Some of my favorite times were sitting in my husband’s Grandpa’s kitchen and talking with him about the “old days.” Grandpa was born in 1928 and he was full of frugal living tips from the Great Depression that his parents had passed down to him.

He knew how to stretch a dollar. He was not a cheap man. He was a frugal man and he knew the value of spending his money wisely.

Old Fashioned Living
Grandpa understood old fashioned frugal living. Of course, to him it wasn’t “old fashioned frugal living”…it was just frugal living!

I remember one story he told about Grandma. They were a farming family and she would work out in the fields with him in the mornings. When it was lunch time, she would collect sticks on her walk back to the house so she could build a fire in the stove to cook.

Lessons from the Great Depression
Times were different back then. I think that is why I loved our talks with him and why I miss him so much today. Life was slower back then. Not easier, just slower.

They didn’t slide a frozen pizza into the oven for a quick lunch on a busy day. I don’t think Grandpa even had a freezer back then and even if he did, he would have known that homemade pizza was less expensive (and tastier) than a store-bought pizza.

I miss the winter nights we spent sitting in the living room of his country house. His reliable, white Ford truck would be parked outside near his old tractor. The cows would be bedding down for the night and the chickens were shut up into their coop to keep them safe. We would sit near the gas stove with a western turned down low on the TV because we were too busy “visiting” to actually watch it.

The only light on in his four-room house would be in the kitchen and it would spill over into the cozy living room.

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