Frugal

Frugal means, sparing, prudent or thrifty.  My friend Freda, (Frugal Freda I call her,) is the Queen thriftyness.  She saves buttons and tea bag strings and tiny pieces of card probably from old tea bag packets.  Once she has sorted through all her buttons she sews each set onto a tiny piece of card with the tea bag strings.  This way she can give the buttons to (who?)  She spends many an evening sorting through all the buttons until her husband, (surely one of the most boring men on earth) gets angry and tells her she is making too much noise.  She does I must add, sort the buttons on a metal tray.

When Frugal Freda is asked for a pattern or a recipe she writes it on the tiniest piece of paper in the tiniest writing imaginable.  Every speck of the paper is covered and almost all illegible to the reader.  During the war years I gather one did not waste anything.  The fact that we have not been in a World War for over sixty years does not seem to matter to her. I should make her a huge mosaic for her that states, 'Waste Not Want Not.' It would of course have to be made of old pieces of tile taken from building sites and second hand shops.

Freda throws nothing out.  She saves the bags the Messenger comes in, corn flour bags and sugar bags. She saves egg cartons and plastic tops for the local schools.  She only knits with recycled wool and I am always amazed when she saves tiny little left-overs of wool.  I am not talking about half a ball of wool, I am talking about one hundredth of a ball.  She always says that you may find a use for it at some stage, (not in my lifetime I always think.)  The Boring Man also hates her knitting because of the click clacking of her needles.  'Miserable old Goat.'

I have never known her to buy new clothes.  She shops exclusively in Vinnies Vogue, the Salvos and Blind Welfare.  I suppose she does buy new shoes but I am sure she only buys another pair when hers are positively worn out.

When Freda shops she has a list of her exact needs for the fortnight.  She usually purchases home brand items and never lashes out on anything.  When her trees bear fruit she makes jams, chutneys and stews up as much fruit as she can and then gives the left over bounty to the neighbours, her fellow church goers and even places some in boxes in front of her house.

I doubt that Freda has ever been to a stage show or concert.  She considers the cinema too expensive as is dining out.  Once she went by bus to Western Australia to see the wild flowers blooming; she does love flowers.  Freda has lovely plants on her front verandah that she has grown from cuttings.  It is out of the question to actually buy a plant from a nursery.

There are no pets at Freda's house.  Pets cost money and money my dears is not to be wasted!  I often wonder exactly what she is going to do with all the money she saves.  I am not above imagining that her grown up children will happily spend their whole inheritance in the matter of months, however, if her habits are anything to go by they will sock it away for a rainy day that will probably never come

Although the following has nothing to do with frugality my favourite Freda eccentricity is that she always picks up rubbish from the foot paths, gutters, front fences and around shops.  She also picks up weeds on the way home from Church.  I suppose that she does throw the rubbish and weeds into bins because I hate to think that she saves other people's rubbish as well as her own. She reminds me of a little old bag woman but one with a nice home.

She is a true daughter of the Depression and War and the most endearing eccentric lady I have ever met.