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

Hatster

I'm just tight, really.

My parents weren't well off, and my sisters and I were always the poor kids in our school. We grew up watching my parents make ends meet, old style, but it was never treated as something shameful or unpleasant, and instead we had so much fun making the money go a long way. I remember going out into the country to my uncle's farm to pick boxes and boxes fruit to preserve for puddings all the next year - cheap and brilliant.
Now my sisters and I are all decidedly wealthy, but I think if you know how to make money go a long way, it's difficult to waste it on unnecessary items. Since he married me, my husband's given up ready meals and now eats leftovers, whoopsied goods and cheap cuts of meat - and he now can't believe it when he watches people waste food.
And our first date was a trip to the Imperial War Museum - totally free!

Hatster

Just saw someone else who says they go to the shop and think 'I'm not paying that!' - I do that all the time. I'm always looking at things and saying "I make that for about 42p, and here they are charging £4.00".

shazzle

Morning all, Just started reading this thread and what inspiration x I am a newbie O/S er and totally love the FREEDOM I have from my obsessions with consumerism and the skills I am constantly developing for making a better, cleaner and more economical home.
I am now a microfibre cloth, stardrops fledging flylady....
I now stalk (in a nice way lol x ) the ooopsie guy at my local A shop before the gym (also reduced rate) My friends play how much is the bag and marvel at the bargains I get (and often pass on..karma x)
Moreover I take more time and thought with food planning and cooking.. I recently made a S.price microwave syrup sponge in 5 mins...i would have bought this..
So for me
Beating the system = 7
Economy = 10
Health= 7
Because I can = 100

I have just made some hob nobs (twinkies recipie) for DH x Oh and cleaned the cupboard under the sink!! Oh the joys of insomnia x lol

SunnyGirl

What a great thread! I'm OS because I wanted to be a SAHM and by cutting costs where we can it helps me achieve that. I was brought up to be OS so it seems normal to me. My Dad had a well paid job and my Mum stayed at home. They had nice houses but the extra money they had went into paying off the mortgage and saving. They can help out with grandchildren now and have the financial freedom to live how they want to but my Dad will STILL not buy a daily paper only a Saturday one

When we were first married 21 yrs ago OS was a neccessity as we didn't earn much and had a mortgage to pay. Once the children came along it was habit, and still is. We have had debts in the past but now nothing will persuade us to buy something if we don't have the money for it :money:One of our biggest expenditures now is food but that will, of course, drop down again as the children grow older and leave home. I think it's about at it's highest ever now with the price increases and my hungry boys

I enjoy the thrill of finding things as cheap as possible!

karren

We are old style in our house, as I left home at 17 and times were hard, but I worked hard to pay myself through uni to become a nurse and although things are easier these days, i appreciate the value of things and hope to give my children a good start in life.
I pay all the bills then put away something every month for them, so they can have a little something should they go to uni, buy a house or whatever.
We enjoy life to the full but I look at my friends with thier lovely things up to thier eyeballs in debt and think, is it really worth it? I suppose it would be nice to have a new car, a nice holiday etc, but one day we will be able to afford them, but in the meatime its nice to think that they children will appreciate that they have to work to afford these things.
Besides who want to finally pay for something on the 0% when you realise it needs replacing for the latest must have!

Glamazon

I am OS because

1. I want to have more money for when I'm on mat leave
2. I want to be more organised
3. I want to have more time to myself
4. I want my house be tidy!

economy = 10
ecology = 5
healthy living = 8
Creativity = 9

EagerLearner

Hi everyone,

I feel much the same as most folks on here. I have always been fairly good with cash but MSE really helped fine tune it.

For the first time ever, this year we have our own potted indoor veggies growing, in a tiny apartment. I have used yoghurt pots and cut bottles where possible so not to spend too much.

We also make far more food from scratch now. 3 years ago we were -£80 overdrawn on the joint account every month. That included take-aways, impulse Habitat purchases etc.

Now we have at least £30 left over every month, a difference of £110! This gets saved as we're saving for a deposit... also I have set up a blog to explore all the wonderful ways of saving cash and I experiment alot. My most recent was to make a bar of soap for £0.10p, with luscious bits - and I managed it!

Good luck to all and here's to being OS!

x

Bella79

money money money must be funny in a rich mans world

As you can guess money ! lol

i love food but im fed up of spending all my money on it so im trying to eat the best i can on the smallest amount i can

also oh is self employed and we never know what he earns from one month to the next and we really need to get some savings behind us

Tonight for eg for the first time in ages i dont need to shop mid week and the meal i did was out of what i had in lamb and pot pie,mushy peas and hm lemonade yummy

and were moving home too so will need all the pennies i can get or we will be sitting on boxes and eating baked beans lol

sistercas

i started out being OS for financial reasons , trying to claw back the mess we are in with money

now after a year we are still in debt but it is reducing quickly.
what I have learnt however is how much i enjoy cooking / baking from scratch, knowing exactly what I am feeding my children ( unlike my childhood where we we were brought up on vestas dried beef rissotto and chow mein :rotfl:)

ecology too is important, reducing / reusing recycling

I work part time and am on a low wage and sometimes its so hard to make ends meet especially with having teen girls , this is the first time in years that my out goings are less than my incomings:j and thats all thanks to everyone on here and :money:of course

economy 9
ecology 8
health 8
creativity 9

rach

What a great thread....I may've posted on it the first time round but I don't think so!

I am like some others in that old style just 'feels right'. I can't stand clutter and mess and I guess old style in some ways fits in with that (why buy 10 cleaning products when one will do? why buy different sauces and jars for everything when you can make your own from next to nothing? etc). I think ecology and environmental factors come into that too

Financially we're ok but that's new to me as I've always been on a tight budget before so I like to feel like I'm spending as little as possible - I like a bargain but only if i need it (these days- think I've learned that here!). I love the challenge of spending as little as possible! DH jokes to me that 'it's not the war you know', but he's becoming more old style himself! I think I'd almost call it bl**dy mindedness!

so.....in numbers I think

economy 8
like the challenge/bl**dy minded 10
ecology 6
health 7