Rationing

Cabbie21

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 certainly remember rationing, and my mum cutting a mars bar up so it would last me several days. Mind you, they were much bigger then! it took me a while after rationing, to realise they could be eaten all in one go 😄😄
Born in 1944, rationing was normal for me I knew no difference.

I was born in 1945 and clearly remember rationing while I was young. My mother made all our clothes and was adept at cutting down other things to make us clothes. I remember the ration book, but the incident I remember most was the milk lady shouting to my mother that my little sister was sat on the front doorstep eating the butter ration for us all. My mother had just put her best coat on her and she was sat with butter smeared down her coat and on her face and my poor mum didnt know which was worse, she kept saying Oh the butter ration, the coat , the butter ration. Very limited sugar etc and we grew a lot of our own vegetables and swapped with neighbours I remember

I still have my ration book somewhere, everyone that could grew vegetables, I remember the roadside verges dug up to grow veg as well as allotments.
The wartime thrift persisted right through my schooldays, make do and mend, don’t waste anything, you ate what was on the table because there wasnt anything else. Society was far more equal, it was tough but everyone was in the same boat, the real step forward compared with pre war was the NHS.

Every Saturday late afternoon my dad would take my brother and I to the sweet shop to buy our sweet rations. I remember it as a special time with my dad.

I turned 80 this month and can certainly remember shopping with my mother who had a ration book.

One of my uncles had an allotment and he used to come around every week with whatever fruit and veg was in season. There was always a lot of rhubarb. After 1945, when my father was discharged from the navy, he too got an allotment and spent every weekend and several weekday evenings over there.

At that time some men used the allotment the way they use the "garden shed" or man cave now. Most of the allotments had a little shed with a gas ring and provision to make tea. It got them away from family life and parenting and gave them some quiet time alone. However they could claim that they were working on the land to provide for their wives and children.

My mother dealt with the chickens MissAdventure. I remember her singeing any feathers still clinging to the carcass.
Some were from our own chicken run. I didn’t get involved in the chickens’ demise, in fact I doubt whether I even thought about it. Ours mainly existed to provide eggs for the family.

I agree about the healthy diet Henetha. As you say, shopping back then entailed a visit to separate shops - no large stores around then, and supermarkets came much later. We had milk and bread delivered by horse-drawn carts and sometimes any manure deposited found its way to the rose bushes.
I think I prefer to hop in the car nowadays and get everything from under one roof.

Ah, good old uncle.
Was there a "black market", too?

MissAdventure

Ooh.. who killed the chickens?
Needs must, I know, but I'm squeamish (and hypocritical) about that kind of thing.

Uncle!

My Mum said she'd never seen anyone pluck and draw a chicken faster than her MIL (the grandmother I never met because she died before I was born).

Ooh.. who killed the chickens?
Needs must, I know, but I'm squeamish (and hypocritical) about that kind of thing.

I'm even older than some of you and can well remember rationing. Queuing at the butchers and the fishmongers with our ration books, Sometimes there would be an extra sausage if you were lucky. And the little square of cheese would be laughable these days.
My mum was a countrywoman who knew how to stretch the rations out. We almost always had meat or fish and potatoes and two veg. We kept chickens so had plenty of protein, and loads of eggs, some of which we gave to the neighbours in exchange for a cabbage or similar. We grew lots of veg and had many soft fruit plants which were amazing. I remember picking the gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries, and loganberries which we never see these days.
All in all, especially with sweet rationing not ending until 1953,
it was a healthy diet.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

~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 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.

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 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.