10 Frugal Living Tips from the Great Depression | Grandma's Extreme Frugal Hacks

My name is Christine and welcome to Frugal Fit Mom. Today we are covering some extremely frugal living hacks from my grandparents. Here are some unique ideas on saving money:
Foraging
Homemade jams and jellies
Holiday turkeys
Special towels
Quilting
Never throwing anything away
Homemade soap
Trash to Treasure
Woodworking

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#frugalliving #tipsfromgrandma #frugalfitmom

[elainegregory]

I think my DIL is an old soul. She cooks, cans, crafts, knits, builds, repurposes & thrifts. She has no problem stopping by the side of the road if she sees something that can be fixed, painted & reused. She has some amazing finds!
I think it’s a good thing.

[mariwillalwaysgivethanks]

My "abuelita" told me stories of seeing people on wall street jumping out of a window when the market crashed. The towel story made me cry because when I went to visit my father in Puerto Rico, he had "one" towel in the bathroom that you can tell was there for years. It had worn cleared into the threads. A week later I sent him a package with new towels; he said I should have not spent my money on such luxurious items. Can you believe that? A towel being a "luxury" item. Our great depression parents are my HEROES!!! 💕

[JustJenLive]

My grandmother had a strict rule: you had to take off your good clothes the second you were in the house. There were house clothes and out of the house clothes. It made things last longer. She also patched jeans, grew her produce, and cooked every meal. My father drilled into my head the importance of paying yourself first. He said if you wait until you think you have enough money to do it, you never will. It doesn't matter how small the amount is. It is consistency that is key. My mom made our clothes when I was young, along with the curtains and half our toys. It never occurred to me that we were poor. And by the time I was 20, they weren't poor any longer. As it turned out, my dad's income had increased steadily, but our lifestyle didn't. He was saving to retire. I don't recommend being that drastic. It's not nice to your family. LOL But he does travel the world now and hasn't worked since he was 55. Sacrifice now or sacrifice later. It's all the same. Most of us really can live on less than we make, if we try. Just balance it. Life is short and tomorrow is not promised, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't prepare for it. :)

[oldmarriedcouple]

I love stories from those that lived through the great depression or grew up poor. We can learn so much from them. I have many stories from my Great Grandma like those you told of your Grandparents. One story that my whole family loves is when we found so many treasures when we moved moved Great Grandma out of her 20 foot trailer into her daughters house. Hundreds, seriously hundreds, of deli containers all neatly stacked and organized. Plastic and paper grocery bags meticulously folded and organized. Several of my Aunts heard about that and said, "That's where I get it from!!" LOL Like your Grandparents she never threw anything away. There was a whole shed full of fabric going back to the 20's! She was a dressmaker by trade in a rural town and did cleaning for the bank and drugstore in order to make a living. She never bought a gift for anyone, she always made you something. A cake, a pillow, a purse, cookies, etc. I have always loved that about her. She was never ashamed to have made you a gift. In her mind it was more loving to give a handmade gift than store bought. I apologize for the long comment. I could go on and on about this subject. Love it so much!!
Thank you for sharing your family with us. :)

[jenniferwinsor]

The half a Turkey makes so much sense! I think using clothing scraps is how quilts started. Buying dedicated fabric for quilting is a luxury.

[susanhauck]

As a kid I spent every summer in Memphis shucking corn and hulling peas, and “putting them up” fir the winter. My Grandparents lived off of their 6 acre garden all year. I would give anything to taste those fresh veggies again… She also taught me how to make jam and can as well.♥️ I miss them so much!

[bethpowell]

Loved this!!! My dad went to my grandmas to help fix her kitchen sink. When he opened the sink doors, tons of washed out used baggies and wads of tin foil fell at his feet. She saved and reused everything, including the wax paper cereal came in! God bless the Depression era people💞

[rockymountainlady]

I loved this video, hits home, your Grandparents are so precious. Today would have been my mom's 93rd birthday...she went to rest 18 yrs ago. She made me a quilt with the maternity clothes she wore while pregnant with me...I so cherish it.

[katebarnett]

The one thing I regret is not asking my Mum and Dad more about their childhood and teen years. Lost them both over thirty years ago and I miss them every single day. Xx

[CourtneyRobinson]

This was so fun for me. I am 50 and was raised by my depression era grandparents.
They taught me to be resourceful.
One of the main things that I took away is that you don’t always have to upgrade. My dad will say that my grandparents had Adam and Eve’s coffee pot and microwave. We literally had the same appliances my entire life. I do not remember them ever being replaced. Same thing with the towels. If we had a piece of furniture that was worn out we took it to the local upholstery school and had it recovered. Thank you for sharing all these wonderful memories.
I am so grateful for my upbringing and hope that I have passed many of these values along to my young adult children.

[eunicebenedict]

I was teaching an "American Girl" History class to homeschoolers in WA state. I remember going out to find wild Elderberry bushes/trees. I cut off the branches so my students could "pick" the berries. We made Elderberry Jam (my first time of ever making it) & it was THE best jam! Each student took home a jar of jam. The pride of their accomplishment was amazing!

[kokonana]

Your story really makes me tear up. My Asian mom basically saves everything and never loses anything. She uses, reuses, recycles and up-cycles things even before these become a trend today.

[beccajohnson]

My grandmother was born in 1917 - I remember she canned/froze everything and always had a 90 day supply of dry goods and household items. But with the slivers of bar soap, she would sew a little bag out of scrap fabric and put the scraps in it. Also, she saved and reused everything. She sewed curtains and quilts from scraps. But if she wanted it to match she would buy sheet sets and make everything match from coordinating sheet sets. She would also use all the less than 1-inch scraps from her sewing and snip them into confetti sides pieces to put in pillows. She crocheted rugs from scrap material strips - so we would spend rainy days cutting stips and sewing them together in the fall so over the winter she could crochet. She liked having a big piece to work on in the winter so it covered her legs like a lap rug as she crocheted it.

[Blue_Caribou]

My gran told me once about how scarce things were in her family growing up - she was the youngest surviving of 13 kids, who grew up in a miner's cottage in wales in the 1920s/30s. In the morning, her father and her brothers who were old enough to go down the mine would get a hard-boiled egg for breakfast, and the sisters and young boys would rotate who got the bits cut off the top (everyone also got bread). No prejudice, just practicality - they couldn't afford an egg each, and the men needed the calories for the hard labour.
My other grandmother also grew up poor (itinerant farm labourers) and when she died we found boxes upon boxes stashed away of neatly sorted odd buttons, old bits of thread (up to three inches long), single sheets of tissue paper carefully folded... even in a time of plenty, she couldn't let go of that need to save and use the scraps. She wasn't a hoarder, the house was always immaculate, just couldn't shake that mindset of "if you throw it away, one day you'll wish you still had it".

[schwingyshwoo]

Christine, that young picture of your grandma was like looking at a picture of you! 😱 So pretty.😍 This video made me miss my grandma’s.

[marciahouser]

I love this I had no grandparents so hearing about grandparents makes my heart smile 💕

[abimol]

Your mom is awesome and adorable. Give the people what they want Christine! More Mama Christine!

[AnjalaDick]

My grandmother taught me how to cook. During the beginning of the pandemic, I started making pies, breads, and cookies. My pie crust reminded me of my grandmother's. And the left over pie dough - you rolled that out, topped it with cinnamon sugar, and she called it Jesus bread.

My birth mother taught me how to crochet when I was in the 4th grade. I picked it back up in the last 2 months (after taking a break after my husband died almost 3 years ago) and have made close to 20 baby blankets, a shawl, and hats.

[lhead]

When my grandparents and my great Aunt died, we had to take care of clearing out their homes, they all had the thinnest towels and all of them had the most wonderful sheets from the 30's and 40's, that were so soft. I took them all home with me, I was to cheap to throw them out and we still use them. What I have learned from them, has helped me when we financially struggled in our lives. We live in a one school house in the middle of a field on 2 acers, where we have a garden and try to teach our kids what our grandparents taught us. Also we don't throw away glass jars, I know it's weird, but we reuse them for all kinds of things, but don't try to use them for canning.

When money is tight and you have to make more potatoes then you got, grandma would take day old bread or the frozen heals of the bread from the freezer, she would cut it up and mix them with eggs and fry it in the pan with the potatoes. In the summer she would go to the garden, and add to the dish with onions or peppers too. In the winter time she would make chewy dumplings by boiling water on the stove, sometimes adding a bouillon cube, if she had one for flavoring. Then in a bowl, she would take a couple cups of flour, salt, pepper and garlic powder (if she had it) and mix in eggs until you get a drop consistency. Drop the dumplings by fork for smaller ones or by spoon for larger ones in boiling water and cook until done, "usually floating when done." Hope this hint helps, as inflation starts to grow, we will all be looking back on how to save money more and more.

[mumtessori]

How would anyone have the heart to thumb down this video! It's such a precious story time of 3 generations ❤️ it!!