Even their piggy banks are cuter

When I grew up, we had rules about not being wasteful.  I especially remember how strict my parents were about electrical usage.  Rooms were dark unless someone was in there.   We wore heavy sweaters and thick socks.  Frugality was serious business.

 
I remember playing a game where I’d walk around the house, pretending I was blind.  I would feel around for the walls, stepping carefully around furniture, creeping my way up the stairwell, groping for the handrail.  I prided myself in how I could get around using all my other senses, the ones that were growing infinitely stronger because they were compensating for my loss of vision.  In my heart, I knew if I went blind, I’d survive because of all the hours I’d practiced.  Obviouly, I was too young to understand the devastating ramifications of blindness, it was just entertainment to me – entertainment which likely stemmed from living in a dimly lit house.

In this current economy, a lot of us are thinking of ways to cut back.  Where we live in the Northeast, I often hear “green” is the new “black” and the mantra, “reduce, reuse, recycle”.  I talk to friends who are rethinking how many times they can eat out a month, if any, and cutting back on vacations this year.  I look back to the frugality of my past and realize it’s currently the “in” way to think about things.

What’s interesting to me is the frugality of those around me who are currently recycling and trying to cutback is different from the frugality of my youth.  I remember my mom using and reusing plastic bags.  She’d wash out a used bag and hang it to dry over the hand sprayer.  These days, people who reuse plastic bags often have a cool-looking bag dryer (something whimsical with a base and lots of dowels sticking out of it) – an all-in-one objet d’art and recycling tool. 

Back in the day, hand-washed baby jars were containers for nails, screws and buttons while old coffee cans with their plastic tops were made into toy drums or phones if you attached two cans together with a long piece of string.  It was resourceful, but ugly.

Now there are places like The Container Store.  Places like these sell beautiful jars - square jars with silver tops and gorgeous fancy bordered labels, to house knick-knacks in organized rows.  We save stuff with a flare!

Today, the saving of things doesn’t feel so much like we have to for survival as much as we should because we care and we’re doing our part. There’s a lighter side to saving today because we actually have a lot more.  I vividly remember shoving coins through a slit in the metal top of a canning jar.  My son Christopher on the other hand, has this really cute ceramic baseball pig bank.

Don’t get me wrong, I know these are hard times, but in them we have the luxury to make saving more fun, joyful and whimsical than in the past!

Perhaps you have a great, fun or creative way you’re teaching your child to be a saver.  If so, we’d love to hear about it!