Thrift prevailed for most of the 20th century when Ireland was the poorest country in Northwest Europe. We grew our own vegetables, rarely traveled to airplanes or restaurants, repaired clothes instead of buying new ones, and were used to living in cold homes.
When the economy flourished in the late 1990s and embraced American-style consumerism during the Celtic Tiger era, skills such as cooking from scratch, making and repairing clothes, and careful household management became faded from cultural memory.
Generations tell about a time when the cost of living crisis forced us to live frugally because we had to relearn how to be frugal, and how some of those frugal habits are still ingrained today. Talk to famous people. .
A Silent Generation: John Teeling (76)
Born just four months after the end of World War II, Teeling has become one of Ireland’s most successful entrepreneurs. Irish, who spearheaded his whiskey renaissance, sold the Cooley distillery to American bourbon giant Beam for around €73 million. A highly successful academic in business, he is famous for listing more companies on the London Stock Exchange than any other Irishman.
However, Dubliner has lived in the same house in Clontarf since the 1970s, never bought a second home, hates going on vacation, prefers home-cooked meals to restaurant meals, and spends more than half the time in the same house. I have run my business in the Spartan office. A century.
“Every morning I have white bread and butter for breakfast,” Teeling told The Sunday Independent. “Tomorrow morning I’m going to the annual Merion for a sumptuous breakfast. But I don’t mind skipping that.
“I was never into that lifestyle or race horses or boats. It doesn’t matter how much money I have. I don’t understand art. It was never flashy.
Teeling’s indifference to the wealth trap dates back to when he was 14 when his father died and his mother had to help him take over his father’s legitimate money-lending business.
“I had three younger brothers and sisters and my mother worked like a dog,” he says. “My mom hated socks when they had holes in them. She bought clothes that were made to last but were too big, and we grew into them. Being the eldest son, we gave away clothes, we have three or four shirts, and I’m still not a big believer in having a big wardrobe.
“There was no central heating, so gas bills weren’t an issue. We had to boil water for the bath. It didn’t make us feel bad, we went to school in Fairview with some really poor people in the inner city.
“For the first few years after my father died, my mother took in lodgers and ran bed and breakfasts in the summer to try and make money. We recommend that you rent a room in the city and you can earn €14,000 tax-free per year.
“I can’t convince young people today that mortgage rates were 23 percent in the late 1970s. It exhausted me — my weekly interest was greater than my gross income, and I was working two or three jobs at once.”
Boomers: Noel Cunningham (69)
Noel Cunningham, former general manager turned ambassador of Harvey’s Point in Donegal, TV personality and regular contributor to RTÉ’s Today Show, grew up on a small farm in Donegal. He was one of his six children with his father running the family’s small property and his mother supplementing the family’s income with a knitting job.
“We were self-sufficient in many ways,” he says. “We raised hens, we kept cows to provide milk, and we made our own butter. A generation that grew up with nothing.
“Growing up, we lived frugally. Many of our clothes were made by our mothers and passed down from child to child. I ate and lived. Dinner was home cooked with potatoes, carrots, onions and meat my father had slaughtered. We ate apples in the orchard.
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Noel Cunningham at Fintra Beach outside Killybegs.Photo: Joe Dunn
“My deceased brother built a house next to my parents’ house where I live now, has a polytunnel, and grows tomatoes and strawberries, so I’m laughing now. I’m going to put down a few.
“My mom turned the cheap cuts of meat my dad slaughtered into ridiculously delicious meals. Place four servings in a container and freeze.
“From my teens to my 40s, I had nothing but cash in my wallet, which had to last until the weekend. Buy these gorgeous shoes because they will last forever.I’m going to have cash in my wallet again now and use it instead.”
Gen X: JP McMahon, 44, and Averyl Power, 44
Galway-based chef JP McMahon, owner of Michelin-starred Aniar and tapas restaurant Cava Bodega, just ran this year’s Food on the Edge symposium. In August, he announced the closure of his Tartare restaurant, but McMahon has weathered tough economic times in the past and is used to cutting his clothes to suit his own style.
“Wound is a very harsh word, but what hurt me was my father losing his job in the 80s,” he says. “We lost our TV, our car, our phone. When I was away, I had to call my neighbor and talk to him at home. It wasn’t until the mid-1990s that we could get those things back.
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JP McMahon.Photo: Ray Ryan
“When I was younger, I rarely went to restaurants. There were six of us. Maybe for communion or confirmation.
“I have always been pretty frugal when it comes to heating. Since they put it on, I always say, “Do you really need it?”
“In 2002 I quit my full-time job to go back to university and was living on a Back to Education allowance of €180. I moved to Cork and lived frugally with my partner Drigin for three years. I got a TV for my rented apartment.The train fare was so expensive that I could only go home twice a year.Everything was on a low budget, and there was a lot of home cooking and low-budget shopping at the supermarket. Now I’m at home and I’m always checking the newspapers to see if I really need to go shopping.”
Averill Power, CEO of the Irish Cancer Society and former Senator, who was the first person in her family to attend school after age 15, spent her first year at Trinity College Dublin in the form of accommodation and meals. , failed because he worked long hours to cover his tuition. .
“I thought about dropping out completely, but I was lucky enough to get help from the university’s hardship fund while I was at Trinity,” she says. “I also learned how to really save money,” she said.
“The university had an electric meter and I could see the meter going crazy when I used the washing machine. So I don’t do half my laundry and dry my clothes outside when I can.
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Averil power.Photo: Andrés Pobeda
“Almost all the furniture in our home is secondhand, as are baby clothes and toys. I made a habit of shopping at the Irish Cancer Society’s charity shop in college and still do. It can be repaired.” I don’t throw things away, and it’s been years since I’ve put on heels and no shoes, patched up ripped material, and undressed.”
Millennials: Kaz Mooney (34)
Kaz Mooney, a mother of three who lives in Offaly with her husband Seamus, shared her tips on social media this year, including how to budget, feed a family of five on €5 and how to cut debt. I spread it.
With over 114,000 followers on Instagram and over 40,000 followers on TikTok for his @irishbudgeting account, Mooney has learned how to be financially savvy during a recession.
“I gave birth to my first daughter when I was 20,” she says. “I lost my job in the recession and then went to college. We had to live on the same income during the period of unemployment and pregnancy.
“Many of my peers were buying new cars, but we always had older cars. We spent a lot of time choosing a reliable car that we could buy for €3,000. If you’re going on vacation, you’re with friends or family, or you know someone with a villa or caravan, during which time you’ll learn how to make your own sauces and eat based on what’s on offer at your supermarket. I learned how to make
“I get so many comments from older followers who say, ‘This is what I’ve been doing for years and this is nothing new.’ I’m just there.”
