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Tips and Quick Questions on “How To Start Being Old Style”

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  • missychrissy
    missychrissy Posts: 741
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
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    hi everyone
    i cranked up my OS ways 2 years ago when I bought my present home. Despite working long hours I never seemed to have any real savings for the bigger things in life. I decided that if I could half my expenditure I would be able to save the other half of my income. I call it the 'Half Rule'.
    This site has helped tremendously.
    I was a bit extreme with some of the things I did such as switching the central heating off on mar 1 last year (apart from when i had visitors as they couldn't cope with the cold) until near to the end of October. This year I was a little kinder to myself and switched off in April.
    A quick post is not enough to explain everything I did but apart from the mortgage and council tax I halved the cost of just about everything else. I began to see that I could give some things up completely thus the 'Giving up Completely Rule' and then went on to develop the 'Use Your Imagination Rule' the 'Learn to say NO Rule', the 'Recycle Rule' and the 'Don't Bury Your Head in the Sand Rule'. My weekly shop is now around £10 per week, I have started making my own wine, growing vegetables, have bought a tent for future hols and almost given up buying anything I really don't need (have the odd slip). My biggest money saver was just not to go shopping. I can now often go several weeks without shopping. My freezer and store cupboard are full of special offers and cooked in bulk meals. I have a present box for children and another for adults so that I avoid buying anything else I don't need and fill it when I see appropriate gifts and offers. Not spending and stretching my money further has become an enjoyable challenge, strange I know, but it has. I was inspired by a lady I saw on tv who lived on £1 a day for a year. I think she wrote a book - if anyone knows what it was called please let me know.
    I'm glad I started this two years ago because work for me has decreased over last four or five months (I work for an agency so only get paid when I work) - everyone is tightening their belts.
    Good Luck to you all!
  • rosieben
    rosieben Posts: 5,010
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    foxgloves wrote: »
    .....kind of beating the system through mince & lentils!

    :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: love it! going to make it my new motto!
    ... don't throw the string away. You always need string! :D

    C.R.A.P.R.O.L.L.Z Head Sharpener
  • Ches
    Ches Posts: 1,120 Forumite
    foxgloves wrote: »
    I do agree with BigMummaF. Think we've got to the stage where we look on our thrifty economies as a way of beating the system, especially since the revelations about the extent of greed in the financial industry. We still have a bit of debt to pay off but even if we didn't, we'd still carry on with our thrifty living because even if we manage to get into a situation where we have spare money, there's bound to be something far better to do with it than frittering it away like we used to. The big corporations run the planet, really, so every time I hear that £1 in every eight is spent at a certain big superstore, I take real pride in the fact that they are not getting any of mine! I suppose for me it's become a way of fighting back at our capitalist system when I think lots of us are feeling so disenfranchised politically.....kind of beating the system through mince & lentils!

    Fabulous post.:T
    Mortgage and Debt free but need to increase savings pot. :think:
  • Hi, everyone. This is my first post (after reading OS with great interest for over a year!) I may be one of your very oldest fans, but as a mother of 3 and grandmother to 7, we have gone through times of great financial trouble. Keep up the good work, you will get through it. By the way, can you still get bags of bones? I used to make soup for a week from them, plus lentils! May write a book 'a Thousand things to do with lentils'!
  • cyclingyorkie
    cyclingyorkie Posts: 4,234
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    look forward to reading it!
    :jFlylady and proud of it:j
  • rosieben
    rosieben Posts: 5,010
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    Grandma wrote: »
    Hi, everyone. This is my first post (after reading OS with great interest for over a year!) I may be one of your very oldest fans, but as a mother of 3 and grandmother to 7, we have gone through times of great financial trouble. Keep up the good work, you will get through it. By the way, can you still get bags of bones? I used to make soup for a week from them, plus lentils! May write a book 'a Thousand things to do with lentils'!

    I would think it worth asking the butcher, not sure MrT would be able to oblige :D; I'm a granma too, there are a lot of us here ;)
    ... don't throw the string away. You always need string! :D

    C.R.A.P.R.O.L.L.Z Head Sharpener
  • frugallily
    frugallily Posts: 58 Forumite
    Misssychrissy..it is "How i lived a year on just one pound a day" by Kath Kelly (redcliffe books) it is very thought provoking
  • hi there - just wanted to say that i am clambering back on the OS wagon at the moment - i had a really bad year or so since June 2008 and i think i have been teetering on the edge of depression for a lot of that time - things have slipped a lot the biggest thing being our food.

    I started lurking again on OS and after about a week i had a lightbulb moment of sorts - i became horrified that i had allowed us to be eating total junk! The kids were existing on chicken nuggets and potato waffles which really isn't good.

    So i took stock of what we had - used up the [EMAIL="!!!!"]!!!![/EMAIL] that was in the freezer in the healthiest possible ways - ordered the 'feed your family for £4 a day' book and a couple of others and have started cooking from scratch again.

    bit of moaning from the kids but i have told them there are always two choices at tea time - eat what is on the plate or go to bed hungry. Seems to be working so far.....

    I have cut down on portion sizes - aim to get something in the freezer after most meals - i feel much healthier and happier tbh. Not meal planning yet cos it seems too daunting - currently writing down what we are eating every night and hoping i can start forming some sort of plan from that.

    So i just wanted to thank the board for inspiring me to kick myself back into looking after myself and my family properly - we are all seeming better for it already!
    :rotfl:five children? I must be mad........ :rotfl:
    aug grocery spend - £166.45
  • Hardup_Hester
    Hardup_Hester Posts: 4,800 Forumite
    Somewhere on here there is a thread about OS disasters, I think it may have been Gingham Ribbon that started it. It will certainly give you a giggle, but a word of warning, don't read it whilst eating or drinking or you will need to clean your screen & keyboard.
    Hester

    Never let success go to your head, never let failure go to your heart.
  • Penelope_Penguin
    Penelope_Penguin Posts: 17,288
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker I've been Money Tipped!
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    Somewhere on here there is a thread about OS disasters

    OS disasters - let us share :D
    :rudolf: Sheep, pigs, hens and bees on our Teesdale smallholding :rudolf:
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