Lesson #2: Be Frugal

This is the second lesson I am sharing with you. Do not mess with Grandma or your behind will pay for it.

If your grandparents are anything like mine, then their house is stuffed with doodads and boxes of stuff. They have a sort of pack rat mentality because they grew up in the Great Depression where the next canister of oats or pair of pants was not guaranteed. They learned to live on less and be grateful for the things they had, no matter how humble. It didn’t take a new television to brighten their Christmas morning; a mango from a good friend will make the day.

This was not the generation that purchased Convertibles to soothe their mid-life crisis, nor the generation that equated success with the purchase of a Mansion. This was the generation that was thrilled to move into the small houses in Southside, which at 750 square feet were as big as some people’s garages are today.

One of the mottos of the Greatest Generation was “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” Of course, it’s hard to “make it do” if you don’t know how to fix it, and thus handiness was also central to this generation’s frugality.