Cheap or frugal

 

I was sad. My favorite pair of jeans had developed a hole in the knee. 

I know it is a style to wear torn jeans, but since I'm pushing 80, it just doesn't seem age appropriate. On the other hand I refuse to wear the house dresses and aprons of my grandmother's generations. And there's the whole mutton dressing up as lamb thing. Finally, it's not a "look" I like.

Just a patch would be boring. I have left over quilting material. I cut a square, circle and diamond. The jeans are good for several more years.

Some might say, "just buy a new pair."

Well no.

I hate replacing for the sake of replacing. I am not as frugal as my grandmother in her house dress and apron darning socks and mending sheets but I do think twice before replacing anything that works.

To me it is throwing money away to discard something out that still has life in it. 

I inherited my grandmother's waffle iron in the 1980s. She bought it during the 1929 depression. Someone pointed out that I should buy a new one. I saw no reason to. Besides a new one would not have the memory of Sunday night waffles embedded in each square. It lasted until I moved to Europe and I gave it to a neighbor. It may still be turning out waffles, but I will never know. I've lost track of the neighbor. I suspect that it would have outlasted one of the newer models that seem to be ready to break down the minute it is taken out of the box.

Maybe I am cheap, but I prefer the word frugal.