Tight-wad or Scottish?

While there are some of "Scotch-Irish" ancestry who celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I don't (sorry, Kyle and Irish cousins). I used to wear orange on St. Patrick's Day and argue at length about St. Patrick being Welsh. So despite this being St. Patrick's Day, this blog is in honor of my Scottish roots (next year I'll honor my Welsh roots--Maewyn Succat, I won't neglect thee!)

An article on Yahoo! made me think. . . maybe I'm not just thrifty, maybe I'm a tightwad! Click here for the article. As my introduction suggests, I'm the product of Depression era parents. But, I also grew up in a household proud of it's "Scottish thriftiness." We know almost nothing about my grandmother's background and yet I can recall my mother saying, "Grandma is Scottish--she is a real penny pincher." Other than making clothes, I don't really recall my grandmother as being particularly tight with her money, but nevertheless, I grew up thinking that if Grandma was Scottish and thrifty, it was a good thing to be.

My husband and children are often ashamed of my thriftiness and it wasn't until I read that Yahoo article that I realized, that maybe I am a little extreme----not that I will change!
My husband objected to me handing him a spatula to scrape out the bottom of the jelly, so now I buy him jelly in a squeezable container. He also didn't like it when I stacked an old bottle of ketchup over a new one to get the last bit of ketchup out---again, I buy squeezable containers that store upside down. So, if I'm so weird, why did they invent these containers!?
I'm sure most people roll up their toothpaste to get the last bit out, but I get several more days out of my toothpaste containers by just cutting them open and dipping my toothbrush in. I also open up my moisturizer and make up to get the last bit out.

Also, I make my own blush---I like creamy blush but have all of these left-over bits of lipstick. So, I buy some creamy blush and mix it with the lipstick. I do remember my Scottish Grandmother Vennie Watson Wicker blotting her lipstick and then rubbing her cheeks---that's my kind of woman.

Train, Brett Twenter 2008

I haven't bought a package of plain white paper in years---we have always used paper from work. Even the girls' art and now my grandchildren's art is on re-cycled paper.
As part of my New Year's resolution to "use it up", I discovered several packages of sealed napkins from our wedding! At one time, I thought I'd save them for a big Silver Anniversary Party---well, that's come and gone, so we are using them up.
As you may or may not know, my souvenirs are always pens---practical and useful. But, I also collect them from motels and hotels.

Dave used to travel a lot, so he'd bring home soap and shampoo from his travels. I'm proud to say that I haven't bought shampoo or soap for my personal use in probably 20 years. My daughters and son-in-law (Kyle) often insisted on store-bought soap and shampoo. (I bought Kyle "Irish Spring" soap---what else---when he said he had a hard time with the minuscule "guest soap") I used to even have a contraption that put tiny bits of soap together to form a new bar---wonder what happened to that, Girls?
Pictured above is my new Watson tartan, a pin I purchased in Scotland and a Trinity necklace from Ireland. To all of the Scotch-Irish out there---let's find our own holiday and leave St. Patrick's Day to the Irish-Americans unless, of course, you can get your Irish friends to buy you a beer! Now, that would be a fine Scotch-Irish tradition!

"Mar sin leibh an dràsda."
"Slán go fóill"