I understand this Alternative household Valerie, because I spent time in one!

And that frugality (we're nay mean ainy canny) continued, but even more so in the foster homes and the orphanages that gave me shelter; and where discards did a second third and forth turn! And where you tied it up with wire to keep the show on the road!

And given our blinkered or blind leadership, we may well be heading back toward another depression?

I mean, what happens if the R's falls out of the real estate market; which by the way is all that's keeping our big banks solvent?

And what happens then, or when rates rise as they must, to the huge numbers who are massively over-committed, just to buy a home?

I would recycle some clothes, like barely worn and serviceable school uniforms, that dry cleaned and professionally steam pressed, look brand new! But more importantly for the underprivileged wearer, actually fit perfectly!

And there are op shops run mostly by volunteers, where one can sometimes buy suits and the like, that have only been worn once or indeed never.

Moreover, completely unproductive and costly lawns could be turned into vegetable gardens, that put food on the table. Ditto window boxes and roof gardens?

That said, some of our charity bins are regularly raided by those with few if any moral scruples, who pick the eyes out of the trash and treasure to support a second hand store/recycling industry?

Which for mine means going a little further to see that your intended charity arrives at the Sallies, Vinnies or life line.

And with that the custom, maybe the empty bins could double as shelters for chained overnight trainee Guard Dogs with a nasty bite; and or, jaws that lock when deliberately harmed?

Alternatively, the old rabbit/dog trap could do another turn, at adult arms length inside, under a recycled, (better than a burglar alarm) pretty silk blouse? Strangely, this sort of theft, notable by its almost universal absence, during the great depression!
Rhrosty.

Yes, frugality is the key to dignity, towards stopping being a slave to the whims and dictates of neither government nor business.

Had the author stopped at that, she would remain wise.

However, towards the end she then turned to discuss some social ideas that have little to do with frugality and which in fact defeats its purpose.

The article ends with: "There would need no longer be such contrasts of Private Affluence and Public Squalor", but what we have today, at least in Australia, is increasing private squalor and public affluence.