Thrifty is a tough word. Most people have a negative image of the idea of being thrifty. Many people think it means you’re cheap or unwilling to spend money.
Not me, I have spent a lifetime impressed by my thrifty mother.
From a young age, she has modeled what it means to be thrifty. I would define it as maximizing the potential of your resources.
Over the weekend, I came up with four great examples of her thrift. Most of them were things from her car.
First, there is the plastic blue step stool. It had to have cost less than $10. It is older than my children, and she gets daily use out of it. It makes her 10 inches taller when she needs to be 10 inches taller.
Second, there is a back support for her seat. When you ride with my dad anywhere, the first thing the rest of us do is move her back support out of the way. It is uncomfortable, and it is impossible to sit in the seat with it in place. My Mom can’t live without it. I don’t know what the original price tag was on this item. I will officially say it was not much $$$. She can’t live without it.
The third object is a second stool, on which she keeps her feet during long rides. It is slanted and works perfectly (for her). It was also inexpensive, and its value was surpassed decades ago. Again, she can’t live without it.
The fourth and final item is a blue trash bin (a perfect match to the stool) she keeps in the middle row of the minivan. This item might be the oldest yet. Likely purchased by her mother at a garage sale in the 1980s. The over-under number on the number of cars she has used is ten. Still going strong, keeping the trash off the floor of the minivan.
My Mom doesn’t hoard. She isn’t keeping things around unless they have a use for her. However, what she does is make it last a long time.
I tried to find things in my life to compare, but struggled to come up with many. Until I realized many items in my kitchen are older than my children.
I did think of the few items designed for one purpose but ultimately repurposed for a second life that lasted longer than the first. For example, the cup used to scoop our dog’s food out of the bag and into the dish is from a sporting event that predates our dog. The cup’s original purpose was for me to drink out of at a basketball game. I brought it home, unsure of what to do with it. (It is likely only going to make it a few more months. It, like the dog, seems to be falling apart with age.)
At work, a coworker had a bench made from scrap pieces of wood for people to sit on when they visited. When she retired, I cut the leg down and used it as a printer stand. Its life as a printer stand longer than its life as a bench.
Hopefully, you can find similar examples in your life. If you can, then you should have no trouble defining thrifty of others.
