Yay! Phillis kindly left a comment identifying the frugal blogger I was looking for:
Ilona, Life After Money: Snippets of my brilliant life on a pension.
Thank you, Phillis! (And nice to meet you here.)
I. Frugal Bathing
A while ago I found a non-trendy blog about living on the cheap, written by an English woman who'd retired early from truck driving and lives alone on little money.
She's NOT a perky "frugal lifestyle" blogger, like a Martha Stewart decorating her prison cell. (Martha did! . . . but she also talks about prison reform, saying, “I felt very close to Kafka during parts of this ordeal. I even got a Kafka T-shirt to wear.”--via Vanity Fair).
And this blogger's also not singing the common, faith-based refrain:
"I am so blessed! My husband and our three beautiful children live the fresh and frugal life on two acres. Warm eggs from our brown speckled hens every morning!"
Instead she writes blunty about, for example, bathing once a week to save money on hot water, addressing anyone who might think that's gross: "I'm not asking you to come smell my pits."
Does this blog ring a bell for anyone? I'd like to find it again.
I haven't found it on lists such as Thrifty UK Blogs. (I'm going to check some of those out though.)
I was thinking about this blogger as I took a bath this morning.
I always used to take baths, not showers, but this house has l-o-w water pressure. It takes 15 minutes to fill the tub. The shower is surprisingly powerful though, so I'm planning on a soak only once a week--on a day off.
II. "That Won't Work"
I needed a day off today.
Three full days cashiering and sorting books is physically tiring.
Yesterday I also had another disheartening encounter at work. Big Boss and a couple others were touring the store with someone from the police dept., talking about how to reduce shoplifting, including ways to reconfigure the store.
From behind the cash register, I suggested we could move the check-out counter, so the cashier (me!) could see the whole store ––and both doors.
(As it is, the cashier faces only the exit door, but people come and go out both doors.)
Move the check-out counter?
The police guy said, "That's an idea...". My coworkers all gave the standard response, "That won't work!"
God forbid we should change anything that's "always been that way."
And damn! once again, I hadn't taken CBD, which Mz says stands for "Care, . . . But Don't".
I do care.
I'd love to trouble-shoot the whole shoplifting situation.
The regular shoplifters include some of the sex workers in the neighborhood. These women are visibly bedraggled and strung out. Whatever money they earn doesn't go into their pockets, it seems.
As shoppers, they are pests--leaving piles of clothes inside-out on the dressing room floor for instance. They engage in all sorts of trickery, such as swapping price tags. (It takes some dexterity to wriggle tags off and on the plastic doo-hickeys.)
Our mission is to help people like them.
Couldn't we reimagine how we deal with these women?
We could ... I don't know... maybe give them a punch card for a free item of clothing per day?
Install a washing machine so they could wash their clothes?
One of the women has twice asked me for a free pair of clean underwear. Of course I said yes, but I felt bad that a person should have to ask for such a thing.
Meanwhile, I am concentrating on what I can change--the BOOK's section, and my own attitude.
The main thing I try to do at the cash register is to look at each person's face, to treat them and really register them as an individual.
III. The Grandchild of Immigrants
I've often thought of myself as lazy. I'm not high-energy like Pulitzer-Prize high-achievers or like people who are strongly motivated by money.
In this job, though, I see how much my world view comes from being the grandchild of immigrants, on my father's side.
My Sicilian grandparents were poor––and not in the romantic "there was so much love, we never knew we were poor" way. The family was Not Nice.
But my grandparents worked hard, and, crucially, they pushed education on their children.
Their life was all about believing things COULD be different. Even if not for their own selves, they felt their sacrifices could help the people who came after them.
A classic immigrant point of view.
(The idea that immigrants are a problem for the U.S. has got it backward.)
My mother's WASP family, on the other hand, was invested in protecting and maintaining the status quo, which benefited the family. They worked hard, but they thought along the lines of "Don't change things."
I never liked their attitude, so their model also inspired me to think, Why not mix it up? Why not give it a try the other way round?
Why not move the mental furniture?
Ilona, Life After Money: Snippets of my brilliant life on a pension.
Thank you, Phillis! (And nice to meet you here.)
I. Frugal Bathing
A while ago I found a non-trendy blog about living on the cheap, written by an English woman who'd retired early from truck driving and lives alone on little money.
She's NOT a perky "frugal lifestyle" blogger, like a Martha Stewart decorating her prison cell. (Martha did! . . . but she also talks about prison reform, saying, “I felt very close to Kafka during parts of this ordeal. I even got a Kafka T-shirt to wear.”--via Vanity Fair).
And this blogger's also not singing the common, faith-based refrain:
"I am so blessed! My husband and our three beautiful children live the fresh and frugal life on two acres. Warm eggs from our brown speckled hens every morning!"
Instead she writes blunty about, for example, bathing once a week to save money on hot water, addressing anyone who might think that's gross: "I'm not asking you to come smell my pits."
Does this blog ring a bell for anyone? I'd like to find it again.
I haven't found it on lists such as Thrifty UK Blogs. (I'm going to check some of those out though.)
I was thinking about this blogger as I took a bath this morning.
I always used to take baths, not showers, but this house has l-o-w water pressure. It takes 15 minutes to fill the tub. The shower is surprisingly powerful though, so I'm planning on a soak only once a week--on a day off.
II. "That Won't Work"
I needed a day off today.
Three full days cashiering and sorting books is physically tiring.
Yesterday I also had another disheartening encounter at work. Big Boss and a couple others were touring the store with someone from the police dept., talking about how to reduce shoplifting, including ways to reconfigure the store.
From behind the cash register, I suggested we could move the check-out counter, so the cashier (me!) could see the whole store ––and both doors.
(As it is, the cashier faces only the exit door, but people come and go out both doors.)
Move the check-out counter?
The police guy said, "That's an idea...". My coworkers all gave the standard response, "That won't work!"
God forbid we should change anything that's "always been that way."
And damn! once again, I hadn't taken CBD, which Mz says stands for "Care, . . . But Don't".
I do care.
I'd love to trouble-shoot the whole shoplifting situation.
The regular shoplifters include some of the sex workers in the neighborhood. These women are visibly bedraggled and strung out. Whatever money they earn doesn't go into their pockets, it seems.
As shoppers, they are pests--leaving piles of clothes inside-out on the dressing room floor for instance. They engage in all sorts of trickery, such as swapping price tags. (It takes some dexterity to wriggle tags off and on the plastic doo-hickeys.)
Our mission is to help people like them.
Couldn't we reimagine how we deal with these women?
We could ... I don't know... maybe give them a punch card for a free item of clothing per day?
Install a washing machine so they could wash their clothes?
One of the women has twice asked me for a free pair of clean underwear. Of course I said yes, but I felt bad that a person should have to ask for such a thing.
Meanwhile, I am concentrating on what I can change--the BOOK's section, and my own attitude.
The main thing I try to do at the cash register is to look at each person's face, to treat them and really register them as an individual.
III. The Grandchild of Immigrants
I've often thought of myself as lazy. I'm not high-energy like Pulitzer-Prize high-achievers or like people who are strongly motivated by money.
In this job, though, I see how much my world view comes from being the grandchild of immigrants, on my father's side.
My Sicilian grandparents were poor––and not in the romantic "there was so much love, we never knew we were poor" way. The family was Not Nice.
But my grandparents worked hard, and, crucially, they pushed education on their children.
Their life was all about believing things COULD be different. Even if not for their own selves, they felt their sacrifices could help the people who came after them.
A classic immigrant point of view.
(The idea that immigrants are a problem for the U.S. has got it backward.)
My mother's WASP family, on the other hand, was invested in protecting and maintaining the status quo, which benefited the family. They worked hard, but they thought along the lines of "Don't change things."
I never liked their attitude, so their model also inspired me to think, Why not mix it up? Why not give it a try the other way round?
Why not move the mental furniture?
I think the blogger is this one. If not, she sounds very much like the one you found. http://meanqueen-lifeaftermoney.blogspot.com/ She is interesting for sure.
ReplyDeleteYES!!! Thank you, Phillis, that's the one! She's unique, eh? None other like her. Having just read a few entries on her blog, I can see why you recognized her from just my little description .... and even though I said "truck driver" and she says "lorry driver" :)
ReplyDeleteThanks again--I'll add her to my blogroll.
That Martha Stewart cell would be right at home in Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading (which I’m reading).
ReplyDeleteAbout water and frugality: a low-flow showerhead uses much less water. They’re excellent for taking a so-called Navy shower, with minimal water use.
Hi, Michael! I guess Patti has such a showerhead---it's very efficient. But I DO leave it running the whole time, not like a Navy shower. Especially as it's chilled off... BRRRRrrrr.
ReplyDeleteA copy of Invitation to a Beheading was just donated to the store--I will nab it for myself and see if I can spot Martha Stewart. :)
Interesting that you've found Ilona's blog...she has some practical ideas and posts about the walks she goes on. A good read and a source of useful hints!
ReplyDeleteGZ: Oh, you know Ilona too! I did see some familiar names in her comments. I enjoyed reading through her blog for a while last night--inspiring me to go through my fridge and cook up all the half-withered food!
ReplyDelete