Thrifty Mommy

The first time I learnt of the meaning of thrifty is from Thrifty Supermarket, some 35+ years ago. Thrifty Supermarket was in PJ, where Courts Mammoth is now, and I think the building is currently known as Wisma Thrifty.

Another shopping mall that used to be a favourite of my parents is Ampang Park, and our favourite supermarket there was Fitzpatrick's.

Okay anyhow, talking about being thrifty, when shopping for my boys' clothes, I always wait for end of season sales where there are 70-80% discounts and I could get good quality clothes for them at just prices. So I was simply thrilled when we found Kiko jeans between RM22.00-RM28.00 yesterday! Damascus had been running out of good pants/jeans coz his had been handed down to Marrakesh and Esfahan's older ones were just too worn out to pass on to him (Damascus). So, I ended up buying a total of 8 pairs of jeans for less than RM200.00! Weeeeeeeeee! And half of them were for Damascus.

Esfahan had earlier inherited some really cool stuff from our friend's son Amyr, ie. Guess, Gap, OshKosh, Hilfiger jeans and shirts. Another friend, also with 3 boys, had handed down some cool Nike and Adidas shoes, which could fit my 3 boys, so it was just fabulous! My friends would ask me if I mind accepting hand me downs, and I say, "No, why should I? It's a blessing and we would truly appreciate it."

The same thing goes with the furniture in our home. I don't just believe in Recycling, but I also LOVE Vintage. One of my favourite Sunday morning activities in Rome was Porta Portese, and when I was in Pittsburgh I just loved browsing all the flea markets and garage sales on weekends with my folks.

My best finds so far from vintage/preloved/recycled items dealers are our current living room's 3seater sofa, our 6-10 seater glass dining table and our most prized possession now, the C.Steinbert upright piano. We spent only RM1,500.00 for all 3 items! No doubt the Steinbert requires some bit of tuning and repairs, but she's simply a darling as is, and when my father hits the keys with his "Getaran Jiwa" and when Esfahan experiments with Jay Chou and Adam Levine on her, my heart just melts.

@RM200.00...


@RM600.00...




A piano is something I have always wanted all my life, and as a child I couldn't understand why my father bought an electronic organ instead of a piano when I asked to learn the piano. Only now do I know that it takes some great dinero to buy a piano, something that my father, as much as he had wanted to, couldn't conjure and he made up for it in a way he deemed best at that time. Well, I still learnt music, and now I can share the joy of a piano through my children, Alhamdulillah.

@RM650.00, inclusive of those now rare vintage books...



And there's our RM50.00 fridge that I bought from my friend Ave who was having a moving house sale; that purchase was just brilliant! Yes, it's green and doesn't match any of my utensils, but it's vintage and it works awesome! So our other fridge, which is new and modern, can hence be allocated solely for JulesFudgyliciousness matters :)


I knew very well when I decided to leave my job to become a fulltime SAHM that I would have to cut down on lots of things; this, plus my conditioning growing up where I was taught not to spend unnecessarily. Instead of conveniently shopping at Cold Storage or Isetan or even Giant, I now make my way to Hero, 99 or Tesco; the main downside of Hero for me is that they don't really understand or appreciate the idea of using shopping bags and here's where I have to compromise. But since all 3 are within close proximity of each other, I can choose to buy what where, based on the lowest price, and so far for things like peanut butter, Nutella, cheese, oatmeal, cereals, and biscuits, we just head on to 99. As for milk, our household's main staple, we chase after the best price in town, or when darling husband's friend at the 100 year old dairy company is able to score some for us at their cool staff price, we gratefully add that to our blessings.

There are things I don't insist my family thrift on, and they are health and education. Of course my children go to normal Sekolah Kebangsaan and not a distinguished private school or a private Kafa, but my husband and I do our utmost best to value add that with books, annual enrichment holiday trips, sports, and all the other supporting activities like science, art, chess, etc. This is where earnings from my Jules activities come in handy :)

Occasionally, I would feed my insanity with a Lulu Guinness or a Longchamp or a LeSportsac, but that would only be past seasons after some fabumiraculous discounts. Or, I'll just wear my own JMDs :)


As the saying goes, "A penny saved is a penny earned." And that is especially true for me coz only last Sunday that I earned a vintage Steve Madden and a gorgeously darling Betseyville from darling husband as my dearly belated birthday presents :)

Priceless...