Am I Frugal or Fanatic: Seeking Balance

[Liss]

Hi Kim,

Look at it from this perspective. Perhaps that loving relative thought
you couldn’t “afford” those luxury items. Perhaps they were trying to
make your day simpler with those “convenience” items.

My experience was an eye opener for me. I quit buying sanitary pads
having decided to make my own. Now dear MIL was over when I was folding
the clothes fresh off the line.

She saw these, didn’t make any comment
but later that week all of a sudden she’s giving us money to pay for our
visit to the dentist. Then she’s giving us gas money when we run a few
errands for her. Took me a while to finally get the courage to ask her
about this. Her reply was that she noticed I Had to make my own sanitary
pads so we must be some kind of financial trouble.

She and I had a big
laugh when I explained that I was tired of all the “yeast” infections I
kept getting after using those store bought items, not to mention a major
breakout all over down there every month. I had decided to give those
homemade things a trial to see if they helped with the problem. They have
and I’ve never gone back to purchasing those products, plus it has given
us quite a savings each year.

I told her the way we choose to “save” on
some products is sometimes for a completely different reason than
financial. We can afford luxuries but at our age don’t feel they are
necessary so we just skip on them and look forward to using our frugal
savings for fun things or as a buffer for our later life.

Now great grandma insists on giving us those gifts of throwaway cookware
and plates and such, but hers is a different method. She hates the
housework of cleaning up the dishes! so to her it is worth the price to
pay for those items. She’s out of the kitchen quicker when there’s less
dishes, saving her time for more fun things like cavorting with her grand
children and great grandchildren.

She’s a young 95 year old so I guess
I’ll let her indulge.

BB,
Jane

[Author]

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