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

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

Easy to answer this: lentils.

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

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.

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

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!

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 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

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.

For myself I have never had to "eke out" even when I was a student on a grant. My only recollection of this was when I was a child at home. My mother constantly whinged about not having enough money and her constant saying was "You cant keep a family on one man's wage". However my father was a proud man and would never "allow" her to work until I was about 14 and my sister was growing up and needing clothes.

My mother eked out by buying my clothes in the second hand market in Liverpool (known locally as Paddy's market). We often had scouse for supper (which my mother called tea) as it was a dish that could be made from cheap cuts of meat and leftovers.

My sister was the golden princess and never had to wear seconf hand clothes. Once I began work I used to think that every pound I gave my mother for my "keep" went straight onto my sisters back.

We ate a lot of fish when the children were young, because although we were poor my husband was a keen fisherman and very good at catching them. It was sea fishing, onshore or in friend's boats. It was this that made us buy our first freezer.

I was brought up apart of a big family everything was home cooked by my mum and we ate ok. When divorcing my children’s father I really struggled money wise but my upbringing taught me how to cook with very little. A tin of corned beef went a long way with lots of vegetables peelings included. Rice pasta and tinned tuna were a favourite too everything was eaten not wasted. I always made jams chutneys and pickled I still do. There not expensive especially if the fruit is foraged which I still do fruit for free is abundant in the hedgerow.
I still make Scouse (a stew) with corned beef occasionally if there is any left over. My children don’t eat corned beef these days they told me they can’t stand it now!

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.

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.

We always had a sack of potatoes from the farm shop and ate a lot of them!

When my children were primary school age one of their favourites was "sunflower pudding" which was a bowl of custard, finely sliced banana arranged around the edge and a shake of chocolate sprinkles in the middle.
I don't think they realised it was just a way to make one banana serve three children 🥹

We weren’t yet married, but living in a country where virtually the only cheap foods were vegetables and bread, we virtually lived on assorted vegetable soups and bread. Protein was provided by some pretty nasty Australian processed cheese - we were too skint for any other.

Dh still loves my vegetable soups! Still a regular in winter here.

This brings back memories. We went through lean times never forgotten. I rembered having £15 a week to feed two kids and us. Sausages and mince potatoes and veg. What I couldn’t do with that was nobody’s business. And I baked.

Trusty slow cooker, more veg than meat and used little electricity when we were on a meter, I still use one regularly today.

We got married in 1977 and our shopping bill was usually £12 a week - that included cleaning items and dog food. Everything was bought at a new Tesco store on a Friday evening after work.

My Mum used to save her weekly magazines for me and there was always a budget cooking supplement which saved us on many occasions. I have an ancient cookery book in my collection and there are loads of these stuffed in there and they bring back memories.

I had £5 per week in 1972 to cover food and any treats. The Paupers Cook book was great. Like many of us, I grew up with a mum who cooked from scratch and was good at making the Sunday chicken or more usually shoulder of lamb feed the family Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
The Cranks vegetarian cook book helped, my mum wasn’t veggie

On Wednesdays, when we were waiting for my husband to be paid the following day, I used to buy a tin of corned beef, a couple of carrots and a tin of peas. I'd make a corned beef pie ad we'd have that with mash and the vegetables. Sons are now 43 and 40, and still say how much they loved those pies

We had 5 children and a small income and were vegetarian.

We started a buying co-operative with some friends and bought all sorts of basic "cupboard" foods in bulk - rice, beans, oats, nuts, seeds, dried fruit etc.
We had a big allotment and kept bees
This meant we generally ate well - wholefoods and fresh vegetables but as the children grew of course it was cooking in huge quantities!

Just before a big delivery we ate quite a lot of what was left from the last one - millet porridge, miso crumpets, drop scones, lentils and rice, beany casseroles, dahl and various breads.

It was very exciting when the order arrived - a big lorry with sacks of grains, pulses, fruit and huge catering tubs of peanut butter... The children negotiated treats with our friends children - these might be apple juice, liquorice bars or fruit leathers, carob nuts or yogourt raisins. We would have a bit of a "party day" weighing out everyone's orders and stashing ours in the pantry alongside our pickles, beers, honey and so on.

We remember those days with a lot of warmth. They were very simple, but happy days.

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.

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.

For food, home grown vegetables and a 25kg bag of flour for baking, lots of mince and off cuts, bikes weren’t practical so an Austin Allegro ( yes it was that bad).
Habits havn’t changed, we dont need the calories now, so no pies and cakes but food costs peanuts.