Remembering with Laughter

I definitely picked up thriftiness from my grandmother (Eleanor). I would watch her reuse stamps by washing or steaming the envelope, peeling the stamp off, and hanging it to dry on a ghetto-ass laundry line made of thread and held up with a paper clip. Back in the day—before texting and emailing—we would get letters from her, and if you looked closer, it would be the same stamp from a letter or card that my mom or I had sent her!

While it was always funny, I respected the hell out of it—even as a kid. That’s because I probably knew, even back then, that I’d end up being
just as thrifty. For example, socks and underwear MUST have holes in them before they can be thrown out.