WHY are you old style?......

apprentice_tycoon

I think that it would be very interesting to find out why we take up old style strategies.

I think that it will fall into 3 main reasons, economy, ecology and healthy living and it would be useful if those reasons had a score between 1 and 10 to show their importance to you and your family.

There will be some of use who would score economy as the highest, most important reason for using old style ways, there are others who would rate ecology as the main reason, for others it would be healthy living.

For myself I would mark them as

economy = 9
ecology = 5
healthy living = 7

edit - other posters have pointed out another reason, and they're right too - it's doing it because you want too - beating the system, job satisfaction, etc. so for me my fourth reason is

creativity = 10


Anyone else got any views on why you are looking at these pages?

bethscott1970

Part of the reason I'm old style is job satisfaction. Theres nothing like the feeling that you CAN manage on a limited amount and that the children enjoy eating meals that I've made from scratch. I'm in a smug mood this morning because I've just been asked by DS2 if he can take some of the bread pudding I made yesterday to school because his mates have been asking if they can have some The only reason I made it was to get rid of the rest of yesterdays loaf and it was thrown together. Maybe I'm not as bad a cook as I thought I was?

So my rating is
economy = 8
ecology = 5
healthy living = 8
job satisfaction = 7

JAMIEDODGER

hi there,

the reason i choose to be old style is mainly for economy reasons, i am a single parent of four children, 9 and under and one is disabled and i care full time for him. i am taking advantage of all the wonderful advice and tips on this site to make my money work for me...we are saving for a caravan for family holidays and it will be a long road to get there but im sure we will

i have been thinking more and more about what i eat and what i serve the children and am at the moment considering one of those vegetable and fruit boxes (organic)...i make a lot of things from scratch and try and save a little bit here and there.

so i would def say

economy - 10
healthy living - 8
ecology - 8

squeaky

Far too many things combine to make me an Old Styler. So many of them I've picked up simply as survival strategies in lean and difficult times. I learned to cook out of sheer self defence, for example, because I was sure I was poisoning myself with the muck I first managed to produce.

I grew up poor, in a poor neighbourhood, so somewhere along the line I must have learned a lot at my mother's knee. Not just how to be thrifty but soaking up the attitude of mind that leads you to thrifty wise and careful ways.

Finding Old Style was like coming home to a whole bunch of people of like mind and who, because of their own life experiences, can still teach this old dog several new tricks a day.

Old Style has reinforced the satisfaction I get from doing for myself, eating better, and the sheer feel good factor of doing my bit for the ecology and for my life and that my body and my bank balance too are healthier because of it.

economy - 8

healthy living - 8

ecology - 7

feel good factor - 10

Ticklemouse

Maybe I'm Squeaky

When I read the fist post, my initial reaction was that I mainly do it because it FEELS right and FEELS good and it gives me pleasure to do so.

Therefore I award myself the following points:
Economy - 8
Health - 8
Ecology - 7
Feel Good Factor - 10

(Told you I'm really squeaky - mind you, this chair also needs replacing )

Lillibet_2

Economy & ecology are my driving factors but I too can add another reason : Sheer bloody mindedness! I detest being dictated to by anyone, and big corporations (or small ones for that matter) who want me to follow fashions & trends & expect me to slot into one of their marketing drives & pay them for the privlige really get my back up. Simply beating the system is an incentive for me!


So I'd say :

Economy 9
Ecology 8
Indvidulisim 7

jaybee

For me it's to manage to live within my budget. For too many years I was pretty well paid with a good job. Lost that job when I became ill and wasn't able to cope with it any more. Stupidly I still tried to keep up the lifestyle and, eventually, owed so much on my credit cards that I could barely afford the minimum repayments. Where were you MSE when I needed you!!! (Mind you, this was before we had computers and the internet!). Anyway. . .I am enjoying the challenge. My only regret is that I didn't start all this much sooner - very slow learner, obviously!!!!

Economy:10
Ecology: 8
Health: 8
Pleasure: 10

nicki_2

Let me think....I come from a parental home where the cupboards/fridge/freezer were always full, but we had a lot of convienience food and I put on weight. I have scoliosis and at the age of 13 was sent to see a dietician to encourage me to loose excess weight so that my back would improve in theory. It didn't work, although I still remember some of the things she suggested even now, 13 years on! My mum has always been trying to loose weight for as long as I can remember and I'm starting to take after her.

I've always been a "cleaner". When I was in 6th form I used to stay back on a Friday afternoon even though I had no lessons and clean the common room and then go to the 6th form office and wash all the dishes and clean up in there too.

I've always loved history, not the more modern stuff like JFK, but real history like War Time Britain and how people survived on so little and made do. I love to garden and grow my own veg but was never allowed apart from at my nanas where I grew potatoes one year but that's all. We used to have an allotment, but it "became too much" to cope with. I've always been interested in cookery and making my money stretch as far as possible after growing up (at least since my younger sister was born and even more so since my little brother was born 13 years ago) with my mum complaining about how little money they had and how much they owe.

I've never been one to go with the crowd. I've never been one for labels, except for trainers and then that is only because of the quality. A pair of Reebok trainers can last me 18months plus but a shop brand might only last me 6months. I had one pair that only lasted 2 months!

I spotted Martin on This Morning one day and everything he said made sense to me. I came to this site and looked around. I hadn't long had my daughter and since we were on benefits (yes on benefits but could afford internet - purely as my partner was training to be an IT person and needed access at home) I had to make my money stretch as much as possible, especially with the cost of baby milk! I looked around and spotted this forum. Cool, I thought, somewhere I can learn all the things my nana didn't teach me and maybe some old fashioned meals as well. Now this is just about the only section of this site I visit unless I need advice on something else!

Without this site I would never have been able to afford to take us all to Switzerland last year even if we did pay on a credit card. We paid for 3 new passports (one was a renewal), new clothing, flights on Easyjet and I had my first ever PROPER holiday!

Besides which, it feels good when my 40+ year old mum phones ME for advice on cooking and money LOL

So what does this all equate to :

economy = 10
ecology = 7
healthy living = 8
job satisfaction = 9
Feel good factor = 9
Individualism = 8

Do you think I like being here :j

Loadsabob

Interesting thread, I'm enjoying reading about all your reasons.

For me...

Quality of life / Healthy living 10 (growing, cooking and eating GOOD, REAL food, enjoying the kitchen and garden in the process)

Ecology 10 (I want to live as lightly as possible. I accept that my use of TV and other gadgets means I'm never going to be a pure eco-warrior, and I do value a balance! But needlessly living a throwaway lifestyle with no regard for the next generation really turns my stomach).

Individuality / Anti-Consumerism 10 (NOT funding the corporations and supermarkets who are turning us into a world of closes, and bleeding us dry. I also have no interest in fashion or the very latest technology. I want local shops and producers to survive.)

Nostalgia 8 (I want our parents' and grandparents' skills and lifestyles to live on. We can learn a lot from them, the things that made my childhood so unique. I worry for a nation of children who have no memories of family meals and good food)

Common sense / just feels right 7 (I can't understand why people would let themselves be ripped off by dearer sub-standard food and goods, or live outside of their means. To me it just makes sense to budget and think before buying new!)

Economy 7 (I can afford to eat well, and live reasonably well, as I'm only supporting myself, but I DO run a flat on my own, and so my money in has to balance with my money out. I manage this, but I get a kick out of being ahead of the game, and saving as much as I can, too. That means I can always have the things I want, at some point, through sensible living - not through borrowing and credit. I live within £50 per week for food and everything else once all the outgoings are paid, and I can do that.

Mango

Apprentice Tycoon - I love your threads! You've really made me think a lot about old style. :T

Ecology – 10
Healthy Living – 10
For me ecology and healthy living go hand in hand. I'm a strong environmentalist and this has led me to think much more carefully about the food I eat and the food systems I want to support.
Economy – 7
The savings I made financially at first was a happy side effect that I hadn’t really thought about, but now I’ve decided to really tackle my debts, it has become a very important factor too.

One of the reasons I also have is that I feel old-style living has made me value so much more in life. I remember when I was a kid my parents used a slow cooker, my mom made practically all our clothes, we didn’t have all the gadgets around the house. Boy has life changed!! Even my parents now have credit cards and ready meals seem to have become a regular feature of their lives. I want to get back to that simpler way of life I suppose, of just being able to value the basic things in life – the pleasure of cooking a meal, of nurturing a garden, being able to make clothes (not that I can do all these things but one day I will!!) rather than the very disposable materialistic lifestyle we keep being told we should be part of.

Curry_Queen

I was always brought up the OS way so I guess it comes natural to me, although I went through a rebellious stage in my 20's and fell into the consumerism trap of buying all the latest gadgets, decorating and replacing everything so it matched etc, and generally keeping up with the Jones's but despite having a very good income we got into a lot of debt through it which only brought misery. It also meant we had very little free time to spend as a family as we worked so hard to maintain this lifestyle, and also pay off the debts, and had to employ childminders and au pairs to help with the kids. I'm so envious of many of you on this board that have young children and are SAHM's now and often wish I could turn the clock back

I think the turning point for me was following a major breakdown several years ago, and ultimately losing everything, my job, my home, my family etc, from which I'm still struggling to recover. In a way it helped me see things differently though and get back to the grass roots of what's important in life, and I sit here now surrounded by material possessions which mean absolutely nothing to me and wouldn't be a great loss if they disappeared tomorrow ... well apart from the PC as that's my lifeline now

I'm a naturalist (no, not naturist ) at heart and care very much about the environmental impact we all have on this earth and have no desire to contribute to it's further destruction. I'm very limited in what I can do about that in my current circumstances but I do what I can. Going back to OS ways fits in very well with my ethos on life for many reasons, not just ecologically, but also for economic reasons and the desire to instill in my kids some old-fashioned values before they too becomed trapped in the consumerist world, although I think I'm a little late for that with my eldest two

Ideally I'd be living a totally self-sufficient lifestyle now, although that's just a distant dream at the moment, but I think if I'd had access to something like this site 10-15 years ago that would most likely be a reality now. You young 'uns here don't know how lucky you are

So my scores are ...

Economy 9
Ecology 10
Feel Good Factor ?
Individualism 8
Health 9

It's hard to put a figure on FGF as I'm too depressed to feel much at the moment, and I'm not satisfied that I'm achieving anywhere near what I'd like to be to actually class myself as very OS at the moment.