Mr. Cheap

My wife and our children think it strange of me to save used tea bags. Here is a fact: Using three bags makes a pitcher of tea at the proper strength; six used tea bags, boiled for a minute or so, will make the same strength tea. 

Our daughter says my saving tea bags is because I am a child of people who grew up in the Great Depression. My mother was 8 at the 1929 stock market crash, my father was 9. They were raised to waste nothing. So was I.

Use only as much of a thing as you need. If you can stretch usage of something, do so.

My father one time said to me, “You are cheap.” I made no reply, but thought, “And who raised me to be that way?”

I am low maintenance. I never bought a car or pickup that was beyond my need or expectation. I expect to get full use from everything I buy.

That used to be The American Way. I guess I am getting old.