Your neighbor sounds like she's good for a laugh. My DH and I were just talking about things that we thought were soooo expensive as kids because of the way our parents treated them.
Foil, that stuff must have cost a small fortune the way it was resued, and mostly avoided.
Paper towels, man those were for rich kids when I was little, we just didn't have any in the house.
Straws, straws were a luxury, and we never got the cool bendy kind, the little ribs that bend must have cost $100s extra they way we were led to believe.
Saran wrap was a treat in my house, only plastic that could be washed was used. Better still leave it in the pot (which is a bad idea, don't store things in the fridge in metal)
Fabric softener and dryer sheets, soft, static free laundry is for wussies
Baggies, we didn't have them in the first place to try to wash! My husband was spoiled he used the sandwich kind but no ziplock top.
Now don't get me wrong, cutting out even one of those or using them wisely can mean a differenct of a couple bucks here and there, which adds up over a year. But we were not led to believe it was a few cents here and a few cents there, it was just 'forget it thats to expensive'. I don't want my kids to grow up thinking foil is paramount to gold, but I also don't want them to waste it.
And having said all that I do avoid foil for, most of my pots and baking stuff has lids, I also only let the kids use straws, mommy doesn't need that luxury. And paper towels are reserved for cleaning gross stuff (Potty training kids and all). And saran wrap is avoided, I still use plastic tupperware style things. But I do use baggies (rarely) and dryer sheets, and fabric softener. I must be a wuss
.
Oh and I draw the line at saving belly button lint