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

oldtractor

My DH has really taken to the OS lifestyle. We take grat pleasure in finding freebies and cheapies.

happy35

for me it is a choice, we have two full time wages and a relatively small mortgage now although it did seem a lot when we took it out years ago before the house prices boomed

i like to think that i have value for money and have always saved for holidays and a general rainy day fund

i have been really skint in the past when i had DS as we were both young and had jobs where we were at the bottom of the pay scale etc. i do have a better lifestyle than i did then but am still careful with money.

i dont grow much food myself and dont make bread very often although i do bake, for me it is a balance of doing what i can with the time i have

fedupfreda

Another one here for whom the OS lifestyle started off as necessity - in debt and sinking fast - but its now become second nature, and now that the debts are paid, I am concentrating on saving, rather than pointlessly frittering away the pennies, which is what I did before. When I look back on what I wasted, I kick myself.:mad:

In fact, I quite enjoy seeing through the marketing tricks now - its almost become a game.

mrswive

For us it's a choice, but a choice to have more time than money. DH works 4 days a week and I do 2 days a week, neither of us in well paying jobs, so we're not particularly well off but hold on to our sanity. It also means that I can spend a lot of time doing things for my Old Mother, which means she can stay in her own home; there's no way she would be able to live alone if I worked full time as she can't do much at all. I'm much happier knowing that she can live out her days with the illusion of independence.
We also take a lot of pleasure in not 'playing their game', making our own decisions about what we need, and not wasting stuff as if there's an inexhaustible supply of everything.
I also find that making choices about what to have or not have gives value to what we do have; if you can everything, you value nothing.
To me, OS is about way more than money saving - it's about caring for our environment and community, having at least a bit of power over the way we live, and the security of knowing if it all goes t**ts up, we'll have a fighting chance of survival!

ceridwen

Bit of both I guess....

I'm probably somewheres in the middle between "extreme O.S. because there literally isnt the money to be anything else" and "couldnt give a darn".

I've always been both single and poorly-paid etc - so there has never been loadsa money to "throw around":(. I am aware though that I have wasted various bits of money over the years and very uncomfortably aware indeed that, at my age, I should be completely financially straight by now and I'm not even basically financially straight (ie emergency level of savings and bit of cashflow money firmly in place and no possessions whatsoever I even want, etc).

I'm very very aware that at my age (ie well into middle age) that I had expected to be in a house I'm happy with, all necessary work done on it and plenty of savings and that just ain't how it is - so I'm trying to be a lot more careful than I was - ie so that I at least don't head into old age not even basically financially straight:eek:.

I'm on course to be at least basically sorted out financially anyway by the time I hit Old Age Zone - so thats at least some level of relief - because I would hate to be sitting there as a pensioner still with a list of "must do work on the house" and "will miss it severely if I dont have it yet" possessions. At least I wont be in that position - whatever happens - even if I've not managed to get to "Expected Position By Now".

I think there is another reason as well - that if "The Sh*t really hit the fan" at any point I would quite truthfully be able to turn roun d and say "I did absolutely everything I personally could NOT to get in this situation - no mortgage, no debt, no spending I couldnt afford and its NOT MY FAULT". I wouldnt want anyone to be able to turn round and "point fingers" and say "Well - if you WILL take on expenses you cant afford, etc, etc". I want to know that I can turn round very easily and prove any financial problems I experienced were absolutely unavoidable/nothing to do with me personally iyswim...:cool:

soupdragon10

I'm in the lucky position of having been brought up in OS way, both my late parents hated waste, could make things last 'just a bit longer'. Repairing rather than replacing (father loved to tinker with old TV replacing valves that had blown etc).

Now rarely buy new clothes (charity shops, jumble sales and fleabay), try to grow my own as much as possible (gardening is a hobby so it's no hardship). My one indulgence is books, and even these I shop around for as much as possible.

espresso21

If you like books have you tried https://www.readitswapit.co.uk? I can heartily recommend

VJsmum

I am one of the fortunate ones for whom it is a choice too. However i grew up with very little money in the house and my poor mum worked her fingers to the bone to make sure we were fed properly. I have seen her weep because she'd left a half a cucumber in tescos and had no money to replace it (i still, to this day, cannot buy half a cucumber).

I am not ashamed to admit that i am terrified of having no money in the bank, I know what it is like, and genuinely feel for anyone in that situation.

The OS thing is partly a hatred of waste and shallowness, also a challenge, a need to keep things simple and a knowledge that home made food is best, washing dried on a line smells better, eliminating chemicals from your life as much as possible is better for you. I love a bargain and have never been one who's needed new handbags, shoes etc. Two friends said recently (and separately) that i wasn't materialistic or a shopaholic, I;m taking those as a compliment.:D

scottishminnie

Mine is a choice however I'm now acutely aware that for many others it's a neccessity and it worries me how that number of people is increasing rapidly.

I've never wasted food as I was brought up to reuse and be creative with leftovers. I also remember my mum not eating when I was young, claiming she wasn't hungry. I now know that wasn't the case, there simply wasn't enough food and that really upsets me now

Mending clothes was another given as it would have seemed abject laziness if I hadn't fixed them.


When I first married it was at the time of rocketing mortgage rates and the mortgage on our little terraced house was going up at an alarming rate each month so I had to be careful with money. I control the finances in our household and niaively felt that any shortage in cash would be a failure on my part. Whilst it maybe wasn't the best basis to start a marriage it did force me to grow up quickly and be both responsible and creative and in the long term it was probably a good thing.

I now enjoy growing my own fruit and veg and jam making etc Times have changed though and iIt's only now that my friends think it's ok rather than looking down their noses at me. I'm sure that says much more about them though:D

vgstar44

For me it is also a bit of both!

We got ourselves into debt when we bought our first house and the following month i went on maternity leave which is nearly 4 years ago.

We so werent prepared for the drop in wages my maternity leave would bring along with a new baby and my eldest starting school and we continued to spend the way we used to spend which inevitably got us into credit card debt.

We decided a year and a half ago when the credit crunch all started to go mental we needed to really sort our debt out and get our heads out of the sand. I didnt want to be in a situation where all our spare money was going on debt and the same month we would be continually using the cards to make ends meet for petrol and grocery shopping.

We moved our debts to 3 different 0% cards and started to pay £500 per month onto them and tighten our purse strings more than ever to do so.

We dont have many nights out and if we do once in a blue moon we drink before we go out so we dont spend much when we are out. We dont have fancy days out with the kids and we dont buy things unless we really need them. I dont drive anywhere that isnt necessary as i hate spending money on petrol. Cant remember the last time i bought myself anything new....only last week i cut up a pair of old jeans and turned them into a nice pair of summer shorts which i would never have dreamed of before.

I have £200 in my bank account at the moment thats to last me the next 3 weeks for petrol ,food and anything else that crops up that we will need. Its hard but we somehow manage. I remember once being too embarressed buying anything "smart price" oh how the times have changed :eek:

The end is in sight but im not wanting to get back into the bad cycle of buying things for the sake of buying so that when our debts are paid this september i hope to save money and have savings for the first time in our lives!!