Old Style in 2014?

dandy-candy

Antwerpen wrote: »

She's a good cook, she started cooking at home from 14. Not sure about the sewing and Knitting. My point is that a lot of people can't do the basics as we were never taught. Maybe her mum didn't teach her. Skills have been lost in recent generations. I'm not blaming my mum at all Btw. I could have taught myself at a younger age.

I learnt to cook too at about 13/14. The first thing I learnt was to make cakes because we never bought them and I'm rather fond of sweet things.
My mum never did the cooking at home save for 2 times - she made a beef stew from very cheap meat that was awful so we gave it to the dog - who wouldn't eat it either, and she made a pizza too wide for the oven so put it in at an angle. All the toppings slid off and caught fire to the oven. I came in just as dad was shovelling in spade fulls of soil from the garden to put it out!
Luckily for us dad was a very good cook, self taught by the cordon blue part works, but he did serve very small portions.

ArtDecoGirly

I definitely need to be more OS in the coming year, I'm hoping to cook from scratch as much as possible, using local fruit & veg shops and the butcher instead of one of those horrible supermarkets!
I was taught a bit about OS as a child, I grew up in the 1970s and was one of 5 children, so with my parents there was 7 of us in the house to feed and clothe, money was tight. Unfortunately, as my dad was at work all day and my mam had 5 kids to look after, she never got round to teaching me to cook so I'm mainly Home Economics at school and self taught!
Will start browsing in charity shops in the new year, see what bargains I can get!

Florenceem

I too didn't help out at home - cooked my first dinner when I was married. I did as I said before - learnt to sew/knit at age of 9 at school. My Mum could knit but hated sewing. At senior school we did needlework and domestic science - this was the 1960s at a Grammar school.
My first husband worked on a farm so I learnt to pluck and dress chickens that he killed. I was brought up on cooking from scratch - born at beginning of 1950s - still rationing in force then.
I was blessed that I loved sewing and knitting right from the start. I have never bought a made pair of curtains in my life. I always made lampshades + cushions to match the curtains.

Florenceem

ArtDecoGirly wrote: »

I definitely need to be more OS in the coming year, I'm hoping to cook from scratch as much as possible, using local fruit & veg shops and the butcher instead of one of those horrible supermarkets!
I was taught a bit about OS as a child, I grew up in the 1970s and was one of 5 children, so with my parents there was 7 of us in the house to feed and clothe, money was tight. Unfortunately, as my dad was at work all day and my mam had 5 kids to look after, she never got round to teaching me to cook so I'm mainly Home Economics at school and self taught!
Will start browsing in charity shops in the new year, see what bargains I can get!

I was bringing up 6 children in the 1970s on a low budget. Now 5 out of my 6 children cook from scratch.

ArtDecoGirly

Florenceem wrote: »

I was bringing up 6 children in the 1970s on a low budget. Now 5 out of my 6 children cook from scratch.

My mam must have just been rubbish then...

Dozey_crow

I am hoping it will catch on but I think Hester is right some people will never get it because they don't want too. I wasn't bought up in an os way either. My mum was not particularly old style in fact she was/is quite wasteful in many ways. Nan was militant about not wasting food, switching lights off, asking for discounts and paying the lowest price for most things.

My DH has always been frugal as he had very frugal parents and when we first got together I thought he was stark raving mad. He went round switching lights off after me, asked me only to put the right around of water in the kettle before I boiled it and saved money every month. I spent all of mine :rotfl: he didn't nag me just tried to keep explaining things but it feel on deaf ears for ages. I remember that we had phones on contact and mine was £60-80 a month on top of the contact cost :eek::eek: and my DH used to say... But that's EIGHTY pounds... you could do something good with that money. I used to reply with Its my money and I can afford it- can't see what the problem is.. And I really couldn't :rotfl: DH left me to it and in my own time I have learnt no end and am really frugal. The funny thing is that I am horrified by all of this now and the amount of money I wasted.

Part of me thinks that some people are catching on with regard to the shops and they are wising up to the bogus saling strategies. However I am astounded by the amount of people buying expensive, over priced items in cafes like pret-a-manger or Costa coffee or sandwich shops at lunchtime. Wasting £5\10 a day on food seems ridiculous to me.

People do think I am a bit strange, notably my mum who note just rolls her eyes at me but I don't mind. I am happy and me and my DH are able to manage on very little money, we are rich in terms of our relationship and that's enough for me.

tiny_courageous

It might be labelled 'Old Style' but to me it's just the way I was raised doing things, and the sensible way. Cooking from scratch, mending etc, some of them are skills I learned at home, some at school (and I'm in my 30s and went to a grammar school - we definitely did home economics and learned how to sew - although I recall it was called textiles rather than sewing class).
I've recently had a baby and my mum said she can't wait to be able to cook with him - cakes, pastries and the like, just like I did with my grandmother. I don't think you lose these skills if taught early. I might forget the ingredients for something and have to google it but the basic techniques remain almost ingrained.
It isn't really about saving money, it's as much about quality, and I think that is one area that there will be real growth in popularity - people want quality for what they are spending, and will spend money to develop those skills.

u_r

it is out of nessecity..........pple are going to sales and buying lets say a top for 6 quid down from 20..nice buy!!

but for me...i would not be buying it......as i can buy it only at a pound or 2!and which shops sell much stuff at a pound or two pounds( i know £land etc...but still!!)

was taught crochet, sewing and knitting (basic) when young..but no one in the family did it..i didnt feel the need either...but now I do!!it's a must!!

Florenceem

ArtDecoGirly wrote: »

My mam must have just been rubbish then...

Not at all. All Mums pass on different talents to their children.

sparrer

Another for the weird/funny farm, I cook everything from scratch including making my dogs biscuits at home, use vinegar/bicarb/salt etc for cleaning, buy my clothes and very often presents from cs's, shop at the yellow stickered shelves and the markets, and hardly ever use the oven as the sc, steamer and mw are much cheaper. Thanks to MSE I'm sure I can get still more frugal, there's bound to be something else I can tweak