Not to be disagreeable, but I will throw away the last brownie or whatever if no one else is going to eat it. I also try not to eat off my kid's plate just to save something from going to waste. It's easy to pop food into your mouth without realizing it. I don't need the extra calories. Sometimes a few bites of a food will stop the cravings. I throw it away instead of freezing it to reduce temptation.

I always look through the clearance bins for stuff. I get some really good bargains that way. I found Crest Whitestrips for $1 a while back. They were at their exiration date. I found bottles of Gatorade for $.50. I don't like the high fructose syrup in it on a regular basis, but Gatorade is good to have around for cold and flu season. I found some decorative gourds for $.25 last week. Those will be good for the kids to paint into snowmen over the holidays. I've bought packs of pencils for $.10. The teachers are always requesting those. Earlier this summer, I found the pocket size spiral notebooks for $.10. I bought about 50. They are great for the nursing home gifts and occupying the kids in the car.

My cousin and I were talking about the colored oleo just a couple weeks ago. I don't remember the mixing of it - we never did, but I remember the big 5¢ tax on colored oleo stickers on the margarine boxes. It always amazed me how people who grew up on farms, and used so much butter, being used to butter, would scarf up that margarine! As a kid I never ate much margarine. I never liked the taste. I'd melt it into toast and occasionally a tiny bit on boiled potatoes but that's about it. Never wanted it on sandwiches. When I moved out I started to experience real butter and have used it ever since. When it gets overpriced, I don't buy and don't use it, but when I want it I want real stuff.

The gum wrappers reminded me how my sister used to make gum wrapper chains. I don't know who chewed all that gum (I've never been much of a gum chewer) but she had 10-20 foot lengths of those gum wrapper chains and she'd make separate ones from the foil and the other wrapper.

Even these days when camping there's the brush teeth & spit with a glass of water, although I do use toothpaste. Never really tried baking soda. Don't know why.

DGS saw the bowl and said, "Are you using bowls for dustpans now?" Ha, ha. Very funny.
Yes... sorry, but that IS very funny!

One thing I never figured out. With all the frugality in my family growing up, especially with my dad, he would never carry a lunch box (or lunch pail if you prefer), even though he carried his lunch most every day of his working life. A skinny little fart who could eat all of us under the table. He always had a good appetite. Would really please people cooking for him. But I digress. He always wanted lunch bags. And they'd be store-bought. Ma would have to stuff it just right to fit everything in there. 2 big sandwiches, chips, 2 pieces of fruit (a banana and an orange were favorites), and 2 kinds of dessert (usually a piece of cake and 3-4 cookies). Fit THAT in those dinky bags! Sandwiches wrapped in wax paper, well most everything was. And he'd bring that bag back home to be reused until it fell apart. Then take a thermos of coffee with him and off he'd go. But he was excited that they were providing coffee in the later years so he didn't have to carry the thermos. -30° or +100° didn't matter, that thermos of coffee went with him after the bacon and eggs breakfast.

I carried my lunch most of my elementary school life. I guess I started on school lunches in Jr. high. I was a fussy eater. Guess I still am in some ways. But didn't realize there was a desire to reuse the bags. Didn't bother me to bring it home again, but I wasn't as obsessive about it.

I remember the little pill in the oleo bag. Actually, I lived on a farm, so I remember it from visiting relatives.

Margarine is something I never learned to like either. We grew up on a farm and I raised my kids on our 'farm', so it's been butter mostly. I did try the 'healthy' margarine - yuck!.

We decided butter was better, even though it costs a little more. We really don't use as much of it, as we did the margarine.

Of course, home churned would be better and the benefit of all that wonderful buttermilke - OK I'm hungry, now.

I've enjoyed all the stories and tips. This thread has brought back a lot of memories for me too.

Ilene, my DD's in-laws were from Chanute, KS :)

VG

No kidding, Vegangirl! What a small world. My mom's parents lived in Chanute and so did one of her sisters. My dad's mom lived in Iola and so did his sister. His brothers both moved to California. There was a huge exodus of people from around the Iola area to California. In fact I was told there were so many people living in this one neighborhood in CA that had come from Iola that they called it "Little Iola". LOL

Ladytexan, I don't like margarine, either. I buy butter and blend it in my food processor with olive oil: 1 pound butter to 1 C. olive oil. You could use any kind of oil you wanted but I prefer the olive. It spreads better this way. Yeah, it's still fattening, but maybe a little better for me.

Cynic, I remember making Juicy Fruit chains. We had everybody saving their wrappers for us. I think people chewed gum more then than they do now.

Adella, I guess I could've thrown those last few brownies away but it doesn't make much sense to me to bake if I'm just going to throw part of it away. I'm raising a grandson who eats constantly (no he's not overweight). If I don't have something for him to snack on, then he's in the refrigerator eating things that I would otherwise use as ingredients for a meal. And Cynic, if he hadn't had those brownies in the baggie to eat, he would've been eating my crumbles in the bowl that he made the remark about. LOL! I know that it's a relative thing, but when I make brownies I make a huge pan of them. And they are almost all gone in a couple of days. The grandson did eat the brownies I had put in the ziplock bag, and I ate the crumbles with a little shredded coconut and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was quite good. We're all different. However, I wouldn't think tooth-whitening products were a bargain at any price. I think they damage tooth enamel. Not to mention that stuff that you accidentally swallow while the strips are on your teeth. But to each his (her) own. :) --Ilene

I just 'had' to catch up on all the tips & memories today. They have brought a smile & "I remember" more than once :-)
Ilene & vegangirl - I have Chanute connections, too. My mother grew up just S of there & father in same general area. Mama's bro still lives there. And Ilene, I'm in NEOk, too; born in KS. Cousins in Ark. Mmm, nearly related &/or it's a small world :-)

I've used soda or soda/salt mix to brush teeth with the glass of water (no running water). And the wringer washer with water heated over an open fire. Ahh, memories! I am very thankful for my aging washer/dryer. My g'kids wouldn't know where to start with a wringer washer, tho I think the youngest g'dau might figure it out fairly quickly, while the oldest g'dau would think it 'beneath her'. Rather sad, really.

I've enjoyed this thread & will check back to see who may have added more memories.

Jayokie, are you familiar with a place called "Lee-Anna"? I don't know how it's actually spelled. When people would ask where our farm was, my mom would always say it was near there. Our little one-room school was called "Prairie View". I ran under a swing on the playground there, playing shadow tag, and got a bad smack on the head. Had to have stitches. I remember bleeding in the car on the way to the doctor. That was back when swings had wooden seats, and is the reason why they don't, anymore. My older sisters rode the school bus to high school in Elsmore. Two of them met their husbands there. By the time I and the sister just older than I were dating age, we were in Oklahoma, so our DH's were Oklahoma boys.

Ilene,

I'm going to try the olive oil and butter thing.

Thanks,

Ilene I've tried to send you an email via Garden Web. If it doesn't come thru, pls let me know. It's a 'first' so ...
fingers crossed :-)

Aloha,

What a trip down memory lane this topic has been. Thanks to all the posters.

My grandparents (from Italy) used to have us kids trap pigeons on their roof. You always knew what supper was going to be. Living in the big city, they had just a tiny back yard. No matter. Every inch was devoted to the most delicious fruits and vegtables, many of which I had my first taste of through them.

Cookies,pies, etc. were only for special occasions. Otherwise it was fruit or nuts for desert.

Jayokie, I got your e-mail and responded. --Ilene

Just a note about adding olive oil to butter is to use extra light olive oil or the taste of olive oil will overcome the taste of the butter. I like the taste of olive oil myself, but hubby didn't, so now I use the extra light.

roselee, thanks.

LOL, you'll all think this is funny.... Turns out Jayokie and I live in the same town, not more than a few blocks from each other! --Ilene

Oh ilene and Jayokie - that's too funny - and so very nice.

I'm (a young) 68 but reading the above makes me feel older than dirt as there is very little in them that is unfamiliar to me.

I had to bring the aluminum foil that my mother used in my lunches home, to much derision from the girls that I ate lunch with in high school. Rarely could I buy lunch at school. I remember the orange button for oleo during the war years. My father absolutely refused to eat margarine after the war was over - only butter for him, which he spread on everything (even angel food cake). He stayed physically active his entire life and lived to be almost 81.

Yes, I made that button toy. Had forgotten all about it. And I wonder about disposable diapers. Would never have been able to afford them for my babies (altho' with the 2nd child, I would buy a dozen for times we traveled - very rare and very expensive). Diapers made the best rags. When my grandson was born in 1996, I searched and searched for cloth diapers. Finally found pre-folded ones which DIL used as burp cloths, etc.

During WWII, I vaguely recall my father riding a bicycle to work so that gas could be used for pleasure. Also, I remember what a treat marshmallows and gum were, due to sugar being rationed. We lived in a town in Iowa but my parents planted a vacant lot and shared the produce with the owner. We ate very well but I was not aware of it at the time.

One year my father (who couldn't resist a "bargain") bought a case or two of canned green beans from a salvage place (damaged goods sold by the railroad). I came to absolutely hate canned green beans.

All this brings back such good, warm memories. I know how to live very frugally - had to when first married and my first husband was attending college and I was working at a secretarial job to support us and our first child. Still do a lot of frugal shopping. My present DH is not nearly as frugal and is embarrassed that I try to save money. He gets especially upset that I will return something he buys that we don't need. Oh, well.

I was searching for information about furniture and somehow stumbled on this Forum! I didn't know it existed! I'm a frequent poster on Kitchens and less frequently on a few others, but this one is one I've never seen before!

Well, I just read this entire post...it was so interesting! I do remember some things and I realized that I used to do some of them myself but have gradually, over the years, succumbed to society's disposable attitude.

Yep...I remember saving the plastic bread bags, washing out the "zip loc" bags, and several others.

One of things I remember the most when growing up is how my mom saved money on milk. We were a family of six children close in age and went through at least 2 gallons of milk per day. My dad would buy milk at a local dairy on the way home from work and my mom would then "double" it by making it half "real milk" and half milk reconstituted from dry milk + water...how I disliked that stuff...but in those days you drank it anyway b/c that's all there was (and my parents made me!)

I also remember whenever we went anywhere we always made our own picnic lunches...we never bought food or drinks when we were out...whether it was going to Niagara Falls for the day or to a local state park or the drive-in movies...we always brought our own food...breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack!

The very, very few times we went to McDonald's it was a huge deal and we were so excited to "eat out". My kids, OTOH, have eaten out so much that they hate it...they always want to eat at home! [That's starting to change as we go out much less now than we used to!]

One thing that I still do that drives my DH batty...I'm a pack rat! Growing up money was so tight that we saved everything in case it could be used for something else and so often it could! I would need something for school or whatever and if we couldn't afford it I visited the basement to find something to "make do" or convert to the use I needed. I honestly think that that in and of itself taught me to think "outside the box" and be creative when needed. I can "see" how something can be adapted to another use. It frustrates me when my children can't do it as well...b/c they never really had to. I'm still a pack rat, but I haven't been as diligent at "making do" as I could be since we're much better off than my parents were and haven't need to. But, b/c of this, my DH doesn't see the reason for keeping things around. [He grew up in a family that was comfortable and never saved anything...he thinks it's not worth saving stuff b/c it takes up room.] Occasionally I've "made do" and pointed out that this is why...but I don't do it often enough to seem worthwhile to him.

I have to say, though, that I think all this is going to be changing for many of us... The economy is so bad for so many people and I think it's only going to get worse. Whether it'll get as bad as The Great Depression, I hope not, but I do think it's going to get bad.

I plan to visit this site frequently for more ideas! I think we're all going to need them and we need everyone who either does these things or remembers them to remind us of what we can do to get through the next few years!

Keep it up everyone and thank you!

dockside, I'm 67 plus - whether a young one or not, I'm still making up my mind.

I do remember the war and rationing. I remember Granny and Grandad talking about giving up sugar in their coffee so the 'babies' could have their cocoa. I remember going to town in a horse drawn wagon or buggy because either there was no gas or the tires were too bad. We were pretty poor, so I'm not sure rationing affected us in too many ways. I still have my Grandad's ration stamp book.

buehl, I'm a packrat as well. My husband used to say, 'if you haven't used it in a year, you don't need it'. Now he comes to me and asks, 'do you have any so and so'?

There have been times my packrating has saved us, and others, money. I'd save more if I could always remember where everything is squirrelled away.

This thread is wonderful. I am 60 and my parents grew up during the depression, so they saved everything. My mother tried to stretch stuff - she had us tear the paper napkins in half - we each got half. My sister mortified her one night in from of company by asking if she should tear the napkins in half. Mom also added water to the last of the syrup to make it go further. We grew all of our own vegetables and fruit. We (the kids) had to pick everything. All summer, we picked veggies and fruit. To this day, I can't stand green beans.

My father's parents were very frugal. Grandpa made his own fishing nets. He had a bottling plant for a while, his brother had a dairy. My grandmother would unravel sweaters, etc. to make new sweaters or rugs. I still have a rug she made by sewing rolls of yarn onto a heavy duckcloth like material. She made a lot of our school clothes, stuffed animals, etc. Grandpa made our teeter-totter, our wagon, and our child sized furniture. When my nieces out-grew the furniture, my SIL gave it away. Mom was furious, but who has room these days to store stuff for nostalgia?

My parents still save everything. We learned after my MIL died and the house was full of stuff she had never used; we have been going through our clothes, books, etc. to donate stuff or sell on CL. When we have to sell my parent's house, there will be a heck of a yard sale. My dad even has the wool coat he wore in college - he is 87 years old!

My parents never "wasted" money on glue - you used flour and water paste. They considered staplers, paper clips, etc. to be the height of depraved luxury. We did have ONE pair of scissors that you had to make a big case to justify why you wanted to use them. Ditto for our one roll of Scotch tape. Pens and pencils were kept track of, lest they be "lost" and my biggest treat at grandparents' house was to be allowed to use the set of colored pencils (on the back of used paper, of course.)

Hi,

I usually hang at the Garden Forum, but came over here and this post hooked me!

I am 43 years old and both of my parents were born in the depression. But...you'd think I'd live through it!

Bread bags, ziplocs - save them all and reuse.
Clothing - I think my 14 year old has finally worked out all her hand-me-downs from her 16 year old and 21 year old sisters. Now...they sell all stylish items that they outgrow at "boutique" thrift stores to get the cash and go to the "normal" thrift stores to buy "new to them" jeans. Other items include sweats and hoodies with their team names and numbers on them, so they never get tossed (have to figure out how to make them into quilts).
Kitchen Scraps - I have two large coffee cans on the counter that collects everything from coffee grounds to Veggie clippings and out to the garden it goes!
Bacon Grease - we don't have bacon too often, but when we do, whatever we are having for lunch and/or dinner gets cooked in it.
I grow all my vegetables in the summer and have moved my herbs inside for the winter (and use what is left from the cats! Did you know cats like lemon thyme, parsley, cilantro, and mint??)
All meat bones are cooked for stock...we had ham for xmas and had to figure out what to do with it (made awesome potato soup!)
Wood ash from the fireplace goes into the garden as an "amendment"
Dryer? My DH has been out of work for a while now, so we don't have a dryer. The only thing that kind of stinks is the towel issue...they're a bit stiff. But other than that, everything smells "fresh" and our clothes are lasting a lot longer (and...my girls are happy since their jeans get more $$$ at the boutique thrift stores!)
Our dishwasher needs new wheels, and cash is tight, so we hand wash. They're cleaner and we use less water.
I collect all the yogurt containers from my DH and will use them to start my veggies for the Spring.
Although I compost, I use way too much of it, so I get it for free from the Fairmount Park Commission in Philadelphia...this stuff is beautiful and my garden was awesome last year!
Wood - when driving if I spot wood, I stop and throw it into the back of my car, haul it home, so we can burn it in the fireplace.
I buy in bulk...when the kitchen cabinets are empty-ish, I start to get nervous (here's that depression-era behavior I mentioned above!) and start hording canned goods and dried pasta when it's on sale.

AND...here's the kicker...remember the 14 & 16 year old I mentioned above (the 21 year old does not live with me)...THEY "seek and find" wood for me to go get (16 year old has actually made her boyfriend stop the car and bring me the wood!), they know all about the composting and help, they have made curtains for me from scrap material, they are fully aware of what the "clearance" rack is and only shop there (if not in the thrift store), they LOVE the Philadelphia AIDs thrift store (cool items very cheap), enjoy homemade bread and ask when I'm baking more, etc. They do not think it is "odd" when I talk about saving the Thanksgiving turkey carcass, xmas ham bone, or chicken bones for stock (and talk about it freely with their friends like they are sharing a well-kept secret!).

We frequent CraigsList in order to recycle and we (the girls and I) enjoy garage sales.

DH...well he's one of those "grazers" and will eat everything in sight. He has not always been as frugal as we'd like him to be, but he's learning. Mr. "Let's have the compost delivered" realized last year that we saved HUNDREDS of dollars by hauling the free compost ourselves - I have a chevy equinox that can handle 5 "recycle" cans in the back of it....25 cans total full of compost. Recycle center is 8 miles from my house...I used less than a tank of gas. Even with gas at $4 a gallon, it would have been $50 for a full tank of gas total. Now...he listens to me. :o)

Oh, and I do remember the button dolls! I have a bucket from my mom's house when we cleared it out...at the time I wanted to toss them but the girls said "NO...THEY WERE GRANDMOMS!" and I kept them....and I'm glad I did now (I have no idea what I'm going to do with them, but glad I have them).

Pam Brigandi
Havertown, PA

This will gross you out, but when I was a teenage girl, my mom and I shared clothes, including underpants!
Unfortunatly, she wore them until they were falling apart, elastic coming off and generally rags. I was mortified. Finally I saved enough babysitting money to buy my own, just before going off to college.

Well, when I got to the dorms, all the girls were running around in their underwear and I was the only one who wasn't wearing bikini panties. Mine were granny panties, practically up to the armpits. I took some of my book money and bought new bikini panties. One luxury I always allow myself now is nice underwear. And my daughter and I don't share.

Some heartstring in me just had to respond to this thread. Many of the stories made me chuckle and some I bordered on crying. I have to add a recent conversation I had with DS who's now 26. He called and asked why did I buy DGS fruit rollups where as I had not bought them for him as a child? My initial response was that they were not invented. He proclaimed that was not so and explained when he was little all the other kids had fruit rollups in their lunch bags, but not him. I responded that he had better--homemade cookies, fudge, cake, etc. I felt badly because he said that he remembers coveting their fruit rollups. All I could think about afterwards was hoping that there was no permanent damage done. lol Oh, I did offer to buy HIM some now.

My mother would occasionally entertain us about her teen and college years - and the biggest horror was having to wash her hair in laundry detergent. Grandmother thought soap was soap!
She had one new pair of shoes each year and one new dress. And they were a prosperous family- grandpa was a plant manager for many years.
I think this is what made her a clothes-aholic years later and rebounded with me- made me frugal.

I'm 45, and even in the 60's and 70's when I grew up, we got one new pair of shoes each year. I usually had a pair of "school shoes" - brown lace-up shoes, a pair of sneakers, and a pair of Mary Janes for church. I wore my older brother's work boots to play in the snow.

I have 3 sons - each have a hiking boots, tennis shoes, basketball shoes, church shoes, snow boots, reguar oxford shoes, slippers. We are DROWINING in shoes in my tiny house! And compared to their friends, they each have very few pairs of shoes.

I think, as a percentage of income, shoes cost a lot more back then as compared to now.

Back in the 40's when I was small, we were taught to polish our school shoes each night...no liquid stuff, it was wax & buff. A pc of newspaper was placed on hearth & they were all lined up & ready for school the next morning.

My Dad was a real stickler for clean, polished shoes all his life and I am too.

Does anyone remember bluing? Anyway my grandmother always did the final rinse of white things in blue water. The bluing came in a bottle, a blue one of course, and it only took a capful to do the rinse.

She used it as a rinse for her white hair too :-)

Oh yes I remember bluing....my mother swore by it and still does at 84! Remember all those lacy doilies? Big change EVERY week and having to starch all those darn doilies ..... and my mother liked colored doilies...so the neighbor would notice the change from blue to pink or whatever. God forbid you put out blue ones following a week of blue ones.....no one would notice!

How cute about the colored doilies Budster! But I didn't know they still sold bluing since we now have modern detergents and enzymes to brighten the laundry. We're always learning about something old, or new, around here everyday. Thank you everybody!

I bought some bluing recently to use to grow crystals on a sponge. Remember that from elementary school - salt and bluing on a sponge? I did that experiment with my boys. I found bluing at the grocery store.

Speaking again of button jars, I lost a button off my favorite sweater this weekend. It has 8 buttons and I had to replace them all as the ones on it were very distincitive & I couldn't find a match. I looked through my button jar & the wonderful box of buttons nan_ne sent me recently - and there were not 8 matching buttons of the right size, I ended up having to go to Joann's and buy buttons! So just WHY did our grannies save all those buttons? To add frustration to their lives?
:)

mommabird Our mothers and grannies saved all those buttons to provide hours of entertainment to the kids. We would divide them up into piles by color and size. We practiced our counting and our adding and subtracting. Never needed to worry about missing markers for games, grab a button! We did crafts making whole scenes out of buttons glued on with the old four and water paste glued onto the cut up cereal boxes. Sometimes Grandma would see a certain button and have a story to tell - "I remember that button came off your dad's workpants when he drove the bus." The hours of entertainment those buttons provided. I'm sure we all have button jars somewhere, but now a days the kids need more complex forms of entertainment it seems. Did anyone else have emergency surgery done on their stuffed animals by having button replacements sewn on for noses and eyes after the factory one had fallen off or got lost? I'm sure half the stuffed toys I had as a kid had a replacement somewhere on their body. Those were the days!

I'm only about a third the way through reading all the posts in this thread but I am enjoying it so much. And as I've read, and recalled things my mom and grandma did, I wrote them down. Even added some things I still do. And recalling all those things and writing them down is just as much fun as reading all of your posts. I've got to quit now, and make supper shortly, but will come back and read again later. for now, here are the great memories you've brought back to me.

My mom took lard sandwiches to school (the few months of the year she and her siblings were allowed to go to school instead of working on the farm). They were homemade bread spread with nothing but lard. When they came home from school, their after school lunch was sourkraut from the crock that my grandmother stored in the root celler.

She always saved margerine and cool whip containers to do her freezing in.

My grandmother was the interesting saver though... she saved rubber bands, pieces of string, and even the aluminmun top that she cut off her coffee cans with the can opener. The rubber bands and string I can understand but I never did figure out what she was going to do with all those sharp edged circles she cut off the coffee cans!

Oh, and she gave each of her grandkids a dollar for Christmas, rolled up in the cardboard from the middle of a roll of toilet paper!

Grandma made applesauce cake and cookies for all her kids and grandkids for Christmas. She'd start out with the same basic recipe, but if she didn't have enough applesauce, she'd add some other kind of mushed canned fruit, and on more then one occasion she filled in with tomato juice! Odd thing was, no matter what she used instead of (or mixed with) the applesauce, the cakes were always moist and delicious! Then when she had measured out and baked cake, she'd take the rest of the batter and add extra flour to it to make the cookies. They were always great too.

My mom raised chickens and she'd can the old hens once they no longer laid eggs. That canned chicken made the best milk gravy. I love it over biscuits and mashed potatoes to this day! And Mom would save the chicken fat and use it for the shortening in pie crusts. That yellow chicken fat made the prettiest and flakiest pie crusts you ever saw! Chicken manure was the best fertilizer too.

Mom always had a garden that was about an acre in size too. She raised strawberries too. I remember picking strawberries and green beans by the 5 gallon bucket! And sweet corn.. we'd pick a pickup load of it and all of us girls would blanch it, cut it off the cob, and freeze it (in all those saved margerine tubs). The guys would usually help out with picking and shucking it.

Oh, and the cracklin's that a couple of folks have mentioned. They are the best ever when heated up and served with pancakes. I haven't had those in YEARS! Ok... haven't had them in DECADES! But they sure were yummy.

And we didn't wash styrofoam plates (of course Mom only used those in her later years) but we always washed plastic 'silverware' and used it forever, or at least until it broke.

We had an outhouse when I was growing up and although we used toilet paper (not magazine pages) my dad, who was a farmer, always used corn cobs. I guess he did that when he was away from the outhouse and had to go, but then he also kept some corncobs in the outhouse and used them there too. Not exactly sanitary and definitely NOT soft!

And when they had their first icebox, my father in law wouldn't let my mother in law or the kids freeze icecubes because it would cost to much.

I guess I've inherited some of their frugality.

We always reused wrapping paper. Even now, I can hardly stand to rip the paper off a gift. People get impatient waiting for me to find the tape and remove it :-)

My step-daughter had jeans that ripped... all the way around each leg. The only thing holding the legs on was the inseam. We bought a pair of old jeans at the goodwill that were nearly the same shade, and I cut sections out of the legs (after matching up the width of the legs) and sewed them into the original jeans. She loved them! She wore them to a school dance and got all kinds of compliments on them!

I work at home, doing telephone support for a software product, and it's necessary for me to take lots of notes. I save ALL of my scrap paper, use each side, and sometimes (if I didn't have a lot of notes for a single customer) I turn the paper upside down and use it from the other end too!

budster- now I have tears in my eyes. My original button jar came from Mrs. Green, our elderly neighbor when I was a kid. When she and my mom would visit, I'd sit on the floor and play with the buttons. I would sort, count, etc just like you described. She also used to give me a darning needle and thread so I could make button braclets - and there are several still in the jar that I made when I was 5 or 6. She gave me the jar when I was 8 or 9, when she moved into a retirement home. It was, is, and always will be my #1 prized possession. You are so right - the point of the button jar isn't to have a button, the point is to provide entertainment. She also used to give me a darning needle and thread so I could make button braclets.

I wish I'd let my boys play with the botton jar more - but I was so afraid they would break the jar or loose the buttons. I was too caught up on MY memories of it to let them develop their own. I did let them play with it on occasion, so maybe they will remember those special occassions.

Nan_ne sent me a whole box of buttons in plastic bags. Does anyone have any idea where I could get a large, thick glass jar with a screw-on lid to make a button jar? Mrs. Green used a giant sized Mallow Creme jar - the lid still has the Mallow Creme logo & recepie for Mallow Creme and PB sandwiches. Food just doesn't come in jars like that any more - giant sizes of stuff comes in cans now.

If you want a large jar, check out the huge pickle jars like they have at Wal-Mart. They are with the extra large cans at our Wal-Mart.

Mommabird, they sell big jars at K-Mart, too, for use as canisters. They're under the Martha Stewart brand and they look like the old coffee jars. Hold about a gallon. I think there's also a smaller version that holds about a quart.

You can also go to restaurants and ask them for jars that they get pickles or marashino cherries or hot peppers in, although some of these things come in plastic jars now.

Garage sales are a good source, too, but you may have to go to several before you run onto one. Try flea markets if there are any near you.

Bluing works wonders on whites! I discovered it 3 or 4 years ago; now I use bluing in every load of whites. Wish I'd known about it when my kids were little. Makes a very big difference. I use Mrs Stewart's.

Mommabird - I have some of those jars you describe, my MIL got them when she worked in a hospital kitchen. Any large establishment should have some - start calling around and I'm sure you will score a hit. Like you I wonder why I too didn't let my child play with the button jar more. I guess like some one else said, it was we were worried they'd swallow them or something just as awful. Funny that wasn't even a consideration when I was small. Guess we just knew better? I did purchase a little toy for my child about 30 years ago.......how dumb was this - the toy was a jar of oversize buttons and a plastic needle (also oversize) to help with hand eye co-ordination! They were to thread the buttons through one eye, one on top of the other and then go back up through the second hole. Some of the buttons had 4 wholes, some had 2 but they were to be separated and made into two strings as the child advanced. Oh yah, a therapist reccommended this toy and my child did enjoy it but just how dumb is that?? Oh well, I donated it to a preschool after we were done with it. But really how silly!

There is a very large nursing home in my neighborhood - I'm going to call and ask if they can give me the jars! I called them once when I needed giant cans for a Cub Scouts project for my den. I asked the kitchen manager I needed 2 large cans. When I went the next day to pick them up, he had about 40 cans for me!! I hope they recycle all those giant cans if they use that many in a day!

Budster, I'm laughing about they toy because I bought something equally as silly when my sons were toddlers. It was a kit with a big plastic needle and felt shapes. They were supposed to sew the shapes together - like whip stitching. I thought after they opened it, this is dumb - I have plastic needles from sewing pieces of afagans together, left over yarn, and felt squares! I had everything in the house to MAKE that toy. It was a "frugal slip" to buy it.

I've LOVED all these stories, brings back old memories. My kids and grandkids now automatically hand me the boxes, bows, gift bags, and ocassionally paper from holiday wrapping when we are opening gifts, along with a "funny" look, but they've also asked me on occassion if I have any wrapping paper or gift box lying around if they are in need of such. As for the bacon grease, of course, I can't imagine anyone not saving it. My kids sure like "Granny's green beans" and ask me to bring them to any add a dish. I would really like to have a good book with "recipes" for making all natural things such as shampoo, laundry detergent, etc. if anyone can suggest one.

Bobo, I recommend Rodale's Book of Practical Formulas: Easy-to-Make, Easy-to-Use Recipes for Hundreds of Everyday Activities and Tasks, edited by Paula Dreifus Bakule and put out by Rodale Press. You might try to find it on Amazon. --Ilene

I'm 50 and grew up in the Chicago area. A few memories are:
--making those endless gum chains, for no real purpose. Did we really chew that much gum??
--also making endless yarn-rope chains with that neat little contraption (a spool with four nails in it) and a hook. I guess we were supposed to then sew them into a round rug, but we only kept making colorful chains.
--my mother sprinkling then rolling up my dad's white shirts and putting them in the refrigerator (?) until ironing them.
--typical school box sandwiches were liverwurst or peanut butter. For both, my mother spread mayonaise on the other side of the bread. (Peanut butter and mayo? Amazing that I'm still alive).
--my German/Czech grandparent spread lard on bread, then dipped it in chopped parsley for a sandwich.
--that super thin onion-skin-like overseas letter paper. You wrote on every inch and then the recipient lost a lot of the message because it always tore when trying to open the sides and top.
--some of my favorites memories were long, hot summer days with mom and grandma sitting outside on the porch swing and fanning themselves while we ran through the sprinkler. And warm nights with the windows open and the crickets' songs and fire flies everwhere. Where did all the fire flies go? I don't even think we had electric fans.
--some luxuries in the house were the occasional magazine my mom bought, paper towels, any beauty product besides Johnson's baby shampoo, Tame cream rinse, Ponds' cream.
--powdered milk. We hated the stuff, but went through several years of it. Had to make it freezing cold before we could drink it. Yuck!

ilene,
Thanks so much for the tip on the book Rodale's Book on Practical Formulas. I did go to Amazon and found one for $.54 + 3.99 shipping, talk about frugal. I'm sure I'll enjoy it and get lots of info.

You're welcome Bobo!

Marita, I saw fireflies just the other night! It took me back, too. We lived on a farm when I was little and I remember those evenings on the porch. We kids would chase the fireflies with a jar and try to save them. One Hot evening, as we all sat out on the porch, eating fresh, hot buttered "roast n'eers", it clouded over and started to rain. We kids played out in the rain and got soaking wet, but it was SOOOO refreshing after such a hot day.

I just "surfed" in here.
When I was about 8 yrs old my uncle gave mother a parachute.
She made panties for us. I hated those, as the had the elastic in a casing and not sewn on like the store bought.
Lord forbid that I look different than the rest of the girls.
I don't know about now, but back then parachutes were made from 100% silk.

Oh, my gosh! I had forgotten all about the parachute! We had one too. I was about five or six when I first became aware of it, so that would be about 1952. It was huge, and I don't remember whatever happened to what was left of it. My mom had a picture of my oldest sister in her prom dress that was made out of it! My sister was 16 when I was born and so that would've been about 1948 or 1949.

And how often did you run around in just panties, for the public to see whether the elestic was store-bought sewn-on ... or enclosed in a tube???

I have a current problem.

I have briefs whose elastics have got older and tireder than even I ...

... and when working in my garden in my coveralls (with cotton sheet between cap and covderalls to deter mosquitoes) ...

... or running errands in town ... or doing whatever ...

... it becomes somewhat frustrating to have them slide down till they hang around my knees: the only thing worse that I can think of in that departement is were I to be wearing a dress, and out in public!

I've been trying to figure a way to make an elastic belt for myself to hold the briefs up. Portable ... because I have about half a dozen pairs of briefs in such condition. Trouble is, I've been wondering what to use as a fastener ... but think that a couple of pieces of velcro fastened to the ends would work well.

Too frugal to throw those old briefs out ...

... well, at least until there's such holes in the bottom that they look as though they'd suffered through jet-propelled diarrhea.

I have some bean seeds, saved from last year's crop - stored in a carton that held choc. milk a while ago.

Hope you're having a great week - I just spent part of yesterday and today visiting with my brother and wife from the Prairies ... down in this area to attend their son on the birth of their grandchild. It's always as joy to spend time with them.

ole joyfilled

LOL
I was referring to gym class and sleep overs.

When I was in HS Mother used old panties as a dish rag.
A friend of hers came to visit and took them off the clothes line and took them home with her.
When Mother's birthday rolled around, she received a package from her friend. It was those panties. They frequently did those type of gags to each other.

Joyful - it sounds like it is time to throw in the towel on those briefs! LOL

Hey go with the velcro Joyful......and each extra wearing will give you a smile. Budster

Loved the post about making the milk go further by mixing real milk with the powdered kind. Not bad if it got ice cold, but as you I had 5 brothers and sisters so it hardly ever did. So many other posts remind me of my grandmother "Nana", who would never throw out a paper towel if it just wiped up a splash of water, put it over the towel rack and let it dry and it can be used again. Make two cups of tea with one tea bag, who could taste the difference. Using old nylons to tie things, reusing almost anything that was purchased really, certainly not the disposable society we have created!!