When Did Frugality Become a New Trend??

I just read an article on another website asking for ideas from anyone who was returning to 'the old ways' of doing things during these financially stressful times. That piqued my attention immediately thinking I'd find some awesome ideas! I had to chuckle when I read the topics she already had listed:

Baking bread    (check)

Living with cash instead of credit (check)

Cloth diapers instead of disposable (We did do that when we were at home! LOL)

Growing your own food (check)
Libraries (check, Although recently I've had a good supply of hand me down books!)
Lay away plans (I don't think the stores offer that any more...)

Christmas clubs (Hmmm, why did I stop doing this?)

They had a few other ideas such as using a cobbler for our shoes (not that the quality of shoes now-a-day is worthy of a cobbler if you could even find one!), leasing to buy, renting one time use items instead of buying them such as a wedding dress or tools etc., public transportation and making your own cleaning supplies.

I guess the biggest question in my mind is.... WHEN DID WE STOP DOING THESE THINGS!? :) Alot of us still live like this. We were raised with frugality in our blood I guess. Naturally we all splurge occasionally, but who can live without frugality is more my question! Early in my marriage a favorite publication was "The Tightwad Gazette"... yes, there is such a thing! And what was a 3-4 page newsletter folded and mailed monthly, is now sold as a book called "The Complete Tightwad Gazette"!

FRUGAL:  is the practice of acquiring goods and services in a restrained manner and resourcefully using already owned economic goods and services to achieve a longer term goal.

STRATEGIES: reduction of waste, curbing costly habits, supressing instant gratifications, using financial restraint (self-control), not getting trapped in the social norms,  etc.     (as defined by Wikipedia)

Sounds like simple wisdom to me!! I sure hope we have been able to model this type of living for our kids! There are sooo many traps out there in the big, wide world, and yes, we've all fallen into some of them...  but I hope & pray we all can see clearly now the wisdom our parents & grandparents!

THANKS MOM & DAD....


"Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows."   Proverbs 13:11