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

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 ate beans and rice with a little sausage or bits of ham, spaghetti and ground beef and soup, canned salmon and tuna. I shopped the bargain bins for vegetable , fruit and meat-still do.

back in the day I always had a sack yes a sack of potatoes in the shed. cheese and potato pie with beans was filling for children.

petra

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.

But that was when we were importing tons of beef from Argentina together with lamb from New Zealand and Australia under the very good trade deals we had with them.

Aldom, In 1963 £5 was worth (in today's money) £100.

I'd agree - struggle (if there is one) similar to 1963.

When we were first married DH was still a student completing a long professional degree. I was earning a very lowly teachers salary.
My go to recipe was cauliflower cheese with an OXO cube sprinkled over it. On Sundays we had a roast dinner consisting of a small rolled beef ( no idea which cut got rolled, but it had a fair amount of fat ) with roast vegetables. It tasted delicious. If we ever had chicken it was roasted, then eaten cold, then remains put in a pie and the carcass made into soup.

In the mid 70s, the housekeeping budget was £7 a week for 4 of us, including cleaning materials. toiletries and any other necessary household goods.

I cannot remember feeling in anyway constrained by this, although, as I have said, my preference has always been for cheaper cuts of meat, I made my own baby food because I considered tinned baby food too expensive and not worth the money

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.

But that was when we were importing tons of beef from Argentina together with lamb from New Zealand and Australia under the very good trade deals we had with them.

When DD was a student , she was the Queen of cheap eating. She had a bag on wheels which she would trundle around Lewisham market late on a Saturday afternoon. She would get a bag of onions for £1, a big bag of potatoes for not much more plus loads of fruit and veg that would not last until Monday, sometimes for free. She then sold it on to other students for a few pennies more than she paid and ate, almost for free. Some times, if she was coming home or we were visiting we would get the benefit of her astute shopping.

Have you got a slow cooker dalrymple?

Good for cooking cheaper cuts of meat and cheap to run.

"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!

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.

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

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.

Mice like to dine out.

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.

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.

The same way we 'eke out' currently.

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

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!

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.