Tips and Quick Questions on “How To Start Being Old Style”

mrswive

You've already started!
OS is a state of mind - once you've decided to live in a less wasteful, more conserving way, you'll find that you start to think differently about every aspect of your life. There's loads of good advice and ideas to be found here; some will work for you, others maybe not so much, just keep trying and remember, Rome wasn't built in a day. I'm sure the other posters on here will agree that becoming truly OS is something that evolves over time and any small step is worth taking.
Good luck!

boredjellybean

well so far this week i have had my planning head on - sadly this has meant no housework & too much reading threads on here :rotfl:

sarah xxx

esmf73

First of all well done you! I'm a great one for giving advice (but not always heeding my own!) so have started listening to myself a bit more! What I've done this week as the weather has been nice is to plant out some veg seeds - and I've kept the ones I know I don't use (like half a pack of 250 carrot seeds!) to give to a friend. My 2 boys have been involved with this too. I've made a 14 day meal plan which will use up our freezer and cupboard stocks and also let me swap things round a bit.

I'm blitzing the house whilst the children are in school today - setting myself 15 minute timed gaps to see how much I can do. Its stretched to 30 mins as I don't like to leave it unfinished. Don't know if you could do this if you don't have children in childcare - I found it so difficult! I have also (last week) been through all my clothes and sorted them out so that I can see what I have, and have put some away into a suitcase that I can wear next year. They say that you only wear 20% of your wardrobe anyway! I'm getting very hot on saving fuel (elec & gas) and have sellotaped our thermostat into position as little fingers move it up to 30 degrees. grr! We have a multifuel stove and I recycle as much as possible of the paper junk mail that comes through the door for that. Clothes get handed down from child to child, and toys are bought from ebay. I've already started on christmas presents as I can budget better that way. We're changing our car for a smaller one (no money handed over, and less mileage too!!) and I bulk buy things that I know we use when I can. Most things are home cooked from scratch, but I also like to have a night off now and then, so I get almost ready meals that I can oven bake. Check out jumble sales, charity shops and car boots for all sorts of useful things. Best of luck xx

[Deleted User]

Hi Browsed on here before, and I have decided I need to get my *** into gear, I have about 20k of debt,(Secret) and spend around £400 a month on groceries, just for 2 adults a teenager and a dog, things have to change, I earn some money selling on E***, I have decided to go old style, so any tips would be good, I am determined to get sorted out this year, I can cook so cooking from scratch is not a problem. Any advice very welcome.

Anyone gonna join me?:o

Pink.

Hi fairyface,

Welcome This thread has lots of links and advice to help you get started on Old Style:

Tips and Quick Questions on “How To Start Being Old Style”

I'll add your thread to that once you've had more replies.

Pink

[Deleted User]

Thanks, someone said its not always about making money but finding ways to save it, do you agree?:o

quintwins

fairyface wrote: »

Thanks, someone said its not always about making money but finding ways to save it, do you agree?:o

it helps to make money to spend but yes for me it's about how far you can make the pennies you've got go, i'm interested tho why is debt a secret? because for budgeting and cutting back to work your whole family really need to eb in on it, or your fighting a losing battle

Pink.

fairyface wrote: »

Thanks, someone said its not always about making money but finding ways to save it, do you agree?:o

Absolutely! Old Style is more about making the most of what you have than making money.

if you have a look at Martin's Budget Planner, that should help you to find out if/where you are overspending and give you ideas on how you could cut back. There is also his article on Supermarket Shopping which has lots of hints and tips on saving money on groceries.

Meal planning is a good way to save money. To get some ideas and help with this, have a look in

The Complete Menu Plans Collection

Also there are lots of ideas for cheap meals on these threads:

Cheapest recipes???

Meal for two for 50p. Suggestions?

The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

Feed 6 for £1.62

Cheapest meal

Your Cheapest Evening Meal.

cheap, easy family meals


Each month on Old Style there is a Grocery challenge...this is the current one: April 2011 Grocery Challenge where you can see what everyone elses grocery spends are and you'll get lots of encouragement and support from others there trying to cut back on their grocery shopping.

Good luck with cutting back and I hope you enjoy the board.

Pink

Ilona

What started me off on my frugal lifestyle was the fact that I was sick of work. I decided that if I didn't spend any money, then I didn't have to earn it. So I drastically cut down my spending. If you are in debt though that is a different matter. It would help if you could earn a bit more, but if you spent a lot less as well you could pay it off earlier. Good luck, there is a wealth of information on this forum.
Ilona

kimmy112

i found that with my food shopping i took a step down on each item... ex - if i got a branded item i switched to the stores own brand or if i already got the stores own brand i went to there value brand (unless it was really bad) ive however never skimped down on washing powder (due to mine and my daughters skin) toilet paper (i like my bum in one piece) and deodrant. we have also never cut out are fresh fruit and veg (i like my health)

and with coupon cutting we managed to get out food bill from £80 a week to £40
thats with 2 adults and a toddler + 3 hamsters