How often do you say "stuff frugality"?

Pollycat

tizerbelle wrote: »

Speaking as someone who had tinned soup that was 4 years after the best before date for tea last night (it was lovely) the assumption that after its best before date it would be thrown out/wasted makes no sense to me.

I agree 100% with this.
I use my sense of smell then taste to decide if something is OK to eat.

I must admit I don't clear out my wardrobe as often as I should but I do recycle to charity shops.

Re the OP's title:

How often do you say "stuff frugality"?

(which I took to mean frugality generally) there are some things that I will not compromise on, these include decent tea & coffee (we only have 3 or 4 cups each per day), toilet roll - and good quality extra virgin olive oil for salads and dipping.

Just come back from Greece and bought a 500ml bottle of extra virgin olive oil for 13 euros.
Acidity is 0.2% which is extremely low and it tastes fab.

LameWolf

I have to admit, I'm always a bit bemused by odd socks. Am I the only person who never gets any? Ok, there's only my DH who wears them, but I always put them, in pairs, into a net bag to go in the WM, and I pair them up when hanging them out to dry, and they always stay happily "married".
I feel as if I'm missing out on something now!:rotfl:

dandy-candy

I have to admit I can't bear throwing "things" away, so they usually get taken to the charity shop or squirrelled in the attic. We are due to move house in about six months and DH has laid down the law and said he's not moving my junk from the attic and garage into the new house attic and garage - use it or lose it! It does make sense but it's agony to a hoarder like me as only last month I suddenly thought of a use for something I had got rid of recently (after hoarding it for about 4 years...)

As we only have a small fridge freezer, it's usually food that gets chucked if it has sat about for too long.

Ben84

Some stuff has to go. Any food which tastes awful I bin without a second thought. It's never going to be used up, and who wants the packet glowering back at you every time you open the cupboard, reminding you you've had it years and still haven't managed to make yourself eat it. I just asked myself one day, what am I saving it for, a day when I seriously say to myself let's eat something revolting for tea? I mean there might be a day when society collapses and you'd be almost glad you saved that can of smash with gummy bears, but I'll take that risk.

splishsplash

I don't particularly aspire to being frugal, but I don't like waste. Having said that, I don't hang on to stuff 'just in case'. If I think I have a specific use for something, fair enough, I'll hang on to it. If I haven't put it to good use within a reasonable time frame, then I'm happy to let it go.

I go through everywhere on a rotating basis about every three or four months, so I never allow accumulations of anything 'just in case'.

If I compared the times I've let things go with the times I've said 'oh I wish I hadn't thrown that out', then letting go wins hands down. No contest.

Rainy-Days

I try and find a medium line between the two. It's not about being miserly. If it's cold outside I will have the heating on. The Aga in the kitchen is a bloody expensive pleasure, but the food it produces and the heat it kicks out is something else. I wouldn't part with it nor would I ever part with my huge Welsh dresser either.

I still buy reduced food when I see it, I still meal plan to reduce food loss and it works. I spend some, I save some. As my old mum would say "It's no good being the richest one in the graveyeard" and it's true, she saved all her life and it came to me but the taxman came along and had 40% of some it :mad:

I have had a massive clearout two years ago before moving up here and it was liberating. I kept back the most important things. Under the eaves in the loft I found my old dollies cot that Dad made back in the 1970's for me. He put it up there and it wasn't until that big clearout that I found it. I have kept it because it has massive memories and I am glad that it was hidden away for those decades too. It now sits in the spare bedroom with my big old dolly in it, that my mum had kept from my toy box.

There was so much stuff but I don't miss the things I have got rid of, what I kept back is beyond priceless, my late mum and dads wedding present - a beautiful china tea service that I will always keep.

Enjoy what you have, don't let it get you into debt, don't keep up with the Jones's because you never know what goes on behind their front door, and indulge yourself a little.

The one thing that I have found in life is that my friends mean the world to me, as do my Godchildren. I have found an inner peace that had been missing for many years in my life and since moving up here I have relinquished allot of the angst that plagued me. I was glad to release it and found that not everything in life comes down to money and possessions. It's just nice to be able to step outside and feel the sunshine on my face and understand that some of the pain has been worth it - even if I did not see it at the time. That is beyond priceless.

Enjoy what you have and when you spend it, do so wisely, but on something that has value and will give pleasure.

Mr_Singleton

tizerbelle wrote: »

Speaking as someone who had tinned soup that was 4 years after the best before date for tea last night (it was lovely) the assumption that after its best before date it would be thrown out/wasted makes no sense to me.

Where did it come from? being 4 years out of date?

charlies-aunt

I have this week off work to attempt a ruthless de-clutter of my home. Being the last one of what was a large family, I have "inherited" a huge amount of things from relatives homes over the last twenty years but my own home has evolved into a quasi-museum and a monument to other peoples choices.


Housework and cleaning had turned into a nightmare trying to move and store boxes and boxes of assorted crockery, ornaments and knick-knacks....every cupboard in every room crammed - all lovely in their own way, probably expensive when first bought and very treasured by the original owner but I was never ever going to use it.


I have donated a carload to the CS this afternoon and I am trying to keep this quotation in the forefront of my mind as I am assembling a further carload ready for tomorrow - " Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. (William Morris).


I could have been frugal and e-bayed some of it, or done a car boot sale but definitely had a "sod frugality", its got to go episode!

tizerbelle

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Where did it come from? being 4 years out of date?

My canned/packet food cupboard where it had probably been sat for 5+ years, where else? It was Minestrone - a soup I only "fancy" on apparently very rare occassions.

thriftwizard

I'm going to stuff it a little this weekend. I'm trading at a big vintage show; the car will be packed to the gunwales with stock & there's not much room for my camping/cooking gear. So I'll sleep in the car (all the rear seats fold flat to the floor, giving a 6' length, so add a small rolled-up mattress & that's no problem) but I'll eat off the food stands, which isn't all that cheap but will save me a lot of time and haulage-space. And no washing-up!