tightening our belts

Fiona44 We can't judge the present generation against how we lived, just as we can't judge how we lived against how our grandmothers did.....Life has changed and we need to help, if we can, and not judge.
I don't think anyone here is judging or criticising the present generation. Just making observations that many of them have had it easy over the past 40 years and will find it hard to understand the concept of frugality as it has never been part of their lives.

I think that unless you happen to be very well off with savings & investments & can benefit from rises in interest rates, it won’t be long before many of us on fixed incomes will be struggling to pay our way.
I’m not sure what will happen if I can’t afford to heat my place or eat properly. I am hoping that’s a long way down the road.
I try not to think about having to replace major items. I believe that many people have less than 3 month income in savings. That certainly applies in my case. So the best I can come up with is to live in the moment. I’m not extravagant. But I do run a car so I can help my family out with the grandchildren.
The one thing that I have understood though is how much less certain life seems to be for my adult children.

We didn’t have much money£6 a week in 1976 when interest rates were 15 percent my husband went from weekly to monthly pay and I was not working as just had a baby .No food banks or help from government .Always had food bought cracked eggs from egg farm(couldn’t do that now get salmonella)The number of patients I found who had no basic cooking skills as schools didn’t teach them was horrendous we organised cooking lessons simple food but tasty We didn’t have the energy crisis though

9 in my family and we were poor, I am 74, dad worked very hard but was self employed and many a time, there was just no money. Mum got second hand clothes and re-purposed them. Thankfully we had good schools and aspiration from our parents and a very good library down the road. We 7 children grew up knowing how to make things stretch, how to survive on very little, no handouts or benefits

I happen to agree with the op. We were very happy, we lived within our means and the cobbled street by our 3 bedroomed terraced house was our playground. We were all in the same boat and neighbours looked out for one another

It was a golden age then in many ways, playing out, good plain food. Potatoes, carrots, bread, jam. we could not afford a tv nor a fridge and I remember the delight when someone gave us a second hand one. The family pulled together as one united unit. All of us 7 would know how to cope today but I don`t think the AC would as they have never had to but they will learn

I was sometimes bought a tiny Hovis loaf that cost a penny

I remember those, nannypiano
Somehow, they seemed to taste better than any other bread

Our bakery still does those little Hovis loaves Callistemon but you have to get in there early to get them and they cost a lot more than a penny! My GC love them!

How much are they, Chewbacca?

I’ve been reading all your posts about the current economic climate and the struggles that people are facing in terms of rising energy/fuel costs and food bills. It is truly frightening. I am a 61 year old widow and self employed and will have to work beyond 67 years old as I will not be able to survive on my current small NHS pension and a state pension , well not if I want to have any quality of life. Like maintaining my own home. Which I am fortunate to have. What I don’t understand is how so many people are able to go on holidays abroad ( I haven’t been abroad for 4 years) and have regular staycations. I feel so cut off from friends and former colleagues who seem to be still spending vast amounts of money. How can there be so many reports in the news about people struggling etc and at the same time so many people going away on holidays abroad? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

70p Callistemon! 2 x mini Hovis loaves, 2 x gingerbread men, 1 x granary loaf (the only item for me) = £5.00

70p each?!! ?
A treat, not an essential

But now I have an ear worm, the New Word Symphony ?

Definitely a treat Callistemon!

You can make your own mini loaves…..

www.lakeland.co.uk/70178/lakeland-12-hole-loose-based-mini-loaf-tin?src=gfeed&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIg-yxm4az-QIVhf93Ch3YNg5LEAQYASABEgIOs_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Gabrielle56

inishowen

I think there are elderly people who would happily pass on frugal tips to the young. I'm not talking about my generation of baby boomers. I mean those that lived through the war.

Blimey how many left at age 90++?!

Me Gabrielle.
I was born 1930 during the Great Depression. Its all in the book I wrote that has gone worldwide. I lived survived being machine gunned twice and being bombed out twice during the London Blitz, plus being evacuated. We had to make do and mend during the war years and we were on rations.
In January 1940, the British government introduced food rationing and we finally came off them in 1954. List of rations for one person was......

WW2 Food Rations.

This is the ration for one adult per week.

BACON and HAM ……… 4ozs ( 100g )
MEAT …………………… to the value of 1s.2d ( in today's money I would imagine that now to be around £2-50). Sausages were not rationed but difficult to obtain : offal was originally unrationed but sometimes formed part of the meat ration.
BUTTER ………………… 2ozs ( 50g )
CHEESE ………………… 2ozs ( 50g ) sometimes it rose to 4ozs ( 100g ) and even up to 8ozs ( 225g )
MARGARINE ……………… 4ozs ( 100g )
COOKING FAT …………… 4ozs ( 100g ) often dropping to 2ozs ( 50g )
MILK …………………… 3 pints ( 1800ml ) sometimes dropping to 2 pints ( 1200ml ). Household ( skimmed, dried ) milk was available. This was I packet each 4 weeks.
SUGAR …………………… 8ozs ( 225g )
PRESERVES ……………… 1lb ( 450g ) every 2 months
TEA ……………………… 2ozs ( 50g )
EGGS …………………… 1 shell egg a week if available but at times dropping to 1 every two weeks. Dried eggs - 1 packet each 4 weeks.
SWEETS …………………… 12 ozs ( 350g ) each 4 weeks.

In addition, there was a monthly points system.
As an example of how these could be spent, with the 16 points that you were allocated you were allowed to buy one can of fish or meat or 2lb ( 900g ) of dried fruit or 8lb ( 3.6kg ) of split peas.

Babies and younger children, expectant and nursing mothers had concentrated orange juice and cod liver oil from Welfare Clinics together with priority milk.
This milk was also available to invalids.

School meals were started in the war because mothers were working extremely long hours to help the war effort.
It is surprising how many folk are looking for these recipes now. the1940sexperiment.com/100-wartime-recipes/

Folks seemed to be a lot healthier then AND slimmer.

Shirley48

You can make your own mini loaves…..

www.lakeland.co.uk/70178/lakeland-12-hole-loose-based-mini-loaf-tin?src=gfeed&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIg-yxm4az-QIVhf93Ch3YNg5LEAQYASABEgIOs_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I had a look to see if you can buy Hovis wheatgerm flour but couldn't find the original type.

lolajoy

I’ve been reading all your posts about the current economic climate and the struggles that people are facing in terms of rising energy/fuel costs and food bills. It is truly frightening. I am a 61 year old widow and self employed and will have to work beyond 67 years old as I will not be able to survive on my current small NHS pension and a state pension , well not if I want to have any quality of life. Like maintaining my own home. Which I am fortunate to have. What I don’t understand is how so many people are able to go on holidays abroad ( I haven’t been abroad for 4 years) and have regular staycations. I feel so cut off from friends and former colleagues who seem to be still spending vast amounts of money. How can there be so many reports in the news about people struggling etc and at the same time so many people going away on holidays abroad? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

Everybody I know who has gone abroad on holiday this year has been taking the holiday they had booked before Covid struck, or that they promised themselves in lockdown and had saved for over two years for. I think after this summer overseas holidays will reduce dramatically because people just won’t be able to afford them.

Yes, DS and DIL's was the fourth attempt at using the holiday vouchers they were given by an airline and at last they managed to have the holiday they had saved for pre-pandemic.

But not the holiday they had first planned

Callistemon21

Shirley48

You can make your own mini loaves…..

www.lakeland.co.uk/70178/lakeland-12-hole-loose-based-mini-loaf-tin?src=gfeed&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIg-yxm4az-QIVhf93Ch3YNg5LEAQYASABEgIOs_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I had a look to see if you can buy Hovis wheatgerm flour but couldn't find the original type.

www.thebreadkitchen.com/recipes/hovis-recipe-old-style/

Thanks Shirley48

The explanation is that people's incomes cover an enormous range from virtually nothing to millions of £s.

Average household income varies.
The bottom 20% have an average income around £14.5k a year
The next 20% have an average income around £23k
The next 20% have an average income around £31k
The next 20% have an average income around £42k
and the top 20% have an average income income around £63k

This distribution of income covers both those struggling to manage and those with incomes that can afford foreign holidays. Although, speaking for myself, and I am sure it applies to others, we are having holidays this year that we paid for in 2020 and 2021, but were unable to take because of COVID.

When you think of the gross gluttony that goes on today that rationing list is eye popping. We have supermarket shelves bursting with every kind of food imaginable. I go sailing past several aisles that stock sweets, chocolate, crisps, biscuits, cakes, fizzy drinks, alcohol, all the bad stuff. And it's amazing how many aisles are devoted to these things. People will be lost without their fill of processed foods.

jane1956

how many who "are struggling to feed the family" have smart phones, get nails done order from deliveroo etc???

I don't know how many struggling families have smart 'phones, get their nails done or order from deliveroo.

Do you?

OP, I think the point you made is a valid one. Replies that include notions such as 'both parents have to work now', 'being poor isn't the same as it used to be', 'we're not young/single parents so we can't put ourselves in their shoes" all seem a bit trite. Unless everyone recognises that poverty is STILL here as it always has been we cannot change anything about it.
We can share our experience of how we coped with the same problem, in order to help others cope with it on a daily and personal basis. Such things as prioritising
the blueprint of living well such as heat, proper freelance safe home, travel to work and education over such things as cigarette/alcohol indulgence, junkfood/takeaways, overly manufactured cars, countless wardrobe items and utter junk to decorate our houses. (Notice how bypassing these things also have a knockon improvement on the environment, sustainability and physical and mental health).

On another tack we can ALL help to improve on the debilitation that poverty causes US ALL by refusing to support politicians and businesses who increase poverty, at the preference of pandering to those who can already afford basic needs and alot more besides, or constantly pushing 'trends' into the world, or treating customers as an inconvenient necessity to get at their 'wallet share'.
Here's a poem:
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple. -Jenny Joseph

I mean... "proper food, safe home..."

That wartime list is only portions of food that was rationed. All other foodstuffs were not rationed. people could fill up with fruit and veg and of course there were all the supplementary sources of food, such as liver, kidneys etc which were not rationed and could be had from the butcher if you were in favour, many people raised chickens, rabbits, even pigs in their gardens. My mother kept chickens in our suburban garden for eggs and eating. lots of people grew fruit and veg in their gardens and in allottments.

Country people had access to all kinds of foodstuffs on the side. My father was liaison officer at a USAF basese in Somerset, driving round farmers placating them when their cows were spooked by fighter planes. They soon discovered that my father loved cheese and cider, and each farmer, as my dad got out of his vehicle in the farm yard would give him a plate full of bread, butter and cheese and a tankard of cider - all off ration. then there were food parcels - from the USA and from family members stationed in other countries with access to food.

Food in wartime was complex and uncertain, but there was plenty of it.