To think I'm not mean?

[EatsBrainsAndLeaves]

My parents came over to visit yesterday and basically said I was mean because:

1. I was mending some clothing - sewing up holes.
2. In the fridge I have bits of leftover food that I use to make meals

They had a bit of a laugh about my "make do and mend" approach.

Just some background information. My parents actually have much less money than our family. They live in a rented council house and just have a state pension, but would never dream of mending clothing and always chuck away leftover food.

I live in a bought house in a nice area and with my DP we have a decent income - bit above the national average.

So am I mean or are my parents just strange?

You have to make bubble and squeak out if left over roast dinner pots and veg. It is the law.

Cross posted with Spag, really made me chuckle.

Why, oh why would someone boast about wasting money and resources?

Though in our family we do competetive frugality:

See this here entire set of garden furniture, cost nowt, got it from a skip.....(doesn't count the sandpaper, paint and time spent!! and neither would I)

I LOVE a bargain, warms the cockles of my heart.

Is bubble and squeak not just a big rissole? I'm sure I make them the same way, just all mashed up and fried with a tiny bit of oil.

Called b&s if it's a big pile of it, rissoles if I can be bothered to squidge into balls :)

Rissoles sound well posh. Tis umble bubble and squeak to me.

what does 'mean' actually, um, MEAN though?

to me, it signifies being unpleasantly ungenerous to other people, when you COULD be generous.

What you are doing is being thrifty, and not wasting things. Perhaps your parents are feeling guilty that they are not so clever at stretching the budget

You've got better things to spend money on than clothes tgat will take 5 minutes of sewing and food tgat is already there and for me I enjoy thinking of different ways to serve it.

Not mean, sensible. Money has only a bit to do with it.
Yes I would replace socks and school jumpers my DM would have darned, but in real terms school clothes are so much cheaper.

However, wasting nice things that can be mended is still sensible.
DHs jumper will get it's shoulder seam resew today. Elaborate patching has been done on favourite clothes.

And wasting food is daft, because it's wasting effort as well as money. Anyhow having left over pasta sauce etc. let's me feed fuss pot DD2 and make something interesting for the rest of us!

I'm really can't get 3 days out of a chicken any more, the DDs now eat adult amounts, but I used to.

It's what my mum called them

However much money you've got, every £ saved is a £ to spend on something else

I thought I was the only person left around who still darns. I even own two darning mushrooms. A good darn is very satisfying.

Three meals out of a roast chicken? astonishing.

I darn. And I want a darning mushroom

No, you are not mean. Thrifty, yes.

I've never understood how people end up with left overs though. Is it really that difficult to figure out how much food to cook?

I like being mean. I see it as positive. And I don't bother giving it the PR spin to turn it into thriftiness. Embrace the meaness.

I would try not to throw food away and generally will cook it and freeze it before its use by date.

However - I would NOT repair clothes - I just give them to my mum to do

Seriously though, if its kids school uniform cheap bits such as socks, pants and asda trousers then I would throw away. mum I would repair blazers, sew buttons on or repair an expensive item of clothing but thats about it.

An old tennis ball (not too fluffy) can do as a makeshift darning mushroom. I inherited both of my grandparent ones.

3 meals out of a chicken is easy. 1 roast, 2 cold with jacket potatoes, 3 pie. You don't need a lot of chicken in the pie. I put peas and carrots in too for dd1 to pick all the veg out
If it's a very big chicken (or not too many people) you can get a casserole out of it too.

A lamb joint can do a roast, casserole followed by lesagne if you have a mincer. We don't usually buy lamb though, it's too expensive.

If you're mean so am I!
Leftovers are there to be eaten & I make stock from chicken bones & leftover veg. I seem to be forever mending clothes at the mo & DH & the DC's are so bloody hard on their socks I'd love to learn to darn, he talks about his Gran that used to darn his socks for him.
We love a good bargain in our family too & I deserve a loyalty card from my local charity shops.
Think I'll have to check out that website

3 meals from any roast is easy. 1 roast dinner, 2 cold with bubble & squeak / rissoles, 3 stir fry or curry with lots of veg.

Perfectly capable of judging quantities, I over-cater on purpose so I have some to freeze or leftovers. Saves cooking from scratch again.

Thanks, will try the old tennis ball trick!

Is darning mushrooms the new lentil weaving?

There are six of us, and a chicken still does 2 good meals - lovely roast and a very substantial soup.

Waste/thrift is a funny thing, in my family we have some very wealthy and some very hard up people - and thrift doesn't seem to correlate very well with net worth! The richest couple (multi-millionaires) are very thrifty with food and clothes - they buy the very best of everything but it's all well looked after and mended and properly used up. Some of the less well off relatives just have no money sense at all, and could make their money go a lot further - but that's their choice I suppose.

DH and I are in the middle, high-earners and fairly thrifty (we try to buy well and make things last), I don't waste food leftovers and we do repairs/mending where we can rather than pay someone.

It's all about attitude really - some people seem to like binning things and buying new (and show off about the fact they can afford to), others like to feel they are getting their money worth

Of course that's not mean. That's sensible. Also, there is nothing - nothing - in the world that's a nicer lunch than yesterday's leftover boiled potatoes, sliced and pan fried, served with mayo. (It's what my grandma did when I stayed at hers as a child, many happy memories. I sometimes boil too many potatoes on purpose so I can do this the day after)

I can't sew for toffee but even I will put a button back on or repair a split seam rather than buying new clothes. If it's more complicated than that I will have to go shopping, not because I don't want to repair the old one but because I don't know how....

I'm not mean at all, though. I spend money when I want to (if I have it!) on all sorts of fun stuff. The fact that I don't buy a new pair of trousers when the button falls off means I can spend that money on other things.

We waste very very little but I don't bother boiling up chicken for soup/stock bones any more. We do use every last scrap of things though and wear things out completely.

The one I've never understood though are uses for left over smoked salmon. How much smoked salmon do you have to buy to have leftovers? We have never ever had left over smoked salmon. If there's a tiny bit left over it goes on the tip of a tongue if there's more than that, it's enough for a sandwich. Never enough to add to pasta or scrambled eggs!! Are there experts who can explain please.

MARRIED, we stock up on everything non-perishable in Costco 4 or 5 times a year - and always buy a side of smoked salmon as a treat while we are at it (so very inexpensive per 100g compared with the supermarket). But it's big so we tend to have a few "left-over" meals with it!