Changing habits to meet changing society

Casdon if you put your oven in to cook roasts, stews, pies, especially made of cheap meat it takes time to cook. I get round that with a pressure cooker for the meat.
My biggest fuel saver is my Systema microwave steamer-no boiling loads of water then simmering veg, just place the veg in the basket with a little water in the bottom of the pot and microwave for 3-4 minutes depending on the veg. Steamed veg are very healthy and big fuel, time and water savings.

Callistemon21 , yes thanks to the power of hair dye, I do not appear to be grey. My real colour? Who knows? I haven't seen it in years!

Thank you.
I am going to give that a try.

I have a big tub of coconut oil I need to use, anyway, so I wouldn't need much else.

Yes, it’s an anti-perspirant. Arrowroot is a powder - it’s very similar to cornflour. You melt the coconut oil, then mix in the bicarb and arrowroot plus drops of essential oil of choice (optional). I put mine into a short stocky jar (think it originally had some French pate in it) which makes it easier to scrape a bit out. I use a small lolly stick (actually from a Magnum!) to scrape out a pea size bit then transfer it to my fingertips, where it softens and can be easily applied.

I have traded in antiques and vintage since the 1980s so I can hold my head up proudly. I used to haunt car boot sales and charity shops when I was more mobile. Apart from white goods/tech every piece of furniture I own is antique or vintage. Most was inherited.

I do a lot of needlework and patchwork and most of the fabric I used was sourced from charity shops. I dont often go out so I cant remember the last time I bought new clothes, except for some underwear I bought recently. I also cant remember the last time I bought or wore makeup.

Hot showers and reasonable heating are non negotiable as I am arthritic. I dont drive or run a car so its a taxi or lift from a relative (I contribute to petrol) on the rare occasions I go anywhere.

I have made up my mind never to fly again. Not on environmental grounds but more because its too much hassle.

Mollygo I can’t agree with you on your point 3 ‘cooking food that can be cooked quickly and thus cheaply
My parents and grandparents cooked stews, pies, and puddings, all of which took far longer to cook than many meals I make now.’

You’re right in that our parents and grandparents cooked things that took longer - but they often used cheap meats, home grown fruit and vegetables, and cooked lots of food at once when they put the oven on - so a casserole would be cooking at the same time as a crumble for tea today and tomorrow, and a cake, and jacket potatoes. At least, that’s what I remember, they were very frugal compared to most people today.

You've just reminded me of my best friend at school.
When it rained, and we were all jam packed into the corridors, she said she could smell "ear 'oles"

MissAdventure

I've never smelled anything other than cigarettes in others, and I've used buses for the whole of my life.

It’s largely a thing of the past now, but I certainly used to smell unwashed hair when sitting near certain people on the bus.
You hardly ever see dandruff on shoulders now but it used to be common.
Must surely be because people are washing their hair that much more often.

An eccentric but highly educated man who used regularly to come into my workplace, certainly always smelt - not BO but that musty, stale smell of unwashed hair and clothes. Evidently he didn’t believe in too much soap and water, or too many clothes, either - even in the depths of winter he’d be wearing shorts.?

I wash everything.
Sponge scrubbers, J clothes, you name it, it's washable.

GagaJo

Can't you boil the cotton dishcloths? That's what my mum used to do to sterilise them.

If you buy a couple of packs of basic supermarket cotton dishcloths you can put them in the washing machine. I never wash anything over 30° and they are fine. I might leave them overnight occasionally in a bowl of water with bleach added but I can't remember the last time I felt the need to do that.

I have used them even when such things weren't fashionable as I have a miserliness gene when it comes to the extravagance of J-cloths.

MissAdventure

The alternative is a bath, which has the perpetually outraged saddened by the thought of people soaking in a tub of filthy water.

Let them be outraged. A bath is a wonderful thing. A luxury these days.

The alternative is a bath, which has the perpetually outraged saddened by the thought of people soaking in a tub of filthy water.

MissAdventure

Yep.
Face, neck, pits and bits, in that order.
Flannel in the wash after.

And me…?

Yep.
Face, neck, pits and bits, in that order.
Flannel in the wash after.

Re-deodorants/anti-perspirants.
My grandma never used either of those. She used talc on her underarms. She never smelled, but she used to shower in the morning with one of those hose things you attached to taps, strip wash (face, neck and pits but not bits) after housework and bath in the evening.
I can’t help wondering how much extra water is used for cleansing the cloths used by those advocating strip washes. Do people use the same cloth for face and neck, pits and bits (eeuw!)
Do they get washed (with what) and rinsed by hand or just rinsed under the tap in hot or cold water?
Does everyone in the family have their own set? Where do they hang them to dry? How often do they get replaced?
We had face flannels as children. When they got manky, mum used to bleach and rinse them (harsh chemicals and more water!) or boil them (fossil fuel usage!)
It’s not that I really want to know, but this thread brought back lots of memories and makes me wonder how environmentally friendly we were back then.

Sorry about your pain grandtanteJE65, but glad you can still ride bikes. DH struggles to do that now because of arthritis.
I’m with you in many of the savings you mention but some wouldn’t work for me.

basically living as our parents and grandparents did

3 cooking food that can be cooked quickly and thus cheaply
My parents and grandparents cooked stews, pies, and puddings, all of which took far longer to cook than many meals I make now.
5 taking very short showers, turning the water off whilst we soap ourselves
We take short showers, but if we turned the water off whilst soaping or shampooing, we’d waste a lot of water waiting for it to heat up again.
6 Re-using washing up water for cleaning bins, door-steps etc.
Using washing up water, probably greasy or containing food debris to wash anything else? I’d have to use even more water to rinse that off.
7 Always going to the charity shops first when looking for new clothes or shoes
My Grandma made most clothes from scratch and mended things as did Mum in her youth. Did charity shops exist back then? We often got clothes handed on from better off relatives, but someone has to buy the new things to pass on, or fill the charity shops.

I really must try and make some deodorant.
How does arrowroot come?
Is it powdered?

pintuck

I make my own deodorant from coconut oil, bicarbonate of soda and arrowroot (plus a few drops of grapefruit essential oil because I like the smell). It works a treat (it really does) and you are not putting any nasty chemicals on your skin. There are plenty of YouTube videos showing how to make it.

Is that just a deodorant or is it an antiperspirant?

I make my own deodorant from coconut oil, bicarbonate of soda and arrowroot (plus a few drops of grapefruit essential oil because I like the smell). It works a treat (it really does) and you are not putting any nasty chemicals on your skin. There are plenty of YouTube videos showing how to make it.

A bit!

Chocolatelovinggran

Antonia, as I have posted before , the population increase in the West is due to the elderly living so long, not the birth rate. It has been a while since 2.4 children - the current rate is 1.6, and decreasing. So, sadly, Antonia, and Callistemon, we are the elephant in the room- you know, grey, wrinkly and slow moving !

I'm not grey ???
Not many wrinkles either, surprisingly, although I am a habit slower these days.

GagaJo if you want to occasionally wash your black clothes in detergent the Waitrose black wash liquid is good, although I only use half the recommended amount.

We do most things already mentioned and have never owned a tumble drier or dishwasher.

I have a bag in the freezer where I put odds and ends of vegetables. When there is enough I make soup.

grey, wrinkly and slow moving

Love it, Chocolatelovinggran!

Antonia, as I have posted before , the population increase in the West is due to the elderly living so long, not the birth rate. It has been a while since 2.4 children - the current rate is 1.6, and decreasing. So, sadly, Antonia, and Callistemon, we are the elephant in the room- you know, grey, wrinkly and slow moving !

We had our water bill cut by more than half when we went on a meter.
I wish companies would sell items like laundry liquid and washing up liquid in sachets so we could decanter.