Counting the pennies

Facing the prospect of severely reduced hours at work soon, I’m getting enthusiastic about frugal living. Now this isn’t as terrible as it sounds, not if you take it on as a challenge or a game. I know because I’ve done it before, and I realise you can get so into it that you become a bit of a bore. Like someone who has lost a lot of weight, stopped smoking or got the fitness bug. Always banging on about the latest tip.

 Stay with me though, this CAN be interesting…

Naturally I did some research. Yes I know I should have it taped by now, but there’s nothing wrong with brushing up skills and knowledge is there? And there’s always someone who has come up with a bright idea you hadn’t thought of.

So anyway, I found a newspaper article about possibly the most frugal person in the UK. She’s a sixty-something lady who shared her top tips for living on a tiny income. She reckons she lives on £2,600 a year. That’s how frugal she is. So she must be worth reading about, yes?

Well, yes and no, as it turns out. But, eccentricity in all it’s forms is fascinating, so I thought I’d look at her lifestyle and see if there’s anything I can add to my own ideas.

Here is a selection...

1.    Eat your dinner straight out of the pan to save washing up. 

    Might not work if you have a family, although I must admit I did consider a communal trough when the children were young.

2.     Buy clothes from charity shops. 

     This is one of the sensible and obvious ideas, although she says her charity shop sells clothes for £1. Mine doesn’t, not unless they’re so unspeakably awful that nobody will buy them otherwise.

3.     Go to bed wearing all your clothes in cold weather to keep warm. 

     This lady obviously doesn’t have a husband.

4.     Don’t encourage people to visit you. 

     Luckily for Ms Meanie, her house is so cold they don’t want to come anyway, but if they do…

5.     Get them to bring their own tea bags. 

     Now that IS mean!

6.     Don’t drink tea or coffee because they’re expensive. Just have a few drops of squash in hot water. 

     This is so wrong in my opinion that I don’t know what to say. She must be mad.

7.     Get your newspapers from a friend (if you’ve got any) when they’ve finished them - and cadge a cup of tea while you’re at it. 

     Unless they haven’t forgotten the time you told them to bring their own tea bag when they visited you.

8.     Become a blood donor. 

     She is so desperate for other people’s tea that she suggests giving blood as a way to get a free cuppa and some biscuits.

9.     If you see fruit growing in a garden, knock the door and ask if you can pick some. 

     This would be so far out of my comfort zone that I can’t even imagine myself doing it.

10.Use a wind-up torch instead of electricity to light your way around your home at night. 

     Not so atmospheric as the use of a cheap candle like a Dickensian miser though. If you’re going to be a miser you might as well do it in style IMO.

11.Buy men’s pants because they are stronger and last longer.                    

     You must be kidding!

12.Cut your hair yourself. 

     NO and no again. I was in a greengrocers shop once when a very odd lady wandered in with chunks of hair all over her clothes, looking for a hairdresser because her own hair cutting efforts had gone terribly wrong. This is a memory I can’t shake off and I don’t want to end up that kind of a nutter. (PS I think Saggy might have tried this tip though)

13.Pinch things out of skips. 

     It’s surprising what people get rid of. But isn’t ‘skip diving’ illegal?

14.Write small to save ink. 

     A daft suggestion IMHO. Surely easier to pinch someone’s else’s pen anyway.

15.Don’t wash your clothes unless you really really have to. 

     This has the added bonus of discouraging visitors, with or without their own tea bags.

16.Stop caring what other people think. 

     This is such a no brainer if you are going to follow these suggestions that it’s hardly worth saying it. You would HAVE to stop caring what people think. Ms Meanie must have a skin as thick as a rhino.

I don’t think I gained any practical help from the article, but it made a good read and raised a few smiles. You have to admire this lady’s individuality and ingenuity, even if she does sound as nutty as a fruit cake. But, as she points out, she enjoys her life and doesn’t care what anybody thinks.

Now that’s a piece of advice worth taking.