Oregon Public Broadcasting

Economists say today’s economic problems are more akin to the recession of the early 1980s than to the Great Depression. But as times get tight, more and more people have dusted off depression-era tricks to save money.

As Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, they are  giving "frugality"  a new and sustainable spin.

Tracey McDougal is a volunteer chef at the Oregon Food Bank.

TexMex cooking class at Oregon Food Bank

Today, she’s teaching a room full of women how to prepare a TexMex skillet, with fresh salsa then homemade chocolate pudding  for dessert -- all for a dollar per serving.

She says you can stretch all kinds of food.

Tracey McDougal: “Typically, jambalaya. is made with a white rice that you put over it. At the Oregon Food Bank we teach them to do it with barley. And so that’s adding a whole grain that’s making it healthier for you. As well as it’s really stretching that out.”

Stretching out food to make meat and other valuable ingredients last longer  is something family cooks have done for generations (the special ingredient in my Grandma’s Special Meatloaf was oats – and they were included out of necessity rather than taste).

The Oregon Food Bank has a few other tricks too -- it’s a meeting place for gleaners  -- that is people who go out to the fields to gather produce after the official harvest.

Another hallmark of the Great Depression -- bartering -- is also making a comeback. Here’s how 84-year-old Stanley Loney remembers his family paying its medical bills back in the 1930s.

Stanley Loney: “The doctor call was a lot of times was a dozen eggs or maybe a hen.”

Kristian: “You mean to pay the doctor?”

Stanley Loney: “Yeah, that was what his fee was. And then the doctor would either sell it to somebody or he’d use it.”

Doctors probably wouldn't accept  that nowadays, but tap the word ‘barter’ into Craigslist and an amazing array of services pop-up: from the personal trainer who’s offering to whip you into shape in exchange for a spa visit or dental work, to Barbara Darnel.

Water drips off the roof onto  Darnel's lovingly tended garden.  She's got rows of winter lettuce, leeks and raspberries. Trouble is, she regularly finds herself with more produce than her family can possible eat.

Barbara Darnel: “I’m just interested in trading off a few fruits and vegetables, things like raspberries or strawberries, too many tomatoes but you don’t have enough cucumbers, because those flopped. And I just don’t see any reason to have to go to the market, when somebody else is pounding on a door around the corner in my neighborhood trying to give theirs away.”

For people faced with the same problem, but who aren’t comfortable bartering over the internet, there’s another depression era favorite -- canning.

Monique Dupree, who runs a business called ‘Sustainable Living on a Budget,’ says more and more people are cutting out the middleman -- or grocery store -- so that they can buy produce  in bulk.

Monique Dupree: “People are looking to buy direct from the farmer for security reasons, but they’re also finding out how economical it is to buy food direct from the producer.”

Kristian: “And when it comes to buying half a cow as my mother-in-law suggested I do, I don’t have enough space in the freezer for that do I?”

Monique Dupree: “Half a cow isn’t as much as you’d think it was. I would say it could almost fit into a regular freezer, if it’s empty.” But food isn’t the only thing people are saving on nowadays.

Mark Ivans runs Shoe Stop shoe repair in the Lloyd Center Shopping Mall.

Mark Ivans: “We always seem to get busier when the economics get bad. Everybody seems to repair their shoes instead of buying new ones. So yeah, it definitely helps out our type of business as a service.”

Kristian: "So what are you seeing? Somebody who has a pair of Prada’s who rip it and then instead of buying a new pair they come in an fix it."

Mark Ivans: “Exactly, instead of just throwing them away because they’ve got a hole in the sole, lets get that hole fixed for a change.”

Taylors, car mechanics, computer repair centers and seamstresses are all reporting a bustling trade.

So while Wall Street is in a shambles, at least some Main Street stores a doing okay.