Living Frugally And Reducing Costs

The Depression was a famous time in our history, and many people marvel over how individuals living during that time made do with very little at all and managed to survive while reducing costs.

Items we take for granted and throw away easily today would never have seen such a fate during the Depression. Taking the time to look at our own lives and how we live today, then comparing that to how Depression-era individuals managed to get by can provide a valuable lesson which could improve our overall lives.

The hardships of the Great Depression lasted from 1929 to the end of the 1930s, and people had to be very resourceful with what they had to survive while reducing costs. Every scrap of food possible was used in cooking, and what couldn't be used for eating ended up being used somewhere else.

Containers were emptied and scraped for every last bit and washed for storing other items. Even the cloth sacking from flour and feed became something else, often turned into clothing. Resourceful wasn't an option in those years - it was a way of surviving.

Certainly, the expectations are not to live as frugally as individuals during the Depression did. The point is to learn from how people in that time managed to get by with far less and to be introspective about how we consume far more than we need to while reducing costs.

A jar of peanut butter, for example, could be scraped out when the contents are running low, and the container itself reused for another purpose. Considering that the average debt of an individual in the United States is approximately $8,000, we must wonder if that amount could have been reduced by being more careful.

Appreciating what we have and trying to be both financially and environmentally responsible is important.

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