Lovelyish

Perhaps the recession didn’t have as much of an impact here in Canada (from what I remember hearing and reading, I don’t think we were hit too hard by it compared to the states), or maybe my parents just have secure and well-paying (I’ve never asked how much they each make. My mom is a microbiologist at the city’s largest university, my dad works for the government, not really sure what, but I know he got a Bachelor of Commerce degree) jobs. We never had to change our spending habits or general habits. I mean, we will wash out jars if they can be easily reused for storage, as well as keep the unused condiment packets and napkins from fast-food/delivery, but it’s not like anyone goes out of their way to make sure these are kept. It’s just easier than throwing them out, because why throw them out if they are still fine to use? But my parents are notorious for buying too much food and for making new food in place of eating all the leftovers, and thus wasting a good deal of it. And they don’t seem to be overly concerned with that. So I guess they aren’t overly concerned with out financial situation.

I had to laugh a little bit while reading this post because my parents did most of the things on the list: waste not, want not, right?  I remember one day, my grandparents were in possession of a package of those fancy paper DINNER napkins.  They were both sitting at the dining room table, with the TV on to watch Chinese soap operas…and cutting the napkins in half!  ”You don’t need a WHOLE, BIG napkin to wipe your mouth.  We’re not savages.”  Payless shoes and hand-me-down clothes were the norm.  My mom would give us haircuts in the backyard…I hated those bowl haircuts.  Also, all the meals were home cooked from fresh produce (some of which grew in our backyard: long green beans, watercress, Swiss chard, kabocha pumpkins, oranges and tangerines) and meat rather than expensive packaged convenience foods or going out to eat.

I love this, my parents did a lot of the same things.  Plus I lived on a farm so we pretty much never bought meat, eggs, or vegetables.  My mom always took the free soap, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion from hotel rooms to use at home.  And we re-used wrapping paper and gift bags a LOT.  I have a certain favorite Christmas gift bag with a cat on it that I  have gotten for the past probably 5 years straight   My mom’s favorite one is to rinse out old cottage cheese containers and other food containers of that nature to use for leftovers storage instead of buying those Gladware containers.

Maybe it’s never been bad that here in England, but my parents never did any of those things.

My parents do none of this lol. Well we reuse mayo or peanut butter or other jars because my dad uses them for his racecar lettering business but other than that…nope.

…. i buy my clothes on sale and sometimes you cupons

taking plastic bags from groccery store.
I always grab tons of napkin from fast food restaurant and stuff them in my backpack

Haha my parents did a lot of those things when I was younger.

My parents never did any of those, but now that I’m studying abroad and am in charge of myself and my finances… yes, Ziploc bags are getting reused. And those plastic grocery bags are Ziploc bag substitutes. And I really need to start stealing paper napkins, because I’m currently napkin-less and there’s no way I’m buying them! lol

I’m proud to admit that I have taken on these same practices that my parents have done before!  Except using mayo jars to drink out of..  But I’m definitely a soap-bar-smusher, a zip-loc re-user, and just started to be a celebrate-after-Christmas celebrator!

@written_conversations@xanga - I do believe that Canada and the UK were not hit that hard (in comparison to the states) by this recent recession. I actually don’t personally know anyone who was specifically affected by the recession itself, although I know one girl whose mother doesn’t necessarily have a great-paying job (pre-recession though). 

haha oh man my parents do almost all of these. And they still do!

….uh… this is what college students do

my parents did stuff like that, it’s necessary when you have triplets and one income (and not a high one at that)!! But these days it seems to be different….higher disposable incomes I guess. But I had an absolutely amazing childhood so it didn’t affect me negatively at all

My parents do this, so naturally, I grew up doing this too. It was very natural thing for me, I never thought this was.. cheap? frugal? I thought it was just reusing, and not wasting. And plus both my parents get paid minimum wage, I wouldnt want to waste their hard earned dollar

@ashleynicole - @written_conversations@xanga - We’ve never done any of those things either, even when my family was very poor… so, perhaps these are regional or cultural or cultural, but from the comments, I don’t think they are very common in the States either.

OP: Before my parents started making money, they had four kids in a three bedroom house living off of a construction worker’s wages. The frugal things they did included using plastic sheets (under regular sheets) on mattresses to keep them lasting longer, cooking at home EVERY DAY for EVERY MEAL, not seeing movies, buying things in bulk from Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart, not having pets or computers, driving older cars. Man, the more I think of it, the more I realize how financially savvy my parents were- they paid off their house quickly, before they started the business even, and it was all because of how well my mom managed to budget and save and how much my dad worked overtime.

My parents did the same things, and now I do them. It just made more sense than throwing things out that were perfectly fine for being re-used. At this moment I have a drawer in my kitchen filled with condiment packets, restaurant napkins, those jelly packets from places like Denny’s, plastic spoons and forks from various fast food places, and a whole bunch of parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper packets from delivery pizza. I water down our dish soap, cut the toothpaste tube in half, I always re-use wrapping paper. . . . To me, it’s just logical to do these things. Why waste?

I do these too, hahah. 

My parents did this and my husband and I try to do the same. We only have one car, we re-use plastic bags, and instead of spending a fortune on paper towels, I use washcloths for cleaning up spills/general cleaning.

lol I do all of these except for the soap..*yuck*.

My grandma has a pretty collection of 1970ties (I guess) napkins that she brought from various restaurats. I’m not kidding they are REALLY beautiful. But when I put them on the table for her she still uses her shirt instead because they are too pretty to use *sigh*

Haha, oh god, my dad always waters things like ranch dressing down so that he gets as much use out of it as possible -.-

My parents do just about all of these! Love it!