Can you do OS and work full time too?

chickadee

Thanks for all of your posts. I must admit I closed my eyes and quickly scanned over the bit about ironing towels and tea towels. I work with a woman who irons everything that doesn't move! She even irons socks flat so that they fold neatly in the drawer. Her hubby once got very cross with this, complaining that she was inventing work, so he took all of his socks and paired them up into balls and put them away into his sock drawer. As soon as he was out of the house she took them all out, ironed them and put them away, neatly folded! I don't know about you, but there is something a bit serial killer about that... :eek:

So many of you mention slow cookers but I have never really liked the taste of things I have slow-cooked. I have a very old tower slow cooker that was a wedding present 15 years ago. It has outlived the husband but I find that food tastes burnt when I get home. I would usually put it on at about 8am and I am never home before 6pm. Is this just too long to cook something for or am I doing something wrong? I tried to make bolognese in it once and it was just so overcooked it was like a sickly red paste with virtually no texture left.

Re the clutter, I am taking Friday pm off work to do a serious de-clutter so I hope things will improve after that.

Sweet_Pea_2

Hi Chickadee,
I have a slow cooker that I use a lot, but I have discovered it is a fast slow cooker. Like you I have left things on all day only to find they really taste nasty when I get round to eating them. After a bit of trial and error I have discovered that it actually only takes 4 hours to cook things properly, I can leave it for up to 5 but after that its not nice.
I use it a lot but really only for meat. I cook lamb chops, braising steak and chicken in it on their own in stock and cook everything else Im having with it on the ordinary cooker, mainly because meat cooked (for the right length of time)in the slow cooker is so nice.
Its probably not very moneysaving to do it like this but it works for me. I have been tempted to invest in a better slow cooker because mine was only a cheap one, (I bought it because it has a non stick casserole dish so can be used to brown meat on the hob first, so saving on washing up) but I dont bother to brown the meat first now. It only has an on/off button and does not have the different heat settings mentioned by other Old Stylers.
Perhaps you need to do a bit of trial and error with yours as it might be a similar problem?

Tondella

I lurve reading the old style posts where everyone describes their old style days, however, the lives i read about are generally those of full-time mums and i just wondered whether there are any of you old stylers out there in full-time paid employment (as opposed to the unpaid full-time work most of you do :rolleyes: ) and how you fit old styling into your day.

For example, I'd love to be able to trawl the supermarkets for bogofs and bargains, but having only the weekend to do it in I can't get up to my "local" Lidl and get around the veg market etc. Also with work, I'm too tired to pop to the supermaket late in the evening to get all the reduced food. So how do you who are doing it, do it! And what old style tips do you prioritise?

squeaky

Hiya

We have an older thread which talks about managing to be Old Style while working and so I'll merge your question into it. Because posts are listed in date order you'll need to read the thread from the beginning to catch up

Gillby1

I work full time, but i'm a half hour walk from home, so i'm usually back by 5.30 pm, which gives me the evening for cooking from scratch-ish. I also work in town so am never far from a lunch time bargain hunt in Tesco's, and i work next door to a daily market!

I meal plan and type up shopping lists at work over lunch time - which saves me going into town and speding money.

I don't have kids yet, though - just a big hungry boyfriend to wash and feed - which leaves me with more time than working parents!

MATH

I'm and Ol'Style SAHD but I'll be honest if I worked there is no way I would continue to be Ol'Style. I really admire those of you who work and feed a lo-cooker;) I wouldn't.

nabowla

I work full-time, currently leaving the flat around 0610 to go swimming before work (wonder how long that will last!!!) and getting back around 1900 at the earliest. My lifestyle's definitely not very OS compared to most on here but I do what I can. The main priority is the supermarket bill - I pop into the supermarket on the way home and pick up whatever's on offer. I'd love to hunt around places like Lidl but it's just not practical. I also prioritise cooking my evening meals from scratch but I don't cook anything that takes hours to prepare. Mind you, I might just make a banana cake this evening because there are some horribly mushy bananas in the fruit bowl and I can just feel the glares of the MSE crowd as I think about throwing them in the bin :eek:

Cleaning tends to get done whenever I've got a bit of time (and energy), so sometimes the flat's sparkling and sometimes it's less than sparkling..........

I have to confess that I've virtually given up on the whole OS vinegar thing. It seemed too much faff - give me a BOGOF bottle of Flash any day. Also, I'm normally a bit intimidated by the Daily Thread because it seems to be full of highly organised SAH mums. Perhaps we should start a Daily Thread for those of us who aspire to the OS lifestyle but don't quite manage it because we're out at work

summerday

nabowla wrote:

I have to confess that I've virtually given up on the whole OS vinegar thing. It seemed too much faff - give me a BOGOF bottle of Flash any day. Also, I'm normally a bit intimidated by the Daily Thread because it seems to be full of highly organised SAH mums. Perhaps we should start a Daily Thread for those of us who aspire to the OS lifestyle but don't quite manage it because we're out at work

I kinda know what you mean, Nabowla, as I also work FT plus have a couple of extra PT jobs, so I sometimes read the daily thread in awe. But I still love it, and use it to kind of aspire to- one day I want my life to be like that too, even if I don't have time to be very OS now. And it gives me the chance to get so many great ideas from the posters on there. I can't post on there every day, but I try to the days I have time even if I'm not doing as many OS things as I like, as it still helps me to focus on the few things I can do. I bet you and me are still a lot more old style than people we know at work etc!

Sarah.x

Iguana

I love the Old Style board, its what I used to do when I was a SAHM, making everything from scratch, well nearly everything!

My problem is now that I work almost twelve hours a day, am shattered by the weekend and am incapable of doing anything. My husband is a stay at home husband who does the cooking etc and has no interest in cooking anything from scratch, he regards it as a waste of time; when I grew herbs he wouldn't go into the garden to pick them! :mad: :wall: He still complains about the amount of money that is spent :mad:

kiwichick

nabowla wrote:

Also, I'm normally a bit intimidated by the Daily Thread because it seems to be full of highly organised SAH mums. Perhaps we should start a Daily Thread for those of us who aspire to the OS lifestyle but don't quite manage it because we're out at work

Oh no, please dont feel intimidated. Believe me, we certainly arent all superwomen. We had a thread recently about "beating ourselves up" in which we all shared/compared things we hadnt done, didnt have time for and really couldnt be bothered with.

OS doesnt have to be all consuming, adapting a little bit.ie.shopping for bargains is great and will help you save money. Goodness knows you wouldnt catch me within 10ft of a breadmaker/slowcooker if I was working away from home. Truth be told, I am SO busy with the kids in the late afternoons/evenings that the SC is the easiest way for me to get get dinner on in time I use the spare half hour in the morning after dropping off DD1 at preschool.

I havent tried the vinegar thing yet and am only on my first grocery challenge. I find that OS helps me in having something other than the kids to focus on, I would LOVE to work away from home in some form.

I think the best bet is to pick and choose what works for you.