OS Achievements of 2006

Mr_Proctalgia

What an interesting and thought provoking thread - Well done!

What have I done the last year that is OS difficult but here goes

Bought a house for cash - Have no unavoadable bills at all now.

Still cooking from scratch

Not been shopping since November!!! (except for some booze)

Still emptying the Freezer/larder

Cancelled Christmas this year (spent £16)

Bought an LPG powered car (AKA The proctster - RobinTeK Turbo XR 3x3i LOL)


Scrapped the BM and do it by hand now

Fitted a Woodburning stove

Made some curtains

Became interested in gardening

Got a job!

Use Soapnuts and Soda

Use less leccy than £1 a day - Still waiting for Gas to be supplied!

Started Freecycling

Make sausages

Make butter (When I can find cheap cream)

Started batch cooking

Started to read once again and get a life too......

There must be more but it eludes me just now.

JillD_2

Great thread!

Mine are:
reduced monthly shopping bill by £100
learned to make green tomato chutney
make all my own bread
get my fresh yeast freee every week from Asda
learned how to use a slow cooker
menu plan every week, no more "what will they have tonight" stress
following FLYlady and keeping house in order
made pizza bases in BM instead of getting takeaway
organising finance much better and though we are more strapped than ever we put away money every month too a holiday fund
discovered Stardrops
batch cooking for England!
discovered freecycle, have received and given

my main goals for 2007 are:-
:cool: to make more homemade biccies etc for the kids to eat - discover a recipe they can help with and actually eat (they are v picky, its so annoying)
:cool: to eat more healthily myself and shift a bit of the excess weight
:cool: I'd like to grow a few more veggies this year - did tomatoes last year - but will decide in spring
:cool: shift loads of clutter from the garage on freecycle and Ebay
:cool: keep up all the good work from 2006!!

Good luck for 2007 everyone!!!:T
Jill

stilernin

I'm a late starter on this board but I suspect that I have been a closet OSer any way.........much to the embarrassment of my children!

Since joining here only a few months ago I have ...........

-learnt how to use coupons etc
-learnt how to search for freebies on the net
-learnt how to use my Advantage card to my advantage
-begun to haggle in stores for most purchases
-bought a new SC
-discovered Stardrops (still using up 'expensive' stuff though)
-become more aware of energy that is used in the house

Before joining,and moving house via a 3mth stay with relatives which meant a major declutter of home of over 20yrs, I had ............

-lost over 3st with SW
-gave up most processed food (green days in SW suited me fine)
-made meals with what was to hand
-grown veggies in garden for many years
-made jam, chutney, blackcurrant gin from own produce
-always searched out bargains
-always bought early for Christmas... 1/2 price cards, paper etc
-not generally been conned by glossy adverts laced with 'healthy' or 'scientific' claims


To improve on in 2007

-investigate being a Flylady.... living on my own makes it too easy to not bother
-work out what to do with all of the toiletries bought with Tesco coupons!!
-use up all of the 'bargains' before buying any more.... 'bargains' are one of my addictions
-getting a move on with refurbishing my new home
- get back on the wagon re the weight... living with relatives made it hard to police what was in all of my food
-make use of the £350 sewing machine bought to save money on some curtains I made for someone... old one was a victim of the declutter

Finally .......... although I usually get good value for my money and research before any major purchases......... I want to get a budget written down so I know where it has actually gone........... I do tend to spend rather a lot because I'm saving..if you know what I mean???:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Here's to a more organised 2007

TNG

Well, what a year!!!!

Firstly, I discovered (via this board), that I am OS and there are more like me (well unlikely, but you know what I mean ). The core of my OSness is that I don't want to feed my kids !!!!!!. I was already doing a fair bit of cooking from scratch, but now it is almost every night.

I no longer bother with the freezer aisle in the supermarket

I had the Starburst Epiphany, closely followed by the Microfibre cloth revelation

I bought a Slow Cooker and a breadmaker. I haven't bought a loaf of bread in months

I learned how to do Yorkshire puddings :j :j :j

I make my own gravy. DS1 says it is miles better than before (and modesty aside, I have to agree with him)

I initiated 'veg of the month club'. We try one new veg with our Sunday dinner every month. Those that he kids like are added to the 'armoury'. I now have loads of veg dishes I can cook for my kids

When OH was (literally) working her behind off, I joined in the Flylady challenge, so that I could keep the house in some sort of order and retain my job, sanity and children

I bake with my children occasionally. I actually found time to do this a couple of times. Might not be a biggie to some, but it is to me.

I'm trying to menu plan. That one is a work in progress. OUr supermarket bills are ridiculous

I freeze my leftovers. For the first time ever!! I keep all my chinese takeaway cartons, as this seems to be the right size for one portion. There's some bolognese, soup and a fish pie base in there as we speak :T

Oh, and I 'met' some of the nicest , kindest, most helpful people ever....;) :T

More of that, please.
TNG

dannahaz

Already in to home preserving (jams, passata, pesto, drying foods etc) and cooking, but the following are the things that we have are now doing / have done directly as a result of this site:

• Make our own sausages
• discovered the joy of mutton...and just can't eat enough of it
• now make our own butter...mmm....
• learnt to use leftovers, not to put them in the bin
• having bought the recommened "ciabatta to rye" bread book,discovered whole new range of flours to make even better home made bread (ciabatta, rye, french)
• started culturing and drinking Kefir
• make my own yoghurt
• make our own pizzas, naan bread, and chappati
• discovered that you can make indian restaurant quality curries at home
• Getting rid of most of my household chemicals and using Stardrops, White Vinegar and microfibre cloths
• Flylady's Swish and Swipe, Shinky Sink, and concentrating on one zone a week

Edited to add:

• kept my heating off until 1st November, a month more than normal

I'm sure there's more, I'll come back and edit when I've thought of them.

Thanks everyone

CoD_2

now I am....(ponders)

• making all our yoghurt, saving lots of money and reducing rubbish as no more plastic pots
• making a cake each week for H, means no longer buy any cake bars/ biscuits/ sweet treats as he used to allllll the time- saving money, better for waistlines and less packaging
• made virtually all meals from scratch, saving money, waistlines, packaging....
• we've grown salad, mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes and have lots and lots growing in our teeny garden. pots rule
• reduced shopping budget through above cuts!
• maximised "rubber" chicken opportunities. H is no longer allowed to stand in kitchen and pick carcass clean. one chicken now equals roast, a chicken pie for 2 meals sandwiches and a risotto or two
• use stardrops which are very effective!
• made 54 jars of jams, chutneys, pickled onions, pickles, preserves
• made limoncello. made blackberry vodka.
• learnt lots from all the lovely people here!

:beer:

CoD_2

oh and kept heating off for 2 months now. its very very broken, but hey its moneysaving to sit at laptop wearing gloves hat and scarf (LOL)

chardonnay_2

not loads but they have made a difference to our quality of life

bought and used slowcooker (great for when we were working on the last house as cooking at 10pm wasn't a likely prospect and helped cut down lazy takeaways)

cut down amount of takeaways due to slow cooker use and bulk cooking and freezing individual portions in freezer (hm ready meals)

making life easier by bulk cooking

decluttering so much so we are running out of stuff to ebay and loft is no longer going to explode.

stop buying five minute wonders and only bought stuff we actually want while researching best price for it.

hung washing outside during summer

learned how to make yorkshire puddings as well

marybishop

Been on here just under a year now and I just want to say HUGE thankyou to all you lovely people for being such an inspiration. Things I can think of off the top of my head are:-

- switching phone and gas/electricity suppliers to save money

- cancelled subscriptions that seemed to have increased over the year

- planning meals/writing shopping list to reduce weekly food bills (fell off this one a few times!)

- using up stuff found lurking in backs of cupboards!

- checking out charity shops for bargains - bought lovely M&S jacket today for £12.50

- did 3 car boot sales and made about £180 and got rid of loads of junk cluttering up the place!

- bought 3 water butts and 2 compost makers - have reduced our weekly rubbish quota by about half through composting/recycling

- taken on a second job (just a little one but it all helps!)

- made HM pressies for Xmas (scarfs/bath products/choccies) for family and DDs teachers/friends - was great fun too!

mind's gone blank now!

M

Iguana

Iguana wrote:

I gave up smoking and bought myself a pair of diamond earrings as a reward!!!!!!!

And right now I'm finding it harder and harder!