How old are the OSers here

Gryfon

I'm 31 but feel older! I have 3 children and they keep me very busy, I've been at home with them for 9 years now.

I've never been a perfect OSer but I can bake, sew, cook from scratch, knit etc etc etc! Most of the time it's finding the time to do things as I get distracted far too easily

jess1974

I'm 34, my hubby is 33 and we have 3 children, aged 11, 10 and 5, i lurk on this board mainly for inspiration, i'm afraid i'm not much of an old styler, i hate cooking, and do the minimum i can get away with........

I am trying to change though, i want us all to eat a healthier diet...

LeLLe

Im 21 and have 2 children, ages 3 (yesterday) and 10 months.

I LOVE this forum! It's becoming a tad addictive. Don't normally post but i'm always having a nose at how to try and save pennies!

orangemoose88

I'm pleasantly suprised that there's a decent amount of people in my age group, everyone I know my age is so wasteful and seem to rely on convenience products for everything. I think a lot of people would be a bit scornful of my interests in cooking and gardening - they're not very hip!

I'm 20 and live with my fiance who's 21. I've only just started getting the hang of OS after lurking abit. Since I left home 3 years ago I've learned to cook by myself. My family aren't that big on cooking from scratch, and about the only thing I learned as a child was how to bake victoria sponge and cheese straws (from the Bero recipe book..:rolleyes:). Its been so much fun learning to cook though, I've developed a real passion for food and cooking. I used to be such a fussy eater!

Since reading this forum though, I've been able to really save on my shopping bills. I've been meal planning and now I've got some nice home made ready meals in the freezer too. I've been much better at keeping on top of the house work too, I just need to expand the OS way into my life a little further. I really want an allotment, which would help alot - the council's being crap though .

I think OS is great though, I've been having so much fun doing things properly, it's so satisfying! It's great to see that so many other people are into it too.

Justamum

kamcauliffe wrote: »

I'm pleasantly suprised that there's a decent amount of people in my age group, everyone I know my age is so wasteful and seem to rely on convenience products for everything. I think a lot of people would be a bit scornful of my interests in cooking and gardening - they're not very hip!

It's amazing how many people of your age group there are on this site, and I think it's really good! The ones who think it's not "hip" will be the ones asking you for advice in the years to come when they see how well you are getting on

Cornishpixie_2

I am 40 next thursday and my DS1 is 11 today. So when he's 21, I'll be 1 week off my 50th:eek: . Don't mind being 40, excuse to have a big party before xmas and before my darling mother arrives for 3 weeks:rolleyes: Love being OS, then again I'm Scottish, so had a good start:rotfl:

mama67

I'm 42 in Feb and DH was 44 in Sept, we have 2 sons DS1(14 in Apr) and DS2 (11 in June).

I also remember helping dad dig over the garden , and picking the sprouts from the stalks on Christmas morning.

And the lovely feather ice patterns on the inside of the bedroom windows.

Up until we moved here 8 years ago we had a greenhouse with loads of tomatoes and cucumbers etc.

That is the plan again for next summer.

I used to make most of my own clothes whilst at school, even uniform, and remember myself and my sister having matching smaller version of mums pinafore dresses when we were really little.My Nan knitted our knitwear.

I knitted all the baby knits I needed for the boys and then extras as pressies.

I have always enjoyed cooking and baking and 90 odd % of our meals are from scratch, with OS additions;) .

We have pulled ourselves from out of some debt and now live within our income, and although don't have all the latest gadgets etc are very happy.

Jacks_xxx

Olliebeak wrote: »

Having just seen your avatar, Jacks - I began to wonder if my Tiggy-tiger has been playing away from home! Then I spotted where you live - so I just know that there's no way he's been doing that!

If I could only wean him off his expensive Whiskas Oh So Meaty, I could save an even more money :rolleyes: .

What gorgeous Putty tat! He is every bit as as handsome as our lovely Mulder. (I love the crossed paws!) I don't know what it is but cats just cheer me up. If I need a good laugh I head over to lolcats.com and just giggle away like a loon! And a cuddle with our normally aloof moggie always chills me out when I feel a bit stressed out.

And it makes me laugh that Mulder may be a grandad of almost 14 but he still goes berserk with excitement if we poke anything through the bannisters! :rotfl:

He costs a small fortune to run - but he's worth it.

Love Jacks xxx

Caterina

I am 51, DH is 57, the twins (boy and girl) are 19.

I was brought up quite OS - the food thing is mostly because in Italy everybody, rich or poor, tends to cook from scratch so I picked up cookery skills very early, I cannot remember a time when I did not know how to cook.

I could have picked up a lot more skills as all the women in my family have been or still are fab craftswomen. My granny was a seamstress and I could have picked up amazing skills if I had only paid more attention, but as soon as I became a teenager I rebelled against all "womanly" things.

Understand, at that time girls in Italy were EXPECTED to learn these things and I was, pretty much as everyone else, earmarked for marriage, even if I had got an education - that was the expectation and together with so many sisters I rebelled into the feminist movement.

Now I know that for all its worth and the good it has done, the feminist movement has thrown away the baby with the bath water, and so many good things have been pooh-pooed in the name of women's freedom.

I then had a long period of spendthriftery, since arriving in the UK in 1983 and having a job of my own, and for the first time a good amount of disposable income as I made progress in my career in local government and went on a decade-long spending spree, even after I had the twins I still threw away money at restaurants, holidays and the like.

It was only some 10 years ago or so, as I worked in a dreadful office of a dreadful council (that will remain unnamed), that I decided that I could not stand this sort of life anymore. Then I started exploring how to maintain a good standard of living minus one of the two salaries that were coming into the household. This was in the mid-nineties, when "downshifting" was still the domain of bored and burned out city traders, and I wanted to know if a "regular" family could do it (e.g. not someone who had accumulated millions, sold their Chelsea penthouse and retired to be a gentleman farmer in Wales.).

By researching and delving into frugality, the simplicity movement in the USA and the budding one in the UK I started looking at how to reduce but still have fun.

So one day I quit my job. I temped for a while, got another less stressful job, eventually went part time and subsequently self employed, the last 6 years as a doula. Now I have this frugal thingy down to a T and am finally working on a very part time basis from home. Just where I wanted to be! Still a feminist but in a different setting!

Along the way I learnt to do and then I did all the stuff that most people here do, cook from scratch, coupon, grow veg. reuse. reduce. recycle, get freebie cinema tickets, gave up the car etc... the rest is history!

Caterina

gunsandbanjos

Jacks_xxx wrote: »

I don't know what it is but cats just cheer me up. If I need a good laugh I head over to lolcats.com and just giggle away like a loon! And a cuddle with our normally aloof moggie always chills me out when I feel a bit stressed out.

One of my favourite sites:D Sign up to the daily email and you get to wake up to hilarious moggies first thing in the morning. Guaranteed to lift my mood!