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

I still do this...

Oh and parents stopped at 3 dc, biggest way of saving money!

It was expensive to heat the water for baths which is why bath water was reused or shared and baths were once a week. Heating water was done by immersion heater which were and are very expensive to run.

I do this 😂

And me !

My parents were quite wealthy but despite that we used to go to jumble sales on Saturday afternoon, immersion heater off ,phone use after 6pm but we got our school uniform from Harrods 🤦

My mum used dads old vests. And the immersion. Also in 70s and 80s Ireland! Plus we lived in the middle of Ireland for a few years and it was always cold in the winter. We must have had single glazed windows because you'd wake up with frost on the inside pain. I'm sure the radiators were never on in the morning either.

I forgot to turn the immersion heater off once and never heard the end of it from mum. The horror on her face!

Yes the immersion heater and dad's vests for rags.

Remember it well.😀

I still do a lot of these. Early 50s brought up by boomer parents. And Millenials/Gen Z think they invented recycling and blame their parentsfor destruction of the planet

Means our money goes so much further.

Today I did something my DGGM used to do which is 'the battery hierarchy'.

In her case it was saving the batteries that were no longer powerful enough for her radio to use in something low powered that I can't remember.

In our case it's reusing the batteries that are too weak to operate the microchip cat flap but are fine for the Hive thermostat and TV remotes.

So many I still do! Hand me down clothes, shared bath water for dc, bubble wrap on single glazed windows, using leftovers, lentils and beans to pad out meals, a weekly shop between 5 different supermarkets according to what is on offer where, walking if it’s under 2 miles..,,

pretty sure it isnt normal NOW

House phone being cut off
Searching the back of sofas for 20p to buy chocolate
Counting up all the food shopping before getting to the till to make sure we had enough
Washing hair with fairy liquid (or equivalent)

Yes, me too. She might have had potatoes and veg. No meat. God I love my mom.

Adding milk to tomato soup to make it go further.
Adding water to the milk to make it go further.
Not making her own food, but eating the kids leftovers instead.
Shared bathwater. Immersion heater off except for 1 hour for the weekly bath.
Mostly vegetarian meals, lots of lentils.
Celebrating New Year's rather than Christmas (presents could be bought in the sales).
Only heat the living room (after jumpers proved insufficient).
Hot water bottle if you could see your breathe in the bedroom.
Holidays were visiting family once a year at most.
No expensive activities (like theme parks) or paid for hobbies.
Blackberry picking
Cinema trips as the main birthday present
Newspaper as wrapping paper

Fairy Liquid? Bloody luxury.

Everyone I knew had some harsh lemony thing called Sqezy, we even economised on the vowels in the name.

Having said that, I bought Fairy for the first time in my life not so long ago because it was on offer and found that it fucking stinks and I can't wait for the bottle to be empty, which will be ages as we have a dishwasher so it's only really used for soaking burnt on baking trays and washing the non stick when I can be arsed.

But at least I've solved the mystery as to why all the food made by a relative tastes like noxious chemicals. She must use Fairy as it's the same smell/taste/aftertaste.

Lots of these should just be the way we live to avoid being wasteful, with money saving as a bonus!

When my dc were smaller I'd have a super hot bath then dc would jump in after, no one was ever especially dirty, so would have been so wasteful to empty and refill.

My dsis is a good seamstress so often fixes things for us, friend's dd just replaced a zip on an expensive coat for me

I've been passing clothes between friends and relatives for years, and dd2 has often work things dd1 has outgrown. And I love buying and selling on Vinted, just common sense surely

I shop at either Morrisons or Tesco for the points, and fuel is always Tesco- pays for a yearly alton towers trip. I can afford to pay for it but feels good to get it for "free"!

We're a jumper and blanket before heating house, again not especially to save money but it's unnecessary!

Lots of people would do well to go back to some of the old ways, from an environmental point of view if nothing else!

Five Pints powdered milk! That was so disgusting. And Marvel ugh.

There was nothing to drink but water, or tea. Made with tea leaves.

We had porridge for breakfast and lunch would be something like an omelette, soup or a small salad. Strangely we didn't have sandwiches much.

Dinner would be some variety of mince stretched with oats, vegetables and dumplings with extra vegetables then stewed fruit for pudding.

Mum would make yoghurt in the airing cupboard, it was disgusting. She actually was a marvel at housekeeping and cooking now that I think about it.

@Bjorkdidit

In our case it's reusing the batteries that are too weak to operate the microchip cat flap but are fine for the Hive thermostat and TV remotes.

Yes our parents did that and we still do it today. It's amazing how long a AA battery that no longer has enough power for the TV remote control, can power a wall clock! We have a pot of "used" batteries that we try putting in other things before they're disposed of.

On Sundays, my Mum made a huge stew that lasted several days. Each day she'd heat it up in the oven again, but add something new every day, i.e. some potatoes one day, a tin of beans another day, etc. I seem to remember it usually lasting till around Thursday but it was usually pretty weak and mostly veg by then! Every day when it was cold, it would have an inch of solid fat on the top!

@Lovelynames123

Lots of these should just be the way we live to avoid being wasteful, with money saving as a bonus!

Nail on the head. My parents weren't poor but they simply didn't waste money on things we didn't actually "need". I think it was because they were both brought up during and after WW2 at a time of shortages and rationing, so making things last etc was just normal life. We're the same really - because we both had a "make do and mend" upbringing in the 70s, it's just natural to us too!

OH has just cannibalised two faulty laptops to make one fully working one - we could easily afford to go out and buy a new one, but why? The "triggers broom" one that he's made is perfectly serviceable and will last for a while yet.

Grew up in poverty as parents survived on benefits all my childhood. Me and my two siblings never had birthday parties as there wasn’t money to feed other children. Never had holidays and only an old banger car for a little while as it was bought for us by grandparents. I hated when we’d run out of of toilet paper as had to use cut up newspaper. I also have memories of washing my hair and teeth with a soap bar . Yuk! No wonder I keep plenty of all these items in stock.

No takeaways or restaurants ever (other than fish and chips about once a year)
Sandwiches whenever we went out for the day
One car and gave dad a lift to the station every morning at 7am
Had student lodgers in the box room (me and my sister shared)
V cheap holidays - one year we had gas lighting in a caravan 😮. This was in the 80’s!!
Xmas cards to gift tags ✅
Parking 1/2 mile+ out of town on a residential street and walk back in
Blackberry picking out to make jam and wine
Dad brewed his own beer
Home hair cuts
Grew own veg and fruit (urrgghh to gooseberry crumble)
Bought sacks of potatoes from the farm
Appliances all mended - mum was so happy when she had a new cooker for the first time at 72!

We were also latchkey children at 9 and 6 (mum worked at the shop at the top of the road)

The same car my entire childhood, which was only scrapped when the engine blew and it couldn't be saved. Same with all other elctical items.

Our tumble dryer was bought in the 70s and was still going strong 40 odd years later when my mum finally got rid of it.

Reusing bath water. The heating going on just before in preparation of bath (must have been an immersion heater).

Extra blanket on bed and hot water bottles when cold at night. Sash windows rattling when windy.

Blackberry picking in September.
Collecting wood for the fire.

Always sandwiches when out. Only once did we go to a Little chef, which was the best thing ever.

Hand me downs and not many new clothes. Hems went up and down in accordance.

We weren't especially poor either.