My father in law is one of the most frugal persons I know. Seriously, he is even stingy at times, depriving himself from basic needs, even though his finances aren't tight. As frugal as my husband is (which is something to be expected when raised by parents that frugal), my FIL would describe him as a "big spender", just because he's not as insanely frugal as him.
He does have very smart tricks though, even if they'd be categorized as extreme, but who cares? A while ago, we needed a washing up liquid bottle - we buy 5L jugs of washing up liquid, so I pour that into smaller bottles. We asked my FIL if he had an empty one. He did, and handed it over. I had to chuckle a bit when I saw the bottle, because it was typical my FIL. Apparently, he wrote on the bottle a date - probably the date of purchase or when he started to use it. I'm sure he set a goal for himself, that it wasn't allowed to get empty before a certain date.
Even if this seems a bit extreme, I found it quite clever. I sometimes find myself thinking of how long ago I've opened a certain item - usually detergents. By simply writing down dates you can keep track of that. Being stingy or "extremely frugal" isn't always that bad, in my opinion- it's only bad when it negatively affects others.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI followed you from a comment you left on my blog. 😊
I was searching for bew frugal/simple living blogs and it looks like yours is one of them.
Just like your FIL, I too write the date on laundry detergent bottle, and several other things. It helps me to see how long I use it.
Nil
Hi! Thank you for leaving a comment. I, too, am always excited when I find blogs of like minded women and I'll certainly pay more visits to your blog.
DeleteIt's interesting to find out that certain frugal practices are apparently universal 😀 I hadn't seen anyone doing it besides my FIL, but it really does make sense.