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  • 16 Jul 09
    mattkramer
    Matt Kramer

    Frugal before it was fashionable
    Art of living cheaply spares Maine worst of downturn

    By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff | July 16, 2009

    WATERVILLE, Maine - Across the country, masses of worried consumers are taking lessons in getting by with less, turning to websites like suddenlyfrugal.com and thenewfrugalmom.com, and signing up for classes in car care and cooking. But in Maine, where Yankee thrift has been a way of life for generations, and the unofficial motto is the proverb “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without,’’ the notion of a “new’’ frugality is met with blank stares.

    Take Martha Wolford, who makes do in Chester, north of Bangor, with two modest Social Security checks every month. She is 71, has no computer and no cellphone, and drives a 13-year-old Ford Aerostar van, which she calls, enthusiastically, “a great car!’’ She cans fiddleheads in spring and tomatoes in the fall, wears T-shirts - she buys five for $10 on sale - and raised six children on her husband’s paper mill salary.

    “The only time I might go a little overboard is the time of the month when we get our Social Security checks,’’ she confessed. “Then I might buy extra paper products.’’

    Across much of this sprawling, rural state, the art of living cheap is hard-wired into the regional DNA, a skill proudly passed down through the generations. Here, where hardened farmers and fishermen have been long battered by economic squalls, and incomes have lagged well behind the rest of New England, bargain-hunting and bartering are practices widely embraced. In their relentless pursuit of a good deal, Mainers scour yard sales that go on for days, scavenge the streets during local cleanup weeks, and pore over dog-eared copies of their beloved Uncle Henry’s Swap or Sell It Guide.

    “It’s ingrained in people here to plan for tough times. That’s the fabric of Maine,’’ said Mary Webber of Yarmouth, a longtime family thrift counselor at Maine Savings Bank and the author of The Frugal Family’s Kitchen Book. “Everybody now is into shopping thrift sh

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