Thank you OS and everyone - Merged

Bella79

Ive got some more recipes for biscuits if anyone would like them ?, if so ill add to this link later on x

LJM

good recipes i have also copied these im up for trying most recipes

dandy-candy

I thought it would be sweet to have a thread so we could tell the world who inspired us to be more OS in our life and say thanks :T

For me it was my grandma Phyllis who was born in 1909. She was brought up by her grandmother and became a school teacher until she married when (as was customary then) she had to give up her job. She managed her household on my grandpa's wages and had to cope through WW2 while her husband was away and her 3 kids were all under 6 years old. Up until the end of her life she sewed all her own clothes, cooked everything from scratch (the whole family were vegetarian), did all the diy and kept a huge garden of both flowers and vegetables. Her house was furnished with homemade cushions, bedding, lampshades - she even made the sofas! As a child I would go and help her make Xmas crackers every December which were stuffed with little gifts she had made herself. The attic was full of bolts of cloth and jars of zips and buttons she had cut off old clothes before chopping them into dusting rags. The outside cupboard had jars hanging from the ceiling where she had put a screw through the metal lids and stored seed, nails, fuse wire etc! She used to say "Don't buy me presents, make me something instead - I prefer that" and now i'm a mum I understand her - it's wonderful to have little clay models or felt purses that I know my kids spent hours on and made with love!
I truly can say from my heart that having lived in different houses and on different incomes over the last 20 years, OS living isn't just good for the purse, its good for the soul too! My grandma isn't around anymore but I want to send a big thank you up to her for being my inspiration :j

Who inspired you - was it someone in your family or maybe an author of a lifestyle book?

zippychick

Hi Dandy Candy

it was my Gran who inspired me to be more OS, and I am now trying to covert my Mum ha ha ha! :rotfl:

There is a great big thread of thanks - here, so I will merge your thread later once you have more responses

thanks
Zip

Primrose

My grandmother who bought up six children during the 1914-18 war while her husband was away fighting was a great inspiration to me, although in my teenage years I always thought she was a mean tight fisted old lady. Nothing in her house was wasted. Even spent matches were kept in a jam jar to be used a future fire kindling and her front doormat was kept on the doorstep until it was worn down to a tiny six inch square threatbare patch. But now that I'm older, I hope I've developed the wisdom and knowledge to understand what a struggle it must have been. And of course my mother was my second role model, bringing us up during the second World War years and the post war austerity years with rationing, shortages and none of the magical domestics appliance we have today to make housework so easy. I'm quite ashamed that despite having more appliances than either my grandmother or my mother, the amount of time I spend keeping the house as spic and span as they did is minimal. I guess I'm fortunate enough to have so many more emotionally rewarding and productive ways of filling my time than they did, with all the social restrictions that operated in an earlier era..

ubamother

Opposite generation for me - my children! I really wanted to encourage them both to be active - physically and socially in their community and to teach them to understand and take responsibility for their environment at all levels, and to think about their life decisions rather than do what everyone else does and assume that's the way to be. To me OS perfectly supports my goals. It's not always easy - other children seem to have a much easier life - telly, playing computer games older than their age, the latest games, takeaways every other day etc. but it has been worth it. My 10 yr old son's best friend (who gets every material item available and whose family live by very different rules to us) complained to my son that it wasn't fair because he gets everything - everything in this case turned out to be help with homework, books read to him, day trips out, choice of fruit at the greengrocers (!) My son still chafes a bit at the huge differences in their lifestyles, but this conversation really made him think. I believe OS sends all the right messages to our children.

meritaten

for me, it has to be Margaret Thatcher!! thanks to her that during the Miners strike in 1983 I learned how to be really frugal, before that, I thought nothing about my food bill, how much I was wasting, how to manage my pennies and not throw anything away without thinking if it could be re-used, recycled, composted or simply passed on to someone else!
Thanks Maggie!!!
Oh and you closed all those horrible pits and my OH got a lovely new job, my sons didnt have to go 'down the pit' and the valley is beautiful!
I am NOT being sarcastic - the woman really did change our lives - for the better!! so I am forever grateful to her. and NO I would never vote conservative, or LibDem.

dandy-candy

meritaten wrote: »

for me, it has to be Margaret Thatcher!! thanks to her that during the Miners strike in 1983 I learned how to be really frugal, before that, I thought nothing about my food bill, how much I was wasting, how to manage my pennies and not throw anything away without thinking if it could be re-used, recycled, composted or simply passed on to someone else!
Thanks Maggie!!!
Oh and you closed all those horrible pits and my OH got a lovely new job, my sons didnt have to go 'down the pit' and the valley is beautiful!
I am NOT being sarcastic - the woman really did change our lives - for the better!! so I am forever grateful to her. and NO I would never vote conservative, or LibDem.

Wow I think it's great that even when you hit a bump in the road, it turned your life around for the better! :T

lovelovinghorses

:TI just wanted to say what an amazing website Weezl has got now and I also wanted to say a huge thank-you for all the time and effort that has gone into it, it is absolutely amazing!
Weezl you are helping so many people including me and my family, we really do appreciate it:T

artybear

:)What a nice post!!!!! I'm sure it will make Weezl's day when she sees it.

I know for a fact she has worked for hours a day on the website whilst still being an awesome mummy to two very little boys and knowing someone is using it will please her alot:)


yay weezl:T:T:T