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

vanilla

Hi everyone,
My names jacqui and i'm 25. I'm married nearly a year (22nd september) and have been with oh for 8 years, we have 3 children aged 6,4 and 3 my oldest is disabled and so is my husband. I am a stay at home mum and a carer.
I joined this site a while ago but didn't get round to useing it much as had a lot going on at the time, this past few weeks i've spent alot of time looking about and getting alot of advice. I came here because i don't have a clue what i'm at (cooking, house keeping,budgeting, bills, etc), i want to get organized not just for my sanity but also my kids.
I have gotten so much advice so far and i'm slowly learning, so thanks to everyone.:beer:

Newly_retired

Hi everyone
As the name tells you I have recently retired and become addicted to the MSE site, especially as my usual activities - choirs etc - are not running in August, so I have too much time on my hands after years of never any time to spare. We're going to have to get used to living on less, but since my Mum was the thriftiest person ever known ( having lived through WW2 and behaved for the next 60 years as if we still had rationing) I have always been careful with money. Someone on here said the best way to save money is never go to the shops and since I don't like shopping that sounds a great idea. However as we need to eat I have to visit the supermarket ( no local butcher or green grocer ).
You can rarely save money AND time but now I have time I will concentrate on saving money OS. I've had lots of practice over the years especially when I was a SAHM.

moanymoany

Hi, I call myself moanymoany on here, not because I moan, but because of the song from the 60’s – so now you know how old I am!

February 2005 I became a full time carer of my mum and stepdad overnight. There followed a year of the most awful stress which wrecked our health, DH back on track, but I have been left with asthma. There are people who post on MSE who have been and are in the same boat and understand absolutely how caring affects people.

I am now semi-retired, but teach people to speak English part time and I have a lodger under the rent a room scheme. I discovered the OS forums about a year ago, and through them I have become an avid follower of frugality. I love following the links put on the posts as they open up the world of the sometimes helpful and sometimes just plain weird to me.

I’m posting this at 4am because I can’t sleep! So I have MSE on the PC and the Day of the Jackal on Sky+ - one of my luxuries! Through Martin’s advice, and the advice of all the posters we are saving 60% of our income for our retirement. I have a collection of frugal recipes and an allotment which is supplying most of our veg (ok, it is mostly beans and courgettes, and the winter stuff is coming on well).

For me, and I know for many other people who post, MSE has been life changing. All I can do is say thanks and add my two pennorth in the hopes that it helps someone else. :j

rsdiscos

Hi I am a mum of 2 ds1 is 5 ds2 is 2.
I am a 4 day a week supply teacher.
Hubby is just about to join me doing supply teaching after being signed off sick with stress and depression for 6 months and resigning from an assistant head's job. There is going to be a difference in wages as well as saving and organising our money better to cover the holidays where we don't get paid.
In the past we have been very stupid with money and have a lot of debt.:mad:
On the positive side I have always cooked most of our meals from scratch and like cooking. I have been loitering around the board for a while and picked up some great tips. Also picked up thrifty ways from the library ( except they had the title as thirty ways - I told them there was a lot more than that!! lol)
I can't believe how much food I used to waste and throw away:eek: ohhh slap my hand. All I need now is another freezer. We haven't any room to freeze bread and milk and I am trying to batch cook but need more room:rolleyes: .
I am going to do the grocery challenge but am waiting till I do my shop probably on Tuesday!:j
Thanks rsdiscos wife

redmel1621

Hi

I have loved reading everybody's posts......

I am 27 (28 in Oct) I work P/T in my local Pharmacy and am currently studying towards a Literature Degree I live with my husband (5yrs Sept 6th), we have been together for 13yrs, and my two boys who are almost 5 & 7.

Once I have graduated I want to become an English teacher (secondary). My husband is also a student doing a Degree in Physics...

In a previous life...I was a retail manager and dh was a computer engineer we had the house, the car, the dog etc. etc. but both miserable....... SO hopefully (with the great help of this site) we can scrape through the next couple of years until we are in our dream jobs.

Mel x

plumduff55

Hi, I am a divorced "empty nester" on the wrong side of 50. I am very used to frugal living, scrimping and saving as my marriage ended over 20 years ago when my 3 children were all under school age. I never received any maintenance payments from my ex and went back to work when my youngest child was 5 (now in his last year at Uni). I have been visiting this site daily now for nearly a year and a half and this is my first post! This site has given me inspiration to pay off my mortgage - my last payment will be in December and will be 7 years early. From being in the position that I was forced to live 'hand to mouth' I now love the challenge of making a little go a long way - MSE reinforces my values. THANKS

Olliebeak

Hello everybody - My first name is Olga (hence the Olliebeak - any baby boomers remember Olliebeak and Fred Barker from 5 o'clock club?) and you'll find from most of my posts that I really am a night-time owl. Often found to be posting around/after midnight.

I live in Huyton, Liverpool, am 56, mother to 3 adult children (they'll NEVER grow up!) and Narnie to three grandchildren (with another due in November).

I love this OS money-saving idea and wish I'd found it ages ago when I first came on this site.

One thing I found recently - but forget who posted it - was to do your laundry according to the weather forecast. Why the heck have I never thought about doing that years ago! Such a simple idea but just has to be financially effective!!!!

I grew up living with grandparents in the 50's and many of my early memories are of living with the after-effects of rationing. Grandma was so old-fashioned compared with my friends at school who had young trendy parents. We kept hens, had a cockerel, picked blackberries and nettle-tops on country walks (home-made blackberry and apple desserts and lots of nettle-beer). Grandma also made rag-rugs to put on our lino-covered floors in the bedrooms. We had lino covered floors downstairs with large squares of carpet (like many people in those days). New ones only ever got bought for the parlour and then that one would go into the living room (known as the 'kitchen' in our house - as opposed to the 'back kitchen' where the cooking was done!). Our 'kitchen carpet' would then go to a family along the road who were financially worse off than we were - as did many of my clothes when they were outgrown. (notice outgrown NOT outworn - clothes HAD to be looked after). Anything that was outworn (underwear etc.) was always recycled into dusters and cleaning clothes. Old coats and grandma's pinnies became rag rugs - any buttons and re-useable zips removed of course!

I still can't throw out anything with buttons/zips on - unless it's going to the charity shop. Have bought stuff from the charity stuff for my children when they were young, changed buttons etc on them, they've worn the items, and I've returned them again and they've fetched more on return than I paid for them! Working in the charity shop was one of my voluntary things when the kid were small - along with running a mother and toddler club in our community centre - and further education in the local community school.

I now work full-time as a Scheme Manager in Sheltered Accommodation for Older/Vulnerable People.

redsquirrel80

Olliebeak wrote: »

I still can't throw out anything with buttons/zips on - unless it's going to the charity shop.

This made me smile, I was throwing out a pair of trousers recently (sadly unsalveagable after melting a large bit with the iron ) and I took all the buttons and zip off and kept them as I thought they might come in handy - I've always tried to mend clothes as far as possible but these days I'm doing more and more of it. I seem to be accumulating a collection of buttons, bits of material and zips... yep, I'm turning into my mum! :eek: :rotfl:

LollopyBear

Hello all,

This is my first post on this forum, though I have been lurking for several days!

I'm 23yrs old, married to my DH since March, been together for 6 years and living in Cambridgeshire. Our big, grand dream is to eventually become self-sufficient in a small-holding in the country, but that is still several years away. I am trying hard to learn new, frugal skills. My mother was very frugal when my brother and sister were small, but by the time I was born (10 years later) they were financially comfortable and so she lapsed and enjoyed the comforts so I was never taught. I am fascinated with war-time rationing and love talking to my Grandmother about it - she still has her ration book and other memorabilia.

I have no idea about cooking from scratch beyond a few basic recipes, and I am in awe of people on here doing such wonderful things with leftover bones/meat/veg etc. as I wouldn't know where to begin with that. I'm just taking it one step at a time. I went bramble picking yesterday and now have a couple of big bags of blackberries in the freezer, waiting til I can get my hands on a jam pan.

I look forward to getting to know you all. You seem like such a great group of people!

Olliebeak

Many thanks to you all for your words of welcome and an MSE OS welcome to LollopyBear!

I had years of living on benefits when with my 'ex-other half' - so learned many tricks for making ends meet.

Luckily I'd been making my own clothes for YEARS before meeting him - so it was no hardship to continue after marriage. Also often made the children clothes - apart from the stuff I got from charity shops or friends.

I had also learned to knit and crochet in my late teens so there were always pretty baby clothes and shawls for my children when they were born. To make extra money, I used to make things for other people especially before Christmas when people ordered Aran sweaters from me.

I've also made bridesmaids dresses for other people, holy communion dresses, outfits for Orange Lodge parades in July - the list goes on. But all ways that I had for making money.

Left over wool was collected into large binbags and then used double to make crocheted blankets for the children's beds in the winter months. If they were brightly coloured they made good bedspreads.

Good luck with the self-sufficiency thing - sounds idyllic and hope you and DH achieve your dream.