Frugality

 

I'll admit it.

I'm frugal.

Not cheap, but I'm careful with my money.

A lot of it goes back to the time I was a single mom of a two-year old. 

I was lucky to share a flat with a friend. We lived in one of the four apartment her parents owned. The rent was good. So was the living.

My friend's mother was my babysitter until I came home on day to find four adults sitting around admiring her to the point of almost adoration. It was time for daycare, even if it were more expensive, with other children when she would be treated like an ordinary mortal.

My disposal income at the time was 25 cents a day which I used for a can of Coke to go with my homemade sandwiches. How I relished business lunches when I could eat at a nearby Boston restaurants.

Despite lack of money, we still had lots of fun. 

One weekend we were fantasizing a Château Restaurant Pizza. It was not in the budget, but searching in pockets and under the couch and beneath chair pillows, we found we had just enough.

Off we went. Proudly we put the box in the back seat where my daughter was in her car seat. It was nothing like those safety car seats of today. When we arrived home, her foot was in the pizza. 

We ate around it.

Things improved as I got better and better jobs. There came a time when I no longer pinched pennies but nickles, later dimes, and quarters.

Today I pinch Euros and Swiss Francs. People might think I'm rich because I live in these two places.

I'm not.

I try and care for our thing and I reuse. 

When I have to throw out leftovers, I cringe, but if my now husband suggests a restaurant in place of those leftovers, the dog gets a good meal and off we go.

There will be no daughter's foot in that meal.