Are you more thrifty, OS and MSE than your mother?

Kitchenbunny

Mum's lovely, but I think I'm probably more OS than she is. She knows a lot of the older ways of doing things but I'm not sure that she has put them into practice. I've tried them and occasionally pass on tips to her.

KB xx

Ladyhawk

My mum was very old style when we were growing up... she had to be really. My oldest brother tells a story of how he got a second hand track suit for his birthday one year which was a few sizes to big. We were always getting second hand stuff and never had holidays. But we didn't know any different. None of our friends were any different either.

My mum sewed and always cooked from scratch (where we lived there was no such thing as takeaway really or readymeals). We grew some fruit in the garden and mum always cut our hair. Sadly I can't sew for the life of me and only passed Home Economics at school cos I can cook so well.

I am definintely the most frugel of my family. My youngest brother has no concept of money and spends £100 per month on heating his two bed flat!!!!!!!! I barely spend that in 6 months! My parents laugh at me (in a nice way) saying how proud my granny who lived in Yorkshire would be of such a thrifty grand daughter. Sadly I didn't ever meet any of my grandparents.

CupOfChai

I really don't know! Shall have to interrogate her on her spending and saving habits *rushes off to phone mum*

I think we might end up being about the same really, but in different ways. I'll also have to ask her mum. I keep finding, possibly a bit bizarrely, that my nan and I have a fair bit in common and some of which we will have in common but my mum doesn't, as if some odd trait skipped a generation. I think I started off with an innate money sense that I got from much of my family, and have learnt to build on that, a lot of us I can think of especially my mum's side are OS and/or MSE in some ways or others.

Patchwork_Quilt

My Grandma is famous in our family for being frugal and being able to make clothes, meals and even shoes from virtually nothing. She was like that until she died and passed on her skills to Mum, who inspired me to grow my own, knit and make jam. However, it does sadden me a little that Mum no longer bakes, gardens or even cooks. Although I can see that she is intent on having a good time, I think she might be missing out on the satisfaction and the creative side of doing things the old-fashioned way. In reply to the original question, then, I think she was quite money saving when she was my age but now all that has gone out of the window.

irishwexford

My poor mother had no choice. She had ten children to clothe and feed on my fathers low wage and that was after he took out his Saturday night drink money. She used to sit up half the night knitting and sewing our school clothes and must have been sick with worry about finding food to last the week. We had a very large garden full of veggies and lots of chickens which helped. In Ireland you had to pay for doctor if you did not work and at times she had flu so bad but could not afford to have the doctor in. We had no washing machine or fridge. She must have dreaded each year with a new baby to look after. I decided that was not for me and wanted everything at once when I married, I just did not want to have the life my mother had. When my children was small I worked evenings to get them good shoes and school clothes. So glad now that we did not have credit cards in those days so we were never in debt.

katholicos

My parents were poor when me and my brother were growing up. Dad used to weld bits of baked bean tins to the rusty holes in the car and he also grew salad veg in the garden to supplement our groceries...he worked hard for his family and put us first everytime....as a mechanic, as a postman, in a factory.... he even tried to set up a business but alas could not afford to continue with it for more thana couple of years.

Mum worked part time as a dinner lady and then as a shop assistant and suchlike and the little that she earned enabled us to go camping in our second hand tent and later in our rather rusty caravan (that matched our rusty car!). I have a poor memory... part of the symptoms of my poor health, but i do remember that they were happy times. We were poor but we were happy and we loved being together.

Mum cooked from scratch every day, she mended our clothes, knitted a little, kept the house tidy, cut our hair, took us to school each morning and collected us in the afternoon. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have been blessed with the parents i have been.

Nowadays, my parents have a more stability financially, but unfortunately they do not have the good health to enjoy it...i wish this was not the case, but we still have that closeness, we are still there for one another and i find that now i can help my parents out...not with money, because i have none, but in passing on my money saving ways, in growing some veg and sharing it with them. Mum never made jam or chutney or any preserves because she really didn;t have time...she was always busy taking care of home and family and doing her part time job...., and she absolutely loves it when i give her and Dad some of my preserves. My parents are so proud of me because i have embraced old style values and ways of doing things....and i am so proud of them for all that they have done for their family, I couldn;t possibly have had a better start in life.

OrkneyStar

I am perhaps more thrifty (some might say stingy)- my mum has never been overly rich but one of the lovely things about her is how generous she is with what she does have (money, time etc).
We must remember OS is not about judging who is more frugal than who, but about learning for ourselves, and perhaps educating others in a sensitive way. Some ways of being frugal work for one but not another, but it does not make the more frugal person any better. I am sorry to say it but some of these posts do sound a bit judgemental. Some people just like to spend what they have and be generous with it, and that is their character. As long as they are not getting into debt with it who are we to say otherwise ?
In terms of clothes I love a second hand bargain, but then if there were not people who bought far too many clothes and donated them in excellent condition it would not be so easy to get these bargains- it takes ALL types!

Gers

This thread makes me smile - such lovely memories and thoughts.

My mother STILL has wrapping paper first used in the 40s, it get used each year and then has to be returned to her. If she is given a present which has sellotape on the paper she rants about the waste for ages! :rotfl: She also has a box of string, all pre-used and all saved up, a great big button box and tins of food which, I'm sure, date from the 70s!

She always cooks from scratch, except for some treats now and then, and still bakes the most delicious cakes and biscuits. Some of my fondest and strongest memories revolve around her food production. Even now her fridge will have little left overs wrapped up and tucked away for later use - sometimes I worry that she's keeping food too long but it hasn't killed her yet.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

i can remember my mother going through various stages....but on the whole she wasnt a big on cooking..... she did make lovely sunday dinners, and that was it....

i think i get my frugal living from my grandparents ( father's parents) every time i went there, there was allways handmade cakes in the cupboard... and she was allways knitting or doing some sort of craft.... wasnt even good at them:rotfl: but she injoyed it... and my grandfather was allways in the garden, or down the shed... making or mending something....i miss them so much... a generation that i personally feel we need them now.... to help us with all this global finacial mess

Hermia

My mum is 65 and I am definitely more frugal than her. She buys all her food from M&S. Her shopping bill is horrendous, but she just cannot be bothered to go to different shops even though they are all within a few minutes of each other. She also throws out a lot of food. She buys something and then decides she fancies something else for dinner instead.

My mum grew up in a poor family so she definitely knows how to be frugal. But, like many women of her generation when she got married she just handed over all the responsibility for the bills to her husband. And they were lucky to buy a house when prices were low so they never had a huge mortgage. I think my life has just made me more frugal than her. I am single and having to pay rent etc out of a single income (in an area where rents are pretty high). My mum admits that she cannot imagine what it must be like to be responsible for rent or a mortage on a single income.

I wonder if the interest in environmentalism and conservation is also a factor. My mum drives me mad because she leaves the lights/TV/radio on in rooms she is not using. She also uses tons of water etc. I don't do these things partly because of a desire to save money, but also because I have grown up in an era where wasting resources is seen as terrible for the enivronment.