Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Saving Saran Wrap?

Okay so I'm home, and I realized that the thirfty nature is inbreed in my genes. My grandparents were really poor which drove my mom and aunts/uncles to be super frugal.

So my grandmother used to wash saran wrap and place it on the refrigerator to dry. She would also wash and reuse ziploc bags. Pretty much everything she would recycle if possible including using rice bags and potato bags for clothes.

I know that a lot of this had to do with the choices they made with their lives. But it really shapes and changes your family to be forced to be so frugal. Are you frugal by nature, by choice, or because you learned it? I think I'm frugal because it was a learned habit, but slowly I'm losing it.

I won't wash and dry my saran wrap, I enjoy eating out, I want to live in a nice home and I'd like to drive a new car. But will this loss of frugalness cause me to raise my kids spendthrift?

2 comments:

Lisa said...

My mom will save ANYTHING such as bread bags, used ziploc bags. She was raised to be very frugal.

The "frugality factor" is definitely not genetic, and I am proof of that. I am not inclined to reuse anything.

I am having to "learn" how to be more thrifty and incorporate it in my daily life.

Living Almost Large said...

I used to be more frugal but am declining quickly. I think I frustrate my grandparents a bit because of it. I have no concept of the value of money according to them.

Which might be true. I'm not really sure. I'd like to think I'm not a spendthrift, but to them the idea of not recycling, reusing everything is horrible.

I bought ziploc containers and it's shameful. I should only use containers I bought food in. And every piece of food has to be eaten.

When I read the frugal challenge I can laugh. Because of lot of those habits are like my grandmother.