FOR the past couple of weeks the media has been going on about a chap who has written a book which helps people to save money. Not, presumably, by cutting back on buying books though. From all accounts it's going to be a bestseller and everyone who has read it raves about it. Which is fine, but all the newspaper pieces I've read seem to imagine that this is some new, wild and wacky idea which nobody has ever thought of before. They seem to forget that those of us of a certain age, and our parents and grandparents before us, were brought up with an ethos of moneysaving, non-wastage, and recycling. Nobody thought of calling it recycling back then, it was just continuing to use things until they became too worn or fell apart, and not being able to utilise them into doing something else. True, our author leans towards modern moneysaving tips. Changing our credit cards frequently to take advantage of interest-free deals. Fine if you don't mind learning a whole new set of security questions and passwords and having to deal with people who can't understand a word you are saying on a more regular basis than you really want. It's also true that we have far more facilities at our fingertips, (ie) the internet, than our parents had, so we can check on prices and new deals and get into better bargaining positions. But saving money is certainly not a new concept, however it's done. The trouble with current generations is that they always imagine they've thought of something first, done something that their forebears haven't. It's like sex. Each generation thinks they've discovered it. They hate to think some earlier one has done it, or worse still, and perish the thought, is still doing it. Money saving, recycling, or, as it was once called, thrift, is like that. I thought of this when I noticed that my son-in-law had dumped an old battered lamp. And left the plug on. I could hardly stop myself running indoors to get a screwdriver to remove it, because at one time nobody would have dreamt of throwing a perfectly good plug away. Now, with all electrical goods having a fitted plug there is no need, but it still feels wrong. The idea to fit plugs to electrical items was a long time acoming, even though it seems so logical. After all, it does stop those of use who are not entirely safe around electricity having to mumble one of those mnemonic chants when wiring a plug – ie gr for green right, bl for blue left or is it gr for green wrong? It's a bit like saying 'spring forward, fall back' when thinking of the clocks going back. A bit of your brain tells you that it could just as easily be spring back fall forward, so you then go around with your watch two hours wrong until someone asks you why you're late for work. It wasn't just plugs that were saved though. The flex might come in useful too. As did any bit of cable. Nobody ever threw away string, which was carefully rolled into a small ball. Bits of wire were too. Rubber bands were kept. I still can't throw away the ones which are often wrapped round the mail. People kept jars, and jar lids, as a matter of course to use for their preserves. Paper of all kinds was automatically saved, from Christmas and birthday wrapping to brown paper; folded neatly into squares. Paper bags were flattened, paper carriers, if you had them, were carefully preserved. Plastic bags didn't exist, people automatically took a shopping bag to the shops. The advent of free carriers meant that people like me had difficulty in throwing them out, so we keep plastic bags full of plastic bags with the intent, although never the reality, of taking the old ones with us when we go shopping. All these things were kept in the 'top drawer', so that if anyone asked for string they would be directed that way. We usually had more than one top drawer which was known as the other top drawer, as in 'try the other top drawer', which might not be at the top but we knew what we meant. Old clothing was cannibalised, with zips, hooks and eyes, and buttons removed, then the clothes, if they couldn't be cut down to make something else, became cleaning rags. Old underwear, especially men's vests and pants, made excellent floor and polishing cloths. Nobody thought it odd to be found polishing the brass knocker with half a set of long johns. My mother always kept a button box, into which went old buttons. As a child I played with these buttons because they were like a treasure trove, and a lot cheaper than Lego. Even today I sometimes buy garments in charity shops just for the buttons, and everyone thinks I'm mad. But just where do you buy beautiful and unusual buttons? Clothing could, for someone clever with a needle, be cut down, remade, turned into something entirely different. My mother used to make skirts out of men's tweed suits, waistcoats out of jackets. Shirts into blouses. Nothing was wasted. In the war, I was told, the most sought-after material was parachute silk, ideal to make lingerie. I often had a picture of a bunch of eager women watching an unfortunate Luftwaffe pilot float to the ground and then rush to the rescue, not for the pilot, but because they had their mind set on a whole load of luxury undies for the coming season. My mother was also a knitter, unpicking outgrown jumpers to make others, or buying woolies at jumble sales and carefully unravelling them. She developed intricate Fair Isle style patterns to use up odd colours of wool and I went around dressed in ultra modern-art pullovers. Scraps of wool were always carefully balled up to keep for future multi-hued garments. Modern fashion doesn't scare me, I've worn a jumper with sleeves made in two, non-matching, colours. Mothers also top and tailed sheets, cutting them in half so that the worn middle bits were on the outside, the better preserved outside was in the centre. The seam usually left a line right across your own middle. Bits of material not big enough to make anything else could be used as patchwork for quilts, so that you could trace your toddler dresses forever. We saved everything that could be saved. Open one or other of the top drawers and you would find five or six sardine can 'keys'. Did they ever come in useful? Probably not, but you never knew. You also might find my grandmother's upper set of dentures (in case the new ones break). I once had the idea of removing one of the teeth to put under my pillow for the fairies to find, but it didn't work. There would be old toothbrushes, ideal for cleaning intricate china or brass, old watchstraps, the watches long gone or repaired by my father, which was the same thing. I could go on, everything could be given a new life, if you waited long enough. And money was saved not having to buy new. The ultimate in recycling was a neighbour, an elderly man called Tommy, who had a huge long shed where he stored his goodies. Need a particular nail or screw? He could find it in seconds. A saucepan lid? He had a whole collection. A retired merchant sailor, who had moved to the country for his wife's health, which didn't exactly work because she rarely left the house, saying there was too much green and too many 'wild' animals, he was generous with his time and never charged for repairing things. He'd happily put a new handle on an old spade, weld a bit onto a leaking saucepan or bucket, mend china and glass, even refit a broken teapot spout and get old bicycles working again. He also made toys out of bits of wood and metal, painting them with the remains of old paint thrown away by other people. The only problem with Tommy was that he couldn't utter a whole sentence which didn't contain a swear word, and not mild ones either, so when respectable ladies like my mother and grandmother visited they would have to endure a conversation liberally peppered with words beginning with b and on occasions f. We children were banned, especially after one neighbour told my mother that her four-year-old had said casually 'my bl***y bike's bu*****d again Mum'. Today we recycle to save the planet, rather than to save money, but it could still save us a pretty penny. The only problem is that it is quite hard work. B****y hard work, as Tommy would have said!
