Hello all. Hope this finds you all well and safe and healthy. All is good here.
AC is off this morning, but that will probably not last long. It is a bit humid out and is about 71*. Lovely morning actually.
It is going to be really hot the next few days - I guess it is to be expected in July, and I know it could be worse.
The garden is growing, it just seems a little slower than normal to me - I do believe the sun and heat is the problem. Keeping things watered well.
Both of my sisters were frugal queens as well. Linda had 3 kids and very little money (a single mom for a while) and she could cook and feed those children. She was a fantastic cook, and when married had a husband that fished and hunted - which was a huge gift to the family. They foraged and gleaned. Her adult children still do that a lot. She found fruit trees and canned as much as possible. They raised a huge garden. She worked odd jobs at times, and as the kids got to be teens, she worked at the school cafeteria. They had a small house - but it was always sparkling and cozy.
Marcella married very young (16) and started having children within a year. She raised 6 kiddos and they really had little money. She lived out in the country when the kids were younger. They gardened and raised a huge garden. She could cook! Talk about creative cooking - she was an original.
They lived in a huge old kind of drafty house (considered haunted by locals) - it was cheap and had rooms for all the kids. It had a lot of land with it - and there were fruit and nut trees everywhere, and lots of hills and hollers for the kids to play on. Their land was surrounded by corn fields, and yes, she would get corn in the summer by just walking over and picking it!!! That always horrified mom, but sis swore they farmers said it was ok.
The house had indoor plumbing - but it still had an outhouse (2 holer) - and due to the cost of water (according to her), the family used it most of the time!!!
Now I say she was frugal - her kids say 'cheap'. I laugh now - because I think they were right at some point. She bought second hand before it was a real thing - the kids hated it. Some of the girls got hand me downs from me and they loved it - mom made all my clothes when I was younger.
They eventually moved up here to town and lived really close by our home. Then the kids were getting older and started working a little so they could buy nicer things to wear to school. We went to the same junior high and high school.
She could revamp a house on a dime - it just came natural to her. Her hubby was not the least bit handy - so she learned how to do a lot.
Today her children have all done well. Many had extremely good and high-paying jobs without college. Most (except one) live in what I would call excess now! Their formative years had something to do with that, I am sure!!! They knew what they wanted and went for it.
Sis, ended up in real estate after the kids were grown and she was 'retired'. She did quite well with that but never lost her 'frugal' mindset.
Those are just back stories - I went Monday to order flowers for sis's funeral. I know I didn't need to, I just felt like it was the last thing I could do. The florist I have used for decades, I found has closed for good! I was sad - they were great - reasonable - and always did a fantastic job. Shoot if you went in to order or pay your bill, they would send you home with a couple of flowers.
I went to a new place - and holy cow were they expensive! I was a bit dumb founded - but plodded ahead and ordered. I got in the car and could hear sis, saying 'what is wrong with you?' 'Why did you spend so much on a bouquet of flowers?' LOL. I set there and laughed and had a couple tears as well.
I will never forget the effects that the women in my life have had on me. They were all strong women, and they knew how to live frugal, yet make life good. They have all given so many memories.
Linda's kids all live well today, but they seem a little more down to earth than many of older sis's kids. Whenever we all get together, the stories are shared and we all add to the stories and the loving memories of them all.
I hope someday that those kinds of stories are shared about me as well. I hope I bring thoughts, laughter, tears and maybe a few lessons to the nieces and nephews. We learned from the past. Hopefully we can pass those frugal mindsets on to some extent. Maybe we can teach how to get by in a pinch. How to stretch a dollar. JUST MAYBE!
So, you see, it is only natural that I live frugal!!! I was surrounded by it, by the BEST women I have ever known.
Did anyone in your life help transform your thoughts on frugal living?
Have a wonderful and blessed day!!!!
You will ever remember the beautiful final gift to your sister. Hugs to you. These are hard times.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I know I will - it and sharing her memory is all I can do!
DeleteYour sisters were fascinating! Strong women, no nonsense with them. Prayers are with you as you say your final earthly goodbye to your sister.
ReplyDeleteThey truly were and very good moms as well. Both raised good kids. I do believe I have come from good stock!! We all had strong role models.
DeleteWhat beautiful words. I think I would have liked your sisters too. My grandmother was my most frugal influence. She grew up in an immigrant household and was very poor most of her married life. She said her parents purchased most grocery staples in bulk to save. I think she could cook anything and make it taste good and she wasted little. In today’s world, we have so many things that we consider necessity that previously would be luxury. We are blessed. What makes store bought flowers better than home picked bouquets? Not that there is a problem with either choice, if you can afford your choice. My grandmother used to gather the Calla Lilies from her yard when she visited the cemetery to pay respect… if we saw Calla Lilies we knew she had been there before us. Fresh flowers wilt in summer’s heat so quickly and the artificial silk flowers are like everything else, getting more expensive. I just saw snake plants for sale in pots for $54/plant… shocking, I have three snake plants of the same size in my home that were grown from gifted starts many years ago. I’m still waiting on the liver transplant list and learning more about patience. Julie V
ReplyDeleteI bet you would have. The women of late sure could get creative with the cooking. It always tasted yummy. Glad you had someone to really admire and look up to.
DeleteYou are right, today everything is just expected - and it is awful to do without it ALL in many peoples books. Youngsters today would never make it, if they had to live as our ancestors did - many adults either.
I love fresh flowers - we always took peonies to the cemetery or zinnias. it is crazy what they charge for things - and people buy it.
I have wondered so much about you and if you have had the transplant. God's timing! Please stay in touch, so we know what is happening. Keeping you in prayer.
Still waiting on transplant offer, but it must mean someone has greater need than me. Working on strengthening to be at optimal health I am blessed to be going into surgery. The hospital staff really do have good info when they recommend something.
DeleteGlad you are taking good care of yourself and it will all be worth it - SOON! Love your attitude.
DeleteI don't know who might influenced me, just maybe because I watched my Mom live quite above our means I became frugal. I also was a single parent for a few years, that will do it.
ReplyDeleteLearning from experience is a lesson hard learned and one we will never forget. You learned from observing - the opposite way. Experience of being a single mom will do it every time! You have done well, and your kids will remember.
DeleteIn childhood I never went without but my mom and dad were very careful with money. They lived through the Depression. Dad always had work as he was a teacher, but they saw horrible job losses for others. We didn't have fancy cars or country homes or expensive vacations. Dad had a little garden (not much room for a garden) every year. Mom made my clothes and there were some hand-me-downs from neighbors.
ReplyDeleteMaryB
You had good teachers too!!!! That darned old depression sure made people work hard to have something. Many lessons learned and it seemed they were never forgotten. I think we should be honored to have had such great teachers.
DeleteMy parents lived poor due to both smoking and my father's alcoholism. They weren't particularly frugal or imaginative, but if they didn't have money for something, we just did without it...and we survived.
ReplyDeleteThere was one exception. The summer before I started kindergarten, we took the bus to California so my father could paint his dad's house and we could get to know the relatives. My aunt was a whiz on the sewing machine. Unknown to us, my mother was concerned about how she was going to clothe two daughters (I have an older sister) since she was already having enough trouble with only one in school. She watched my aunt like a hawk, came home and told my dad she wanted a sewing machine. "You don't even know how to sew!" he scoffed. "And I'll never learn how if I don't get one!" she told him.
She got the machine.
She sewed for herself and my sister and me until we were in college and beyond. At some point, she literally wore out that sewing machine until it couldn't be fixed (wouldn't hold tension). She sewed for cheap, buying patterns and most of the fabric at a neighborhood variety store and sometimes at Penney's. She saved her scraps and used many of them in later projects.
I still remember some of those outfits. I also can picture the dress my aunt made for me in the summer of 1951--the one that inspired this story.
That was me above. Some of you know that my husband died 20 months ago and I am now seeing an old boyfriend. We are both 80.
DeleteHe mostly grew up in a trailer because he dad was an NCO and often had to wait months for military housing. It was the same model as the one featured in "The Long Long Trailer" (Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz). How they stuffed 3 kids into that trailer I will never know. Not only the kids, but a washing machine, sewing machine and a Siamese cat with a litter of kittens.
Recently he proudly showed me a picture of himself from grade school, wearing his favorite shirt. His mother made the shirt for him with the same fabric she used to make one for his brother, only a different pattern. I knew his family in the 1960s (they were in military housing by then) and let me tell you, those folks really knew how to stretch a buck.
OK, I'm done!
--Maxine, aka mikemax
Determination! Amazing how much of that our ancestors had. What a wonderful story. I am so glad she got the machine - boy, it sounds like she used the dickens out of it. I know mom made some patterns herself from newspaper - just using older clothes as a template.
DeleteThose special things are what we remember - not all the fancy store bought gifts.
It would be cool if that little dress was still around.
Such a fun story.
My husband and I were both brought up to be careful with money and altho' we don't need to these days, we still don't spend wildly..
ReplyDeleteIt just kind of sticks - doesn't it? It is being a good steward of what you have - and you can always cover the emergencies.
DeleteLove it.