Wednesday, March 08, 2006
More Memories of Grandma
I've been thinking about my maternal grandmother since my last entry. My "M" grandmother was born in 1922 on February 29th (YES! a leap year!). My grandmother always understood what it was like to be poor because her parents were migrant farm workers. She grew up being poor when poor was tough because of the 1929 stock market crash caused the Great Depression. Then she lived through the ration years of WWII.
I have to let you know, both of my maternal and fraternal grandmothers have the same first name. How strange is that?
Anyway, "M" grandmother could really make a penny or dollar stretch. When she passed away, I found jars of buttons, scraps of old fabric, and other things which would make her look like a pack rack. Upon her "pack rack" think I ran across a ration card from WWII. It had meat, sugar, flour, milk, butter stamps left in it. My grandmother knew how to prepare for the worse.
She passed some of those skills to me because I lived with her during the summer times.
I remember my mother shunned this lifestyle of "used" anything because she had to live it. When mom was going through a divorce with dad, I remember at the tender age of 16 sitting down with mom and asking her "why do you look so sad?". She confessed that her small paycheck was a challenge to support my extra curricular cheerleading and choir activities. She finally opened up and drew up our finances. It was my first lesson in learning how to maintain finances. By the way, I helped mom trim the budget, and I was able to still pay to be in cheerleading, choir, and any activity.
Now, I look at how these skills are helping us pay for our adoption. I've had to cut back on several things. Mainly, eating out. Also, Scott and I am learning home improvement skills.
We recently put in our own cabinets into the game room. We had the plumbing pre-plumbed when we built the house. We saved up our money in cash and bought the cabinets at the local DIY store. There were some mistakes during the installation, but they aren't noticeable. Let me tell you, the builder quoted 4X more than the actual cost of the cabinets. RIP OFF!
I love reading. Unfortunately, we don't live in the city limits to be able to check out from the local library, but I do use second hand book stores, the free bin at work, and craig's list.
By the way, we have 1 more payment on the truck and 5 more payments on the car. The car is falling apart, but we will replace parts as they break off. Darn "luxury" model car has less than 50K miles on it, and two things broke! I'm serious! It is a luxury car model. Cheap @$$ plastic pieces! The dealership parts shop said it will take 6 - 8 weeks to get the parts. AS IF I WOULD BUY A NEW CAR because I have to wait several weeks. Order the parts! Which came out to a total of $85. (mind thinking frantically here) $85 or new car?? Hmmmm....
What we do for our children .... or future children. Thanks Grandma for teaching me frugality.
"Honey! Do we still want to add that extra space into the attic?" " I found a DIY book on how to build stairs and how to build out the attic within the roof line!"..... Ha!Ha!
Note: By the way, I didn't pay that much for my new cell phone. I searched for several months to find the right phone. I happened to be a local electronic store and they had a special. If I switched carriers I could get the phone for $40. The bonus was that included the pink color (which is sold out everywhere & it is sold for $149 + ) I was still on the AT&T plan and migrating to Cingular counted as a new activation. SWEET! After I purchased the phone, I called customer service and was able to apply our company discount to my account. Scott says I have my grandmother's penny pinching genes!
I have to let you know, both of my maternal and fraternal grandmothers have the same first name. How strange is that?
Anyway, "M" grandmother could really make a penny or dollar stretch. When she passed away, I found jars of buttons, scraps of old fabric, and other things which would make her look like a pack rack. Upon her "pack rack" think I ran across a ration card from WWII. It had meat, sugar, flour, milk, butter stamps left in it. My grandmother knew how to prepare for the worse.
She passed some of those skills to me because I lived with her during the summer times.
I remember my mother shunned this lifestyle of "used" anything because she had to live it. When mom was going through a divorce with dad, I remember at the tender age of 16 sitting down with mom and asking her "why do you look so sad?". She confessed that her small paycheck was a challenge to support my extra curricular cheerleading and choir activities. She finally opened up and drew up our finances. It was my first lesson in learning how to maintain finances. By the way, I helped mom trim the budget, and I was able to still pay to be in cheerleading, choir, and any activity.
Now, I look at how these skills are helping us pay for our adoption. I've had to cut back on several things. Mainly, eating out. Also, Scott and I am learning home improvement skills.
We recently put in our own cabinets into the game room. We had the plumbing pre-plumbed when we built the house. We saved up our money in cash and bought the cabinets at the local DIY store. There were some mistakes during the installation, but they aren't noticeable. Let me tell you, the builder quoted 4X more than the actual cost of the cabinets. RIP OFF!
I love reading. Unfortunately, we don't live in the city limits to be able to check out from the local library, but I do use second hand book stores, the free bin at work, and craig's list.
By the way, we have 1 more payment on the truck and 5 more payments on the car. The car is falling apart, but we will replace parts as they break off. Darn "luxury" model car has less than 50K miles on it, and two things broke! I'm serious! It is a luxury car model. Cheap @$$ plastic pieces! The dealership parts shop said it will take 6 - 8 weeks to get the parts. AS IF I WOULD BUY A NEW CAR because I have to wait several weeks. Order the parts! Which came out to a total of $85. (mind thinking frantically here) $85 or new car?? Hmmmm....
What we do for our children .... or future children. Thanks Grandma for teaching me frugality.
"Honey! Do we still want to add that extra space into the attic?" " I found a DIY book on how to build stairs and how to build out the attic within the roof line!"..... Ha!Ha!
Note: By the way, I didn't pay that much for my new cell phone. I searched for several months to find the right phone. I happened to be a local electronic store and they had a special. If I switched carriers I could get the phone for $40. The bonus was that included the pink color (which is sold out everywhere & it is sold for $149 + ) I was still on the AT&T plan and migrating to Cingular counted as a new activation. SWEET! After I purchased the phone, I called customer service and was able to apply our company discount to my account. Scott says I have my grandmother's penny pinching genes!
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