How to be old style when there are only 2 of you

Iguana · 15 November 2005 at 11:01PM

How can you be old style when there are only two of you?

Most of the threads/posts seem to be aimed at families, how do couples adapt old style money saving tips to suit their needs?

BargainHunterCat · 15 November 2005 at 11:10PM

Absolutely you can! I am married with no kids or pets, just myself & hubby. You will find that some of the points are less relevant if you don't have kids but a lot of the pointers are still very helpful. :T
I go through the OS board regularly and glean the info I can actually use.

Ticklemouse · 15 November 2005 at 11:11PM

there are plenty of singletons and couples who regularly post on here. You can still be old style in many if not all of the ways, if you want to be.

Cleaning - you can use all the OS tips regarding cleaning and laundry.

Food - either scale down the recipes, or to be truly OS, make more than you need and freeze it for later. Even thought there are 4 in our household, my boys won't eat some of the dishes I prepare - curries etc, so I still make lots and freeze for another day.

Shopping - still applies to couples - if you utilise markets etc you can buy in smaller quantities, still at great prices.

Other tips - fuel saving - if there are only 2 of you you will use fewer rooms so heating bills can be smaller. Wear more layers, both snuggle under a duvet etc

I'm sure the couples will be along to share tips, esp Squeaky.

HTH
TM

calleyw · 15 November 2005 at 11:31PM

I am part of a couple. And I have been living a frugal or OS lifestyle for years.

I budget but don't always spend approx £100 a month on food. Now that is just food. I budget an extra £10 a month for household items such as loo roll and bleach etc. I have over the last 10 months averaged £80 a month on food spending.

I always full loads of washing so if it is white or towels they have to wait until I do a load. Which is about once a fortnight.

Being a couple makes it even easier to be OS as you don't have to worry about others. So you can turn the heating on and off as you please and put on a fleece rather than turning the heating on.

As we are on a water meter we have to be tight with water so share baths or at the least water. Jump in the shower after each other.

Easier to plan meals as you don't have to plan for lots of different people.

I am not sure what else to say. As it is hard to say what I do to save money as for me I do it everday and don't really think about it.

Yours

Calley

squeaky · 16 November 2005 at 10:13AM

Ticklemouse wrote:

I'm sure the couples will be along to share tips, esp Squeaky.

I'm a couple am I? When did that happen???

Hm... There's not much I can add to the excellent advice already given...

..if you cook your own food you'll find it cheaper than takeaways and overall better than ready meals and, as been said, I can still take advantage of offers and BOGOFs and either store/freeze or prepare/freeze any excess that I simply can't use up fast enough.

..my household cleaning stuff costs me about a pound a month - that's 50p or so for a bottle of vinegar and the same again for bicarb...

..I plan the use of my pots pans and dishes every bit as much as I plan my meals so that with careful stacking I only need to run my dishwasher once a week and I long since worked out that it uses about the same amount of water that washing by hand in a bowl would use...

..reduce, reuse, recycle is the name of the game and we have lots of threads loaded with handy tips and new ones coming all the time.

Just enjoy yourself browsing and pick the things that you like the look of and think "Yes! I can do that!"

There's no official line in Old Style, you don't have to do everything, you just do the things that fit with your life style and your needs and take care to stay within your own comfort zone so that it never becomes difficult and so discouraging.

HTH

Ticklemouse · 16 November 2005 at 10:29AM

squeaky wrote:

I'm a couple am I? When did that happen???

D'oh :doh:

I was thinking 'couples' as the OP asked about that, then singles, as you're a mine of useful info so I meant to type 'couples/singletons', but it I was quite tired

Anyway, you've got Sally, haven't ya?

squeaky · 16 November 2005 at 10:52AM

Yeah... she nags me too!

tootles_2 · 16 November 2005 at 11:31AM

We are a couple and have always been OS, cooking meals from scratch etc, I shop once a month for staples meat etc and freeze, then if I cook say 1lb mince for Bol I use however much and freeze the rest in two portion boxes so I can thaw them as we need them.

We are on a water meter and our bills are half what they were, wash, use the slow cooker, breadmaker, dryer etc on economy 7 at night, use a time switch so what ever I am doing turns off just as the econ 7 switches off. Always make sure I have a full laod for the washer, we can go 3 weeks before I need to do whites in the winter, little less in the summer as OH plays bowls, so white shirts........ we only shower, have not had a bath fro years, cannot get up out of the bath anymore...... we flush the loo every second time someone goes unless its brown!!!! if its yellow let it mellow, if its brown, flush it down. We also have a dual flush, so wee only gets a short flush....

Buy veg every 2 weeks from the market, keeps fine in the fridge, a half sack of spuds keeps well too.....cheaper than buying them by the lb.

Alfietinker · 16 November 2005 at 11:51AM

We're a young working couple couple! :hello: Well, apart from our two adorable kitties

(Who would like to eat us out of house and home!) Still trying to get them to eat cheapo cat food :rolleyes: without success.

We don't do everything, but do what we can and I must say it's becoming a habit. We recycle/compost everything we can. It's surprisingly second nature to sort out rubbish as we go rather than put things all in the same bin. Not so moneysaving, but green.

Now only use vinegar and bicarb, but I must admit to buying loo cleaner - love the smell

I don't make bread much because I'm on a diet. If hubby is happy with Tesco's pappy longlife bread then it's cheaper for him to use a loaf a week than it is for me to make it.

We only have energy saving bulbs, very rarely have a bath, turn off all lights etc and even turn heating off when we light the coal fire - if we're snuggled in one room we don't need to heat the others. Our combined gas/electricity bill has dropped to approx £53 a quarter as a result :T

Stopped using a sprinker on the garden - mulch and seep hoses if needed. Fitting a water butt soon. We dont have a massively large garden but grow as many veggies/fruit as we can. Only grow the expensive ones like peppers/aubergines/iceberg/herbs. Onions and potatoes are so cheap it doesn't justify the time and space we have. Only good if you like gardening.

We try to only eat good quality meat from the butchers. As it can be more expensive we eak it out more and so eat less.

Have cooked all meals from scratch for last 3 weeks! Including packed lunches. I make a huge vat of soup on Sunday to last me the week. Use up all the stuff in the fridge.

And for free excersise I walk for an hour in my lunch time.

Good luck with OS!

Hermia · 16 November 2005 at 12:49PM

I know what you mean, although I find lots of useful tips on this board. I did once buy this book which was highly recommended which suggested ways to reuse, recycle and save money. Half of the tips suggested ways you could turn unwanted items/rubbish into stuff for your children and the other half were about how you could use stuff in the garden. Obviously it had never occured to the author that childless, flat-dwelling people might be reading it! A lot of posts are aimed at families because most people have to start watching the pennies more when children arrive.

Iguana wrote:

How can you be old style when there are only two of you?

Most of the threads/posts seem to be aimed at families, how do couples adapt old style money saving tips to suit their needs?

eileenfromplaistow · 16 November 2005 at 3:16PM

I can remember when a chicken on Sunday stretched to chicken and mushroom pie on Monday - that was before I gave birth to 3 carnivores.

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How to be old style when there are only 2 of you

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