what can you remember your parents doing to save money?

[HoraceCope]

we had to clean the bath with cold water
my dm would reuse foil

One weetabix, I doubt that would fill.you up. Hardly worth it.

80s/90s child:

• shared bath water - completely normal
• reusing foil and anything else that could be reused
• father constantly switching lights off/appliances off at the plug etc
• sewing clothes/knitting cardigans (always dodgy patterned fabric that was on a cheap deal or weird ugly wool colours)
• only ever taking packed lunches

anywhere, never buying food or drinks out

• less wasteful about food - leftovers always used for another meal, broth made with chicken carcass
• never ever bought things like soup, cakes, pastry or pies ready made, they were always made from scratch at home
• hand me downs as standard. Not just between siblings, something like a bike would go through 5 cousins before it got to me
• never getting bought things between birthdays/christmas. If you needed something you got it for birthday or christmas.
• anything like home improvements - painting etc, you did yourself, you never paid someone for that stuff.

My parents weren't poor. They had good jobs, we were absolutely middle class, ran two cars, had nice holidays etc. People were just far less wasteful and it was more normal to expect to spend your time making something yourself rather than spend money for ready made etc.

Had lovely holidays on the Adriatic and Mediteranean coasts until I was 13. Then all holidays ended because dad saved the money for my uni but we lived up the hills near mountains and waterfalls so I just hiked instead and rode horses

i remember, and i still do this myself, the water from the cauliflower is used in the cheese sauce in cauliflower cheese, so the sauce is half water half milk.

That makes sense from a nutrition point of view as well though

Making their own elderflower wine. Lots of egg sandwiches for picnics. One birthday party, the activity was us kids going to the local woods and collecting things in an egg box each. And one Christmas, my sister and I asked for a Carebear and my mum got a friend to make us a fake one each.

Green Shield stamps I think they were?

Being forced to sit in a sawdust blood-covered butchers floor at 5pm in a bidding war of offcuts of meat not purchased in store.

My dad would have a crib sheet with a list of dates and accordingly to what date it was, my mum was to use a specific credit card to maximise the interest-free period before the bill came!

Loaned out my car and charged them 25p per mike when I was overseas working.

Charged me rent at 25% of my income from my Saturday job at the age of 14.

Put my wedding down as a business expense to get the tax back!!!

@Holdonforsummer People still make their own elderflower wine and make the most of other fruits growing in the wild such as blackberries. Not necessarily anything to do with saving money.

I think egg sandwiches have continued to remain popular with children’s parties and are far healthier than processed meats.

Doing things in nature and collecting things from nature are very popular. It’s massive in forest schools. It’s the sort of thing that has always been done with children as part and parcel of learning and keeping them busy. In essence a self directed treasure hunt.

The carebears may have been due to cost, but also could have been due to unavailability. Tracy Island springs to mind! You couldn’t get one for love nor money, so people made them.

Making two boiled eggs for my breakfast, and putting them in my coat pockets so I could heat my hands on the way to school. I’d eat them when I got to school

Bread and butter with every tea time meal to mop up the juices. It was cheap and filling.

I used to sew up other girls' ladders with human hair in the playground.

I remember the only heating in sitting room. Hated having to go to the loo as it was freezing out in the hall. And the constant yelling to shut the door. Lol

My mil always did this. Problem is most of today's paper is so rubbish it would be hard to do now.

No heating before October half term, or in the morning.
Reusing and ironing wrapping paper
We never went on holiday as such, we went to stay with friends/rellies, or at least in their empty houses when they were away. Sometimes Norfolk, sometimes Kent, once Edinburgh sometimes France, sometimes my uncle’s caravan after his family holiday. I’d have love a week’s package holiday to Spain.

Also bread & butter to pad out every meal!

Putting cardboard from cereal box inside shoes as sole had holes
no takeaways ever
no children’s birthday parties but we did have a card and present
Xmas was one main present and a small stocking. Xmas dinner was lovely and I miss the times we were all together sitting around the table.
No eating out except cup of tea at the market cafe once a week. I was 18 before I went to a restaurant
No snacks in the house. We had some biscuits often a box of Ritz crackers on Friday evening when Dad came home with his pay We all loved school dinners
we did have an annual holiday visiting grandparents in Ireland
We had the big sack of potatoes delivered along with a large pack of eggs from the egg man.
We were 6 kids with both parents working

I started doing it about a year ago and can't believe I didn't do it before. Still buy freezer bags but obviously use far fewer of them.

I also don't put the heating on until November and switch lights off when we are not in the room.

I also remember no calls until 6pm and my dad constantly moaning about the phone bill. That's definitely an upside of mobile phones, inclusive call packages!

I still do this!

Always turning the lights out when possible.
Heating was only turned on if absolutely necessary. Our house was ancient and, not only did ice form on the inside of my bedroom windows, but I could see my breath when I breathed out. I used to change under my blankets.

Never eating out. We always took a picnic. Never bought an ice-cream, let alone a meal in a café or restaurant.

Dressing is on village hand-me-downs that had been worn by several other children we knew first.

Luckily my mum could sew.

So she used to sew most of our clothes when we were younger.

I had 3 older sisters.

So used to get a lot of handle downs

When our roof leaked into one fo the bedrooms.

We used to have a big pot on the floor.

At one time one of the bedrooms had 2 big pots in different places and I can still remember the drops falling down when it used to rain outside.

My parents had all us siblings doing packing wprk at home.

So we used to get these big boxes of little cards and tags etc. It was different designs each time.

And we had to sit and pack these tags into small.plastic bags and put a stickers on them.

If the stickers were not put on straight enough they wpuld reject the box.

And we would get a few pennies per box- think 200-250 packs per box.

So after school we used to be sat there doing packing. Different things at different times.

My mum used to use these tokens we would get to buy school uniform. She would buy other stuff from the shops.

Lots of other things that I can't remember right now.

We weren't rich but also not poor. At that time you didn't notice that you were one of the poorers ones. Because everyone around was the same. And out of those we were a little richer as we weren't eligible for the free school meals etc.

So I used to see the kids on the free school meals getting desserts every lunch time. Never once did I get dessert and wpuld have a small meal

I can remember sharing (very rare) cans of Coke and Mars bars cut into three.

We had a black and white TV.

Only got a colour one cos our 'rich' uncle from Germany bought us one when he came over to visit. Think in the 80's they were doing much better over there?

Also no shower. He had to buy us a shower attachment for the bath.

Take the car out of gear going down hills to save petrol 😳

Send us out scrumping apples to make crumble

Unpick the hems of school uniform, attached seam binding and then rehem, to gain an extra cm of length.

I remember most of these but haven't noticed any mention of "Segs". Always bought in Woolworths and dad used to hammer the metal ones onto the heels of our school shoes so that they didn't wear down so quickly. Fabulous memory that has just come back to me from nowhere!

i still pick up windfall apples

Born ‘62, remember sharing ice creams on hol with parents, born into new build house no immersion heater.
Hardly any ready meals, toys only birthday and holidays.
limited new clothes, seems a lot better than others experiences