your own personal Old Style?

manicdays

Hello all!

Old Style is very very good. I am not doing it properly as such yet but am taking very small steps, if I do it all at once it will be too much.

After Christmas I will make a huge effort to make my life OS.

Anyway, my point of the post is this! (I ramble, get used to it!)

How do you OS? I won't have a slow cooker or a breadmaker, which loads of you have.

Also I am veggie & my DH & children are not. I will plan the meals to be kind of the same (if I make a chicken curry I will have a veggie one).

How do you plan your week to week/month to month budget. Especially in relation to pin money saving!

Thank you all!

Lisa x

apple_mint

Manicdays

I gradually built up to OS by setting up a basic storecupboard which is used as my base ingredient stock to OS dishes. So I have lots of of odd glass and plastic containers which I keep topped up with things like different sugars, flours, rice, pastas, etc. I also buy a different herb or spice each week.

I make my own yogurts and OH is in charge of breadmaking (we did invest in a breadmaker and have never bought shop bread since).

Youngest daughter is vegetarian and I adapt meals to give her a vegetarian portion. For example tonight I'll probably make pasta with pesto for daughter but add grilled salmon to our meal. (we buy a whole salmon from Costco and slice into portions and freeze - costs about £1 a meal for 2 this way).

I also regularly buy my meat from the local farmers market and stock up the freezer. This way I have choice. Last week I bought 10lb of lamb mince (pre-ordered).

After a while OS shopping becomes a way of life and with the variety of recipes on MSE it is always possible to come up with something new. Most of the ingredients in the recipes I now have in my storecupboard and I'm just adding seasonal vegetables and fruit to the list.

Oh, and I buy the value flour (plain and self raising) - it works just as well. I just sift it into the bowl. So a great saving there (27p a bag)

Chipps

One way of saving money is to plan the meals for up to a month ahead. What you could do in the intervening period before Christmas, is to make a note of all the meals you have, & perhaps some from this thread you would like to try.
Then what I do is to write all the days down the side of a sheet of (re-used of course!) A4 paper, and fit the meals in.
Try to ensure that any leftovers or double cooking go in the right place, eg if you intend to do roast dinner one day, why not cook extra veges for a pie the next day eg potatoes for a mashed potato topping. If you make a bolognaise sauce, cook 2 or 3 and freeze the extras. I then have to put a reminder on my menu plan to get the frozen dinner out the night before & put it in the fridge!
After I have made the menu, I then go through it & make out the shopping list based on that.

brokenwings

Morning Manicdays

i have jumped into OS with both feet virtualy overnight - however i was already half way there with our own veggie garden chickens and ducks.

My changes though have come from the way i shop and the way i now cook.
Before OS i would buy ready made cakes and prepacked deserts/pies etc
i didnt exactly buy ready meals but i bought stuff like tescos finest fish already in sauce and would then add our own veg and tatoes.
i would even buy ready mashed mash even though i could go outside and dig our own potatoes! i was just lazy.

now i do all my own baking ( except bread ) and make all meals from scratch. my slow cooker is my best friend. But mostly i have just changed the way i shop - i also buy a lot of value stuff - and have a store cupboard full of basics. I got my old cook books out and wrote a 'meal ideas' chart out for inspiration and i cannot tell you enough how much you need to do a meal planner and shop from a list.

i could go on and on but it would overwhelm you and hardly be a step at a time lol

enjoy
do what feels right for you for now but im warning you its addictive : )
x

manicdays

these ideas are fabulous!

One thing I have been doing is using what I have alreadty got in the house.

Sometimes I'd have a pantry & freezer full of food but still go & buy something for dinner in the shop & come out £20 lighter with not much to show for it.

I would love to keep chickens for the eggs but we are plagued with foxes around here.

Lisa x

Quasar

I buy BOGOFs whenever I see them as long as it's for something I normally buy and I know I will use it.

I no longer waste food. If I have stuff in the fridge that is almost past it I make use of it and don't go food shopping till the next day or whenever I really need to re-stock. A bit of hard work to keep to this, but I save about £2 per week (£100 a year).

Before I turn the heating on, I put on my fleecy, warm dressing gown and socks.

I keep a small, old fashioned whistling kettle full of water on the heaters where it gets quite warm, and when I need to cook or boil the kettle, the water is already half-way there.

A hot water bottle between my feet and a thick insulating layer of cardboard on the floor, keeps me warm on those long winter nights sitting at the computer. Half a teaspoon of salt in the water keeps it warm for longer, and for this I use salt sachets I find when I'm out and about.

I don't throw away paper napkins etc I am given when I eat out, but take them home where they have a hundred little uses. Hold on, when I say I eat out, usually this is on business so I don't pay for it!

I no longer switch the TV on and forget about it. If there is nothing I WANT TO WATCH, I switch it off and listen to some music instead. Less electricity.

I could go on and on but I don't want to bore you!!!!

cath-w

I am probably a bit more old style than a lot of people as I do not believe that electrical gadgets in the kitchen is very 'old style'. For cooking I have a kettle, an oven and a hand blender and that is it.

- I wash clothes in the washing machine in cold water with very little powder (unless really dirty and then I will use hot water). Everything is line or air dried.

- I grow most of my own food and avoid supermarkets like the plague. Any other food is bought from independant shops, e.g. butchers. This way I manage to reduce packing and waste to a minimum. I bottle and store any excess produce and sell some to earn money for more seeds.

- I cook everything from scratch, including ice cream, bread etc. I even tried to skim cream off full fat milk, but this didn't work! The only things I buy processed are cheese, cream, milk, tea and occasionally tins of beans. I am also a veggie and husband is not so we eat mostly vegetarian meals with a bit of meat thrown in. Bacon butties keep him happy too.

- Luckily I can sew and knit so I make a lot of presents for people and also make clothes for myself too. As we are renovating a house I also make a lot of items for the house such as quilts, curtains ect.

- I do not buy cleaning products except for bleach, washing powder and washing up liquid. I use a combination of these and essential oils to clean everything.

- I never wear make-up and do not use shampoo and conditioner to wash my hair just bar soap (luckily my hair is fairly short). I keep all cosmetics to a minimum. We also have only a small single wardrobe each and so there is a limit to the amount of clothes we can own (this was one of my sticking points at first - I also won't mention the nice new boots I bought yesterday).

- Our house is decorated with lots of nice colours and fabrics, but with no clutter. The only room that is almost done is the bedroom (although still got not floor covering yet). There are built in cupboards flush to the wall and our clothes fit in here. This means the only thing in the room is the bed and a small shelf with an alarm clock on it. There are a few pictures and a hanging on the wall, but no other furniture or items. This makes it much easier to clean and keep tidy. Most of the house is similary uncluttered.

- We have no t.v. and have not had for years. We spend time reading, listening to music, I go and wrestle with my garden and the weeds, walking, out with friends etc. We get a lot more time with no t.v.

- we do not use plastic bags, but cloth ones. I do not buy kitchen roll or food bags etc, but use alternatives that can be washed and re-used.

C.

Unfortunately, a lot of this good work in simple living is undone by the fact that I own a big, dirty racing motorbike.