When I had a job that required a bit of travelling, I would bring home the hotel personal hygiene products an spare rolls o TP. Didn’t have to buy those products for 7-8 years.
A sheetrock screw got stuck in a tire once and rather than pulling it out and plugging the hole he just carried a Philips screwdriver and kept tightening it up.
Drained the shower into a bucket and used the water on the lawn.
My father fixed VW exhaust pipes with Campbell Soup cans and Wire Hangers..he wasn’t mechanically inclined but he knew his soup:)
Plain white vinegar (White House or Heinz is best; get grain vinegar instead of the cheaper petroleum based stuff) just rubbed on the underarms makes good deodorant. It kills germs, dries, and doesn’t smell.
The frugal story I have is a bit yukky, but I think it tops most frugal stories. - My MIL fishes out the Fleet suppositories, rinses them off, and reuses them. She tends to strain at a gnat and swallow a camel about being frugal though. - The suppository story was a bit too much for me, just too much frugality I think. In all fairness, maybe that’s the only time I’m aware of her doing that; but stuff like that is her trademark.
Oops! Sorry. This is a MIL story, not a FIL story.
1951 Father S/Sgt in Air Force transferred to Hickam AFB, had four kids, moved into off base housing but couldn’t afford furniture so he made a sofa out of a roll-a-way bed that was borrowed from the AF. Looked pretty darn good! fixed everything with duct tape if he couldn’t afford the part.
My Dad had a saying: “Use it up, wear it out - make it do or do without”.
He went for three years with a missing front tooth due to gum disease so my brother and I could have bicycles, clothing and sports gear.
“13. “Just after the nasty spring storms, my Dad would go buy a gallon of gasoline, and go around the neighborhood cutting up the trees that would fall down. He’d charge like 10 bucks each, which really is nothing. I always thought he was just being nice. Then in the fall, those same people whose trees he had removed in the spring, came to him to buy firewood, because wood stoves and fireplaces were popular then. He stopped selling when he got down to about 2 cords or so. He made out like a bandit, and we always had a nice toasty warm house in the New England winters.” - attackgypsy”
Oh hell yes. That’s just hilarious.
We have a sod story too. Wanted to re-sod, didn’t want to pay. Waited for a construction job pouring a large concrete patio, dug up the grass in neat squares, with roots and dirt, and brought it home. Got a truck load of manure from the local dairy. The yard looked like a checkerboard for the first six months, and nobody wanted to walk by it, but after it grew in it was the best lawn in the neighborhood.
(I only heard about this one:) During the Depression one neighbor noticed that another frequently had a mop on the back porch set out to dry, but the handle was always pointed up, not down. When she made her inquiries, she noticed something strange on the mop handle. The “mop lady” admitted that she and her husband only had one rubber so they washed it and put it out to dry after each use.
My dad took mustard sandwiches to work for several years to save money for the family. Just bread and mustard. I didn’t know about it until years later from another family member, but I always feel humbled when I think of that. On the other hand, he had another frugal thing he would do that still grosses me out. When the catsup bottle got so low that nothing more would come out, he would pour water into it, shake it up and drink it. I would ask him why he did it, and he said he learned that during the Depression, i.e., that you NEVER waste food.
No-techs talk about high technology and complain about low-techs. ;-)