I didn't grow up in a frugal home but I became very frugal when i was a stay-at-home-mom so i could homeschool. We had the single income, and then when my husband went out on disability, the single disability income. We survived for 20 years on that and I had a million ways of making do, use it up, or wear it out. As I am a 4th generation packrat, I kept anything I thought might be useful. It's come in mighty handy over the years, and is still coming in handy with the house build.
And I have often used things for what they were not intended....
I call myself "the reformed hoarder" and part of that declutter process has been using up what I have for various projects or just in general rather than buying more. So I actually put a moratorium on yarn and stationery/card buying and put a big dent in my yarn stash and now am down to two small stationery boxes instead of a whole printer paper box, lol. And then there are the projects like the chariot, being made of random bits and bobs. :)