Cheapskates

Call some of us cheapskates, but maybe, just maybe, you will identify yourself or take some of the advice. Usually the cheapskate is a chip off the old block as many of us were raised by parents or grandparents who lived through the Great Depression and adopted some of their habits.

On the television show, “The Middle,” the daughter, Sue, cuts off the bottom of the toothpaste tube to get the last remaining bit of paste out. Her college roommate raised in a more affluent home found that an odd thing to do, but as Sue explains at her house they always do that. Ditto. Also turning lotion bottles upside down, right next to the ketchup bottle, draining out the last smidgen, it’s just the way we do it.

My grandmother used to take the hem out of a dress, winding the thread around a piece of cardboard, using it later. Guess who else does that? Generation after generation of cheapskates.

The mantra we cheapskates heard as children rings in our ears for years, “Save money when you’re young, you’ll need it more when you are old.” Testimonial, who would ever think that you would be paying close to $200 a month to watch television, talk on the phone, use that dang internet and take pictures of your dog or cat doing cute things?

“Just ask, they can only say yes or no.” Maybe you heard this also. As it turns out, it is absolutely true. Example—how did I get so many glass sandwich trays? Well, easy. At a lunch or dinner, there would be a pretty tray and as I admired it, I would ask the owner if I could have it. Almost every time I became the new owner of the tray. Perhaps, they didn’t want to lug it home, didn’t like it or most likely they were given the tray and felt like giving it away. So just ask if you see something you want. I have heard it rumored that is how Elizabeth Taylor got so many husbands.

Life is about using the whole box of crayons, so enjoy our colorful spring especially that yellow pine pollen that is already coating cars and yards.