How did you “Eke out” back in the day when hard up?

We both had professional qualifications and worked full time but after paying the rent and bills we had very little left over. It took us six years to save enough for the deposit on a very modest house. Neither of us smoked, we did not run a car or have a washing machine or dishwasher. We had an old black and white television.

When we finally bought our first home, I had to work extra shifts to enable us to stay solvent. We only went into debt once, with a £1.50, unarranged overdraft and we were called into the bank by the manager and given a stiff lecture.

I can't remember much about food apart from eating cheap baked beans, we couldn't afford Heinz, on bread sold cheap at the bakery just before closing time and awful mince that smelled of liver from the meat man in the open market.

Hard though all this was, I think today's generation of young people have it even harder, though in very different ways.

I agree Bimface. When I was having to eke out the housekeeping there was a local butcher where I could buy scrag end of lamb, oxtail, a pigs head to make my own brawn and boiling fowl that went in the pressure cooker. For special occasions I would cook and press an ox tongue. Can’t get any of that now

In 1976 my husband came out of the army. He was joining the police but we had a month with no wages. He sold his camera equipment so we could eat. Although we'd moved back near my parents I couldn't tell them we were hard up. We had a baby at the time. I dont know how we did it, but we survived.

I remember my mother having £3 for housekeeping in the 60s, for 6 of us. We weren’t on the breadline by any means but she was a good ‘from scratch’ cook, and now and then she’d say she was ‘going on frugals’ which meant cheaper meals. Nothing was wasted.

First summer job when I was 18 was on a supermarket checkout - I still remember half a pound of butter costing one and four pence halfpenny!

when I was married to my late first husband, we were so hard up. very pregnant I remember one day we had not eaten and went to visit Mum and Dad (Mine) when we left mum gave me a bag and said it was a little stew that was left over but clearly was not as it was an ice cream container full so obviously she had made it especially for us.
Also in the bag was some jam tarts made with mums lovely pastry and with the left over pastry was a sort of pasty filled with end of cheese and some pickle, she always made those with left over pastry and the hard rind sort of end of cheese. we were so hungry walking home we split it in half and it was the nicest thing I ever tasted!
to fill up I remember Mum saying in the war to fill you up bread and butter was always served with meals. in between meals if you are still hungry it would have been bread and homemade jam.
even now we don't have high food bills, we have a lot of pasta baked potatoes pulses especially now I am vegan

At university: lentil curry, sausage casserole, baked beans on toast, sausage rolls, Vesta meals. In my first year we had an amazing northern cook who cooked liver, plum tomatoes and mushy peas followed by some sort of steamed pudding and custard. Very warming on a cold northern winter's day. When she left an ex army cook came in and we had pork steaks, roasts potatoes, pizza, prawn curry, all sorts of delicious cakes and baked puddings etc. He ran out of the term's budget within half a term so was fired and we got another cook who really was dire, liver stew swimming is some sort of fatty, watery liquid. So were the days in hall.

NotSpaghetti, we were also in at the start of a wholefood cooperative, suma, in Kendal, probably around 1977. It was very much a life saver. Someone in Kendal, with a big-enough house, took the delivery and we took turns to pack it up. That started our lifelong wholefood journey

Easy to answer this: lentils.

I remember-
Fishcakes made with tinned pilchards saving the tomato sauce to put on once cooked.
Mince with a small amount of rice in that took on colour of the gravy.Went further.
Husband Going from weekly paid to monthly paid so eating very cheap to get through. Mainly potato and cheese pie with baked beans.
Sound if lot of us in same boat

Tuaim, when I was a student a Vesta paella was my treat for myself, when I was marginally less skint than usual!

Now and then I’d have the cheapest possible lunch in one of the student union canteens - tomatoes (tinned) on toast for 9d.

We were part of a wholefood cooperative group too, in Brighton - with Infinity Wholefoods. Been vegetarian for about 50 years, so that helps with the cost, especially as we have almost always had an allotment. Made much use of Rosie Elliot cookbook - lots of lentils, chickpeas, etc.

How long a list would you like?

Having spent twenty years of my life on a very basic wage and often free-lancing into the bargain, what I don't know about stretching food, repairing clothes etc. would go on the back of a postage stamp with room left over.

But we enjoyed live, hard times or not, and I hope you all did too.

I was born with a preference for cheap food. By that I mean I have always preferred cheaper cuts of meat, mince, stewing cuts, offal and joints, like stuffed breast of lamb to more expensive meats like joints of beef or lamb, steak, or even a good roastchicken. I also love veg and haunting markets, so I have aways been an economical cook.

Our tightest time came over one Christmas. All the children's presents came from charity shops. I waas in a charity shop when someone came in with a really battered coach built dolls pram. I snapped it up, DH repaired it and repainted it. I made bedding from my stash amd a cheap market stall and my lovely MiL knitted a pram set for DD's favourite doll. DD was ecstatic on Christmas day.

For DS I bought a second hand chmistry set. DH made a cabinet for it from gash wood in the garage and I added to it with things like Epsom salts, vinegar and other similar items, plus a book on home chemistry.

Both DC agree that that year was their best Christmas, ever.

Witzend

*Tuaim*, when I was a student a Vesta paella was my treat for myself, when I was marginally less skint than usual!

Now and then I’d have the cheapest possible lunch in one of the student union canteens - tomatoes (tinned) on toast for 9d.

Do you remember Vesta Chow Mein?

It tasted like ambrosia (not the tinned rice, the food of the gods) back then but I bet I would find it disgusting now.

My first ever beef burger was a Wimpy costing 1/-6d (7.5 pence)

When my husband was a student we realised one day that the cheap mince we were buying from the local supermarket was for pets only.

it would never occur to me to make such things, probably because i cannot cook and did not see anyone doing that kind of thing when young.
i'd just eat bread, poss toast, with cheese if i could afford it, or sardines.
i remember walking miles to buy chips for 10p cheaper and walking back eating them.
guess that was a form of ekeing out. not eating out. ?
i found a 50p once in the dust, and i could buy 2 tins of sardines with that. but i wanted a cream cake i'd been looking at for weeks.
the internal argument between sensible sardines and wasteful cake spoiled the joy of finding the 50p.

In the 70s I economised by eating vegetarian meals made from scratch but back even further ... I often saw my Dad eating what he called "tea slops". As I recall, he poured tea into a bowl, added bits of bread and then scooped out the bread with a spoon. He said this is what they did in the war. He also ate bread and dripping. Imagine anyone today eating any of this!

The same way we 'eke out' currently.

Potatoes, rices, pulses, pastas, breads, veggies, fruits, biscuits.

I would buy a small amount of stewing steak and add chopped carrots and pearl barley, a couple of suet dumplings and it made a filling meal.

keepingquiet

What about now? As a pensioner I'm struggling with my bills right now. Often I have little money left for food.

I now shop in the reduced aisle, buy the offers, cabbage and other cheap veg and use up left-overs.

I draw out enough cash for the week and know exactly how much I have to spend on food every day and try to stick to it.

I used to do this when my kids were little too, but we didn't have inter-net banking then so I couldn't check my balance twice a day, which I do now.

Indeed, many people are still eeking out.

Mice like to dine out.

Skydancer I love bread and dripping. As a child this wasn't a sign of economy eating it was a fought over treat.

In the days of large Sunday roasts, usually quite fat. Once the roast was cooked the fat would be drained off and the meat juices used to make the gravy. Inevitably some of the juices would end up in the dripping bowl with the dripping and sink to the bottom making a delicious jelly at the base.

When putting the dripping, preferably on toast, the aim was to get as much of the gravy jelly on your bread with the dripping. A good scatter of salt - and a treat like no other.

Dripping bought in a shop has been clarified and any thing that could make it less than 100% pure fat and flavourless is removed and is completely inedible as a topping on bread or toast

But bread and dripping from the Sunday roast, was never an economy food. Apart from anything else, you had to be able to afford the joint to get the dripping.

I'd eat bread and dripping like a shot. If anyone had some.

Fernbergien

I remember-
Fishcakes made with tinned pilchards saving the tomato sauce to put on once cooked.
Mince with a small amount of rice in that took on colour of the gravy.Went further.
Husband Going from weekly paid to monthly paid so eating very cheap to get through. Mainly potato and cheese pie with baked beans.
Sound if lot of us in same boat

I can remember having to move to an area of the country where house prices were much higher and it was difficult to make ends meet. In fact, they often didn't.

DH got paid every four weeks but bills came in monthly, the only advantage was that at the end of November/December he got an 'extra' payday which was a relief.

I got an evening job so we were like ships that passed in the night.

"Stoup" was/is my standard eke out/we' re broke meal. A huge vat of mixed vegetables and stock, served with a lump of crusty bread. A meal in a bowl. We love offal but just cannot buy it any more unless by mail order not even the local butcher, let alone the supermarkets have it any more). Also, the cheaper cuts of meat taste divine but use too much gas or electricity to cook (in the past this was not an issue). I have just bought a Ninja but have not had the chance to use it yet. Utility bills now scare me witless!