This Week In My Home: A Well Seasoned Saver

As I tried to determine what my theme this week would be, I worked on menus.  "Well Seasoned" seemed to be a good term to describe the hearty sorts of meals that were filling my menu...and I realized that as a homemaker and a frugalite I am well seasoned, having stood the test of time over these years, honing my skills year in and year out  whatever season of year or life I found myself.

I was contemplating this as I worked on the menus and then Samuel called to chat.  I put aside my work and went to the chair in the kitchen sitting area and listened to him talk of the work he'd done in his yard this week, his hopes for the future provision of his family and his dreams.  Then

he started telling me of a class he'd had to attend for work.  "We were asked to tell the defining moment of our lives, when we realized who we were for the first time," he began.  He told me of the stories others had to share as he waited his turn.  " I told the class that my defining moment was when I went into the Navy and a group of us went out to eat at Olive Garden."  He said his whole group looked at him with complete puzzlement. He went on to explain," 'There were seven of us having dinner and I thought Olive Garden was the nicest restaurant I'd ever been in. I recalled that my family had only really eaten out in restaurants twice in all our years growing up and suddenly I understood why.  It was a defining life moment for me because I realized then that we'd been poor.  I never knew it because Mama and Dad were always so good at providing for us,'   But honestly, Mama, I never knew we were poor until that moment in the restaurant."

I put my phone down and cried, ladies.  I recall those years of feeling sick to my stomach that I had only $40 to spend on groceries for 7 people and part of that had to be allocated to diapers for Danny and Katie (she was in nursery, Danny attended Special Education school) each week.  I recall standing at the meat counter wondering how much meat I could buy and how well I could provide for the childrens' diets with what was left after putting those diapers in the buggy.  Oh how it hurt me!

But there were blessings, too.  My brother provided us with deer meat for a season or two.  He liked hunting but didn't like eating the meat.  He'd have the deer processed and bring it to us and fill the freezer.  Mama would show up now and then with a big brown grocery bag of fresh fruit.  I stocked up on items on sale even if it meant buying just one extra item a pay period and Mama and Granny would sometimes bring us staples that were  purchased on sale at their markets. I employed every single frugal method I knew to make things stretch, to insure that we put healthy foods on the table, albeit stretched to the limit with pasta, rice or potatoes.



We taught the children to give out of what we had.  We sponsored a child and sent a monthly donation off.  Gracious it was a small amount of money but it meant a bit of sacrifice on our part at the time.  Clothes were handed down between the two boys but then the girls were too distant in their ages to do that.  We'd donate outgrown things, especially coats, to shelters for others to use.

 Each holiday we made up a big box of foods to donate, filling it with whatever the children asked us to put in to make up a holiday meal.   John and I often received a ham or turkey each as the employee gift at the places where we worked.  We'd keep one and donate the other.  The children would gather around the table and make out a list of holiday meal items they wanted to go into that box and I'd start purchasing those items weeks ahead, scrimping it out of our wee small grocery budget.  They all went with me when the box was donated to Department of Family and Children Services and how proud they were to present it.

I've shared before how amused I always am when the children gather here at home and recall the burgers we grilled one afternoon at a park.  I'd made them up from mashed kidney beans and bread crumbs and seasoned them as well as I would have done hamburger meat and John cooked them on a piece of foil over a grill grate.  "And they were good!" they will always finish up.  And then they reminisce over other meals I'd made.

I still chuckle over a memory of Samuel one afternoon.  He'd asked what was for supper and I'd said pot roast which was the luxury meal of that week.  I always bought a big 7 bone roast back then which was cheapest cut and I'd simmer it all day long with a load of vegetables in it and then serve just a few thin slices of beef with the vegetables.  I always saved the rest to make Roast Beef Hash  adding in still more vegetables to stretch things out and then we'd finish off the roast (using the bone and any scraps of vegetable or hash or meat left and a few more canned items) with a big pot of soup.  I remember that night Samuel exclaimed "Can't we just skip the roast and go straight to the Hash?"   I laughed and laughed at the time because he didn't realize the roast was the luxe meal and the Hash was the economy meal.  He just liked the Hash, which was, of course, well seasoned to make up in taste for the decrease in the meat.

Of course, cooking was just one part of the economy of our household.  Samuel mentioned last night that he'd remembered how we always saved each pay period and bought one pair of shoes or a few clothing items for each child as they were needed.  "I remember as a kid feeling secure because I knew you and Dad were taking care of us...I just never realized that others went out and shopped for fun while you two pinched and saved to make the necessities possible.  I never felt I wanted for anything."  And that statement too reduced me to tears.

I still practice my economies.  It's a habit that has stood us in good stead, making it possible to purchase a home of our own, to pay off the debts we accumulated in raising our family and providing for them, and carried us through that economic crisis that wasn't a depression but was as close as many of us have been to one.  I expect these same economies to see us through the end of John's work days and into our retirement and the years that will follow that.  Necessary?  Yes, they are, but we're well seasoned.  We know we can do this.