Pants !

I wear jeans almost exclusively, and I with everything I do from working outside to playing with my kiddos I have a hard time keeping them from getting ripped in the knees or pockets or someplace else. (I blame most of this on cheap labor and cost cutting on materials but that’s a different post) Last night I was out looking for a new pair as I had just shredded my last good “work” jeans.
Clothes are the only thing that we as a family “waste” money on, getting a new one instead of patching up the old ones and making due like we do with everything else we own and use. It kept running thru my head and wile I was in the store, Dam this is expensive they are just pants and then my top just blew. Like it does a lot. I put the pants back and made the decision to just start patching up my old jeans instead of making rags and shorts out of them. So off to the fabric store I went to get some suitable patches, and wow the price on cloth is ridiculous! Even for the odds and ends that I needed it was more than I though was a fair price.
So I said to myself “Self, how can I get free or cheap cloth, to make patches with?” That’s when I hit upon this answer, thanks to my grandfather, whom recently passed away. My grandfather used to get the longest pant he could buy and roll the bottoms up and hem them in place. (For reasons no one knows)
When you go to the store to buy a pair of pants, most people typically look for the waist and leg sizes that fit them. Not anymore with me, and this is why. Within a certain size range all the pants cost the same amount. So if your inseam is 30 and you buy 30 inseam pants your paying the same as the guy who buys 36 inseam pants yet he gets 6 inches more material. If you get pants that are as long in the leg that you can find, roll up the leg and hem them. That way, when you get a hole in the knee or seat of them you can use that extra material from the leg to patch them up! It may be cheap, but every penny counts at my house.
It falls in to the same philosophy in my mind, of take everything they are willing to give away. I do it with everything else from old windows on the side of the road to ketchup packets and the fast food restaurant to toppings on my sandwich from the sub shop to the pens at the auto body shop. My family thinks I’m wicked cheap and a little weird (as do most people) but you know what…… We haven’t bought ketchup and mustard in months, and I made 6 cold boxes out of windows I found free on the side of the road! So now I will start taking that extra 6 inches of material with my pants too. Lol. If someone is giving it away for free, take it, you’ll find a use for it, or someone you know may need one. Does anyone else do this or am I now a “lone ranger of cheapness”.
I may be crazy or I may be right but at least I’m prepared!