Background: Following the economic down turn in the UK since 2008, interest in thrift and austerity has grown tremendously both within society and academia.  However,few studies have actually explored what households are doing to be thrifty and how their practices may have changed since the recession.  This project aims to do just that!

Project: The project is exploring what activities people are doing to be thrifty.  So that might be: shopping around for bargains; mending things that break rather than buying new; or learning a new skill such as knitting or sewing so that you can make your own things.

Central to the project is a focus on time and how having the time/ or not having enough time becomes part of being thrifty.

Woven into this are objects – so people perform certain activities and practices to be thrifty, but being thrifty also involves particular objects.  Objects which enable thrifty activities to take place (e.g. freezers for food, knitting needles for knitting, hammers for DIY), but also objects which are worked upon and produced as part of these activities (e.g. a knitted jumper, a mended piece of furniture.

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