360 thrifty days till Christmas

Happy 2012 everyone! 

I hope you are all feeling full of the joys of a New Year and not letting this miserable weather get you down.

Baby Fig is recovering from a late night out in the Village, and by late I mean about 4am. 

I started my new year with coffee and crumpets in bed listening to the Archers omnibus - to me this is pure opulence, I LOVE IT! 

Today I will be hopefully clearing away Christmas, cleaning up and making tea - using up the mountain of cheese my mother very kindly (a little too kindly) bought us in the supermarket sales. 

I have been pondering today's thrifty tip. This one particular phrase keeps coming back to me constantly...

This is something my grandma, and then my mum would always say to me whenever I asked them to do something for me I thought I couldn't do myself (or was too damn lazy to do!) 

As a youth I would dismiss this and usually storm off with a 'don't bother then!' attitude, and would make do without whatever service I wished them to provide for me!

Over the years though, this phrase remained with me (mainly because they kept on repeating it) but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.

Both my Mum and Grandma had to learn to do all sorts of things we take for granted these days, they would never ever have dreamt of asking anyone else to fix, mend or make something they could well do themselves. What they were in fact saying to me is "don't take us for granted, but use our skills and knowledge to enable you to take control and look after yourself, here we are right now, we are willing to share all this with you, you really don't have a better chance than this to learn"

This is something I have stuck too through out my life - my Dad has taught me how to put up shelves, change a plug, draw up an accurate design, drive a car, take a photo, process a photo, change a tyre amongst many other things, my mum taught me how to sew and knit and bake and decorate a room, Grandma taught me how to make bread, feed a family for 4 days on one chicken, darn, alter clothes to fit, patch a hole, play whist, Grandad taught me how to get the most from an allotment - well you get the idea! 

 

If something new catches my eye I take note, watch carefully, ask questions, pick up tips - People are always willing to share there knowledge, they offer it for free because they want to pass it on. So next time you ask someone to do something you think you can't do and they offer to show you how to do it yourself, remember, you NEVER had a better chance to learn!