Rationing

I am 81 and I certainly remember rationing. It went on until the early 1950s. I can remember going with my father to collect my baby sister's ration book, after she was born in january 1950.

Not all food was rationed. Fresh vegetables, fruit, bread and fish were off ration, as was liver, kidney and game. Many butchers had access to rabbits, which ere not rationed and, in the country other game as well. Plus many people grew their own fruit and veg, kept chickens and even pigs.

We lived in Lewisham, in London and my mother and grandmother had about a dozen chickens in a coop in the garden. Ones that stopped laying were slaughtered for Christmas.

The other source of food was food parcels. The Americans sent lots over to us. Servicemen serving overseas, but not necessarily on fighting fronts would send food parcels home.

My father was in India from 1945-48 and was entitled to send home one parcel a month, but some how managed to send one parcel a month to everyone in the household. including my baby sister and I, my grandmother and an aunt. My parcel would always include some sweets but also tins of salmon, sausages and butter.

I was a toddler when rationing ended so do not remember it, but my mother told me that having a baby was quite good as babies got a ration card so she got extra food from my ration. She particularily mentioned tea.

Rationing was finally brought to an end in July 1954.

I don't remember anything about it as I was only 2 but my Mum and my Nan certainly knew how to feed a family with little or no waste!

MOnica we lived in Lewisham as well in the 50s. I dont remember rationing as I am 75 but I think sweets were the last to be taken off rationing. My grandfather had chickens so I expect we had eggs. We were all very slim. And we benefited from the post war orange juice snd malt.
I think the basic ration was very little, but just about enough. It must have been so difficult to feed a family. We probably eat a weeks ration of cheese now at one sitting grat4d on our spaghetti.

I can certainly remember rationing. We lived in a small village and got produce eg eggs, potatoes from the local farmers, plus Dad grew some fruit and vegetables. Later I can remember shopping with my Mum with coupons, and the last ones to go were the sweet coupons. My sister and I each had 2 oz of sweets a week and Mum sometimes bought a Mars bar which she cut into four pieces, one for each of us.
It was actually a healthier diet than now and you did not see any overweight children.

I remember our meals were based mainly on vegetables that my dad grew in the garden. There wasn't much meat. We had lots of home grown fruit too.
We thrived on the diet and stayed slim.

Same here, AGAA4. All our veg and soft fruit, plus a couple of apple trees came from the garden. Agree, there were no overweight children
I remember having a blue ration book which changed to an adult beige one when I was older. Sweets came off ration when I was about 14 I think.
As I was born at the beginning of the war rationing was just the norm and growing up it was all I knew. It was an exciting moment though when sweets were finally off ration.

I still have the ration book I had as a baby and it is beige. Maybe the colour varied depending on where or when it was issued.

People had to exist on very little unless they had access to home grown or the black market. There were still loads of hens in back gardens where I grew up and the cockerels all crowed as soon as it was light.

I think you need to make a clear division between food that was on ration and food that wasn't.

When you see a photo of food rations, this is only the ration of food that was rationed, if you see what I mean. the rationed foods were supplemented by all the food that were off ration - fruit and veg, fish, bread, and most people had access to supplemental food; home grown, foraged, gifted or extras a friendly food retailer would pass on to favoured customers. You did better in the country than the town.

My dad was the British Liaison Officer on a USAF facility in Somerset. He used to drive round all the local farmers when they complained about low flying aircraft, upsetting their cows.

The farmers soon discovered my fathers love of bread, cheese and cider, and as he drove down the farm drive they would disappear into a barn to pull a jug of strictly illicit home brewed cider, while the farmer's wife produced some equally illicit home made cheese and butter, plus a freshly made loaf.

In the days before drink driving regulations, he would drive back to his office in the afternoon, sit at his desk and fall asleep while he recovered from the (strong) cider he had imbibed.

Also worth noting that the health of lots of people improved massively because the amount they could get on their ration was more, and better balanced, than they could afford before the war.

I have my nan’s ration book, and her id card. She stayed in London during the war, making parachutes at her normal place of work. She lived in two rooms in someone else’s house, and I think there was precious little homegrown stuff to supplement her rations. And, of course, it wasn’t just food that was rationed. To almost their dying days, my nan, many of my aunts, and my mum died could draw a straight seam down the back of their legs with eyebrow pencil!

I remember rationing. My family lived in the country, always had veg, fruit, meat. I think sugar was rationed, slightly affecting mum's cooking - however she still cooked gorgeous meals.

I’m 83 and certainly remember rationing. We lived in the middle of London and we had no garden or access to fresh eggs and fruit available in the country. Sausages were off ration but disgusting. You needed to queue for so many things.A neighbour knocked to tell us that there were bananas in a shop a bus ride away. Remember my mother getting us ready in such a hurry to try to get there. Clothes were also on ration. Sweets came off ration after the war but were quickly put back on as there were no sweets left in the shops. The next time we were assured there would be plenty and there was.

I don't remember much of the actual meals ,but I do remember my mother bottling raspberries and jam making. I lived in Yorkshire and we had a large garden .I do remember my first banana. It was a great occasion . I had been told about this wonderful fruit , and after having dried bananas I was looking forward to it. I hated it, much to mum's disappointment.
One granny was a talented dressmaker and I had clothes made out of other garments and the other granny knit. She would unpick sweaters which had seen better days,wash the wool and reknit.
I do remember the way the butter ration was beaten into the margarine so everyone would get some.My mother worked at the Coop for a while where cutting small exact amounts of cheese was essential.

~Gosh this has got me thinking.I mentioned my dressmaker gran . She made me a coat and bonnet in the style of the young princesses' coat and made me a fur muff to go with it. I do remember that the children had birthday parties with a cake as all the mums contributed bits of their rations.

I remember my grandad taking me to the sweet shop and getting a small triangular bag with the sweet ration in it. It was so exciting.
My grandchildren find it hard to believe with all the confectionery available now.

Although I was born in 1948, rationing was still on until I was 6 years old. As a Channel Island family, my ancestors lived under 5 years of German Occupation. Around 17,000 islanders were evacuated to the UK leaving about 8,000 behind. During that 5 years over 37,000 German soldiers lived on these islands, together with hundreds of horses which also had to be fed, and demanded first pick of the food and drink that was available. Towards the end of the Occupation everyone, Germans included, were existing on next to nothing. The 9 month siege in 1944-45 where no supplies of any kind reached the Islands made for near starvation and general health suffered. My Granny made tea leaves from parsnip peelings, made endless potato peel pies (It isn't just a book title) and eked out the little she had by using cans of vegetables and fruit. Together with other local ladies they had foraged when things were in season and secretly used an old canning machine and jam jars. The ladies took it in turns to hide this machine and my Granny spent a sleepless night when it was her turn. The penalty would have been imprisonment, possibly, in a French camp or shot , depending on whether the Gestapo dealt with this offence. My Granny and her generation were recycling and make do Queens with both food and clothing.

Sweets came off ration in 1953 for the Queen's coronation. I became a Diabetic nine months later aged 10.I still.enjoy the occasional sweet.

Westendgirl, that was my experience with bananas too.
My family were all watching as I took my first bite, which I quickly spat out. I thought it was horrible, and they all looked so disappointed.

Bread was not rationed during WW2 but had to be rationed after the war.

Pheasant was not rationed so the Royals were well supplied from Scotland.

watermeadow I am 78 and I remember rationing, I can still picture the ration books mother collected up and put in the shopping bag as we left the house.
We had a garden with a vegetable patch and fruit bushes, in the summer we had a lot of fresh berries and we also had a large strawberry bed.
My grandfather also owned a market garden so we never went hungry.

I'm a end-of-war baby and can remember the ration books which were kept in the sideboard drawer.
Food was still rationed but I don't remember a lot about it as our garden was nearly all turned over to vegetables, our relatives had a farm nearby so we had fruit from their trees, fresh eggs. I don't remember going hungry at all.

Does anyone remember when there was a shortage of potatoes in the late 1950s or could be in the 60s? I was at high school and we got white bread with our school dinners instead of potatoes.

I also remember rationing, my mum, sister and I would queue outside the grocery shop along with many other people with our ration book. We were lucky, we had a small allotment where we grew things and kept chickens, there were always fresh eggs and fresh vegetable. We always had a roast for Sunday dinner along with yorkshire puddings and vegetables but the roast lasted us all week and kept in the cellar on a cold slab. We always had a pudding after. We were poor and mum and dad lived from one pay day to the next and we had to have school uniforms, how they paid for them I do not remember. When we got home from school we took off our uniforms and put on our playing out clothes. My poor sister always got my hand me downs so I had to look after them. We played netball at school in our navy blue knickers. We had an outside toilet and a tin bath and mum washed in a dolly tube with a ringer and posser.

My mum made our clothes on an old singer treadle machine, she sketched clothes out of a catalogue and then we went to the market to buy the material,

We had a fantastic childhood but it was very hard for our parents and I wish I could tell them how much I appreciated what they did for us but it is too late now, they died many years ago.

I'm sure I read somewhere that those who had rationing were the most healthy, in terms of heart/diabetes and those kinds of issues.

I don't remember much of the actual meals ,but I do remember my mother bottling raspberries and jam making

Oh yes, there was home-made jam of all kinds (damson was the best) and there were jars of bottled plums in the larder, together with salted down runner beans ready for the winter.
We didn't have a fridge and freezers were unheard of.