Have I finally flipped

It wasn't till I was middle aged that I found you could actually buy greaseproof paper as we always used the waxed paper from cereal packs too. My mother used all these saving tricks mentioned and so have I.

I've just bought my first pack of pedal bin liners as I have previously used plastic carrier bags.

Has anyone else still got a 'button box' where buttons are cut off old and worn out clothes and saved for reuse. My DGC love going through mine which also contains old coins (pre decimal) , hooks and eyes, press studs and lots of other stuff that seems to have ended up in there!

Yes Grandma2213, I have got a button box. Not as big as it used to be though, and I have another jar with hooks and eyes, press studs , trouser hooks, you name it it's probably there.
Last week I was volunteering in our local charity shop, and was sewing a button onto a Christmas jumper for the character who had lost his nose. It was wanted by a customer who asked why I hadn't sewn on a white fluffy bobble one ? She pointed to my very fetching Santa hat that I was modelling, and said, " one like that on the end of your hat". There being no substitutes, I offered to sell her a hat for a DIY project, but she didn't take me up on it, but asked for a reduction in price of the jumper. As it was new, (apart from the cosmetic nose job) and only cost £2.50, she had no takers, but did take the lovingly restored jumper home with her. Some folk are never satisfied.

Yes, I've got a button box as well. Actually I've got two - one packed with inherited and buttons saved from old garments; the other mostly new buttons mainly bought in packs for craft use, though some are sewn onto new baby knits if I can find enough of the same ones!

Our butter still comes in blocks and I have just used the paper to grease the cake tins ..... call me old-fashioned
You're not alone, rosequartz - I save mine too and use them for greasing cake tins, also for covering a pudding basin if I'm making a steamed pudding!

rosequartz I have butter in a block too and a couple of wrappers in the door of the fridge ready for the next time I need to grease a tin!

I used to save good bits of foil, but I hardly use it these days and I have a small collection of buttons, but it's mainly the spares in the little plastic bags.

I still have my granny's button box which is a slightly rusty tin that used to contain National Dried Milk! Some of the buttons must be getting on for 80/100 years old. She used to cut them off anything that was outgrown and if was a knitted item she would unravel it and use the wool again.

Funniest story I heard about waxed paper was my husband's aunt using a bread bag to cover her hair as she was bleaching it in the 50's. Her hair turned out blonde with an image of the bread's name imprinted on it!

All this is so familiar. Our mothers had the right idea; living through the war they had to 'make do and mend'. When I cleared out my parents' house, I found umpteen plastic/paper/carrier bags, christmas paper which had been ironed for the next year, odds and sods of wool/string/thread/material and heaven knows what else - all waiting to be used. I sent her button box to a charity shop and have lived to bitterly regret doing so. The throw away culture in which we live will have to change and I am guilty as the next one .....

my mil always washed out bags and pegged them on the line. She was a very critical woman, so when she came to stay I used to peg some out and she was thrilled that I was so 'sensible'! She also kept all her children's old name tapes in her button box and I was able to use them for our DCs as we have a very odd surname.

I am still using mil's button collection. I scoffed but I don't now.

That thing with the cereal packet and butter papers - I still do it!

Don't get me started on people who buy packet bread sauce.

Phew, have never bought packet bread sauce, nobody likes it here. Have recently tried packet cheese sauce, much better than it used to be but still not as good as home made.
Still have a button jar, still remove zips and some buttons for re-use. Find that a butter wrapper is best for greasing, saves having to wash a greasy pastry brush.

Alima that is a good tip re the pastry brush - I probably don't need to use it as much as I do.

I use the waxed paper from cereal packets to separate chops and bacon rashers before freezing them. Wash and reuse plastic freezer bags. Also put jute shopping bags used for now unwrapped veg in the washing machine. Came out stiff as new.

Katek I would love to have seen that blonde hair!

My mother always washed and reused small polythene bags. Also her kitchen tiles were frequently covered in pieces of cling film that she was drying after having washed them. I'm afraid for me life's too short for such things.

However, I do have several boxes of buttons - ones that I have collected myself and others that I've 'inherited' over the years from elderly relatives. Earlier this year I spent many a happy hour with my granddaughter as we sorted the buttons out so that all the same colours were together in the same box. She was fascinated by the stories of where some of the buttons had come from and by my frequent exclamations of 'Oh that came off your Dad's baby dungarees, dressing gown, first duffle coat, etc'.

My neighbour came to my door and asked me what I did with the jumpers that my mother- in-law knitted for my boys when they were outgrown. She asked if she could have them, ripped them out, and re- used the wool.
She also washed out all plastic bags, and hung them on the line to dry.

She also kept all her children's old name tapes in her button box

Oh dear, is that odd?

also for covering a pudding basin if I'm making a steamed pudding!

ooh steamed pudding, haven't had one of those for a long time!
With lashings of custard mmm

When the bread came in waxed paper, we used to keep it and take it to the park to wax the slide. You went down much faster after someone had been down a couple of times on the bread paper! I have started to keep the bags the bread comes in now that DH doesn't bring carrier bags home. It is useful as a pooper scoopers when the dog is out.

Ps. I have my mother's circular basket with lid that she kept the darning wool in. It still contains the darning wool plus earning needle and a few loose buttons.

Darning needle. Hudl!!!

I remember those baskets, DM had one!

What I would like (but can't find) is one of those Bakelite beehive shaped wool holders - you put the ball of wool into it, thread it through the top then it stays nice and clean and doesn't drop onto the floor when you're knitting.

After the thread objecting to having to pay for carriers I started to feel really miserly as I usually take my own and reuse as much as possible. Paying for new ones won't happen often!

I'm relieved to hear I'm not alone in washing out poly bags and good carrier bags. And I only replace the carrier bags used to line waste bins when they're really grotty. And those nice big charity bags make excellent tall pedal bin liners too. And the DGC still love playing with the buttons in the button box (with the Queen and Prince Phils 25th anniversary picture on it).

Granarchist I kept my DC's old name tapes too and one set came in most useful as oldest DGS was named after his Dad. Not odd at all rosequartz - most things come in useful one day!

Alima I save zips in a different tin along with tape, elastic and lots of ribbon from eg balloons, bunches of flowers given as gifts, chocolate boxes etc.

Shoe boxes are good for storing DVDs which are gradually building in numbers due to DGC. I keep them in cupboards on their sides so the titles can be easily seen.

Plastic ice cream boxes are great for keeping small toys, cards, lego etc as well as for use on picnics as they can be thrown away once the sandwiches etc are eaten (into a recycling bin of course, if available) Then you don't have to carry them around.

However biodegradable bags are not easy to clear up after a year or two when they disintegrate and the static makes the hundreds of bits stick all over you!

My DS's think I am very sad but if ever they need something guess where they come?!

Funniest story I heard about waxed paper was my husband's aunt using a bread bag to cover her hair as she was bleaching it in the 50's. Her hair turned out blonde with an image of the bread's name imprinted on it!

Katek that made me laugh out loud

you didn't work with me did you?

Indinana: my mother used to use the waxy cereal packet linings for rolling out pastry on. They're brilliant for the job, and you can easily turn the pastry into the flan tin or whatever.

Rosequartz, there is a page full of beehive wool holder on Ebay www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060778.m570.l1313.TR3.TRC2.A0.H0.Xbeehive+wool+holder.TRS0&_nkw=beehive+wool+holder&_sacat=0