In these credit-strapped times it is important to be able to turn one’s hand readily, as our mothers/grandmothers did, to the wonderfully descriptive ‘making and doing’.
Our media, from Radio 4 to Take a Break, is groaning under the weight of ‘Ten Top Tips to beat the Credit Crunch’ affairs. A famously spendthrift and flamboyant female journalist has written a book on how to live frugally – it costs 14.99! Go yerself, lassie. Only this very day was there a Woman’s Hour piece on making a packed lunch for work, instead of spending £5.00 at a sandwich bar. Well durr. I look at the tips and hints and laugh in a knowing way, thinking: There is Nothing these people can teach me.
Perhaps it is because I come from good Presbyterian stock. Perhaps it is that I take pleasure in making soup, baking bread, knitting socks, growing vegetables. Maybe I just have a healthy mistrust of the ‘must-have’ mentality that has pervaded society since the 1980s. I blame Margaret Thatcher. Whatever the reason, I am pleased to say that living in a rural island community is very conducive to the ‘make do and mend’ culture. I suspect it is people like me who will ensure that the fragile economy will shudder to a grinding halt very soon. I will not buy a new phone – the old one works perfectly well. I have no need of a plasma telly – the portable one I got off Freecycle works fine. I rarely buy processed food – it tastes much nicer if I make it myself.
Lest you imagine I live the life of a self-denying scrooge, I consider that my quality of life is very high. My husband makes wine, thus ensuring we are never short of something to drink! Our bed has an electric blanket, the cats are well-fed pussies, we travel sooth to visit family at least twice a year. And as Dorcas Lane would say, ‘I do love cake. It is my only weakness’.
I am a big fan of a great website call Selfsufficient-ish, which features twin brothers who are attempting to live ethically and cheaply by foraging in urban landscapes, brewing their own cider, and many other treats. They do so very cheerfully and it never feel as if they are preaching (unlike me, I suspect….sorry). Do have a look.
Anyhow. I am building up to something. Remember the mart sales? All those boxes of books and bruck and records and bric-a-brac? We take them home and have a good rake through, thus discovering lots of treats and the occasional ‘yuck’ moment. The items fall roughly into 4 categories. 1) Stuff that we want to keep. 2) Stuff that would do very nicely for an Ebay auction. 3) Stuff that will keep the Red Cross shop in business for a day or two, and 4) Stuff that is going straight to the dump – and believe me, it has to be very very shoddy to end up there. There used to be another category – items destined for the Ebay shop. In your Ebay shop you could have items permanently on sale at a fixed price (in our case usually 99p) – this would cost almost nothing and gradually the items would be bought and sent and the great redistribution would continue. AND THEN…….Ebay increased the price of keeping a shop to impossible heights. At least, impossible for small amateur fry such as us. So, we had to close our ebay shop and we are now left with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of things.
We tried taking them to car boot sales, but the ones we did were very poorly attended and despite some very classy merchandise (though I say so myself…hem hem) we barely made back the cost of the table. We have big sheds/garages, but I would like to use them for other things one day. You know, like a garage.
And so. It is done. We are having a GARAGE SALE. The advert is going in the paper this week! Instead of us carting the stuff around the island, I am hoping the island will come to us! I have put posters up and my enticing advertising promises that everything will be £1.00 or less, and that I shall provide free tea and coffee. How can any self respecting bargain hunter resist?
I send out the call to all Orkney bloggers and blog readers (and anyone else passing through): the sale is on Saturday 21 and Sun 22 February (that’s this Saturday and Sunday). Hours are between 10am and 6pm. The location is Quoyloo Cottage (near Isbister’s, look for the signs). This is a rare opportunity to view the Dragon in her lair, and if you are very nice and buy lots of stuff you might even get a scone.
See you there!
Tags: bruck, credit crunch, Orkney, sale
One of my ancestors was a ‘dealer in small wares’
