How Frugal Is Too Frugal? Rags, Recycled Screws and a Lot of Patched Trousers

I’ve made a new friend recently. One of our first meetups was grilling at a nature reserve just between where we live. Every sort of outdoor/park space you go to in Sweden has these big grills which are open for use by anybody if you just bring your own coal and food. You don’t book them or anything, just turn up and hope that they’re free or maybe ask to share the space if you’re feeling brave (and not very Swedish).

I’ve always been so intrigued by these grills as I LOVE BBQs but I’ve never had much success doing my own and Dr Chris, who can do them, isn’t a fan. So I was very excited when this guy offered to show me the ropes. He’s a Swedish citizen but comes from Ethiopia so he’s got an understanding of how uncomfortable it can feel to try and slot yourself into something which seems so normal and natural to Swedes but is just so alien to me. 

The Rag Drawer -  Why I Haven't Bought Kitchen Roll in Over a Decade

Whilst he was dealing with the fire, his hands got kind of grubby and as he was about to wipe them on his trousers (!!!) I shoved a rag in his hands. I usually have a handful of these bits of material with me at all times, usually to be used for hankies but they’re useful for all sorts of things that kitchen roll might be used for. In fact, we haven’t bought kitchen roll in… probably over a decade. I just have a drawer full of these rags which I’ve cut up from old t-shirts and trousers which we use for any sort of mess and then either chuck out if it’s something gross like cat puke or wash if it’s anything else. We use them for washing up and wiping down counters; I use them for washing mirrors and basic dusting too. For more serious cleaning, using bleach or in the bathroom, I have cut up towels so they don’t get confused with the everyday rags. I haven’t gone as far as cutting up my pants to use as rags - which was very much a part of my childhood… 

Anyway, I digress. 

This guy looked a little taken aback but used the rag and carried on his business. That was probably a couple of months ago and we had this funny conversation yesterday as I was moving my mending pile for him to sit down on the sofa where he said he had thought I was using rags because I couldn’t afford proper cloths or kitchen roll, but has come to realise I’m just a frugal queen. 

I do do it because I’m frugal. I also do it because it’s what I’m used to (see the pants above). I do it because I can’t stand the thought of buying pieces of paper just to chuck them away. And I do it because fabric is more precious than we realise and should have at least a few runs at being useful - first as nice clothes, then mended nice clothes, then less nice clothes, then reused rags and maybe finally as rags for cat puke. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t do that?? 

Sweden's New Textile Recycling Law (and Why It Had to Be Reversed)

When I asked him what he did with his old clothes, he told me he takes them to the recycling points. These are all over Stockholm. In 2025 Sweden brought in a law making it illegal to throw away textiles at all. These recycling points were there before that law but it all seems to be connected. Unfortunately, the partners tasked with sorting the waste were overwhelmed by the amount of donations and the state that some of it was in when it reached them which meant that the law was revised just a nine months later allowing households to chuck small items and heavily soiled or damaged items in the household waste. Household waste in Sweden is mostly incinerated which contributes to municipal electricity and heating production, so those small, heavily soiled and damaged items do contribute to the circular economy somewhat. 

One thing that I’ve always loved about the rags is that I might accidentally leave one in a pocket of a winter dress over summer and by the time I come to wear it again, the rest of the rags from that batch have disintegrated or been chucked so it’s like a little time capsule memory of what was going on at that time. How wonderful is that? 

Glasses Archaeology: Turning Four Broken Pairs Into Two Working Ones

Something else I did this weekend was order some new glasses and at the same time, frugally, sort out my old glasses.  As I was putting on my sunglasses after Zumba on Saturday, they just fell apart in my hand. These were my first sunglasses that I never lost. They were very expensive because they were prescription (which has changed…) and I have been wearing them for at least a decade - because I bought them when I had my old shop which I moved out of in 2016! I hadn’t thought about that until they were in pieces in my hand. 

Annoyingly that leaves me with one pair of sunglasses, also prescription, which are so used the arms are wobbly and whilst they’re not quite a decade old they’re probably not far off (although these are still my right prescription). Having lost a pair of normal glasses in Albania - I think, unless they turn up in some pocket somewhere next winter - I am also down to two pairs of normal glasses. One pair is a little twisted so they don’t sit right and the other has a broken nose pad. 

So. I moved the tiny screws from my broken sunglasses into my non-broken ones and now the arms sit a little firmer. I also took out some screws and nose pads from two pairs of random, old prescription glasses with cracked lenses, which had been sitting in my jewellery box waiting for… god knows what. I used one of those screws to replace the screw I borrowed from my husband’s glasses not very long ago when one of my lenses fell out and that screw disappeared (he doesn’t use his and suggested it himself, don’t be horrified…). Unfortunately those nose pads aren’t right for using in my broken-nose-pad pair but I have wrapped those tiny screws and spare nose pads in a piece of sellotape which now takes up a lot less space in my jewellery box. 

Then I ordered a pair of sunglasses and three pairs of normal glasses because I may be a frugal queen but even I am reaching my limit. These serviceable-but-falling-apart pairs will be donated through the local optician when my new pairs arrive. I am thrilled with myself for sorting out a little cache of spare parts though, and without holding onto entire pairs of broken glasses! 

The Joy of Patching My Husband's Trousers

My third and final frugal habit which has been noted this weekend is the sheer amount of patching I do on Dr Chris’s trousers. This guy has juicy thighs and walks A LOT - like an average of 24,000 steps a day. He will rub a hole through his preferred linen trousers in a matter of weeks and I am about at my wit’s end.

When we bought two lovely pairs for the Albania holiday I offered to preemptively patch the area that usually rubs through and he was all like ‘no, don’t worry about it, I don’t want to cause any bother’... and now we are here, merely two months later, and I am bothered indeed by the holes in his trousers. 

Actually, I’m not that bothered. It’s quite a pleasant activity and one pair takes about an episode of the Handmaid’s Tale. I cut away any random strandy bits, choose a similar coloured fabric and cut out a piece which covers the entire hole and any fabric that looks to be wearing thin. I pin that fabric in place on the inside and then do a running stitch, or sometimes a back stitch if I’m feeling fancy, around the entire patch. Then the pins can come out and it’s a simple case of running (or back) stitch back and forth across the whole patch, before turning 90 degrees and running (or back) stitch at a cross angle across the whole patch. I don’t worry about neatness too much, it’s between his legs anyway, but I make the stitches as small as I can be bothered to at the time and in a thread colour that matches as close as possible. 

Some previously patched trousers - note the less developed technique on the bottom hole. These are worth patching one more time for me and then they’ll be sacrificed to the rag drawer (or saved for future patches).

I used to do this on a machine and it was definitely quicker. I’m not sure the patches lasted any longer though and I enjoyed the process less. It’s a fiddly faff getting the crotch in the right place on the machine, and here it’s just simple, mindless sewing back and forth.

After having completed a patchwork skirt earlier this year though, I’m slightly running out of fabric scraps. I’m not there yet but I’ve made a mental note to save the next pair of each colour that becomes too messy to mend to be used as patches for future trousers. Mental notes often don’t stick in my brain though, so let’s see. 

Is This All Too Frugal? Over to You

What do you think? Is this all too frugal? What frugalities do you partake in? Do you do them because you enjoy them or because it’s the right thing to do - or a mix? Has anybody ever commented on your frugality?

I do these things because I want to, not because I'm scared not to or because I have to - but that's a distinction worth thinking about. If you've ever wondered whether your own money habits come from a healthy place or an anxious one, that's the work I do with clients - book a sesh right here. 

Love Eleanor. Xxx