Sitting on the shelf of my laundry room is a glass jar half filled with dryer lint. It's the beginnings of a project my daughter started several years ago when she first learned that her grandmother, my mother, once made pillows using dryer lint.

Mom would stuff the lint into a pillowcase made of ticking and then cover the casing with fabric; she used them as throw pillows in the living room. (Ticking, for those unfamiliar with fabrics, is a durable material, usually with blue striping, used for covering mattresses and pillows.)

My daughter was so impressed with her grandmother's resourcefulness that she wanted to make a pillow of her own, but now 19 and away at college, she's moved on to other things without ever having completed the project.

Raised during the Depression and the mother of 12, Mom was ingenious in her ability to make the most of what she had. She certainly would have been able to contribute knowingly to a conversation on ways to stretch a dollar, a topic that seems to be popping up everywhere now.

Just this past week, a TV spot ran about a program that allows you to prepurchase gas at today's price, with the idea that you'll save money when the price goes even higher. Another one offered tips on ways to save money at the grocery store — like keeping a list, and eating before you shop. Now really, what modern-day mom doesn't know this?

Mother's frugalness — as well as my father's — was much more imaginative, although not easy to emulate in our fast-paced, convenience-driven society.

From making lye soap out of bacon grease (for laundering clothes) to reusing charcoal briquettes on the grill (Dad would douse them in water and store them in an old paint can), my parents were thrifty at every turn.

Dad would straighten bent nails and reuse them, mend broken screens, cut the boys' hair and replace the worn-out soles on our shoes. Mother would can fruits and vegetables, make zwieback out of stale bread, reuse tinfoil and storage bags, and freshen stale crackers by heating them in a warm oven.

Mother's resourcefulness wasn't limited to the practical, though, for she would decorate our home using the simplest things, from framing and hanging a pretty greeting card or calendar picture to stringing the shiny foil caps from milk bottles on our Christmas tree.

Growing up, we kids also were taught to be prudent in our everyday lives: We brushed our teeth with baking soda and washed ourselves with soap pieces that Mom saved. She'd place them in a pouch made of nylon netting, and we'd use them in our baths. She also kept some in a jar with a little water that my father and brothers used to wash their hair, shaking the jar first to create a little lather.

With gas prices a dollar higher than they were a year ago and food costs up 6 percent, many of us are looking for ways to cut our expenses. While my husband probably won't be straightening bent nails to use in home-repair projects, I'm thinking about making some new throw pillows with the dryer lint.

Linda K. Schmitmeyer is a freelance writer living in Middlesex Township. Her e-mail address is lks260@zoominternet.net.