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

Willow92

I'm more like my nan than my mum! I used to love going in charity shops with my nan, she died just over a year ago and I miss doing things like that with her She used to play all sorts with me like hangman and naughts and crosses on cut up tissue boxes, oh and she used to feed the birds with stale bread soaked in water or milk.

My mum's just...mum. She simply has to buy everything regardless of whether she needs it or not, I actually had to teach her to ebay some of her old CDs. She let me keep all the money that I got for her CDs, which was only a few pence per item but not too bad. She has 7 or 8 different perfumes and they're all nearly full but I know that when she runs out of one she'll just buy another. I've inherited her obsession with socks, but I was good and threw out the old ones that are obviously too small and tatty. She just keeps buying new ones when she doesn't need them! Oh and she's a brand snob.

My great great auntie has tried to teach me how to knit but I don't think I'm doing it right...

katieowl_2

My Mum had me in 1959 when she was unmarried :eek: Which was very brave of her, but we lived with my Nan until I was 13 and Nan never let Mum forget Mum worked full time from when I was six weeks old, and has worked all her life, she's 76 now but still works two half days a week in a local school! My granny was war generation, so didn't waste much, but she wasn't much of a cook, and neither was mum so food was pretty basic. I taught myself to cook...survival skill!

My gran had some very frugal ways, she'd been a top notch tailor when she was single, and worked in the couture department of Harvey Nicks. She could obviously sew...made most of my clothes as a child...including the dreaded crimplene blazer I had to wear to secondary school (scarred for life I am, the accidental feeling of crimplene in a charity shop still makes me shudder)

The old girl was a tyrant, but did have some very sensible OS ways...her own father was a drinker, and a wife beater I do believe, and she was firmly of the opinion that a woman should have some money of her own squirrelled away that the man of the house knew nothing about in case it was needed. I have to admit I still do that too She bought good stuff, but second hand, including some good jewellry (she'd tamed the jewellers at the end of our road, and I think she did pay off the odd item) and she'd also a couple of fur coats she'd bought at what my grandfather called the 'totters' one was beaver lamb, and the other mole (yuk - hundreds of little pelts)

Money was very tight while I was growing up, mum always earned just a bit too much to get any help with things like uniform grants and the suchlike. Holidays were mainly days out by train, and of course all the museums in London were free. Jumble sales were a source of clothes a lot of the time, but I always had new shoes and underwear.

Mum is not a squanderer, she still saves for things like Xmas and birthdays, and she's always been good to us moneywise, when I was a SAHM, buying sensible things like new shoes for the kids, or chipping in for uniform. She never really had a chance to practice all the OS ways I've develped as a SAHM, cos' she always worked. She does shop in Waitrose :eek: and M&S but she's only catering for herself, and I don't believe that she spends loads on herself anyway! Whenever we see her she always tries to pay for everything, and we (me and the kids) are forever trying to beat her to the till!

Kate

aless02

I get some of my OS/frugal ways from my mom, but (out of necessity) I go a little further than what I remember from my childhood. I'm the youngest, so I think there may been more frugality when she was first married & had my sister, but by the time I came along they were decently comfortable with money. She was a big gardener and sewer, mostly out of passion than thriftiness I think. I don't remember her doing silly stuff that I do now like bubble wrap on the windows, rubber chicken, etc. And we didn't eat super-frugally as I remember meat at every meal and a few ready-sauces and the like (a good mix of homemade and pre-packaged).

bubbs

My os comes from my mum.
My mum had 4 of us (all girls) between 1966-1970 so had her hands very full and now i think i dont now how she did it!! Mum lost her mum when she was 18 so i never knew her, My mum and dad bought a brand new bungalow (where they still live) for £3,000 on a new estate in a village and people thought she was mad paying that amount!! My pap (mum's dad) bought one , one bungalow away where my uncle lived with him, uncle still lives there but sadly pap no more he was such a wonderfull person and like another dad to us as he was always there. Well pap and my uncle used to come up for dinner everyday , dinner was at 6. On Sundays , bank holidays and christmas we went down there for dinner, but mum still coked it! seems strange now but thats the way it was.
Mum and dad have a big garden and dad used to grow all the veg, he also had 2 green houses where all the salad came from in the summer, he grew spring onions outside in the summer too they were like golf balls and so scrummy!!! Mum had nothing to do with the garden , not even cutting front grass that was dad's job and still is.
Dad didnt do much in the house and still doesn't! although hes had to learn quick as mum has just had a new hip.
Mum always worked part time, cooked everything from scratch made all our clothes, dads trousers, coats etc. Every Easter we never had easter eggs we always had a new outfit with ankle socks and sandals can you imagine that now????
My mum then had another daughter just as she was getting her life back together after us growing up, ( i was 18 when she was born and i was 2nd oldest) yet she still went to work part time!!
My mum was amazing what she used to do. Thursdays were her day off, she used to change all the beds we had bunk beds, she used to wash all the walls and skirting down every week when the beds were done, thursday afternoon she used to do all the baking and making for the freezer for the week.
We always knew what was for dinner as you could smell it walking down the close after getting off the bus from school or work, my younger sister would always know when we had "curly meat", rolled breast of lamb that was her favourite! We always had proper meat and veg dinners and a pudding as i suppose thats what filled you up.
Those were the days lol..........

Rainy-Days

What a beautiful thread and there are truly some womderful stories herein.

For what it's worth, my mum was ultra careful with money and she could make something out of nothing. Back in the 1970's of the dark days of Red Robo Robinson and his strikes, my dad worked in the car factories, good money mind, but they were out on strike a massive amount. During the day Dad would be on the picket lines and at night he would do taxi driving to bring the money in. Union money was a pittance! I remember mum going with a friend to jumble sales with a shopping trolley buying us all clothes and we rarely had anything new, but you know what we didn't know any different and we never felt that we were missing out!

Mum was very much like her father who was careful with money and Mum's mother - who was a harridan - was unutterably useless with money! My mum was a nurse before and after her and Dad got married, but my brother was disabled so that meant mum couldn't work. After several operations he was much better and became independent, so in 1980 mum was able to return back to her first love of nursing, but on a part time basis. When my Dad died in the early 1980's she went full time and although I guess she could have lived off benefits somewhat, her pride would never let her. Mum was a damn good cook and homemaker as well.

Back in the late 1980's when I had left uni and started working I was earning good money and she would often say to me about saving. She used to say "you'd do well to understand want my girl" as I was so mad with money. Then I ran up a credit card debt and mum bailed me out. It was a big wake up call and slowly over ten years I have turned very OS. I have a massive way to go, but the important stuff like keeping the finances on an even keel, and making all our meals from scratch has always stayed with me. I lost mum in 2004 but I do think she is around and watching me. She taught me the art of looking after and caring for your possessions and that is something I have kept heart of.

In truthI will never be as frugal and as cleaver with money as she was, but considering where I was back in the late 80's through to the middle 1990's, I think I have made some substantial progress in walking in her footsteps. I have also learned so much more stuff from all the OS here and continue to hone my skills - for that I truly thank you all. :T

BitterAndTwisted

"You'd do well to understand want, my girl!" And then she bailed you out. What a saint and how wise was your mother? You'd do well to carry that one with you all your life, my girl.

skintmum2012

Hi everyone I am finding it so intresting to read everyone's posts. I am not OS to be trendy I run away from anything that's trendy I prefer to just be me. I am trying to be OS and safe money and budget as I am a SAHM and that means more to be then any amount of spending money ever could.
My Nan and Grandad where OS to the day they died. They lived out it the country after working really hard to but there house they got it when houses where cheap and my grandad had a promotion and my mum and aunts where adults. Anyway it was the most charming house 5 bedrooms with fields all around there garden was really big I remember many a happy hour playing in it as a child. Anyway Grandad grew strawberrys,Rasberrys,gooseberrys,Potatoes,Green beans,carrotts and lots and lots of other things as well and keeping chickens and ducks (which of couse made eggs) He spent hours in the garden and he made wine. My Nan would be in the house doing house work she used to have a rota and everything was always spotless and she made jams with the stuff from the garden and bread and cakes and she always used to freeze some she was really good at saving money. What I remember of the house are yummy foods and love it was always a warm happy place. I want to make this for my children I think that's why OS is so importnant to me.

Justamum

I would say that I'm more thrifty and OS than my parents, yet they grew up in the war where thrift was not optional. When we were growing up there was not much money coming in so they had to be frugal then too. Over the years though they have got more wasteful. I've seen my mum throw out perfectly good food including potatoes without a blemish on them because she was going to be away for two days. My dad has been up to his eyes in debt with various credit cards only ever paying off the minimum each month. He's improved a bit now and only has one left I think - I think he saw them as 'free money', but I told him they should be called debt cards. He's never been good with money, but came from an era where a man wouldn't tell his wife how much was in his pay packet, and would hand over housekeeping each week. The rest I think he saw as 'his' money. He didn't budget though, and would only pay the bills when they came printed in red because he was skint. He always had ciggy money though

*zippy*

My parents are 70 odd and have never been OS, we were working class and my Mother has always worked full time and still does, she has never cooked, done food shopping and only buys the best most expensive items etc. I had to start doing the family cooking quite young so we ate more variety, before the age of 10 I actually ate everyday with our next door neighbours as she was a good cook

I made me very organised with money as a teenager and although we had a very low income my husband and I saved a large deposit and bought our first house at 18 and were very frugal, as our income increased we lost our way and overspent, but since finding MSE we have tried to go back to our old ways.

mum26

My nan (dad's mum) is quite OS, she was a working mum and used to pop home in her lunch hour to stick a casserole in the oven for that evening's meal lol! She is quite frugal and plans her money well but I think she could save a lot by switching utilities etc. Also she rarely drives any more but is still paying full tax, insurance etc for her car (she is sprightly at 81, tap dances etc and prefers to bus and walk) while i'm trying to explain that if she SORN's it it can live on her drive and she could afford to taxi the odd journey she doesn't want to bus / we are not available to run her, she feels a bit guilty because it was my late grandads car.

My mum is a brilliant os style cook, give her a rabbit, fish, whatever it'll be gutted, portioned and frozen in a blink,lol! She is an amazing housekeeper too. However apart from very early on in their marriage (the infamous sausages for christmas dinner years ) she hasn't had to be thrifty so she is the sort of shopper who will happily walk into Game for example and buy an Xbox game for £35 while i'll be scouring the net waiting for it to be £17.99 before I even entertain buying it,lol