To think I am 'careful' and not 'cheap'

[goawaywillya]

Okay a bit of back ground story. My dd1 attends a sn school and recently became good friends with a new girl in the school. This little girl is from a quite well off family and wants for nothing.
Today at a social event I got chatting to this child's mother who told me about how they had recently spent £120 on a new princess bed for dd and how they have a planned holiday to NZ next year to visit family. She also described going to the cinema or local play centres each weekend and how the eldest dd has violin lessons etc
Then she asked about my own circumstances and I described what I do on a frequent basis to save money she looked shocked and said ' oh. We should be cheap too'. I was a bit 🙄 and when she said ' if you can ever afford to eat out as a family you should try Nando's, they're cheap 'I was like

I'm not jealous of this family. They have good jobs and deserve to spend their own money as they see fit, but AIBU to see myself as 'careful ' rather than 'cheap'. Some of what I do is-

. Dress dd2 in ds old trousers as boys clothes are tougher anyway and her dresses are worn again as tops with leggings.
.once a week I raid the fridge/ freezer and dinner is a mix of this ( I hate waste)
. I sew and darn clothes and can replace a zip
. I have made sardine heads into a pizza topping before
.i have invited family to dinner and kept their left over bones to make stock
. Do not eat out because it's not affordable and I would be shocked by the prices anyway.
I make my own laundry liquid/powder
.i make cake out of banana skins and also out of whole oranges and lemons including pips
.instead of paying huge fees for holiday activities I take the kids to chase the pigeons and feed them sausage roll crumbs outside our local Greggs 😳 or just to play at the park
Our local children's centre does nice low cost/ free activities also.
.i have bought cheap products from Asda and placed it into an empty box of 'posh' product.
. I regift unwanted presents for birthdays or Xmas
.i make vinegar from 🍏 cores
.i once made a homemade suncream when I could not afford a bottle of the real stuff
. I love charity shops and bought dds birthday gift there for under £10. Plus we have taken the kids there to spend their pocket money on toys and books.
.if something is over £5 I will struggle to buy it on principle
.. I grate used bars of soap to make new full bars
. I love summer, i don't have to use the heating 😁
. I buy clothes for ages older than the dcs are so they grow into them and I feel I'm getting my money's worth.
. I got rid of my tv licence and now just use Netflix and YouTube.

See, it's nothing extreme, just trying to save money as we go along. I'm sorry this post is so long , it's just hard to stop once started.

.

I'd like to know what your garden looks like. "Hey, the grass needs mowing! Kids, it's green salad with frog legs for dinner tonight!"

Well I admire your economic attitude but it's pretty extreme in some cases....

have invited family to dinner and kept their left over bones to make stock

This however, is hilarious

Op...are you one of those people who think they're poor when they actually have hundreds of thousands in the bank?

have invited family to dinner and kept their left over bones to make stock

The cost of gas/electric needed to make this, you'd probably be better off buying a stock cube. I get 10 for 39p.

I’m not bothered about what you do, we all do stuff that other people think is wierd but I’m just not seeing why when someone asks you about your circumstance younwent into all that detail?? Surely she was just expecting ‘ oh I work as x, we live in y street’

It's cruel to let children chase pigeons, or any birds. Why would you do that? Are you hoping they'll catch one so you can cook it up for dinner and save your remaining relatives for a special occasion?

Then she asked about my own circumstances

Howwwwww though? I am struggling to imagine any circumstance where an adult would ask another adult ‘so what are you circumstances?’. I can’t believe this actually happened like this. If this is real at all, I think she asked some perfectly innocuous question like ‘what do you do?’ and you launched into a monologue about sardine head pizzas and fobbing people off with fake presents.

i make cake out of banana skins and also out of whole oranges and lemons including pips

This sounds absolutely repulsive, and surely it cannot be saving you any money to use the pips?! What do you think it would cost you just to remove these? For the sake of your poor family forcing down these dire cakes, google alternative uses for orange and lemon peel. I promise there are better waste-saving solutions than feeding them to your kids like pig slops.

if something is over £5 I will struggle to buy it on principle

Surely this depends on the thing in question? How are you going to get a decent kid’s coat for less than a fiver, for instance?

Don’t kid yourself that some of these aren’t extreme, but you do hear about extreme thrifters so if it’s working for you and your children aren’t going without, then who’s to stop you. Except the pigeon thing - I don’t see why the poor birds have to be tortured because you won’t pay a couple of pounds to entertain your kids.

Reasonstobeearful, your first comment made me cry with laughter and every time I think of it, I laugh. I agree with the PP, people need to be thrifty and what you do is great. Although, I think £120 for a bed is very reasonable.

Your poor children
How do you make cakes from banana skins
Stop winding people up

Do you add other ingredients to the banana skins and citrus fruit waste products? Or do you just squish them into cake cases and serve those?

Sardine head pizza? 🤑🤢Why not just have normal cheese and tomato?

Yes, no pigeon chasing, if that’s what they do, it’s horrid

Gosh, I always wondered who contributed the batshit ‘money-saving tips’ in things like Take A Break magazine:

Flatten the foil from Mr Kipling’s apple pies and use them as handy coasters!

Broken umbrella? Strip off the fabric and use it as an airier for underwear!

Fancy a chandelier but no cash? String all your necklaces from your central light fitting!

Chasing pigeons is mean.

It depends on your finances...

Genuinely skint and can't afford to take your kids to soft play, so you go to the park = fine

Actually have thousands in the bank but don't want to spend money so your children spend their Saturday chasing pigeons on the pavement = not fine.

Haven't read the full thread but I'm surprised that so many are shocked RE making own stock from bones. I'm a second generation bone boiler of a chicken carcass and it makes incredible stock. My Sunday ritual is to roast a chicken, eat the crispy skin, pick the meat off the bones for various meals and lunch sandwich fillings, and finally to boil the bones to make a stock for the pie. Does no one else do this?
Granted, I tend not to use the bones of my own family members.

Haha - mine and kids treat meal is tinned mackerel and couscous. So I can see how sardine head works as a pizza topping.

Well done to you for doing all that stuff! You would also be an EcoQueen - though probably not intentionally! Wouldn’t know how to do a lot of the stuff (like vinegar from apple cores) and wouldn’t have time - but it’s cool and also wouldn’t say it’s cheap but resourceful!

hahahahaha. Cool story bro.

In the unlikely event that this is real... saving money is one thing but I also value my time.

Def in favour of kids chasing pigeons. Healthy, eco friendly, entertaining. If you teach the kids some of your skills that would also be cool.

Yes, we make stock from the bones of our roast chicken/beef etc. It’s tastier than using a stock cube (probably not cheaper as a PP points out due to the cost of the gas/electricity).
I thought the OP meant that she took the bones off her relatives finished plates (chicken legs etc) and boiled them up.

@applesauce1

Haven't read the full thread but I'm surprised that so many are shocked RE making own stock from bones. I'm a second generation bone boiler of a chicken carcass and it makes incredible stock. My Sunday ritual is to roast a chicken, eat the crispy skin, pick the meat off the bones for various meals and lunch sandwich fillings, and finally to boil the bones to make a stock for the pie. Does no one else do this?

Do you do this for flavour or to save money? If the latter, then surely the cost of gas/electric to make it will be more expensive than a stock cube? I've never understood the obsession with stock? I rarely need it? What are people cooking? Anyway, like I said, stock cubes cost me 39p for 10. Hardly a life changing amount.

Applesauce that’s how I make stock. Didn’t think I was unusual. Other than making veggie stock I didn’t know there was another way.

I actually thought you were serious until this one:

.instead of paying huge fees for holiday activities I take the kids to chase the pigeons and feed them sausage roll crumbs outside our local Greggs 😳

You went too far!

Good grief, she was just asking you what you get up to in your spare time. No one cares what sort of cost saving measures you implement in the privacy of your own hom

Next time just say "I went for a nice walk yesterday, and tonight I'm going to watch the new GoT".

This OP is a wind-up, but a very funny one! I might have taken it seriously if it wasn't for the Greggs sausage roll comment, that is the give away.