Is frugal the new normal?

ivyleaf

Ouch, HOWMUCH! Maybe you could get him a little rocking horse and encourage him to ride on that instead.

pennystretcher

Hm. I guess I live frugally in some departments and not so much in others.

I was brought up to buy quality items and to look after them, and I still stand by that. My washing machine is 15 years old and still going strong, some of my friends seem to break theirs every few years. Same with my hoover - spent £120 on Miele 17 years ago and it still works (and looks) like new.

I hate to spend a lot of money on clothes so regularly shop in charity shops or wait until sales are on.
Yes quality would most likely make them last longer, but I don't have patience to spend a lot of time on hand-washing things and I go off certain styles quickly so no point for me to spend a lot of money there.

Gave up on TV this year and to tell you the truth I have not missed it at all - all the money I saved on license will go towards DVDs and from second hand shops you can get a lot for the money I would have spent on license - 15 DVDs for £10 and you are sorted for couple of months...

On not so frugal side, when I have my holiday (one a year) I do not scrimp. I have a habit of buying 'weird' things when abroad - e.g. toiletries and food. That way when I brush my teeth using paste bought abroad, I think of the nice holiday I had. Weird, I know, but works for me.

Icey77

Caterina wrote: »

(((((Lessonlearned))))) I am so sorry if my post brought you sadness. i hope you have a great time on your holiday and look forward to reading all about it.

JackieO, as I said to you before, you are Frugal Royalty! See Ivyleaf's post above, a London meet will be in the offing when I get back, start saving books, vouchers and other bits and bobs to swap!

Caterina, if you can book the meeting for a Tuesday or Thursday I can come along and be an adult unaccompanied by small demanding children (whoop!!!) and get to drink hot tea and chat to other adults without peppering the conversation with asides such as "no, books do not belong in your brothers trousers" or "we drink our juice with our mouth and not our nose"

Excited much by the idea huh??!!! :rotfl::rotfl:

HOWMUCH

ivyleaf wrote: »

Ouch, HOWMUCH! Maybe you could get him a little rocking horse and encourage him to ride on that instead.

He does have a rocking horse but he prefers getting on your back.

[Deleted User]

Meets are usually OK for me as long as I can get away by around 3 as I have to be around for the boys coming home from school. we usually have a great time gassing and exchanging ideas and things Good fun.I love the Age Exchange in Blackheath, they do nice food as well
JackieOxx

ivyleaf

Last time OH and I went to Blackheath the Age Exchange was no longer there It's a shame, but I suppose the ladies running it became unable to do so any more.

ETA Ah, apparently it's become part of Blackheath Community Library, at 11 Blackheath Village (I'm not sure where that is in relation to where it was before, near the station) and there is a cafe there.

kboss2010

I agree that it's now trendy to appear to be 'frugal' - ie expensive Cath Kidston "vintage" crockery etc but I think people still turn their nose up at the reality of truly being frugal.

In my experience it's fashionable to buy an old dresser and upcycle it with chalk paint but I've had friends recoil in horror when I tell them how much my shopping budget is and how I stick to it (Aldi, less meat, mince rather than steak, using up leftovers etc) or that I only buy my clothes from charity shops or in the final reduction sales or use vouchers every time we eat out. Many I know feel embarrassed to do these things.

I also think that companies are taking advantage. When 'A Girl Called Jack' blogged about her frugal recipes for people living below the breadline, 6 months later after all of the press interest, Sainsburys upped the price of their basic range by over 100% (stock cubes went from 10p for 10 to 25p) and they stopped stocking some basic things altogether. Coincidence? The universe is rarely so lazy. Many blamed Jack Monroebut she was just trying to help other people by publicising her ideas. It's the companies that we should be roasting for it.

GreyQueen

I know what you mean, kboss2010.

There is a certain kind of person, a type around since at least the early seventies, who practises a kind of artsy folksy faux poverty. I think of J0casta Innes et al. These individuals are middle-class or upper-class and not hurting for a bob or two, but like to look 'umble and genuine.

A really poor person probably has furniture that was cheap when it was new and hasn't aged gracefully. Plastic coated particle board, probably. They do not have scrubbed wood refectory tables in their flagstone kitchens, limewashed dressers or pretend-vintage teatowels and aprons.

Of course, there's nothing to stop a working class person like me buying a pine dresser and upcycling it, apart from the fact that they're ridiculously overpriced these days due to this fashion. I don't see the faux frugaleers down the chazzers buying secondhand black ash furniture etc. Or shopping in argossy.

And gussying up lentils with a lot of expensive ingredients isn't being frugal, it's just being silly.

[Deleted User]

The name Kirsty Allsop springs to mind.

GreyQueen

Deleted_User wrote: »

The name Kirsty Allsop springs to mind.

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about her (don't have a telly so seldom exposed to her).

As I sit at my argossy blockboard desk (bought secondhand) at my 13 y.o. pooter, on a metal folding chair (family castoff) on a handmade-by-me-from-discarded-wool-rug, I glance sideways at my Sally Army blockboard wall unit, behind me at my chazzer DHS sofa and across at another blockboard piece, a DVD cabinet repurposed to hold sewing supplies. I jest that my sitting-room has veneerial disease.

I could go to the vintage places and spend a lot more on beat-up worm-eaten carp covered with chalky paint which has been artificially rubbed down to look distressed. Poor people don't usually choose to have distressed-looking furniture or bare plaster walls.

Because poverty isn't a style choice when it's real.

Earlier this summer, I was vastly amused to pick up Country Living Rustic Style's magazine-book (£9.99 can you believe it?! No way would I buy that!) in a supermarket where I was killing some time. I'd picked it up to scoff to myself at the faux-poverty stylists and was most amused to find page 99 had a handknitted blanket I'd made for Oxfam years ago.

I quietly snigger about that blanket, which is about 98% made from pulled-out worn acrylic jumpers. Bet the present owner, who thinks it so folksy and authentic, wouldn't be seen dead in a cheap acrylic handknit jumper...........Heh, they have allowed a petrochemical-based product made in a council flat into their lovely home.:rotfl:

GQ; displaced peasant and now officially a rustic craftswumman. I've got bread rolls proving atm. I chucked some home-dried YS herbs into the flour. I guess this means I am making artisanal bread..........sheesh, the world is full of silliness.