Herhighness My nan did very similar things to yours, she only allowed bathing once a week, and as previously said, would quite happily reuse water. She'd only do washing once a week, and even then only two loads at the most. She'd rarely have the heating on. Things were also kept until falling apart, and then usually repaired. Gifts and things would mysteriously disappear . She'd get super annoyed if you tried to help her clean the house, which she did every day. Any ornaments she had she'd coat in layers of varnish. She would take fruit to bed too..
She was great, my nan. Very stubborn and secretive, and always acted cold and cantankerous. She was lovely though. She suffered a lot of trauma in her life, her parents were quite poor, her mum was blind and deaf due to complications from pneumonia if I remember correctly. I think they were also Irish Catholic. Her dad used to beat her mum. Fast foward a bit, my nan had several husbands (not all at the same time..), she was told she'd never have kids of her own. She adopted a son (who still has no idea is adopted, my nan kept that very quiet, we didn't find out until after she passed away. Where we also found out her age and date of birth etc), then she managed to get pregnant with a different husband, then again with a different husband, then again with a different one. She never told anybody who they were, her kids don't know their fathers, except for my mum who did know hers. Her first biological child was killed in a motorbike accident when he was 17. Fast forward again, her last husband died of a heart attack while driving a lorry. She had "boyfriends" after that, one of whom was driving her into town, he had a stroke at the wheel, crashed, car flipped, she severely damaged her back, he died at the scene.