Let's be honest, the cost of living is increasing all of the time and with many families feeling the need to keep up with the jones', many more people are openly admitting to looking for bargains and money saving schemes.
With unemployment levels high and tuition costs set to rise further in the future, being a parent or a student is becoming more and more expensive, but in general, just the cost of day to day life is becoming more expensive.
I've watched countless programmes about people getting in to debt and losing their house, shows about wastage and the impact that our throw away generation is having on the planet, but most of all I've seen and loathe the lengths that people go to in order to be popular, and to be admired for what they have rather than who they are, and quite frankly it's upsetting to think that somebody really feels that they need to go to the lengths of spending thousands of pounds to make some fake friends.
I'm 21 and I'm from a working class family, where generation after generation, have worked their butt off as nurses, doctors, soldiers and firefighters to name a few in order to provide for their family.
We've never been rich and we've not been raised whereby demands of 'I want' are met with praise and gifts, but with a stern response of 'I want doesn't always get.'
If something was broken it would be glued back together, sewn, or fixed with sticky tape or elastic bands.
We would love a good rummage at the local jumble sale and we were taught how to haggle at boot sales, because after all if you don't ask you don't get.
Our toys were passed down from my brother, to my sister and then finally to me; cousins would pass clothes over and we would be so excited to look through the bags and divide it up in to who would get what, and we weren't afraid to save our money to buy that one toy that we had wanted all year, that our friends already had.
We played with Lego and we coloured in, we argued over who was cheating playing Monopoly and we went on holiday to different locations in the UK, where we stayed in our caravan.
We were raised to appreciate what we had, and to know the value of things, saving up for that one toy, really made you appreciate and take care of it when you finally bought it and we were taught that what we needed would always come before what we wanted.
This wasn't some harsh, deprivation, but real life parenting in the late 80's and early 90's, and I know that I wasn't the only person my age who was raised like this.
It's because of this upbringing, that I now cringe when kids are instantly given what they want and parents then struggle to provide what they need, and it's because of this that when I see a young person disrespecting their elders that I am thankful for the way that I was raised.
With the economy in what seems to be a constant decline, and with the planet suffering as a result of our 'throw away' attitude, I felt that it was time to do my bit, to share some tips and tricks, to challenge behaviours and views, but most of all to help everyone save that little bit more money in order to make everyday life that little bit less stressful.
I'll be sharing my thoughts, ideas, recipes, bargains and creations with you, and hopefully teaching you how you can adapt the Make Do And Mend attitude to survive modern day life.
S x
