Story About My Frugal/Pack Rat Mother

**savvy_sniper** · 11-09-2009, 03:12 PM

I don't think I have written much about my mother. Her name was Margaret and I lived with and cared for her for the last 5+ years of her life. She grew up in the tail end of the depression; so that probably explains a lot of her thriftiness.

She saved EVERYTHING! twist-ties, newspaper bags, produce bags, jars, tins, rubberbands. I knew this about my mother. Towards the end, before she died I started going through things and getting rid of some it. I gave it away, I recycled it, I sold it, and yes, I even threw some stuff away.

I found Humble Oil (now Exxon) bills from the early 60's. Some of you may remember the cardboard punch cards?!?!? That is when we moved into our house.

My point is that my mother died 2-1/2 years ago and I just finished off the FIRST of TWO rolls of Dow Handi-Wrap II with Cling Plus! It was partially used when I started using it at her house before she died. The rolls are Industrial Size - 400 sq. ft. I know they are AT LEAST 10 years old.

How or why she bought them, I don't know. I am assuming that they were a bargain so she bought two.

OMG, I just turned over the new box and there is a torn sticker on the side. They were sold as a two-pack. There is also a date when it was prepared at the factory - NOVEMBER 24, 1991.

GOD BLESS MARGARET! I love her and I miss her so much! I just had to share.

**Contrary Housewife** · 11-09-2009, 03:13 PM

It sounds like her legacy will live on for several more years!

**frugalwarrior** · 11-09-2009, 03:20 PM

My dads mom and my moms mom both died when I was pregnant w/ my DD who is 19 now. My mother still has small appliances from when they cleaned out the house and apt. Which is not as bad as the fact they are still using items like tin foil and such. My brother and I will need a dumpster some day. I have thiought of placing an ad on freecycle after we salvage what we want. ITS STILL GOOD. Is my parents life motto. God bless them anyway.

**Thevail** · 11-09-2009, 03:23 PM

My grandmather grew up during the depression too. Her motto was, pretend that there will be NO STORES a month from now.

I guess all the stores in her tiny town went out of business, and there wasn't another store for 50 miles. But no one had the money to go that far and back. So for a month or so her whole town had to make do with what they had lying around, until they could get together enough money to send guys in a truck with the town's "shopping list" into the larger to town.

When we cleaned out her place after she died there were 57 mayonaise jars all filled with stuff like twist ties, rubber bands, buttons, pins, random screws and nails, little rubber gaskets, etc.

Many of them are still in my garage

Thanks Grandma.. she's saved me hundreds of $$$ at the hardware store already.

**savvy_sniper** · 11-09-2009, 03:28 PM

The only reason I didn't need a dumpster after she died was because her house got water in it due to Tropical Storm Allison (2001). I cannot tell you how much was thrown out (the city picked up). We probably threw away several of those long rectangle bins they drop in your driveway. If it didn't get wet, we didn't go through it. We just set it aside.

**momof42003** · 11-09-2009, 11:12 PM

Sounds like DH grandparents.. She keeps anything that would be helpful around the house and grandpa keeps stuff out in the barn for one of those "just in case" moments that never seem to come around. I know it will be a hard time when they move from their house of 40+ years.. It should not be long, grandpa will be 98 in January and grandma will be 89 in July they are finally slowing down and really need to be with family... Grandpa just had his driving privelages revoked by his kids. His drivers license was good until he was 102 I think... OH BOY could you imagine??? LOLOL..

**TigerGirl1226** · 11-09-2009, 11:21 PM

My granny went into assisted living in January...oh the things that were found in her house! I ended up with not only her fridge, but a drawer full of shelled cleaned pecans. We just finally used them up. Among the other treasures...7 boxes of powdered sugar, 25 boxes of assorted zip lock bags, tons of foil, saran wrap. Well over 500 cookbooks also!! She had a small house and it was always quite tidy and never looked like it had that much stuff. Now her 2 older sisters still live together when that house needs to be cleaned out...well, I don't even want to think about that! lol

**NikoSan999** · 11-09-2009, 11:40 PM

Originally Posted by TigerGirl1226

My granny went into assisted living in January...oh the things that were found in her house! I ended up with not only her fridge, but a drawer full of shelled cleaned pecans. We just finally used them up. Among the other treasures...7 boxes of powdered sugar, 25 boxes of assorted zip lock bags, tons of foil, saran wrap. Well over 500 cookbooks also!! She had a small house and it was always quite tidy and never looked like it had that much stuff. Now her 2 older sisters still live together when that house needs to be cleaned out...well, I don't even want to think about that! lol

Sounds like she was ahead of her time...she had her own stockpile. Really stop and think about these things...are they really any different than what we do. She and they were "prepared" in their own way. I give all of them kudos for being the teachers to what we are all doing here on this board/forum. Saving money, stockpiling and being thrifty. Two thumbs up for the teachers

**TigerGirl1226** · 11-10-2009, 12:04 AM

Originally Posted by NikoSan999

Sounds like she was ahead of her time...she had her own stockpile. Really stop and think about these things...are they really any different than what we do. She and they were "prepared" in their own way. I give all of them kudos for being the teachers to what we are all doing here on this board/forum. Saving money, stockpiling and being thrifty. Two thumbs up for the teachers

I guess that is what she did, but it was never called "stockpiling" in our family. She had certain recipes she made at the holidays and would buy the stuff throughout the year. The one that really puzzled us was the powered sugar...none of her recipes called for that. Hmm, maybe it was a secret ingredient!

**phoeny_moonstar** · 11-10-2009, 01:28 AM

Makes me think of my recently deceased great grand mother in law. From what I hear that lady had a beautiful home all filled with stuff like this. Till the day she died she sewed on a trendle (sp?) sewing machine, because she didn't like to use electric.

On another note, at least you have little reminders of your mother for many years to come!