PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING
Hello Forumites! However well-intentioned, for the safety of other users we ask that you refrain from seeking or offering medical advice. This includes recommendations for medicines, procedures or over-the-counter remedies. Posts or threads found to be in breach of this rule will be removed.We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum. This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are - or become - political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
Easier to be OS in the olden days?

PenniesMake£s
Posts: 93 Forumite

Hello :hello:
Long time lurker and have incorporated many many OS ways into my family's life over the years I have been following this forum and loving it. I try to be OS in every area of my life but there always is more to learn and I am a fan of so many of the wise voices on here (love JackieOs posts about what it was like in the past).
Prompted by this I wanted to ask if any of you think it was easier to be OS many decades ago when everybody had less stuff and less choice?
For example I wash the families clothes with a small amount of value washing powder mixed with a little soda crystals, on a low temp, extra spin, then either line dry or dry on airers, try to use a dehumidifier (rather than use the GCH or tumble dryer) to save the pennies and keep the windows from streaming with condensation. BUT the children (3 under 7) all want fresh pjs every night therefore I am washing 21 pairs of pjs a week plus mine and OHs. That is just nightwear, there is a fresh outfit each everyday plus towels and all the bedding once a week. It strikes me as a waste of money to be washing so much laundry. I am convinced my great grandmother (long dead) would have been having none of this. When people only had a couple of outfits and a couple of pairs of pyjamas was there less laundry to do or just done more often?
Also the vast array of food stuff we can choose from...does it create more work or is it better/easier now? And cleaning products, clothes, toiletries, drinks (I have about 3 different types of coffee and 4 different types of tea in one cupboard as well as sugar, sweetener, various honeys and syrups, dilute juice fresh apple juice, concentrated juices, regular milk, oat milk.....it is ridiculous....must have been easier when it was a cup of tea with milk or nothing haha!)
Interested in your thoughts. Will check back once I have warmed my hands by washing the dishes (no heating on here lol)
Pennies x
Long time lurker and have incorporated many many OS ways into my family's life over the years I have been following this forum and loving it. I try to be OS in every area of my life but there always is more to learn and I am a fan of so many of the wise voices on here (love JackieOs posts about what it was like in the past).
Prompted by this I wanted to ask if any of you think it was easier to be OS many decades ago when everybody had less stuff and less choice?
For example I wash the families clothes with a small amount of value washing powder mixed with a little soda crystals, on a low temp, extra spin, then either line dry or dry on airers, try to use a dehumidifier (rather than use the GCH or tumble dryer) to save the pennies and keep the windows from streaming with condensation. BUT the children (3 under 7) all want fresh pjs every night therefore I am washing 21 pairs of pjs a week plus mine and OHs. That is just nightwear, there is a fresh outfit each everyday plus towels and all the bedding once a week. It strikes me as a waste of money to be washing so much laundry. I am convinced my great grandmother (long dead) would have been having none of this. When people only had a couple of outfits and a couple of pairs of pyjamas was there less laundry to do or just done more often?
Also the vast array of food stuff we can choose from...does it create more work or is it better/easier now? And cleaning products, clothes, toiletries, drinks (I have about 3 different types of coffee and 4 different types of tea in one cupboard as well as sugar, sweetener, various honeys and syrups, dilute juice fresh apple juice, concentrated juices, regular milk, oat milk.....it is ridiculous....must have been easier when it was a cup of tea with milk or nothing haha!)
Interested in your thoughts. Will check back once I have warmed my hands by washing the dishes (no heating on here lol)
Pennies x
0
Comments
-
Well they def don't need clean jammies every night Pennies unless they have a wee accident. Change that, maybe to twice a week.
Re tea and coffee and food stuff - its up to you what you have in your cupboards, but tea is tea and coffee is coffee. (Aren't I just so profound lol) Only buy what you really really must have.
Life is as complicated or as simple as you make it pet0 -
Morning PENNIES, OS wasn't a choice of lifestyle back in the 1950s when I was a child, it was all we had. I can just remember rationing and being able to buy 1oz of sweeties from the shop once a week, unheard of in these days and that had to last me all week, no top ups. We weren't asked about anything, we were told how things were and would be by our parents, I can never remember being asked what I'd like for dinner, You ate what you were given, no consultation and you weren't allowed to leave it either if you did, it came back at the next meal. No fridges or freezers meant mum shopped every day, mums didn't work back then but stayed at home and needed to as there were no labour saving devices. No washing machine, no vacuum cleamer, only an old flat iron, admittedly it was an electric one, no central heating and in our house until I was in my 20s no hot water system or indoor toilet. Our loo was at the top of the back yard behind a wooden screen and we had squares of newspaper not toilet roll. Toilet roll back then was just the stuff that is like tracing paper, no soft cushioning! Breakfast was porridge, lunch at school was whatever the cook prepared and evening meals were what your mum cooked, and that was whatever was cheapest every day from the butcher/fishmonger. We ate seasonally and only what was available in the garden or at the greengrocers so no strawberries in November and no sprouts in August. Clothes? i had a school uniform, a set of 'playing' clothes, hand me downs or jumble sale, 1 pair of shoes which were worn until the toes were out and the soles were worn through,1 set of smart clothes for high days and Fridays, 1 coat and knitted woolen hat, scarf and mittens. I had I set of nightclothes which I wore Monday to Friday and that was washed over the weekend and I wore vest and knickers to sleep in as there was nothing else. I was expected to do my share of everything. It was my job to get up in the mornings, lay and light the coal fire and get my own breakfast and make tea to take up to mum in bed then get myself off to school on the bus at 7.15 in the morning. I was expected to make my own bed, clean my room and do my share of the housework, keep my clothes in good order, woe betide leaving a dirty sock on the bedroom floor, mum had a little whippy bamboo cane she kept behind the mirror and it got used, not lightly either. I was also expected to look after my baby brother (8 years younger than me) when he came along, so often had no free time to play which we did in the street as there was no traffic other than the odd pushbike. If you had to go out of the village which was maybe 3 times a year it was on the bus and was a big adventure usually either to buy shoes, or on christmas eve to get the tree from the nearest market.
It was normal, we didn't feel hard done by, we were just glad to have enough to eat even if it was plain fare, one warm room in the house to sit in ( no one heated a room that wasn't used) and the odd treat like the sweeties or stale cakes from the baker on Saturday evenings as they shut. Don't think it did any of us any harm either and certainly hasn't done my children any harm as they still live OS lifestyles, admittedly these days we do all have the labour saving devices and much appreciated they are too. You might have a small rethink about what it is that YOU want for the family, it won't be easy but habits can be changed and directions turned too, good luck love, Lyn xxx.0 -
Yep. You have allowed your kids to have clean pjs every nite, so why bemoan the fact now?
If you cant be arsed to wash them so often and dont want any arguments, then just fold the pjs and put them back in the drawers dirty, to be reworn.
I have learnt that keeping clothes to a minimum has resulted in having to wash less often, as stuff does tend to be get picked off the floor and worn again the next day, rather than them grabbing something clean from the cupboard.
Foodwise, i do think we have too much choice. But if it all gets used and not thrown away, then i dont really see what the problem is.0 -
I second everything that mrs LW says, that was so similar to my life. I was the eldest of 7 children so my childhood was tough and I had lots of housework to do, I could make a full meal for 9 in a pressure cooker when I was 11. I could cut and sew a simple skirt at 10. I remember going from shop to shop to save a penny. Being os was not a choice, it was just a lifestyle and everyone was the same. The difference is that now I buy whatever I want and can afford and I make or buy new clothes. I had enough of real life os in the old days and I haven`t dealt with half a pigs head since those days and as for clean pjs every night, that is called making a rod for your back0
-
I wouldn't say it was any easier then than it is now, it just takes more willpower today. When you're surrounded by choice after choice of countless luxuries, it is harder to pare down.
You mention drinks for example. When we were paying down the mortgage, if you came to our house you'd have 2 choices to drink: tea or water. There was no coffee, juice, softdrink or 16 different bags of herbal whatnots and alcohol was only a bottle of wine purchased for a major event. Now with no debt, there's 2 kinds of coffee, 5 kinds of tea, juice in the cupboard, wine.... frankly I need to take a long hard look at myself, reassess what my needs are and pare down again.
Comfort and luxury is always the easy choice, being happy with less and really valuing what you do have must be a little more of a conscious decision.Softstuff- Officially better than 0070 -
I think that life is easier in a lot of ways now so there is less incentive to be old style. It's fashionable to bake and crochet though now but that may just be a phase with some people.
I was only born in the 1970's but I remember going to the bank with my Dad on a Saturday to get out cash as there weren't any cash machines.
Now you can get cash at any time of day and shop online and have it delivered so they are so many more options. You didn't really see people walking around with drinks but now everyone seems to need a drink and a snack for even short journeys.:DHOUSE MOVE FUND £16,000/ £19,000
DECLUTTERING 2015 439 ITEMS
“Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose.”0 -
Thank you all for your replies, I loved reading your lovely long post, mrslurcherwalker, it was like a trip round a museum.
It does seem from what you are all saying that it is about choices.
I am about to have a coffee, which of my 20 various mugs will I use? which of my coffees will I have etc.....50 years ago it seems I would have had a quick cup of tea probably in the same mug I used year in year out, then given it a quick wash and got back to peeling potatoes for tea or whatever. I end up at the end of the day with said 20 mugs all having been used and beside the sink with various half drunk beverages lying cold. Need to get a grip I think.0 -
You didn't really see people walking around with drinks but now everyone seems to need a drink and a snack for even short journeys.:D
This is so true, if I find myself out without a drink I do wonder "where can I get a takeaway coffee or bottle of water?" Often I do resist to be OS and wait until I get home but the thought is automatically there! My mum who is in her 70s (but not particularly OS) is always shocked when I have spent money on a bottle of water...WATER!! haha.0 -
It's all about personal choice - if you want to wash 21 pairs of jammies that's your choice. My kids are 4 and 5 and they don't need clean every night therefore I choose not to give clean every night.
But on the other hand, I like to have a choice of drinks, so we have a variety of all kinds in our cupboards.
My kids like to have treats in the house. I don't. And since I'm the boss (most days, lol) we don't generally have them. I've decided it's not healthy, and apparently my judgement is more sound than theirs! They get £1 pocket money each Saturday and can buy sweets if they want.
So for me, it's a combination of common sense, money saving, time saving and personal preference. Take all those into account and no two peoples choices will be all the same.Bossymoo
Away with the fairies :beer:0 -
We'd have had a cup of tea, I don't remember ever having mugs, they were for workmen back in those days or water from the tap. There was no instant coffee that I remember until the early 60s and I can still remember feeling very 'posh' when we started to buy instant coffee and I could ask my friends if they'd like tea or coffee when they came. Before instant it was coffee beans and a grinder and a stovetop percolator and lots of time to get drinkable coffee, but only if you were middle class so I hadn't tasted coffee until I was 15 or so as it wasn't the norm for us to eat out. Fish and chips occasionally was as close as we got and was the only takeaway available for most of childhood.
I still make sure I've got a bottle of water with me when I leave home for a journey, I fill my aluminium bottle from the tap and take it with me, force of habit and always make sure I've a shopping bag folded up in my rucksack again force of habit. Forward planning my dear, that's the trick!0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 348.3K Banking & Borrowing
- 252.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 452.4K Spending & Discounts
- 240.8K Work, Benefits & Business
- 617.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 175.6K Life & Family
- 254K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards