Bowing to Frugal Grandma
I was in sunny(ish) Essex this weekend, catching up with some of my nearest and dearest. I spent yesterday hanging out with my grandparents. Not for the first time, my grandma’s thrifty supremacy had me marvelling.
“Have some jam, dear”, she said, throwing open a cupboard in the garage to reveal shelves stacked with jars of glinting jams and jellies. The jars have all been saved, and much of the fruit comes from her garden or her friends’ gardens. I came away with marmalade, yellow plum jam, bullus plum jam (never heard of this but apparently it is “nice and sharp”) and a good old-fashioned blackberry and apple.
My grandma then insisted on filling the trunk of my car with a horticultural smorgasbord. She takes so many cuttings of her plants, her garden often resembles a garden centre: laden with plants and pots of various sizes. In went a hundredweight of busy lizzies, geraniums, clematis, a disinterred gooseberry bush wrapped in a damp towel, and more. When I admired a high-climbing jasmine, she set about it with her secateurs and handed me some long leafy stems, telling me that if I set these in earth, they’ll take.
And so to lunch! We had a trout, freshly caught and donated by one of my grandad’s friends, with homemade chips and homegrown veg. Pudding was a homemade creme caramel: fnar.
My grandma has discovered that Snappy Snaps is offering 6″ x 4″ photo prints for just 10p apiece, so we spent the afternoon browsing through her latest stack of holiday pictures.
Frugal Grandma, I salute you.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Hey my Grandma is exactly the same! I can’t leave my Grandparents’ house without being given jam, plant cuttings, veg from their veggie garden, fish from their freezer (my great uncle is a fisherman), fruit from their fruit trees, and they always insist on me taking some wine from their extensive cellar. Bless Grandmas and Grandpas, they are the BEST!
August 12th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Yeah - grandparents RULE!
I think it’s the “make do and mend” philosophy, which has been all but lost on us young (well, younger) ones. If my grandma catches me throwing away a jar and there’s a teeny, tiny morsel of food still in it, she whisks it out of my hands pretty smartly.
August 26th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
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August 26th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I am often in awe of that generation. I fear that some of their thrifty skills (and homemaking skills in general) will be lost. I hope there are enough of us in later generations willing to keep some of these skills alive. Way to go, Frugal Grandma!
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August 26th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
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August 26th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
[...] over the moon! Not only is my post Bowing to Frugal Grandma featured in the latest Festival of Frugality, but it has been chosen as an Editor’s Pick! Many [...]
August 27th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Grandparents rule the frugal wars. Although does bulk-buying a dozen bags of sugar in one go (as my Grandma does along with bars of soap) count against them? Surely having so much residual stock hanging on shelves can’t be good for their carbon footprint?!
August 30th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
[...] ranking of top PF blogs. It’s a treasure trove of great blogs. Miss Thrifty shares an awesome afternoon with her frugal grandma. I want to visit! Art of the Coupon reminds us why being frugal and being green are two sides of [...]
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:30 am
[...] Incredibly, when we first got this car it was 20 years old - and had just 12,000 miles on the clock. It had spent almost all its life in my great-grandmother’s garage. She kept it clean and shiny, and she used to drive it once a week: one mile to the shops, and one mile back again. (Would it surprise you to learn that her daughter is my wonderful Frugal Grandma?) [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
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September 20th, 2008 at 6:30 am
I have to admit I still feel guilty these days when I throw out socks that have a hole in them. Back then, my grandma would have darned them and I’d have worn them another year or two.
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