We used laundry detergent boxes because we never had cold cereal (too expensive).

My dad had a wood lathe because he used his small work-shop to make toys and things for us since we hhad little money, and he’d make extra money by selling toys to the people in town.

Dad would take all the wood scraps; form them with a knife – then we’d all chip in and ’sand them into ’shapes’. We’d stain the bare wood with food coloring so we could recognize ‘our pieces’.

We’d think up the game; crayons were usually what we’d mark the colors with; dad used an old black glass-marking pencil for the lay-out.

We’d also fill up the glasses and fruit jars with different levels of WATER; then we’d create music with the sounds – what fun!

Dad would get out some of the pots and pans; the spoons – now we had a ‘band’……..

We’d get out the dictionary; we’d look up a word – the rest had to guess the word after we’d read the meaning – how we learned from that game, and had fun too.

We made a target out of a cereal box; used rubber bands, and used paper-wads from the old newspapers we’d pick up after the market put them out as trash.

We played pick-up-stick; jacks; only 10 cents for each game ‘back then’.

We had an old piano with sticky keys, but it was good enough for all of us to learn on; sing to, and make music (I’m never without music playing or playing it myself).

I guess I could add to my one blog about dealing with the recession – some of these ideas, but in many cases, it seemed as if I might be suggesting things that simply weren’t viable enough in saving a significant amount of money for any one (and possibly they’d sound way too boring).

For me because it was the ‘atmosphere’ – the ‘time’ back in the 1940’s, that made it not ‘frugal’, but simply a smart way to cope with the lack of having much in the way of material things.

To me, frugal is being smart – to others, it’s ‘going without’……

Anyway, I enjoyed my read; linked to it from Merchants – enjoy her blog as well.

I’m trying to be more frugal, and am probably closest to #1 — though right now I am proud that I just got a bread machine by freecycling and didn’t spend $70 to “save” money on bread this year.

On the other hand, I’m the kind of gal who may have once said something like, “Why don’t we get that gorgeous marble chess set? It’s a honeymoon souvenir that we’ll actually use! And it’s pretty enough that it’s like home decor!”

It’s been used maybe once since then, and it can hardly be seen in its current location — but it’s one of the few souvenirs from that week that we have kept, and still plan to use.

http://badhuman,wordpress.com

I try to be very frugal, but sometimes you have to step back and look at the larger picture … like if I get offered three extra hours of OT (which comes out to over $30/hr), it might be worth it to get a pizza that night because I now don’t have time to cook …