OK, she must have left a huge inheiritance. Did you get anything ? That is so funny, never use more than 2 sheets.

Yes, wealthy and without very good hygiene, I'll bet. :-)

Stupidly frugal? I once knew someone who reused twist-ties. Most of us have more brand new ones than we know what to do with.

Jannie, yes (several mil) and yes (but nowhere near that!).

Susan, since she had a colostomy, she only had #1 to deal with. And since we bathed her daily, she was pretty clean. *wink* Funny you mentioned twist ties. I always throw ours out, and I hate it when I need one and don't have one! :-)

My FIL was very frugal with the amount of water he used. Also with electricity, it was always cold in their home in the winter and warm in the summer. He bought the cheapest clothes and wore them forever. He had a talent for buying property cheap and selling it for a large profit. His enjoyment in life was making money and hoarding it. He always said he was doing it for his wife and children, but none of them enjoyed any of his money until after his death. Sad, but he lived his life on his terms.

How about my favorite uncle who lived in a little one room shack? He had no electricity, no telephone and heated with a wood stove. My dad asked him one time if his feet didn't get wet wearing those boots with holes in them. His answer, "I would go buy another pair but they're wantin' $12.00 for the damn things!" ROFLMBO My DS and nephew wouldn't let him buy them a Coke because they were afraid that he didn't have the $$.

We're all still drawing checks from his estate and we're a large family! LOL

You're kidding--you don't save twist ties? Where do you get them, that you have so many new ones? I wouldn't have any if I didn't save the used ones. I don't get new twist ties anywhere. Clue me in.

Well, I think I have a frugal story that pretty much beats any you could tell.

My parents bought their first home. They were young, poor, Dad was trying to get his business started. Well, he told the neighbors that they were so strapped for money that they reused their teabags. Then he took some clothespins and hung used teabags on the clothes line out back! My mom was mortified. But, of course, it was just a joke, my father's weird sense of humor--LOL.

Azzalea, I think we should take up a collection of twist-ties and send them to you. :-)

Seriously, they seem to come in every box of plastic bags that I buy except for the zip-loc ones. I'm loaded with twist-ties!

Uh-oh.........I often reuse my tea bags! What does this mean??

My aunt, who is like a 2nd mother to me, is sitting on a fortune but she is saving it for her only daughter who doesn't give her the time of day. My aunt comes to my house for all special occasions and I take her to run errands, etc. I don't expect any money, but I was a little hurt when she sent my son $15 for a wedding gift. LOL

Oh, that explains it, then--I buy ziplocks. But I do like to have a few twist-ties on hand for things like open bags of frozen veg, etc.

As to the tea bags--reusing is fine, but do you hang them on the line to dry out between uses--LOL.

Main Man's Mom was the most frugal women I ever knew. She still had her Frigidaire from the '40's with the little 12 x 12 freezer space.

We found several boxes of items never used, probably gifted to her. One was an electric mixer still in the box with the recipe from 1957. I guess she wanted to make sure she could get her money back if it failed.

We also found one of those Black Oscillating Fans and it still worked, also from the 40's.

Her Dining Room Table and Chairs were never used and always had a pad over it for protection.

She respected and honored everything she owned. I was always amazed that she lived on $800 a month and still managed to SAVE. She offered to buy me a piggy back washer and dryer so I'd have more space in my laundry room.

Main Man made me let her buy the washer and dryer, he said "it'll make her feel good. Take it". I was kinda embarrassed, but I let her purchase it.

She went to the grocery store with me one time and I bought a broom for $12.00. She was outraged, she thought that was the most extravagant thing ever. I'm sure she thought I was a gold digger after her son. LOL!

Oh I didn't mention that they paid cash of $8,000 for their home after the depression. Imagine!

Gayle

We buy ziplocks, too. The only twist ties we get are on loaves of bread. I actually use clothes pins for sealing up open bags of stuff. :-)

We had a neighbor tell us one time that she would wear her dh's underwear after he was finished with it.

I have relatives that will share a hotel room. For instance they'll bring two married couples and share a room. I think that is weird since they have plenty of money. If someone didn't have enough money or there was a safety issue I wouldn't find it so odd, but they'll do it in someplace cheap like Branson.

I'm a clothes pin user, too. I wondered if anybody else was that strange!! LOL (Okwriter))

Clothes pin user here, too. One I bet no one else has ever done- I have saved a drawer full of under pants for 15 years that I loved- they fit just right- but had come apart at the seams. I kept thinking I would sew them back up but never did. I finally threw them away a couple of days ago. New ones are just not the same.

my mother never bought anything "decorative"..always called them dustcatchers...

thanks to a friend, mother had, on the qt, had purchased a few stocks and kept a savings acct my dad never knew about till he finally retired...thank goodness she did! it helped supplement her ss, so she was able to take a few trips after dad passed, and maintained her car, and mobile home she bought...

My MIL dries and reuses paper towels. I'm still baffled by that one...

My mother saves twist ties, rubber bands that are so old they disentegrate when you pull on them, bread thingies, all that stuff. She'll pick up a paper clip in the parking lot and a ball point pen that's been run over 50 times. She is very frugal.

I never have a twist tie when I need one, I don't buy the right kinds of bags either, I guess, so we use clothes pins, too.

We had a neighbor tell us one time that she would wear her dh's underwear after he was finished with it.

THAT deserves the prize! :-)

DH's Grandfather was a very rich man with millions in the bank, owned land all over this area, and he'd go thru the dumpsters behind the grocery store and bring home stuff they'd throw out!!!!!
Everyone always asked the cook at family gatherings what Grampa contributed, so they knew not to eat it! He never got sick that I know of either. Blllleach!

She'll pick up a paper clip in the parking lot and a ball point pen that's been run over 50 times.

I think the ink pen deserves the 'prize'....lol

Sue

We had an old friend that was a millionaire a few times over. When he called us long distance, we used to joke that there was an egg timer sitting next to him, because usually a few minutes into the conversation he'd think of a reason to get off the phone, or he'd wait for you to call him back then he'd talk forever!

My mom used to have strips of 15-20 of those tie things-I guess whatever bags she bought had them. I've thought about re-using paper towels, but never had the patience to try it. I usually do cloth ones taht can be washed now.

I've heard of families not flushing the toliet after peeing to save the water (If it's yellow, just be mellow-When it's brown flush it down)

Steph-My mom rinsed and dried and reused paper towels too!She would have them hanging from all the cabinet drawers.LOL
Chemocurl-I think I have one that will top all the others mentioned.I probably shouldn't tell this because this was after my mom was in the first stages of dementia.She lived with me at the time.She had an incontinence problem and wore the Poise pads.I found several one day while cleaning her bathroom,under the sink,hanging over the drain pipe,that she had rinsed out and hung them to dry so she could use them again! Bless her heart.She just couldn't help herself.

Adellabedella, I'm trying to figure out what "when he was finished with it" means. Did she wear his underwear the next day after her hubs to save money on water and soap for laundry or did she wear them after he'd thrown them away. LOL Whichever, it made me giggle.

My FIL will only eat half of a banana at a time. He says eating a whole one on your cereal is extravagant. He also uses tea bags two or 3 times. My MIL and he constantly fight over where to shop for groceries. He goes to a discount place and she won't eat the food from there. She is a spendaholic, goes through money like water, so it is good he is frugal. Whatever he ends up saving, she spends and then some.

I also save twist ties because I use ziplocks. And I was told when young to only use "2 sheets".
Clare

Mammie, we didn't clarify the subject with the neighbor. I'm not sure why she even chose to share that particular aspect of her life. We suspect it was worn out.

I had a great aunt and uncle that were incredibly tight. Mom use to joke that Uncle Frank could squeeze a buffalo nickel so tight it would cr@p a dime. They had a huge garden, raised animals that they would butcher themselves, and go fishing, for food. Theyonce bragged that one month they only spent 1.29 on groceries. They had bought a box of corn flakes! They were going to leave there 3 sons a large inheritance but late in life a granddaughter had POA and skipped the country with most the money.
Ron

Them darn twist ties with the paper get all bedraggled after about the third use!

I find that using the plastic retainer from loaves of bread work well as a substitute. We have heavier ones that come on a bag of milk holding 3 other bags, 4-litres (just over a gallon) in all.

I just stewed some of the tomatoes that I've been ripening in the house, putting some of them into those washed milk bags (thicker - less liable to breakage) and used some of the milk bag retainer clips to hold them closed (till they freeze).

Just over 5 years ago old Uncle's wife died in February. Two marriages, no kids, he was in mid 80's and had had 3 hip replacements, suffered heavy pain in back, hip and leg, but kept some beef cattle in the barn, as had been his career. Some of us had suggested that he get rid of the cattle, and he said that he'd got rid of most of them ... to which I replied that, whether one had 2 cattle or 35 ... one still had to go to the barn daily to care for them.

When his wife was in the house, if he didn't return in an hour or so ... something started to happen. But no wife in the house ... no one to know if he fell into a snowbank.

So I came out and spent most of my time with him for a couple of months, helping with chores, housework, etc., till the weather warmed and his cattle went to pasture.

I lacked rubber boots, so bought a pair - cost about $11.00. I think.

Anyway, a couple of years ago, I was wearing them on a trip to town on a rainy day ... and found cold and wet on the bottom of my foot!

The sole had developed a crack across the bottom!

Drat!

After a while, the other boot, not wanting to be left out, followed suit!

Somewhere (along the roadside?) I'd found another rubber boot (that's a bit tight) and it has a higher top. But it has no hole in the bottom ... or anywhere else, that I'm aware of.

So - I wear it, along with one of the holey ones.

As I travel, try to find a track where there won't be water (or snow!) coming up through the crack in the bottom of the sole ... of that one foot.

Sometimes walk on the side of the foot.

Sometimes walk on the heel, with the main part of the foot sticking up at about 15 degrees from horizontal.

But ... it's hard to move ahead when one does that.

Which more or less means that one has to turn the foot to the side, as one puts the other foot forward.

Haven't priced a new set of boots ... but it's likely to be up around $14.00 ... or more.

Actually, I guess that I shouldn't complain ... for Uncle left me a bequest when he died of several thousand times the price of the boots.

When the farm was sold, the new owner, who is a sod farmer (and a really nice guy!) rented the house to me ... so I'm sitting in what used to be Aunt's dining room but now is computer room and office.

Good wishes to all of you for a glorious Christmas ... and end of the old year!

ole joyful

Well, I save twist ties. I use zip lock bags for food, etc. I get twist ties mostly from bread, and just drop them in a drawer. Rarely ever use one though. I have those plastic clips for closing bags like chips, or cookies. Have used clothes pins in a pinch. (Oh, haha, I just made a funny!)

I usually buy the tall kitchen trash bags with handles to tie, but last time didn't notice and got a different kind. I used all of them by twisting and tying them shut, only to find when I took the last one out, there was a bunch of twist ties in the bottom of the box! Didn't help me much then.

I have always been very frugal, but I call it being economical, and not being wasteful.

My brother used to tease me by telling people that when I opened my pocket book, moths flew out! I loved him anyway!!

Don't forget: A penny saved is a penny earned.

Sue

DH turns the night light off as soon as it isn't dark anymore. LOL, but he forgets lights in his puter room, and the work out room all the time. ;)

Moni

I cut dryer sheets in half. Rinse and dry zipper bags. Would love not to use paper towels, but that hasn't happened yet. Oh, I also cut SOS pads in quarters.

Twenty years or so ago I lived next door to a frugal (cheap) old man. No telephone or cable, only used one light in his kitchen ever, even in the winter, never seen more than one room lit up, would dump his wash water out the back door (everyone in this city has plumbing!), would buy food that was on it's last day to expiry, and sometimes try to give it as a gift to the pretty older woman who lived upstairs from me (she'd graciously accept and then threw it out on my advisement). Had a minimalist cabin in the mountains he'd go to in the summer, one summer when his daughter went to check on him she'd noticed he had a huge cut on his hand, he refused to allow her to take him to the doctor, later when she checked on him again he was sick. He'd gotten an infection from the cut (he was late 80's in age), and he died shortly after. Health care was taken care of, he was just trying to be tough. That didn't work out well.

Moni, I turn the night light off as soon as it isn't dark anymore. I am not trying to save electricity, I don't want the bulb to burn out. I have extra bulbs but would have to look for them. The old lady that lives here moves things.

My mother had an uncle who had a fortune but lived very plainly. He left his money not to his family but to his housekeeper/common law "wife."

Sue VA,

Don't like to be disagreeable, but ...

... for most of us, a penny saved is more valuable than a penny earned.

In Canada, if a single taxpayer earns under upwards of $10,000. annual income ... a penny earned is equal to a penny saved, as they have no income tax liability.

But most of us want to, and do, earn more than that.

For us, there's an agency that has a question, and a statement, for almost every one of us, every year.

"How much did you earn?".

"We want part of it!".

If your marginal tax rate (i.e. the rate that you pay on your top dollar earned) is 20%, for each $5.00 block of those earnings, you can't keep them all.

You must give $1.00 to the Income Tax people ... which leaves you with $4.00 in pocket.

So - 1 penny saved ... is equivalent to 1.25 pennies of increased earnings.
_________________________________

With regard to my earlier story - about the rubber boots ...

... my uncle's bequest was upwards of $1,000. for each dollar that the boots cost, not several thousands per.

There's some jelly in my brain tonight, I think.

ole joyful

Ok, I can beat all of these. SIL has an old bachelor Uncle worth millions but he recycles used ice cubes as did his parents before him!!!!

EWWWWWW!

Linda

Mom use to joke that Uncle Frank could squeeze a buffalo nickel so tight it would cr@p a dime.

LMBO@Ron! I've never heard that one!!

Another cloths pin user, here. I use them for a lot of things and one christmas, I gave all the gals in the family a package of them. Boy, did I ever get some funny looks. I also have a cloths pin glued to the cabinet over the sink, and I wash and hang to dry, zip lock bags and those shower-cap type bowl covers. My BIL, a very wealthy chap, drinks a lot of diet coke. One time he came to visit and brought diet pepsi. He complained all weekend that he really likes coke better, but the pepsi was on sale for 50 cent cheaper.

One word "mom" and Brian says I am turning into her everday.....Stacy

dotmom,

Did you look the old fart in the eye, offer him two quarters, and tell him to go buy his Coke ...

... and quit bi!ching!

I look upon frugality as sort of a game, and laugh about it ...

... but don't bi!ch.

Good wishes for a blessed Christmas - and a New Year that surprises you with a barrel of good things!

ole joyful

Greetings ole joyful.....no actually, I love the old fart. He is frugal about a lot of things, but I know of some good things he has done with his money. Some distant reletives, had a death in the family after nursing the person for a long time before the end came. They fell behind on house payments and were in jeopardy of losing the home. Old Mr frugal, brought their payments up to date and a few ahead so they couid get on their feet. He married late in life to a woman with a son. The wife died. Mr frugal set up trust funds so the sons children would have money for collage, even tho the son is a jerk. So even tho I like to kid about his frugal ways, especially about his soda-situation, I really highly respect him.

An aquaintance of my wife used to have his own wife dice up the chocolate morsels when she baked chocolate chip cookies so they'd go further! Unlike Chips Ahoy's slogan 'Betcha bite a chip' it was 'Betcha can't find a chip'!

"I've heard of families not flushing the toliet after peeing to save the water (If it's yellow, just be mellow-When it's brown flush it down)"

Actually, a lot of people in CA do that out of necessity (and more should) because of the almost constant drought conditions.

I use Glad Twist Tie baggies for some things so have a good supply of 'twistems'. I figure it won't be long before they aren't available as the manufacturers go all ziplock and I use them for lots of other things than in the kitchen.

I confess, I used to save tea bags. It took three used ones to make a decent cup of tea, but that was 25% less I used. I stopped that some time ago, and don't really know why I started it.

I used to rewash ziploc bags. Don't do that anymore either. I just buy the cheapo ones at the dollar store, and toss them out.

I also hang out to twist ties, but it's an old habit from long ago when I used the bread wrappers to freeze stuff. I don't even save bread wrappers anymore, but I do save the ties.

I used to love rooting plant cuttings. I would save all the dirty styrofoam coffee cups from our office, wash them out, and plant little plants in them.

I also used to buy extra large clothes at thrift stores, and take them apart to make something else out of them. Cheaper than fabric.

Of course, that was then, and this is now. I'm too lazy to do that now.