Getting to know you........

Anya

I am 25, married, with 2 children - 6 and 3!!! I work part time at Iceland - 2 mornings whils daughter is at playgroup. Rest of the time I tidy, clean and cook (at home of course!). Spare time (rare luxury) is spent thinking of ways to raise money for my little boy's school. I'm on the PTA and am the Newsletter Editor for it!!! Husband is a Nursery Supervisor and SENCo.
Big MSE Fan!!! Phew - I'm busier than I thought!!

Jess_B

Hi

I am 28 and recently married (since January). I love all this old style especially the cooking tips. I now make all our meals from scratch and bake all our bread whilst saving loads of money!

I work full time for the local council in a job I love but doesn't pay very well!

Good to get to know you all!

nickinoo

I like to read this board but don't always get the time to post, old style is fast becoming a favourite of mine & it's encouraged me to do more homecooking & buy a slow cooker amongst other things.

I am currently a stay at home mum to my 19 month old daughter, my husband is a university lecturer after 9 years in education so we know all about student debts.

BountyHunter

30 in July, work in a call centre. Read more often than post, consequently find myself thanking quite a lot. Trying to convert everyone at work but they think the madness has set in, more fool them! DH works in IT (servers or something like that). Have resurected (sp?) our wedding gift slow cooker (married 4 yrs!). Love the recipe links & my grandma would be so proud of my creative leftovers/stretching etc.

Loadsabob

I've been on MSE for a month or two now, and have found Old Style to be my natural home.

I'm 28, work full time in University admin - am VERY bored by it all, and should really be writing for a living. So I'm going to be doing the Writers' Bureau correspondance course to give my writing some structure and make sure I actually submit work for publication!

In life, I'm happy with my boyfriend of five and a half years; he's 41 and we fortunately have a very similar approach to our finances.

I live alone, in a lovely flat with garden, and grow veg, though haven't reached harvests of self-sufficiency proportions yet! Still, I love it.

I have always naturally been an MSE, never in debt (I don't count the student loan, they'll write that off after 40 years, and the wages in Cornwall are such that I'll never reach the salary required to start repayments!). Student life equipped me well for budgeting, and it comes naturally to me to think before I spend.

I have always cooked from scratch, I love food, and though I make bread and surely save money over some people by using fresh ingredients, I spend a little more to get good, organic produce. I am also eliminating chemicals from my life, and though that is cheap in the home, it's not QUITE so cheap where things like shampoo and deoderant and toothpaste etc are concerned, so I can't really cut back there. But I don't buy much in the way of "beauty products", so it's okay really.

Ideal life would be self-sufficient, cupplementing income with writing from home, with my own little patch in the countryside. Futile hope really, as there's no way I can afford anywhere to live...not even a static home, not on Cornish wages, with Cornish house prices.

I save regularly, haven't taken any of the challenges, as I give myself £50 per week for groceries, entertainment, and all spend after the regular outgoings have gone. Seems to work well for me (apart from the online purchases with Switch!) and have enjoyed meeting you all so far!

pro_bono

I'm coming in at the tail end of this thread, 50 this year with a great family, one son who is 15 and taking oral German GCSE today and his Mum who teaches SEN with a local school. So impressed with the calibre of personality on this web site. Me... I'm lurking, rather than posting, and thats because I cannot keep logged on all the time and hold down this job with trying to keep up with the various threads, Oh as an aside I work in an advertising agency. Regards

Penny-Wise_4

I am 24, married for 2 ½ years – DH is 22 was made redundant on valentines day, 5 months after our wedding and is now in his first year at Uni studying a HND in computer programming.

I am a Legal PA/IT Assistant for a law firm in Manchester and we live on my income and are ‘stoozing’ DH Student Loans and Grants in ISAs and will hopefully use the money to pay off the mortgage when DH graduates :beer: .

I seem to be a natural MSEr/Old Styler. Have got a moths-in-my-wallet gene from my dad and a we-can-make-it-cheaper-at-home gene from my mum (though maybe this is nurture not nature ).

I have always cooked from scratch - We spend about £20 a week on groceries on us 2 and our 3½ cats, we shop at the local market (good greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers, deli and cheese stalls) a fantastic Asian ‘department store’ and local saver shops where possible everything else is delivered by the Tesco van. I don’t do any grocery challenges cos I can’t spend much less!

Both DH and I are determined never to get into any debt. We have credit cards but always pay these off in full (we only spend on them to get moneyback). We are hoping that when DH leaves uni the only debt we will have will be his Student Loan (not even the mortgage).

At that point what I’d *like* to do is buy a house in the country and keep chickens and sheep and grow veg and be practically self-sufficient. But what we *can* do is a different matter :rolleyes: .

klare_2

I work with criminal offenders and ppl with substance misuse issues. my other half is a carpenter by trade but he currently stays at home with the two babies ... the perfect set up ! :T

Rose999

Hi all,

33 yr old mum of a 2 yr old daughter. Work reduced hours (31) as a Customer Services Team Leader for a manufacturing firm and also as a mystery shopper.
With hubby 12 yrs - married 3.
Originally joined MSE in Aug 2003 but had to reregister when the new updated site came into play. I am completely addicted to this site and have saved so much money since joining. I used to live month to month getting by using credit cards and having no idea whatsoever how much or on what I was spending the money! Now however, I have no credit card debts or loans and actually have (very modest - couple of hundred quid) savings! :j
I love Moneysaving Oldstyle - it's my fav part of the whole site! :T

Luis

I have just turned 29 (noooooooo, aaarrrggghhh aaaarrrrgggghhhhh 30 soon!), ex psychiatric nurse, currently 'work for the government' Have taken a massive salary drop to do this - but should be back on track within 2 years, with greater earning potential thereafter. Hope to use the future salary to realise long term ambition of running a boarding kennels.

My house sounds very much like Nile's - total building site, mountains of Pepsi (addicted), and mounds of holiday brochures. I have no kids, and no intention of EVER having any (yuk), hence scrimp and save to fund holiday habit. Current OH also 'works for government', and we both work exceedingly long, stressful days, so our hols are our lifesavers. Judicious use of the internet means we do well at this - have just come back from an amazing week in Egypt, I am off to France at the end of June, both off to Crete in September, and either Egypt again, or Canaries in December hopefully.

When not working or on holiday, half heartedly doing up the house - a never ending job

I have a 6yr old rescue dog who is the love of my life, and an 11 yr old cat who is 'too cool'. :cool:

Old Style ways come naturally to me, as my Granny grew up during the war, and we were very poor when I was a child, so have a 'make do and mend' gene, but this is occasionally overridden by the Ebay gene lol.