have potlucks with cards. Which was a pretty low cost way to get entertainment.

If we ate out, we drank water (sometimes they would get coffee) and I split a meal with my mom. I could have some input, but ultimately she decided for me.

I am glad now. I think I handle money much better than most of my peers--however I do not prey on people to be my friends because of their jobs.

 

[Microcell]

Four words: Chunky Soup over Rice.

 

[luvsJack]

My mom still reminds us that 1# of ground beef can make like 4 meals or something. When my siblings were very young (I am 6 years younger than my youngest brother, so thing were a little different for me) my father was in the USAF and many times there just wasn't a lot of money. Dad would be gone so she was just cooking for herself and the kids. She would really stretch that meat to last over the week.

Even later, there were never drinks, chips, or junk food. Snacks were cinnamon or cheese toast or fruit. One of the cheapest meals and one that I LOVE still is tomato gravy and biscuits!

She used powdered milk and/or evaporated milk--at least to cook with. And everything was made from scratch. And that was with her working until 7 or 8 at night when mom and dad ran a small grocery store! Fast food just wasn't an option.

A lot of things, like no junk food in the house, cheaper meals (like beans and rice or the tomato gravy), fast food being a huge treat; were all things that I did when my sons were small and money was tight. I am trying to get back to that with dd. Fast food has become such a way of life at my house that we tend to just assume it is "unavoidable". When I added up how much we spent in the past year for it--. Time for it to go back to being a special treat, not a weekly or more meal!

 

[Poohbug]

I too will never drink or serve powdered milk. My Mom only made it a few times-I think because my Father would not drink it. He was raised on a farm with real cows and would not tolerate powdered milk.

We had a huge garden, which all the kids had to help plant, weed, water and harvest. My Mom canned everything. Dad would go deer hunting and we would butcher and can venison. Now I have a tiny garden and I only like venison in BBQ. I have no idea how to can anything.

I also wore hand me downs from my older sister. Now I have nothing against hand me downs-I save all my sons clothing for the next one. But my sister was eight years older than me. And she grew up in the sixties/seventies. enough said. I will never wear large prints or bell bottoms again-I don't care how in style they are. The first time one of my boys complains about wearing their brother's clothes-I will stop making them.

 

[Vivianne]

Powdered Milk...

Washed clothes with a bar of soap

Fried Spam and serve over white rice....

Breakfast..Cream of Wheat and Oatmeal..although not objectionable, it was just cream of wheat or oatmeal...I really wanted Frosted Flakes...

LOTs of Beans and Rice...

Every Friday we got Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatoes..yummy.

We NEVER went to a restaurant as a family or went on family vacations.

Can't say it was all bad.

 

[JCJRSmith]

I am the youngest of seven kids and our parents were children of the depression. Dad worked and mom stayed home to take care of the family. My mother could sqeeze a quarter until the eagle screamed for mercy.

Family vacations were typically to Wasaga Beach, Ontario (I don't remember them - I was too young but my sisters tell me I almost drowned there), or to Conneaut Lake in PA where we would stuff everyone into these little cottages for a week. When my brother and three oldest sisters had moved out mom and dad bought a nice little (16 fot) travel trailer and we used that a LOT. Ever try to fit 5 people in a 16 foot travel trailer? We had so much fun, and to this day I still love to camp (have long since moved up to a motorhome )

We always brown-bagged our lunches and I still do. Rare is the day I don't bring my lunch to work. My parents worked HARD to give us the thngs we needed and occaisonally the things we wanted but they also got us all in the mind set that if we REALLY WANTED something we worked hard for it and bought it ourselves. That instilled a work ethic in all of us and my mom will tell you that her proudest accomplishemnt is that she raised seven job-holding, home-owning, tax-paying Americans

 

[NCRedding]

My mom did the powdered milk thing too. Yuck!

We traveled when I was young, while my dad worked as a travelling salesman. Once he had an inside sales job, we as a family never took a vacation. Once my older brother and sister moved onto college and marriage, my parents and I did some travelling.

Hand-me-downs and homemade clothes. My grandmother sewed. She could do dresses OK, but pants were horrible!

Creative proteins: Canned ham; tube steak (hot dogs served as a meat with no bun); fried bologna.

Toni Home perms..I remember the stench and the burning to this day. All to no avail, my hair is straight as a stick, has always been and will always remain that way.