OS living -a moment of self doubt

IMadeMyOwnLuck

and the reward, as you glide into older age like me is:

phenomenol good health due to a whole lifetime of being aware that `we are what we eat`

comfort and ease in lifestyle through not having overspent on anything and hence being financially prepared for the next 20-30 years

knowing that we have taught our children by example so that the cycle continues

zippychick

Hi Fiona, your post hit a note with me as I get questioned on my OS ways quite often. I am a single 31 yr old girl into metal and rock, i have piercings ( a hoop through my lip, nose, tongue etc) and don't conform in clothes and appearance generally - and I don't really fit the "OS stereotype". (Not that there is a stereotype as such - but people do associate it with the older generation....no offence meant to anyone:D)

People don't expect someone like me to be into baking bread, cakes, cooking from scratch, knitting, trying to crochet - but that's absolutely fine with me! :rotfl:

People soon start to come round though - especially when they taste your amazing "cheap" food - cheap compared to shop bought of course.:D Many of my friends LOVE my cakes, and i have now taught several to make bread and my influence also seems to be rubbing off on my close friends and my brother as well a little , as he is amazed at how "good" meals I can get out of such little ingredients, a little bit of love and imagination.... I make my brother dinners quite a lot and he loves them - but I always tell him they are poor mans dinners :rotfl:ie - made from very little:D

I love to buy second hand things, spruce them up - and make do and mend. For example - I am currently decorating my living room . I bought this house 8 years ago and the living room has not been painted since. My Mum - has offered to help me out cost wise (which is amazing as I have never had help like that), but we have very different ideas of how things should be done. An example would be the door to my living room. it is dark wood with glass panes and grubby. Now i think if it was either glossed, or sanded down and varnished it would be lovely and bring a bit more light into the room. Mum thinks I should just bin it and get a new one. :cool: And we argue about this stuff all the time....

I made her watch economy gastronomy and she loved it. BUT can't be bothered with meals that require herbs, spices or what she would call "complicated" ingredients. I have tried to dare her to write down how much she spends a month on food - and how much of that she bins.... She was making soup the other day - with pre cut veg and Marks stock :rotfl: She didn't put one of the packs of veg in ,as it looked a bit "off"! :rotfl: I couldn't believe it. We had a steak dinner on Fri (treat for Mums birthday) with roasties and veg, and all the remaining veg went in the bin :eek: (it would have worked perfectly thrown into her soup the next day :huh:). I would have brought it home, had i not a load of stuff to carry already - and quite a long journey.

So while she buys into the principle of OS in some ways, she doesn't have the foresigh/interest/energy/motivation to apply it to her own life. And so on a monthly basis she wastes SO much money on pre made food and waste going in the bin. Even the turkey carcass went in the bin :eek:- with simple breast meat taken off, and the legs off. The carcass i had here , the remaining last picks went in the freezer with the legs for my brother, and the carcass made AMAZING stock , which i then transformed into leek and potato soup. :j:T If i had known the turkey was going in the bin I would have rescued it!

I started to knit recently and am trying to learn to crochet. I made a scarf for best friend for christmas, for around £3 - pics here , and i knit my spoilt cat a cushion cover - here and here . Now they are far from perfect, but my friend absolutely eeked with joy at the scarf !:rotfl:

So when i look at people like my Mum - who waste so much, it makes me see I am the wiser one.... I can spend £40 a month on food if I need to and I can make my money go far. Mum actually wrote me a lovely letter at Christmas, saying how proud she was of me for learning how to cook and being able to produce all this lovely food. And that's quite the compliment coming from my fussy mother (do love her to pieces though ) . I was £1300 odd overdrawn and managed to pay it off largely with help from this site and OS - and she told me she was proud of me for that . I have said it before, OS is the replacement for my lovely Gran, rest her soul. Over the years, I knew I could call her any time of day (she went to bed at 10pm!), and she would have the answer. So now I don't have her to call any more,so I pop on here. I have learnt SO MUCH from this forum, it is quite unbelievable. And i learn new stuff every day.:D

Any time someone questions your lifestyle, just genuinely tell them what you get from it. OS means different things to different people and people take it to the levels that suits them, their family and their lifestyle. I long for living in a hot climate, with hens laying eggs and a big plot growing a heap of veg! Preferably with a lovely man to earn the money and I will make a lovely home and spoil my family rotten One day.......:)

For now, I do what I can within my means.

What i GAIN from OS

* I know exactly what goes into my food , and can control my fat, vitamin, preservative and salt intake - as I make most from scratch

* I save a fortune cooking from scratch - even baking your own bread makes a significant saving

* I only eat free range chicken or quality meat from the butchers . I am fussy and prefer not to eat sausages under 90% meat content. I can only afford to do this , as I choose quality over quantity. So I buy quality meat less often. Because of my OS skills, I know how to stretch it without feeling deprived. (Tangent- The last whole chicken I got made 3 generous roast dinners, Stock for two batches of soup, and a load of chicken in the freezer. I could make it go further - but I was making dinner for two friends who had done me a favour. 3 Free range chicken roast dinners, roasties, mash, carrots, peas, gravy, with home made victoria sponge , cream and strawberries - for about £8? The favour was the friends had collected a 32 inch widescreen awesome tv off someone from freecycle - with a glass stand. :j How many people would have bought a new tele, and spent £40 on dinner for 3?)

* I have more choice. To me, a large part of OS is learning where your food comes from,and understanding the implications of what you are eating. I mean, how many people actually think about whether they buy local produce , or support local farmers or businesses? I am learning how to read labels and understand the implications of different types of fats etc. These are all important choices

* I save money. On food, diy, home furnishings, clothes, everything really. If i want to buy something, there is usually a thread about it somewhere on this site - and some way to help you save money. I don't buy into use by dates, or consumerism. I am not here to keep up with the Jones's

* I enjoy it - I love making things - anything, and learning new skills! It is a very therapeutic and rewarding way of life. And i literally eek with joy at something new every day. My baking obsession has now passed to my neighbour, who is also addicted and has a baking cupboard (copied me), and all the scales, whisks, bun trays etc :rotfl: Last night she made up a brownies recipe which was fab!

Sorry for the long post. You obviously hit a nerve

It's normal to have doubts every so often, but just you stick to your convictions and remember the life skills you are passing on for generations through your girls.

xx

kingshir

I love being OS and adored being a stay-at-home Mum and even though my 'children' are all their late 20s now I would still love to stay at home if I could. The need for money is the only thing that drives me out to work:eek: and then only part-time! I was/am never bored (being happy with my own company probably helps there I suppose) and in my opinion NOTHING beats pottering around the house and garden, doing things to suit my own timetable, having time for hobbies/friends and family (not necessarily in that order;)) and being OS suits me! I have a tv but prefer the radio and sometimes all I want is silence, something I definitely don't get at work!!

I'm glad most of us on here don't care/worry what other people think about us. We are doing what makes us happy and even if I became a multi-millionaire tomorrow, there is not a lot that I would change in my life - a few things obviously but not many. The posters here generally come across as genuinely nice people that I am pleased to have 'met' in the ether!! Cheers to you all:beer:

brokeinwales

Hi Fiona, your post hit a note with me as I get questioned on my OS ways quite often. I am a single 31 yr old girl into metal and rock, i have piercings ( a hoop through my lip, nose, tongue etc) and don't conform in clothes and appearance generally - and I don't really fit the "OS stereotype". (Not that there is a stereotype as such - but people do associate it with the older generation....no offence meant to anyone:D)

TBH I'm of the belief that the do it yourself/ make do and mend/ self-sufficiency philosophy that seems to be a big part of the OS approach is about the most genuinly "punk" thing one can do these days...

zippychick

brokeinwales wrote: »

TBH I'm of the belief that the do it yourself/ make do and mend/ self-sufficiency philosophy that seems to be a big part of the OS approach is about the most genuinly "punk" thing one can do these days...

I'm not a punk though It is becoming increasingly common.

Mumof2_2

I am a SAHM of 2 children and am very new to the OS lifestyle - it was only 10 days ago that I was asking what OS actually means ! However, in that short time I am cooking from ingredients (actually making cakes instead of buying them!), making my own bread, am using my slow cooker, am menu planning, have won an Easyyo yogurt maker from ebay so we can do our own yogurt and do my cleaning with Stardrops and white vinegar! Also with the help of the lovely Flyladies on here, my house is slowly but surely improving (been doing this for 3 weeks which is where I started investigating the OS way of life).

I was wasting so much money on branded products and was certainly not averse to 'easy options' when getting food (MaccyDs etc!). A sign I am changing is when I was out with DD and DS - DH was on a course and DD said can we have a McD - normally I'd have gone straight in and bought some but no, I had something home made cooking in the slow cooker. I can also safely say I've bought my last bathroom cleaner - once this one has gone that's it for me.

I know it's only early days for me but I am just loving OS. I think it gives you a better quality of life and I know I'm doing the best I can for my children. DH is so impressed by what's going on. I suffer from depression and he can see real changes in me just in the last few weeks.

Fiona, I'm so impressed by what you're doing - keep going!!!

brokeinwales

zippychick wrote: »

I'm not a punk though It is becoming increasingly common.

I think "punk" in the sense of: rebellious, anti-establishment, doing-it-yourself rather than punk as in the Sex Pistols ....

zippychick

brokeinwales wrote: »

I think "punk" in the sense of: rebellious, anti-establishment, doing-it-yourself rather than punk as in the Sex Pistols ....

I'm not sure where you are going with this?

Purpleclutterbuck

What wonderful wonderful posts from you lovely people! You all deserve a great big slice of cake/chocolate/g&t or whatever is your preference!!!!! :T:T:T
There was I worried about a few inappropriate words spoken to me and in reality there are loads of you who dare to be different neh! revel in the OS way of life!!!!and happily I have been part of another turn on the light moment -I'm soooooo proud
:A:A:A:A:A:A:A:A:A:A:A
The comments are inspiring ,wise and so uplifting that even if this "fashionable" idea of eco and hand-crafted is a flash in the pan deep down I know that somewhere there are OStylers just waiting to start it all over again with the teaching of children ,friends and colleagues -boy! they won't know what's hit them !:rotfl:

thriftlady_2

I get this all the time.

I was nattering on about marmalade making in the school playground the other day and my friend turned to me and said 'wouldn't it be easier to just buy it?' I could have told her that it only costs me 59p a jar to make it, or that I knew exactly what went into it but the real reason I make my own is because it makes me happy