I had been watching Jeff Smith, and I asked mom what frugal meant. She started off with synonyms that I also didn’t recognize. “It means not wasting.” Oh, right, I got it.

Why?

This went on for a while.

So, I keep my thermostat at 68, during the day. Thanks Jimmy. But I gotta be honest I haven’t recycled a bottle in years. Try a 25 cent refund, please.

Mom still clips coupons. Her thrift is driven by a sort of profoundly irrational sense of self interests. She is a hoarder of sorts. Not the type with newspapers stacked along the walls mind you. She’d suffer from the horror if she thought I was saying that. Mom is very tasteful and completely presentable. Mom hoards reserves for the future. Hoarding is a compulsive search for feelings of security.
The social implications of her choices are important to her. She really values frugality – as a social value as well as a personal one. It’s just that she would use her tea bags twice if she had a billion dollars in the bank – because you never know when you’ll need more than you have.