My OH is staying at her son's and DIL's house and her grandson. I reminded her that their house is always cold (from our past visits) and to take lots of warm clothes.
Apparently the heating hasn't been on AT ALL and all the radiators ae stone cold.
But luckily they gave her a warm dressing gown, and she has been wearing it ever since on top of her clothes to try and keep warm. She told me that, as they had given it to her, they wouldn't mind her wearing it all the time., which they would if she was wearing her outdoor coat.
Apparently they are not even weraing jumpers!
It reminds me of my oldest brother who as much as I love him to bits, he could teach Scrooge a thing or two. He`s nearly 80 but even in his younger days and when he was still married to his ex wife, he was as frugal as they come, so was she.
They moved around a lot with his job and each house they bought as they moved, was bigger and colder than the last. I wouldn`t care but he always earned really really good money and he ended up the top of his game, work wise.
One house they lived in was called The Mill House and back in the late 1800`s it was owned by the local Mill owner. The hallway alone was bigger than my lounge and dining room put together and it had a big sweeping staircase going up from the middle of it. It had 6 bedrooms and myself, my late husband, my late sister and her husband travelled there and stayed overnight for his daughter`s wedding the following day.
We were bloody perishing. The house was big, old, high ceilings, lots of stone and old draughty doors and massive rooms. They had open coal fires in the downstairs rooms which they never lit and also central heating which was never put on.
My sister went out into the nearby village and bought 2 new towels because she refused to use the old dingy threadbare ones my sister in law gave us. We were asked not to waste water and we were fed starvation rations. Yet on the same day my sister in law couldn`t wait to show us the Antique, moth eaten sofa she`d paid nearly 2 grand for and that was 30 years ago because it had been made by a certain furniture maker and to be honest I`d have given it to the tip !
Their marriage broke up when they were both touching 70, to this day I don`t know why and I`ve never asked him. They sold the house they owned then, it was a custom built one in Cornwall, my brother bought a detached bungalow in Devon with his share and his ex wife bought a luxury apartment in Bournemouth with hers. My late sister often visited him in Devon and by all accounts he hadn`t changed. She was reminded not to use the "big flush" on the toilet unless she really had to and he was still serving anaemic looking tasteless turkey mince plus refusing to heat the place or use his washing machine more than once a week. I guess his ex wife is doing the same.
My sister died 4 years ago and I`ve never visited him in Devon but we talk by phone and he has an open invitation to come here anytime but he`d probably tut at me for turning on the heating as and how I please, for washing clothes as and how I please, for cooking whatever I want as and how I please, for changing my towels daily and for not caring a damned whether he used the little flush or the big flush on my toilets !