How OS was your mum?

dandy-candy

My mum (born 1942), was a very modern mum and not at all OS. She was a career woman who couldn't cook and like fancy clothes and cars. We had au pairs to do the housework, and either dad cooked or we had ready meals. So how did I become so OS?
My lovely granny (born 1907) was as OS as they came and I spent a lots of time with her. She kept the house immaculate ( she did have a char come in once a week for waxing the parquet floor), cooked vegetarian meals from scratch of course, made yummy fudge, sewed all her own clothes and kept the most amazing garden - like a RHS one!
A favourite memory for me is helping her make Xmas crackers every years - stuffed with gifts she had made! I longed for my mum to be more like her.

What was your mum like? Was she very OS? It would be lovely to hear people's stories!

pollyanna24

Hmm, think my mum is a mix of the two.

She tries to be moneysaving, but then she buys stuff on offer just because and then doesn't use it!

I used to be more moneysaving than I am now, but two little girls kinda stop me as they take up most of my time. Determined to get more back into it though.

Did eat homemade egg fried rice the other day though just to use up leftover rice after girls had a friend round for tea!

poet123

Both my mum and grandmother were OS, all meals cooked from scratch even though mum worked.

kitschy

My Mum worked full time, and was also a mix. She was born in 1947, and although she knitted and made some of our clothes, and was very good at making our pennies go far, I don't remember any meals made from scratch apart from roasts and I know that Mum really doesn't enjoy cooking. Hence I was a very fussy eater as I didn't trust anything that didn't come out of a box until my mid twenties and am only just learning to cook! We always had stunning birthday cakes made by hand, which I loved, and which have inspired my love of baking.

I am very grateful that I learned to sew and save from her, and we both love a rummage in a charity shop together now. Only in the last few years have I realised how much her and my Dad must have sacrificed to give my sister and I a wonderful childhood where we never noticed the paddling going on under the surface. Apparently there were a number of strikes that meant we survived well on just my Mum's rather meagre wages for long periods, but I thought we were rich kids in comparison to others! Can't thank them both enough. :A

System

My Mum was very Old Style.... Down to sharing the same bathwater *hurl*

gsymoo

My mum was very money saving while I was a child and I guess she still is now. Every Wednesday we'd have a roast chicken, but with lots of veg, potatoes, yorkies and gravy. That chicken then provided a lovely chicken and mushroom flan for Thursday night, friday lunch (cold chicken, egg and chips (the fried left over roast potatoes)) and chicken and mushroom soup for Friday evening. (dad was paid weekly so money was short until Friday after work). My mum must of known that while a chicken was a bit costly (1970s) it would solve the food bill for the rest of the week. She also did alot of sewing and would make clothes.

The only non MS thing I remember her doing was some DIY. My dad came home to discover my mum had decided to paint the kitchen... the fashionable chocolate brown and orange colour of the time. It was awful, I can't even guess how much paint my dad had to put over it to make the walls cream again!

meg72

I was born in 1945 and both my Mum and my Nan were very OS, they had to be bless them.

My Nan always took me to market late on a Saturday night to get the reduced meat fruit and veg, I used to love it in the winter as it was dark when we went and all the barrows had paraffin lamps for lighting,
magic, Nan would always treat me to something, a baked potato or a bag of roast chestnuts.

elsien

Mum was OS when younger because she had to be - she and my aunt made and shared the same wedding dress for example. And she made all our clothes when we were little.
She isn't so much any longer because she sees it as being second best in some ways. She's a brilliant dress maker but when she made a wedding outfit for my brothers wedding she ended up not wearing it as somehow in her head having a home made outfit reminds her of poverty and having to make do, so she went out and bought another one.
I think it partly depends if the associations you have with being OS are positive or negative for you. My nan was very OS, again out of neccessity and being in service, but I have good memories of helping her bake and make everything from scratch, so for me that was a good thing.
However I am retraining her and she now scours the yellow sticker aisle with the best of us.

mi_jardin

My mum was born in the 50's, and looking back to my childhood in the 80's she was quite OS. We ate cheaply but well, and when we were very little she made our clothes. Now she is still an amazing seamstress but only uses her skills for making curtains! She made a beautiful pair of nursery curtains for our little one due next month. Food wise she spends a lot more, but then there are two not four mouths to feed, they eat out more too so not so OS any more.

System

gsymoo wrote: »

The only non MS thing I remember her doing was some DIY. My dad came home to discover my mum had decided to paint the kitchen... the fashionable chocolate brown and orange colour of the time. It was awful, I can't even guess how much paint my dad had to put over it to make the walls cream again!

hahaha our kitchen wallpaper was bright orange, lime and yellow swirls. Very trendy. However it was shockingly awful in a round about way.

Our bathroom was yellow. Mother loves yellow and she'd cut out big flowers out of some paper and glued them on the walls. I can still see them now! Her indulgence was sponges. Every time she went shopping she bought back sponges. They weren't to use but were for display. There were sponges (we weren't allowed to use) everywhere. We had to fight to get into the bath.

Kiwisaver_2

I think it was just a sign of the times, my parents (born c.1945 ) lived a very MSE lifestyle and there wasn't much money. Father made do and mended everything, including patching up the car and grew tons of fruit and veg. We had a massive chest freezer which was always full of home grown fruit and veg, plus half a pig or a sheep and mums baked efforts. Any other food that wasn't grown at home was bought en masse from P.Y.O or farm stores pickled, preserved and stored for posterity. Clothes and shoes were worn until they were grown out of and handed on to the next or used as rags for cleaning.

However, despite all this, my mother was still the worst cook in the world. Most meals were delivered with an apology even though her repertoire was extremely well rehearsed. i.e. same things on the same day every week; she never really improved any. She would have baking days and make dozens of the same thing (usually missing some vital ingredient such as sugar from cakes) and could not knit or sew to save her life.

Then came Home Economics when I started Secondary School, this opened up a whole new world to me and I started to ask Santa for cookery books and baking equipment for Christmas presents. This quite quickly escalated to me doing most of the baking and directing the cooking at home. :rotfl: