Is Cheap Genetic?

I don't know if I inherited it or just learned it, but my frugality came straight from Mom. She grew up in WWII Germany. At the end of the war she worked as a translator and secretary for the U.S. Army. A year later she was a war bride living in Chicago with a new baby. A year after that she was a pregnant widow with a one year old. She learned to be a master of frugality.

When I think back on my childhood some of my best, and funniest memories relate to her frugality. Just yesterday I was making an apple pie and I remembered that Mom would never waste food. Even the peels and cores of the pie apples went in a pot of boiling water with a bit of cinnamon and sugar. When the scraps were cooked to oblivion Mom strained the "apple tea" into cups and my sister and I sat with her, sipping the concoction, talking about our day, smelling the pie in the oven. Good memories!

Mom always made our Halloween costumes. And they were always the best. She made them from nothing - old sheets that she dyed, drapes and outgrown clothes re purposed, scraps from clothing she had made. She was a magician with her stash of fabrics.

Sometimes I think she went overboard a bit. I was at a friend's house when I was about 9 years old. We were making canned chicken noodle soup. I was about to add the second can of water when my friend stopped me - "There's only supposed to be one can of water." I had to read the directions before I believed her because Mom always used two cans of water, and often served the soup with a mayo sandwich. No reason to waste money on lunch meat if the bread and mayo filled us up!

As cheap as she was Mom always found money for the things that really mattered to us - books at Christmas, one new stylish outfit each school year (bought on sale of course), Girl Scout dues and money for field trips. And she had money to give away, too. She never passed a bell ringer at Christmas, and always helped neighbors in need. In later years she started a toy drive at the hospital where she worked and shook down all those doctors for some pretty good donations.

And she gave of herself, too. Girl Scout leader, school volunteer, general good citizen. I think the important thing about her was that she did know what was important, and that left my sister and I knowing we truly were not poor. Just Frugal!