Guest Post – Frugal wisdom from generations past
Frugal living is a trendy topic right now, but it’s a lifestyle that’s been around longer than anyone reading this post. In fact, we can learn a lot about living more frugally from our parents, grandparents and other ancestors in generations past.
For instance, the old adage to “use it up, wear it out, make do or do without” is excellent advice from another generation. America, in particular, has become a throwaway society. We use throwaway water bottles, paper plates, napkins and towels, disposable diapers and just about anything else you can imagine.
Learning to reuse more of the things we buy will take us a long way down the road to frugality. Eliminating paper napkins, for example, is easy to do when you eat at home. Just get some lightweight cotton or linen fabric—remnants work great—cut out some 8 to 10 inch squares and hem on all four sides. Voila! Napkins that you can throw in the washer and reuse over and over again.
Eliminating paper plates is easy, too, if you just remind yourself how little effort it takes to wash dishes. We get the “chore” mindset and feel as if it’s a long, drawn out effort to wash a few plates. But if you actually time yourself, you’ll see that you can wash a whole sink full of dishes in 5 to 10 minutes, max. That’s worth the savings over time.
Another aspect of this philosophy is to get rid of the idea that we have to have the latest gadget, the newest model, the most recent update of anything and everything we buy. Instead of buying a car and making it last for 10 years, we trade in every two years and take on the higher payments associated with the new vehicle.
In the same way, we have to have the most recent gaming system, the most up-to-date computer, the latest phone… even our TVs and living room furniture must be replaced because we no longer like the color or the style. Such a waste!
Learning to make do with what we have requires that we quit worrying about “keeping up with the Joneses” and begin to think about our financial health and well-being. If a heavy economic failure is really in store for the world as some experts predict, it’s time to quit wasting our monetary resources and begin to prepare for the future better than we have. Don’t you agree?
There are so many ways we can learn from past generations to live more simple and more frugally. Talk to your parents, grandparents or an elderly neighbor and ask them about some of the things they did to survive in previous years. You may be surprised at what you’ll come up with. And how it can help you and your family become more self-sufficient and less strapped financially.
Darlene ‘Dee’ Bishop is a professional writer whose work has been published in hundreds of places online and in print. She is the publisher of Just Write for Business, a free weekly newsletter filled with original articles, tips, ideas, inspiration and advice to help you write like a pro and make money writing.
