What my Nana taught me.

My mom was a single mom, so her parents (and my dad's parents) kinda help raise me.  They were retired, so they'd watch me after school and during the summers.  I ate dinner with them every night (mainly because they were old, and ate at 4:00) and helped out around their house.

Growing up I thought my Nana was crazy.  She was an odd lady that liked to give me toilet paper for Christmas...that is an entirely different story though.  As I've gotten older, I realize the lady made a lot of sense in what I used to think was crazy.  She was "green and clean" before it was cool.  She recycled everything, and we ate super duper healthy.

Here are a few things my Nana taught me.

1. Save twisty ties.  You know, the things from the bread sacks.  Those bad boys come in handy.  Also, save the plastic ones too.  Place them around a cord and write what it belongs to.  That mess behind the computer gets nice and cleaned up. 
2. Save Ziplock bags and the actual bread sacks.  As long as my Ziplock bag isn't gross, I save it and reuse it later....I also save bread sacks which come in handy if you have rolls you need to save to eat later. 
3. Save leftovers for something Nana called "dump-it soup".  Not sure how I feel about the name, but I get the concept.  She'd save any leftover veggie, or broth, or even meat and then later she'd throw it all in, and it is surprisingly delicious. 
4. Go Meatless.   This has become very popular now for environmental reasons but, 25 years ago it seemed a little strange.  We would have quite a few meals of beans (no ham, like most Southerners would have done) or beans and rice.  Really helps the ol' pocketbook. 
5. Have a menu plan.  My mom will tell stories of how they ate the same things every night of every week her entire adolescence.   Sunday was roast, Tuesday was liver and onions, Friday spaghetti...etc.  It wasn't quite that way when I was little, but she did have a definite plan.  She also had certain recipes she knew she could cook well, and those showed up quite often.  I've definitely  adapted this mind set.  I have a list with things I'll be cooking for the month.  I might not make them exactly on a certain night, but I know what I have and I always keep a few recipes I know I can cook well, and we get those at least once a month. 
6. Don't eat out much.  This one is hard for me.  Mostly, because I love food, and I like some nights not to have to cook my own food.  But, to stay within our budget, we don't eat out much.  Just like Nana.  They very rarely ate out, and when they did it was with a coupon or a bargain.  I remember when the Arby's 5 for $5 started.  We'd go get 5 roast beefs and that's it.  We'd come home and she'd make sides to go with it, and feed 5 people...for under $10. 
7. Buy Generic.  I've always done this.  In fact, when Yogi and I got married he said it looked like the homeless shelter pantry in our house because nothing was the "real thing".  I have a few certain items that I buy the "real" thing (i.e. Peter Pan Peanut Butter), but if the price is cheaper, usually the generic is just the same.  Nana always followed this rule. 
8. Eat Less Sugar.  I joked as a kid that Nana's chocolate chip cookies tasted like biscuits with chocolate chips in them.  She used very little sugar in anything.  Now that I have kids, I understand this.  I use less sugar or substitute with applesauce in many things. 
9. Use bread store outlets.  I usually (especially in the summer) accompanied Nana ( and uncle Bert, because Nana didn't drive) on her weekly grocery store trips.  At least once a month we'd stop at the bread store outlet.  I didn't understand when I was younger (and had no concept of money) as to why we needed to make another stop when they seemed to have perfectly good bread at Warehouse Market.  I did however, enjoy the fact that I'd be getting my own package of Pecan Spinwheels.  That made me happy.  Nowadays, Evie tags along with me to our monthly stop at the bread store, and she too gets to pick out her own 49 cent treat. 
10. Eat foods in season.  Again, as a kid, I didn't understand why she wouldn't buy me strawberries in October or apples in May.  Now, I get it.  They cost a crap-load more out of season.  I fight with my own girls about this all the time.  They are finally starting to get it though. 
11. Eggs are cheap.  Especially for my grandparents, they had their own chickens.  We do not.  But, they are a pretty cheap source of  protein and we eat them quite often.  Egg salad sandwiches are a staple in this house. 
12. Baking soda is your friend.  You can use that stuff to clean everything.  I buy the ginormous bag at Sam's about every two years for $6.50.  I make my own Febreeze, clean the showers, make an acne mask for my face, and I even occasionally brush my teeth with just baking soda (makes them pretty and white...Nana taught me that one).
13. Vinegar is also your friend.  Him and Baking Soda are BFF's.  Used together those guys make a killer cleaning concoction.  I never once saw a cleaning product in my Nana's house.  She used vinegar...which sometimes left a gross smell, but with a little lemon or essential oil, I've learned to control that smell.  I do still use some other cleaning products too...but only if I have a coupon. 
14.  Use less.  She dried clothes on a clothesline, even though she had a perfectly good dryer.  They never paid for cable.  Though this was mostly because she thought if she had cable it meant she'd get the Playboy channel, and God wouldn't want that in her home.  I tried many times (at like the age of ten) to explain she wouldn't get the Playboy channel with basic cable, but she never bought that line.  They also would unplug anything that would "suck" electricity.  The coffee pot when it's not used because the clock would suck up to much power.  We are quite that intense.  I use the dryer, though I do try to use cold water as much as possible.  We pay for cable.  That's a luxury we haven't brought ourselves to give up.  We do unplug a lot of things that aren't being used, especially if we go out of town. 

If my Nana were alive today I'd tell her thank you.  The things I thought were so goofy as a kid have turned out to be some of the things I live by today.