Froogs wants us to teach one person each week something frugally useful. I am in. Anyone else in?
I am a dreadful teacher but I do know how to squeeze a pound until it squeaks, so maybe I can help somebody.
Going back to the good old days, my four mile hike to shopping was the round trip with pushchair and included the actual time in the store. I was just too mean to shop locally and pay an extra 10%.
We didn't have a car for about three years until I had been back at work a year. We finally got a phone in the house when Jamal was around two or three.
It wasn't at all bleak. We had a lot of fun. I made jam and wine from fruit we gathered. My parents gave us veggies from the garden. I had a friend that worked at the local bakery and she used to bring us big bags of baked goods which would have been given to chickens. She also had a friend who looked after the local lakes so occasionally brought us wild ducks for dinner. One time she brought us eels. I remember they were still moving even after Fahed gutted them, right until they finally froze in the bottom drawer of the freezer. We ate them when desperate and they tasted like cotton wool!
I wish we had freecycle back then but there were already plenty of generous people who gave us their old furniture and furnishings. We had been married about four or five years when we got our first carpets. Sadly there was no garden at the first two flats we lived but we did get an allotment which was super productive in cucumbers and aubergines. I remember an amazing raspberry crop too and loads of gooseberries. Funny how it all comes back when you think about it.
If my kids had a single new clothes item until they were well in their teens then it wasn't from me. But we did okay and we have skills for life.
Time to share them
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