'Tis the season to be thrifty...tra la la la la - la la la la la!

Ah - ha - now I understand.....what you really, really like to look at are the insides of people's cupboards!!! In order to wean you off that need I will  one day show UNDER THE BEDS..... 

If  you thought that cupboard was full......

Ho ho 

 For today's lesson let us focus on saving money.  Our mum kept savings in a plain saving tin - different sections for the coal man, milk and bread man and so on.  I was part of that saving because I would count the money to check there was enough.  I had a particular interest in the coal money - another job being counting the sacks of coal as they went into the coal shed (I was very scared of that coal shed - no light but lots of cobwebs - also fascinated by the coal man and his coaley face!), just to check we were not being short changed!

Handy things savings tins. 

 The main driver for all things old was always the saving of money - it was clear from a very early age that buying things second hand was much cheaper than buying new. Along with this was the drive to physically save money.  If 'vintage' is just a passing fashion trend it doesn't matter does it because we will still be ploughing our 'make do and mend' furrow won't we. It has been a fortuitous turn of events that second hand also tends to mean well made, nice looking and lasts.  Trendy....moi!!  Children cannot believe that our rubbish is 'in fashion' - it will still be 'in fashion' with us when it is 'out of fashion' with 'them'!!  When our home was featured in H & A magazine it brought a lump to my throat that the title of the article was 'Acquired over a lifetime'....because that is exactly what it has been...

 Of course you can have toooo many savings tins....

It is an interesting social phenomena that over the decades savings tins morphed from essential savings to more hedonistic savings for things such as ice cream and holidays.  Gosh!

Saving yesterday means that what I have saved on the swings I can now spend on the roundabouts...(what IS she going on about.   Arthur....ARTHUR.....is there an off switch somewhere....)

Moral messages!

We sisters have a pound limit on Christmas presents for each other (not sure if I am posting this in preparation for Christmas 2013 or a 2012 retrospective!)  so we set the maximum amount of money to be spent and rival each other to purchase the 'best' present (judged by the quantity of 'ooo' 'aaahs' generated).    Sister Sue (she of the bowl of brooches!) invariably wins the challenge as she belongs to the WI and seems to snaffle the most extraordinary things from jumbles.  Last year Sue gave me an original copy of this:

Of course it is very easy to buy a new copy nowadays but an old musty one that cost less than a pound (in fact it was in amongst some old magazines) is much better.

It is a marvellous little booklet

This season sister Trudie gave me these (without having read my blog post regarding lack of Angel Chime candles!):

Pressure is now off now for next years chimes at least! 

Wunderbar

 I will perhaps create a post on some of the very smug purchases that I have also made and extra smugly given.  I am not a fan of expensive presents at Christmas - bah humbug.   This is not in a misery guts way - just in a 'I have more than enough' way (We KNOW Jenny!!). In this way I have been able to buy a veritable herd of goats in far off lands built up over the years - a much better use of my money I think.  A handmade card from the children is more the enough - though Dom surprised me greatly with my present this year and I will post about that another time.

I have mentioned in other posts how instilling own thrifty values in your children is a handy dandy thing to do - sometimes I worry that I have gone too far as this year (2012) the children's suggestions (because I had run out of ideas) for Christmas presents were:

So Bronte had asked from some plastic hair slides and craft paints from Homebase...
Maille kindly highlights the price of items and had sourced the cheapest version (the 'ahhhs' are to highlight that this is a pricey item) - she had also set up 'watch' on a Robin Hood DVD that she liked on Ebay - second hand of course...I feel a bit bad now....

Next week = money boxes.....gulp.........

Tra la la

Fiddle de dee

Not so smugly I go off to make some tea....