What OS habits you can't stop once you are better off?

Caterina

You worked hard all your life, you saved and scrimped, composted peelings, grew your veg, made do and mended for dear life...then one day you reap the fruits of your frugality and you are debt free. Not only debt free, but reasonably comfortable.

You no longer need to stretch that chicken to 6 meals, no longer need to make your own laundry soap, you can afford a proper haircut instead of having your hair butchered by teenage hairdressing students...

This is me, now. DH is retiring and we have reached a reasonable comfort, between savings and pension pots, and are mortgage free. The kids have grown up and left home and are financially independent. What do I do? We are not so rich as to be able to spend recklessly, but no longer need to be super-careful. The money adviser who looked at our pension pots and savings said we can relax.

Except that lifelong frugal habits are hard to drop. The only concessions we made to this new situation so far consisted of buying a new potting shed as the old one was falling apart, and agreed that we can hire a cleaner once a fortnight to do the one-off jobs that my knees and hips don't' cope well with. I used to have a cleaner when I had a job but gave her up when I stopped work, as I felt I could not justify the expense. Ah, and I get a proper haircut now and again. For the rest, I still live like I did, frugally and carefully, before these news.

Is there anyone else in this situation? I would be very curious to hear what are the OS habits and things that you cannot let go of, even if you could afford to. Thank you!

vouchersrme

We are in a similar position, but still look for yellow stickers, and use up leftovers etc. Waste not ,want not is still my mantra.

C_J

I think it has always been deeply ingrained in my psyche to be careful with money. I hate waste, and really love a bargain. I can't imagine I would ever be any different, even if I won the lottery

Caterina

Yes that's exactly how I feel, if I won the lottery the only difference to my life is that I would travel more by train, because I hate flying and trains are so expensive! :-)

HOWMUCH

Perhaps a new car our volvo estate is 11 years old but runs perfectly fine and we don't do much mileage. I wouldn't change the way I live because this is me and as previously mentioned I too love a bargain. x

marleyboy

Albeit we are now more comfortably well off, we still frequent the charity shops. The highlight of my holidays is checking the local charity shop even if 99% of the time we leave empty handed.

We are still far too shop savvy and MSE to let our financials get in the way of the enjoyment we get out of saving a few quid here and there.

fuddle

I think you've hit the nail on the head there marleyboy.

I think if stretching and OS ways are hard work and resentful then everything would be stopped at the first opportunity. If it's enjoyable and within your personality then why stop at all even if there's spare cash?

Time is a real villian to OS ways not money. When I was earning money I was very time poor. I really wanted to keep up with my OS ways but couldn't sustain it.

Having spare money and the time to be OS is a dream come true only because that spare money would mean I could relax (anxiety) in order to carry on with the way I want to live my life. Having money wouldn't see me stopping but having no time sure would.

BAGGY

I still sloosh the tins of tomatoes out with water to get the last of the juice.

moneyistooshorttomention

That's got me thinking more along the lines of "What economies will I still make when I am financially straight finally?" (not there yet unfortuntely:(....)

The things I am still likely to do then I reckon are;

- wash out and re-use freezer bags
- get the last bit of liquid out of cans, bottles, etc
- re-use any freebie charity collection bags put through my door as dustbin liners
- use dried beans (at least some of the time) rather than canned ones
- using my free buspass (over 60)
- growing what I can of my own food (that's mainly done for other reasons - but I like the cost-saving element too)
- getting fiction books (ie for the one-off read that's all I want them for) as cheaply as possible.

The way I see it = there's no point in wasting money - even once I get to the stage of having money spare.

Janey3

I'm the same here since retirement, we are not rich but manage comfortably. I still do charity shops, look for stickered goods, delight in saving small change in a jar, grow own veg (well, try to)! bake own bread etc., and all this gives me pleasure and I look upon it as 'my hobby'. Don't think I will ever change now.

[Deleted User]

I just love being OS! the charity shop adventure never looses its appeal even if 99% of the time there's nothing there and neither does the odd boot fair visit just in case someones cast off is my treasure. We enjoy the growing of things and the processing and cooking of the produce we grow so much and retirement hasn't changed that. We like having the water meter, scrounging free wood for the stove and then processing it, we like making our own cider, making do and mending, and generally making the best of what we have and not being needful of constantly buying in new things. Our life choices have suited us well over the years and still suit us now we're older so we've not changed anything, we're happy as we are being OS.