Miss Thrifty

I’m very impressed by Princess Anne, who dusted off the dress she wore to the Prince of Wales’ wedding in 1981 and donned it again for another royal wedding at the weekend.

I’m also impressed that the white and yellow dress still fits her, 27 years later.

Here’s a snippet from the BBC website:

When asked about her frugality, Princess Anne has said: “A good suit goes on for ever. If it is properly made and has a classic look you can go on wearing it ad infinitum.

“The economy is bred into me. My parents believe that things are not to be wasted.”

Snaps.

I rolled my eyes at a piece in the Daily Mail at the weekend. The headline: Heartbreak Home: One woman’s blow by blow account of what it’s like trying to sell a house in the credit crunch.

This is how it begins:

It was reported yesterday that house prices are falling at their fastest rate since the 1990s property crash. There are already a million unsold homes in Britain  -  with a tale of misery behind each one. Here, Femail charts the agonising diary of one family’s attempts to sell up. Karen Green from Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, is a 38-year-old widow with four children. She works full-time as a dental receptionist. Her children are Michael, 18, Nicky, 16, Charlotte, 13, and Sophie, eight. Her three youngest children attend a private day school.

This lady’s “tale of misery” revolves around her decision to sell her large £575,000 home in Worcestershire and buy a £400,000 home, so that she can pay off debts and spend the surplus capital on her children’s school fees. The value of her home drops to £470,000 as the months pass, and the tale ends with her buyer pulling out at the last minute.

I know I should feel sorry for her - her husband died eight years ago and she is struggling to support her young family - but I can’t help thinking that her priorities are bonkers. (more…)

Today’s Daily Mail carries a piece about so-called “Frugalistas”.  I say so-called because the definitive label doesn’t appear to have been settled on yet. Frugalistas? Recessionistas? Take your pick. I predict that with gloomy headlines rolling off the presses like sausages at a sausage factory, we’ll be seeing these features with increasing regularity.

Anyway, today’s article takes three women “who are meeting the challenges of Britain’s higher prices”, and shares their secrets. Some of them, such as selling one of the family cars and not buying any more designer clothes, are like, duh. Other pointers don’t quite add up: one of the women keeps bees “to make her very own honey” - but isn’t readymade honey a lot cheaper than beekeeping? Another woman claims that she used to spend £70 on groceries every week (just for herself!) but has reduced her food expenses to £20 by growing her own vegetables and having boxes of organic produce delivered. I’m not sure how this works: those boxes are £8-£10 minimum, which leaves very little for the rest of her weekly food.

But head-scratching aside, they had come up with some good ideas, which I have distilled for you as follows: (more…)