Passing on OS to the next generation

PasturesNew

I grew up having about two new knitted dresses/year from mum + what her friends at work/neighbours handed over. Got money for school dinner until I went to college, when I only got money for four dinners, but I worked out that if I asked the dinner lady for "half a bowl of soup and a cheese roll" then "half a bowl of soup" was generous and meant I could buy 5 dinners with 4 days of money.

I got part-time jobs, dishwashing, babysitting, to buy a few new clothes from age 14 onwards; it took me about 35 babysitting sessions at £2/night (4 kids, 5-6 hours) to save up for my first ever radio cassette recorder, which was great because I could then save and buy some blank cassette tapes (50p each from the cheap shop) and I could record songs I liked from the Top of the Pops radio programme on a Sunday night, so never needed to buy a record.

I didn't do cookery at school, tried it but as we were poor and couldn't afford the ingredients it meant I had to use the school's stuff and you made the food, then it was taken off you and flogged in the staffroom to replenish the stocks...so I lost interest and it was only for one term anyway.

At home, we had a garden where we grew every vegetable and fruit you could imagine and whatever I wanted for tea I just had to pick or dig up a lot of the time. Vesta curries were a real special exotic treat in our house.

My ability to spend nothing on food and still manage to be overweight is luck and concentration on what I'm doing when I cook.

Vaila

im 19 and had home economics lessons all through my secondary education, but i found them very poor, mostly because i had taught myself how to cook and sew, the only things that i really took from it was the more buisness side of food manufacturing and retailing

for me im actually quite suprised about some of the topics on the os board as to me most of it is second nature and things like seasonal shopping plus looking out for bargains are common sense !

Pink.

I think teens can be hard to reach sometimes but if you've set them an example at home there's a good chance that they'll carry it through into adulthood.

My daughter is in her final year at uni and could certainly rival me in the homemaking/moneysaving stakes...yes there were times when she sneered at my ways as she was growing up, but recently I took her to the reduced aisle on the way to the airport to take her back to uni and she just looked at the reduced readymeals and pronounced that she could make it all from scratch for half the reduced price! Put me firmly in my place.

DS1 (17) is a maths wizzard and great at spotting bargains in the shops and a gem to take shopping, but what he saves burns a hole in his pocket... :wall:

DS2 (10), has the most generous nature out of the three of them, but is a complete miser regarding wasting money and has saved every penny he's ever been given. If he's out with friends and I call him on his mobile to tell him it's time he was home for tea, he'll run home rather than waste my money by answering the call! :A

Each individual child/teen will be different. I think the best thing you can do is set a good example and try to teach them [STRIKE]that money doesn't grow on trees[/STRIKE] the value of money and how to budget. They'll probably go their own way and perhaps mess it up from time to time, but with a decent example to fall back on they'll more than likely get it right in the end.

Pink

JulieGeorgiana

My son is 8, and he has to earn his money. He gets £2 a week, but all I ask is that his room is tidy. Everything out of place loses him 20p! He get's £1.60 - £1.80 a week (the bottom of his wardrobe always loses him 20p)!!

He can earn money when he wants my agreeing a price to do a chore around the house (ie. 50p for washing floors)

If he has a school trip, he pays half.

If he wants a school dinner, he pays half.

If he wants a specific pair of shoes for £30 and I was going to buy ones which cost £10, he has to pay the difference.

If he needs a gift for a friends Birthday, he pays for it... but we make it, so normally it's £1.09 for a Chocolate bar to melt into our own shapes.

If my son misbehaves he get's three warnings and then the naughtie corner (oh yes, they are never to old) and he loses 50p... well, this year he's paid me a grand total of 50p!!! Not bad i'd say!

He get's charged 10p for leaving his lights on in his room when he's in the front room.

We are about to start making him pay for the fruit he doesn't eat in his lunch box... 20p a fruit! I don't mind paying for what he eats, but I won't pay to throw it away.

Once a month he cooks, he has to choose a menu, look in the freezer and cupboards and make a shopping list and try and keep the cost as low as possible. He then does the shopping at the supermarket. He cooks with an adult in the room, and serves everyone some nice meals!

This month he decided he was going to budget £5 of his own money and buy and make Taco's! His shopping list adds up to £4.21!

On the whole he's a good child, who for Christmas told me if I had no money the scarf I was knitting him was enough, as long as we spend the day as a family.

I am not sure how much of this can be applied to teenagers, but I hope some of my idea's may help.

cyclingyorkie

dandy-candy wrote: »

I never did home economics at school but I was baking and cooking at home from the age of 13 purely from a love of food! I was lucky that my dad was keen on cooking (my mum couldn't cook for toffee) and so I had access to some cook books and so long as I washed up after I was given a free rein in the kitchen.
My kids are hopeless in all things OS but I have to take full responsibility. I'm one of those people who can't bear to see something done wrong and so step in and take over - now my kids can't cook, work the washing machine (let alone sort their clothes into colour piles), sew or anything and I get lumped with doing it all, fool I am!!

You're not the only one!

Luckily DD2 loves cooking - she did Food Tech GCSE and she's brilliant in the kitchen! The other 2 are useless!

Penelope_Penguin

Pink-winged wrote: »

I think teens can be hard to reach sometimes but if you've set them an example at home there's a good chance that they'll carry it through into adulthood.

Each individual child/teen will be different. I think the best thing you can do is set a good example and try to teach them [STRIKE]that money doesn't grow on trees[/STRIKE] the value of money and how to budget. They'll probably go their own way and perhaps mess it up from time to time, but with a decent example to fall back on they'll more than likely get it right in the end.

Totally agree with this :T My children have always eaten food cooked from scratch and seen me and DH make things. Sometimes they're intereseted in learning for themselves, sometimes not.

They've had an allowance for clothes, phone and entertainment from age 11, and they've learned to budget.

This year they have both learned to knit :T

This holiday DS has been extremely keen to cook. I've mentioned what he's cooked to everyone who's come round, and they've been impressed. DD decided that she wanted some of that praise too so made the most delicious tiramisu yesterday

I take the view that they'll learn to cook when they're ready, but there's no point my forcing them. I could bake when I left home, but taught myself main courses from a book

phizzimum

would your kids enjoy cooking a meal for the family once a week, or even once a month? My DD is 12 and enjoys having the opportunity to pick the menu and have control over our meal for a night (maybe it's so she can guarantee a meal with no lentils for once!) I tend to let her get on with cooking by herself - otherwise I find it hard not to interfere and offer "helpful" advice. I know when I'm trying to learn something new I find it offputting to have someone breathing down my neck watching every mistake! She's pretty sensible with knives, heat etc as I've always encouraged the girls to help me cook from quite a young age.

She gets pocket money (paid directly into her bank account) but also does about half an hour of ironing a week and I pay her £10 per month for that. She uses this money for her phone - and depending on how much she uses the phone she can have money left over for herself too. £5 a month will give her unlimited texts but if she sends MMS or downloads stuff her money will go. But it's money she's earned so it's up to her.

I try not to make a big deal about being thrifty - I don't want my kids to grow up to be tight fisted - but I am aware that it's my job to help them grow into responsible adults, and I don't want them to have to learn the hard way (by getting into debt)

seraphina

My mum never explicitly sat me down and said, right this is how you budget, this is how you cook. BUT she was always doing OS and you learn a huge amoutn through the Absorption method! It was always - here, stir this white sauce while I answer the phone, don't throw that out, I'll do xyz with it. And before you know it I was OS!

beemuzed

I certainly learned through watching my Mum, and indeed my Nan, for both of whom being OS was just the way it had to be. My son can certainly cook from scratch, although he finds budgetting hard.

flutterbyuk25

seraphina wrote: »

My mum never explicitly sat me down and said, right this is how you budget, this is how you cook. BUT she was always doing OS and you learn a huge amoutn through the Absorption method! It was always - here, stir this white sauce while I answer the phone, don't throw that out, I'll do xyz with it. And before you know it I was OS!

I agree with this. I was never 'taught', it was just a natural learning from watching parents/grandparents do things. My parents always cooked from scratch. Me and my brother were expected to help cook/prep from an early age (we wanted to, not forced!). One, or both of my parents were always home when I was a kid. My Dad always did any DIY in the house, so I learnt that from him. The only things I never learned were knitting and sewing, I can do the basics but nothing else. My mum is useless at it! It's something I may learn in the future but at the moment it's not an interest of mine.

I adore cooking, and cook 95% of my meals from scratch (I buy the the odd thing like a shop pizza or curry). I batch cook automatically.

I work with teens/young adults, many of whom are living on their own in bedsits/hostels. It's shocking to see how few of them know how to cook, even basic things like pasta. I really wish I could teach them some form of cooking, but we don't have the facilities. I do try and teach them budgeting though, but it has limited success. We do allow them access to tea/coffee but they have to pay 10p a cup and but their own supplies, but you find that the sensible ones of the group pay and the others mooch off them.

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