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

Aldom

HelterSkelter1

Slightly off the point, but when I spend £5 in the supermarket on hardly anything I often think of my sister newly married on £5 a week housekeeping in 1963. And that was probably slightly above average. But a good local butcher, baker, dairy and fishmonger must have helped. I can't remember much about our early married years food wise although we had several good butchers in our town I must have used together with a fish shop, greengrocers etc, but that £5 has stuck in my memory.

In 1963 £5 was worth (in today's money) £100.
So in no way a struggle to make ends meet.
In 1968, with two children we lived well on £6 a week housekeeping money. I could easily afford a whole rib of beef at the weekend.

I too had £6.00 a week housekeeping in the late sixties. That amount funded food, everything for the house, dry cleaning, haircuts, shoe repairs, packed lunches for work, and to feed two fussy cats. We had friends come for dinner sometimes; I didn't find it a struggle but I was always careful to check prices and didn't buy anything we absolutely didn't need. My Mother had a really limited budget when I was a child and managed to make delicious meals out of thin air sometimes.

Still have The Paupers Cookbook! Lived on beef shin, ribs and mince. Couldn’t do it now as I am mainly veggie!
Fortunately much better off now and we eat a lot of organic food, fish and plants which are not cheap.
Still thrifty though and make my own kefir, yoghurt and water kefir drinks. Never ever waste any food and my grandson laughs at me for freezing leftovers!

In 1968 when I was first married, on very little money, I used to keep 10 shillings (50p today) to buy whatever was a bargain. Once much hilarity among friends about my bargain 6 pence (2-1/2p) tins of plums, but my goodness they made great plum crumbles with half flour and half porridge oats made it more crunchy. My husband played rugby with others and they used to descend for a meal after matches. Loved - and still think it is the best flavour - shin beef. Cooked in a pressure cooker, made the most lovely stew with super gravy, some of which I saved to go in with mince for another day. Tins of corned beef for corned beef hash on days when no money left for fresh meat. A favourite when I am on my own - even today - was pigs kidneys with onions and mushrooms. Cut kidney up into pieces and put a little oil in and fry onions and add peppers and then kidney and fry. then add celery and make a gravy and let it bubble slowly , it tastes lovely.Makes a great meal with potatoes and veg. Love celery both cooked and raw, and it adds good flavour to casseroles. Jacket potatoes these days do first bit in microwave and then finish in airfryer as you get the good outer skin. Tin of tuna and some sweetcorn make a good filling to share out. Go shopping , not delivered , as I see what is in the reduced bin first to decide what I will be having and buy accordingly. Have a wok and often do chicken thigh with lots of veg onions and celery of course carrots and whatever else I have around. Make great stir fry. Dont use packet sauce, just use soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce to make my own a lot cheaper. Used to go strawberry picking especially on wimbledon final day as no one around. Pick the strawberrys and go home and make jam. Always came out very well and lovely to eat in November when it was miserable . Making me hungry now!

I can't go back 50,60 or even 70 years, but when I married in the late 80s, we had a high cost mortgage and sadly very low wages. I would add baked beans and chopped tinned tomatoes to minced beef to stretch it further, making 1lb (or today's 500g) of mince stretch to 4 (sometimes 5) meals (8-10 servings).
I still do this today but now as in a tin of chickpeas too, which can stretch that same 500g of mince to 10/12 servings, the majority of which get frozen for use at some later date.

I was 60s baby but we were never starving we also ate lot of mince and spuds and homemade pies and cakes my aunt used to say you won’t go hungry if you got spuds but all our meals were cooked from scratch nothing out of a tin but carnation cream lol

Thank you, teabagwoman, for reminding me of pressed ox tongue. I remember my heavy cast iron tongue press and only recently got rid of it after it had remained unused for many years. I married in the 1960s and my guide for economic meals was "Cooking in a Bedsitter" by Katherine Whitehorn. Our maisonette had a tiny garden whch DH made good use of to grow veg. Now, almost 60 years later, he still grows a lot of veg and fruit having progressed from our first tiny plot to a kitchen garden + allotment.

I remember once we had no money at all and three student teenagers, one of which was the girlfriend of eldest son, to feed. It was in the 1980's. DH was self employed so no benefits. The kids biked ten miles to a warehouse and brought back envelopes to stuff with passport documents. They biked them back just before 5pm and got enough money for cheap sausages, potatoes and baked beans. They did that for weeks till DH was employed again

I really did the opposite! I came from an impoverished single parent family to a marriage to a man, or boy really, who earned a good salary, so although I did most of the cooking at home, suddenly money wasn’t so tight. I had £5 a week for food, more if I needed it, and it seemed a fortune. I had never eaten so well!

During a lengthy period of unemployment (no-one wanted a 63 year old proof-reader) I bulked up the contents of a tin of baked beans with two tablespoons of economy brand porridge oats and dressed it up with Worcestershire Sauce. Like caviar or what?

I remember in 1971 when my electricity bill was due but wages didn’t go into the bank for a week. I wrote the cheque, and ‘forgot’ to sign it. Posted off it came back to me a week later. New cheque sent - with signature this time. Problem solved!! Money was tight then.

By eating a lot of beans and pulses and seasonal vegetables. Charity shop for clothes, Oxfam had started by the 1980's.

Greyduster

One thing I used to cook when things were tight that I learned from my mother were slow cooked beef short ribs which were as cheap as chips. Cooked in a covered casserole with vegetables they were delicious. I still cook them but they are for high days and holidays. You need to take out a second mortgage to buy them now since they were popularised by certain celebrity chefs.

I remembered a ready meal I'd seen on the Ocado site when I read this, short ribs at more than £28 a kilo!
www.ocado.com/products/m-s-collection-slow-cooked-short-rib-of-beef-563537011

Bumface

With two pensions and no mortgage, I am now far more comfortably off than back then but I find that old habits die hard and I still economise whenever possible and feel guilty when I spend money on non-essentials. Does anyone else find this?

We have no mortgage, haven't for over 40 years, but old habits never die. I'm sure I'll economise forever and I don't think that's anything but good.

Well done you for knowing yourself.

We were all right for food in the mid-60s. We used to get half a pound of mince for 1/6 which translates to 7p! And we ate herrings and mackerel, sometimes lamb or pork chops. Nowadays, lamb is a real luxury.
What was hard to find was money for clothes when the children arrived in the early 70s during horrendous inflation. I used to make clothes for them and myself, including cutting up my maternity clothes.
I well remember making a dress with wide medieval sleeves and cutting two right sleeves. Horror! I had to go back to the shop and get another yard of material.

luluaugust

The Paupers Cookbook played its part and everything cooked from scratch. A friend showed me how to gut fish and deal with a rabbit! I didn’t do that on my own I must admit. A huge bag of onions was bought for £1.lasted all winter hung up. This is all around 1970/72

Yes, the Paupers Cookboook was great.
At one stage we lived near a very helpful butcher who would show me how to do things, such bone and roll a breast of lamb, if he wasn't too busy. I had a pressure cooker and made casseroles with cheap meat such as oxtail and stewing beef, and cooked suet and sponge puddings. Also lots of cheap fish such as herrings and mackeral. Fortunately my husband likes offal so we had liver, kidneys, faggots and lambs heart, lovely and tender if properly cooked. Today we sometimes have haggis for a filling treat, a lovely meal.
I used to buy the bacon bits too, now everything is pre-packed so no "specials" like that. Even our local supermarkets have given up their butchers and fishmongers counters, so you can't buy just one thick pork chop or a big herring.
One frugal meal that we regularly eat today is boiled bacon or gammon, it lasts for ages and makes so many different meals, hot and cold.

Married in 1970, husband a student and I worked. Money was in very short supply except during uni hols when DH always managed to get a job of some sort. I used to buy pork bones and boil them (awful smell) and then pick the meat off the bones add lots of vegetables and make a stew that would last us at least 2 days. I'd add dumplings to make it go further and remember it being very tasty. At lunch times I'd take a sandwich from home or buy a bread cake and a slice of some cheap meat for a sandwich. Didn't have a shop bought sandwich for many years, thought they were a real luxury. How times change.

My Mum was an expert in eking out and my go-to meal stretcher was always more vegetables.
I think it’s got more difficult since we were young. As children, we ate what there was or went hungry.

We ate beans and rice

Tricia2 my husband will still eat this combination as a quick meal, but these days it's called "Slimming World" 😁

Bumface if you can afford little treats I do think you should allow yourself them.

Why feel guilty about a little happiness? Do you feel guilty for the good things you have almost by default (sunshine and rain, your family maybe).
If we find happiness in our hearts it surely spreads?

If you really can't afford a holiday then maybe you can afford days out to somewhere nearby or a walk somewhere- just for a change of scenery and, as my mother-in-law would say, "and an iced bun"!

Thinking of you.

I was in a fortunate position when married not to worry about food and budgets. I have never kept to a budget.

Now I have a decent work pension, state pension+ savings but sometimes if I have an expensive meal at home one night, the next maybe a couple of boiled eggs with toast, a favourite.

I also see economising as a way of life and have secondhand furniture etc. M0nica.
It's the second bit, about things I want to spend money on that I can't do.

I don't run a car or have a mobile phone. The top I am wearing today is over 45 years old. I go to the hairdresser about once every 2 years. I have not been on holiday for nearly nine years. I could go on but it's too boring.

I am not boasting about this. I have a real hang-up and if I did treat myself I know that the guilt would outweigh the pleasure.

Not when we first got married , but five years afterwards .
It was mince most days in every variation and it's probably why I hate it .
I wore my faded , shabby maternity clothes and shoes that needed a repair or throwing out .
People made comments .
My hair was untrimmed .
We couldn't afford to send our children to playgroup every day .
I loved being at home with them -so for me they were magic times .

feel guilty when I spend money on non-essentials. Does anyone else find this?. I’m definitely getting better at it!

Bumface

With two pensions and no mortgage, I am now far more comfortably off than back then but I find that old habits die hard and I still economise whenever possible and feel guilty when I spend money on non-essentials. Does anyone else find this?

It depends wat you mean by economising. Being clever with your money managing it well and getting value from every penny is a way of living not just the result of money being tight.

Many a wealthy person becomes so because they are astute with money at home as well as in business. My DD who I mentioned above, as a student visiting markets late to pick up cheap, and some times free fruit and veg, is now much older and has a very well paid job, but she still haunts the reduced section in supermarkets and her favourite hobby is going round charity shops. Her house is furnished throughout with second hand furniture, china, glass etc.

I see economising as a way of life and a way of making your money go further to pay for more of the things you want to spend money on.

I stopped feeling guilty spending money on non-essentials when mr I died 20 months ago. I’m not extravagant, at least I don’t believe so but I’m more likely to buy a top or jacket because I like it than because I need it.
Food shopping similar, I’ve always preferred quality to quantity and don’t hesitate to buy good cheese or wine.
I also gave my daughters a chunk of cash - not life changing but an amount that would have really helped me when they were children
I know I’m fortunate with a decent pension and some savings, I count those blessings daily. I think if you’ve had to scrape and manage at any stage you don’t forget that. It’s wrong that we have the smallest old age pension than other European countries.