Being raised as part of the first generation after the end of the great depression, 1929 – 1941 some say 1945, buying only what you could not grow in your home garden or make yourself.
Never through anything away, save it, reuse it. Tin cans became unbreakable drinking glasses for the kids. Never buy a product in a jar that can not be reused as a canning jar.
Few could afford to eat out. That was not being cheap, it was a survival life style that has served me well. Eat more Fruits vegetables that are in season and less meat, it’s less expensive and it’s good for you. Your children want eat squash? They will if they are not allowed to snack on chips and soft drinks!
One basic rule was and should be always pay cash! If you don’t have the cash in your pocket then you can’t afford it, just that simple. No credit cards, no bank loans, no borrowing from from your parents, grand parents, friends or relatives! Don’t live beyond your means!
You want cable or satellite TV, 2 or 3 cell phones, computers and internet service, but you can live without all of them. Turn them off! Put what you save to work for you in your survival plan. Don’t have a survival plan, well you better get one and make ‘it soon’. You must learn and enforce separating your wants from your true needs. Don’t buy chips, soda, cookies or other junk foods. You need to feed your family, you want to feed them take out pizza, soda and chips!!
Amy has always been a cheapskate. The recession is taking her to new extremes.
Wearing maternity clothes from her last pregnancy, clipping coupons using hand-me-downs to dress her daughters. Cutting lotion bottles in half so she can scrape out the last drops. Replacing store-brand fabric softener with vinegar making her own detergent.Wall Street bankers are shopping Wal-Mart for the first time to buy their groceries. Teens are now thumbing through the piles of jeans at secondhand shops to save money.
The trend is disturbing for merchants, who are feeling a sharp pullback by spenders. Frugal people are now looking at more ways not to spend money. Frugal folks save money by making their own detergent and other household goods. Eating more beans, pasta, peas and lentils — which are cheap and nutritious and eating out less. Buy only what you must have and what’s affordable.
Don’t be Shy. Leave me your Comment(s)
Pingback: 2010 in review – Pobept’s World View « Pobept's World View
Thank you for publishing this post that contains what so many really need to know. I would like to point out, though, that shopping at Wal-Mart and other Corporate owned Big Box stores is what destroyed our economy by eliminating the jobs that once paid enough for a better standard of living for so many.
I hope you don’t mind that I linked to this post in one I just published today that lays out where we are now and more tips for surviving. This depression is going to get FAR worse and last a long time. That post is linked to this comment.
Please feel free to link, copy / paste or use my humble writings in any manner you wish. Please give me a credit / author line
Thanks for visiting my little blob