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

So do we 🤷🏼‍♂️ they're too much of a rip off.

Ah now, elastic bands are great for using in the freezer. I pick them up off the pavement after the postman and save them.

No car. No phone. Old black and white TV
Clothes came free from the Vinnies. When the washing machine died we spent two years washing clothes in the bath and wringing out in towels. Hiding behind the couch from the rent man. Paper round at age 12, shop work from 13.

I have to say that we weren't in actual poverty, things were tight because my parents were paying the mortgage and there was an interest rate hike in the late 70s. Apparently it doubled overnight (overheard as a kid so 🤷🏼‍♂️). We weren't hungry and we did have 'enough'.

I think because my parents were born in the 30s and remembered the war and rationing they just had a make do and mend attitude.

I think it was absolutely ingrained in them and I can't say I don't agree. I'm inspired by this thread to remember more of it.

I feel annoyed with myself when I have wasted £20/30 at a service station on crap and unhealthy sandwiches and trash. Or bought water!!!! I think it's, like a pp said, about choice.

I'm inspired to do more with my garden now, there's nothing more satisfying than growing your own food.

It's interesting to think that here we are in 2025 still thinking about make do and mend attitudes that we're attributing to a long ago war.

Didn’t eat out.
cooked from scratch
didn’t waste any food.
ate food past its best
most of our clothes were hand me downs
one car, shared
never did a big shop, just bought what we needed on the way home from grocers etc.
bulk bought potatoes from the farm
had about 20 percent of the stuff we have now
went to the library for books
Multigenerational living and shared bedrooms
left children home alone a lot younger , especially during holidays.

babysat each others kids and paid another mum in fags to take us to school.

rosesandhellebores that rings a bell about home made school summer dresses. Or maybr my mum just made them? She was very good at sewing and would buy clothes from jumble sales (before this was cool in any way) and make them over for us. We had:
going to the pea factory for cheaper pea (mum had to boil them at home for some reason)
sides-to-middling the sheets as others have said
no central heating when we were small
picking up leftover onions and potatoes after the farmers had done the harvest
mum wore her maternity clothes til I was about five
never having the ‘right’ clothes because they weren’t bought new
always enough food but not many treats - mum would say ‘those biscuits aren’t for eating they’re for HAVING’ (I know what she means now!)

It's still in living memory for some so not that long ago really plus rationing didn't stop immediately so of course its ripple effects will last a long time.

Edit - I can remember a lot of these from my childhood and there are a few I continue with, such as picking up after the postmen.

Remember so many of these. No central heating one coal fire to heat the whole house, sharing bath water. Putting 50 pence pieces in the meter to be able to cook dinner on the gas cooker switch an eye level grill. Jumble sales to find clothes, toys and books. Lots of tinned food and butter from the EU “food mountain” Turning sheets when the middles got worn.
I did get bought books for birthdays or Christmas but also loved the library four books a week on my ticket and two of my nan’s books too. Taught me so much about the world beyond my small world. Walked to primary school every day whatever the weather in a thin coat because no car (or bike!)
So fortunate to go to uni with no student loan just a grant. Very small which meant I first ate pasta at uni because it was cheap and filling.

Taking a packed lunch with us whenever we went on road trips. Usually egg sandwiches.

Getting takeaway about once a year, and going out for dinner once a year if we were lucky.

having a holiday home at the beach that was in fact an illegally built squatters shed. When it got knocked down, upgrading to a block of land they owned which they had to clear to build a shed on it as our holiday home. Almost never going anywhere else for holidays.

owning the same distinct car for 20years that everyone in town knew and made fun of. They even gave it a custom DIY paint job just to make sure everyone knew whose car it was.

They sound bonkers and awesome!

I remember kids at my school wearing shoes with the uppers cut away at the toes to make them last longer as their feet grew, as their parents couldn't afford new ones.

The problem with that approach is that the feet get wider as well as longer, and the soles aren't long enough for the toes to fit on.

I don’t remember anything tbh. It was the 90s and money was flowing.

We're not poor but I do all the following;
-kids share bath water (unless they're very dirty!
-hand me down clothes
-take packed lunch on days out. No way would I pay services prices!
-foraging for blackberries to make jam
-going to different shops for different things
-reusing foil
-not wasting food, using up leftovers
-getting books from the library

most of these things are to stop excessive waste and be sustainable rather than to save money.

Wrapping Christmas presents for us in newsapaper.
Using fairy liquid as bubble bath.
We weren't poor though. I just think times were harder generally in the 70s/ early 80s

My dad would never pay for parking. But loved to look at stately homes and gardens. So, when I was a child, we got into many of them by pushing through gaps in hedges and the like.

My mum got herself a yoghurt making machine too -- IIRC the only yoghurt in supermarkets was Ski and it was £££ to anyone on a budget.
Our fortunes improved significantly during my childhood but my parents habits remained.

@RenoDakota oh God the miles I walked from distant roads with my parents and the time I have wasted driving round and round with DM trying to avoid paying for parking. It almost gives me pleasure now to pay stratospheric charges for convenience, I'm a JustPark addict and book valet parking at the airport.

Cancelling my horse riding lessons. I loved them but my parents hit a bad financial patch and had to cancel them (I'm sure it hurt them to do so) and they never came back.

We did all of those too, except going to different shops (because I am time poor and my time is more valuable than the savings).

On a long drive through France we still take sandwiches, fruit and a flask for the first couple of stops. I don't think dd had brand new uniform until she was 11.

DC were born 94 and 98.

In my teenage/20s days, I never paid a bus fare if the walk was 30 minutes or less. Everything to do with respecting money and nothing to do with being skint.

DM never had rubber gloves to do the housework and her hands were so dry the cracks would turn black with the acid from peeling apples or potatoes.
Second hand clothes when not in school uniform. Christmas presents were hand knitted jumpers and scrap wool mittens with safety strings to go through the coat sleeves from DGM. A succession of embarrassing old bangers when I was a teenager, no television until a rented one in the 80s.

DM had a Saturday job to make some money (probably a blessed relief with 4 kids) and father would take us to the local library with a packet of Jelly Tots to last a month!

I used to pinch the chocolate digestives from biscuit barrel at friend's house as my mum wouldn't buy them 😅

No telly. We couldn't afford the licence. Collecting glass bottles for the 10p deposit. Homemade clothes. Eating rabbit or hare that dad caught in traps every day. Going strawberry picking age 7 to earn pocket money. Walking everywhere.

That isn't about saving money it's about bad manners and being greedy.