If things get tougher?

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Hi Primrose,

I've added your thread to the current thread on how people will cope if things get tougher to keep the suggestions together.

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Miserjunkie

I agree with everything you have all said re wartime economy measures.

I'm a sixties babe so I remember the 70's well. I remember going to school wearing plastic bags over my shoes (which I might add were second hand) in the bad snowy weather because they had holes. If I needed new clothes or shoes I had to either wait for christmas or my birthday - which is in the summer!! I learnt from an early age to look after my things, something I think children these days don't do. It is almost like the attitude of the young is everything's disposable or it will get replaced. My children are learning the hard way.

I was lucky to stay with my Grandparents on a regular basis, I loved listening to their stories of the war. My Gran taught me so many skills, sewing, cooking, crafting and how to shop for a bargain. So now I cook from scratch, I can rustle up a skirt or cushion covers, make props for the school events out of sticky back plastic and cardboard LOL and only buy what I need - well most of the time. Shoes and handbags have a calling all of their own!!!

Miserjunkie

happytails

I was born in '89 - i think ive missed alot here!

anniewoo

All this talk of pilchards has reminded me of a recipe I found in a magazine back in the 70's.My DH was out of work for a time and it was a bit of a lean time financially.The recipe was Pilchard Pancakes,which I thought sounded horrible at first glance,but I gave it a go and it was really nice and the whole family enjoyed it.

Basically,you mash up a tin of pilchards in tomato sauce,with some of the sauce.Make a quantity of pancakes,usual recipe,then put a quantity of the pilchard mixture at one end of each pancake and roll them up. Place in ovenproof dish and cover with cheese sauce and bake in oven until hot.

It became a regular meal for us,served with a green vegetable,I haven't made it for ages actually,I mught do it this week.

Justamum

JackieO wrote: »

As a previous OP said it will seem to hit a lot of people harder as they have become accustomed to a higher standard of living .I grew up during and after the war and so the 1970s wasn't that much of a big deal to me .We had almost no credit then, and everything was bought for cash. Large items maybe, like furniture was sometimes bought on HP but I was always frightened that we couldn't pay it off so never used HP. In fact I still have the old bedstead that someone gave me in my spare room for my DD when she came out of her cot, and she is now 41!! it had been used by the lady in question for all of her five sons so it was a pre-war iron bedstead. Obviously I have had different mattresses on it over the years ,but its still the comfiest bed in my house.
Obukit has got it right ,try cutting back now, and it won't seem quite so hard. The 'spend now pay later' brigade will find it the hardest and with Christmas looming ever closer its time to try and say NO to the expensive toys that will be flooding the market.

We don't have any credit or HP. I do have a catalogue, but make sure that the monthly payments don't exceed what I can afford. I don't owe anything on it atm, but I keep getting letters from them saying I have £3,500 credit with them! No thanks!

JackieO wrote: »

I was watching T.V. at my DDs house yesterday with some of my small grandsons and every advert was pushing toys at the children There wasn't one toy under £50.00 !! I have seven granchildren and there is no way I would, or could spend that sort of money ,I just couldn't justify it to myself.
I adore my grandkids, but sensibly I don't think it would do them, or me any favours. They won't go without, but they won't get plastic rubbish that will be broken by Boxing Day either.

The trouble is a lot of the toys of £50 plus are cheap plastic rubbish, and/or have very limited play value. I have told my DD1 that we don't have any money, so they won't be getting very much at all this year (she's the only one who doesn't believe in Father Christmas any more!)

JackieO wrote: »

I think that things will get a lot worse over the coming months, fed by the rampant consummerism that has been fed to the public by the media . believe me you can live without a new Plasma t.v. or Hi-Fi ststem.
My t.v. is 19 years old and works perfectly well. Why should I buy a new one , it won't improve the programmes.The Government is pushing digital t.v. at folk and a lot of people believe that they will have to buy new t.v.s to cope with the switchover Totally untrue .I have a basic cable system and it won't make a scrap of difference to me.

Our analogue signal is due to switch off next June, and tbh we can do without tv. It's ok for watching dvds, but there's very little worth watching on tv - and what little there is can be watched later on the computer! Our tv was given to us by my parents when they upgraded to a plasma (both of them are tv addicts). We could save about £130 a year by not having a licence.

JackieO wrote: »

This site is great for making folk realise just how much you can 'do without' and 'make do and mend' as my Mum and I did years ago.
As long as I don't have to eat snoek or Woolton pie I will be a happy bunny
So we turn down unneeded heating, and switch off lights, it's no hardship its commonsense. Re-using things makes more sense than binning things . Instead of having Jamie Oliver telling people how to cook a steak or salmon why not have an 'ordinary' cooking programme to help folk who have grown up thinking everything comes from a tin how to cook basic items from scratch . I see young Mums buying ready made meals for their families and I wonder if it is lazieness or just ignorance (through no fault of their own) that they don't cook. There are countless programmes on t.v. about cooking but almost none about basic skills cookery. The government are keen to get Basic skills in English and Maths at children why not the same for cooking It would save a fortune on landfill for a start as there would be less thrown away .its no good moaning about how much is binned show people how to cook from scratch and there will be less waste.

Such a lot of commensense in this post! We are lucky that we have found this site as it is full of like-minded people who are very friendly and willing to share all their useful tips. I think one of the problems re young mothers filling their trolleys with ready meals is that they don't have cookery lessons as such in school any more, although I believe the government has talked about re-introducing them in a couple of years. They should never have been scrapped. It's so useful to know even the basics, and how to follow a recipe.

kersplatt

I've finally bitten the bullet and decided to join in! I've been reading OS for weeks now and I think you're all brilliant! DH and my friends mock me for my OS behaviour - apparently I was born too late - I'm 30, so I'm coming to be with like minded people. I have enough stores of food to last until Christmas I reckon and I'm knitting Christmas presents like a demon!

Will you have me?!! DH has told me that if I buy spam it's grounds for divorce, so I'm hoarding corned beef and pilchards instead

Rage_in_Eden

Hello Kersplatt you're very welcome. Has OH never had spam, chips and beans? The man's a heathen.......:rotfl: Just think when all your mates are crying into their latte's that they're skint you'll be in the sales!! Who'll be mocking then???? (although inwardly of course as ladies never openly gloat )

Anniewoo - love the pilachard pancakes - Mr Rage loves sardines so I could change that.

Justamum - must sooo agreee with the statement re people not cooking. Whilst I applaud Jamie Oliver (who I don't particularly like - Rick Stein, Flloyd, Nigel Slater and Hugh fernly thing are my icons) I think it is brilliant but dreadful that he's actually having to go out and show people how to cook. I never thought I'd be thankful for Miss Hughes and Mrs Williams and domestic science......

I really must get away from this PC now...... TTFN!

Justamum

oldMcDonald wrote: »

This is a very good point. Ethics aside, it has been so much cheaper over the last few years to buy mass-produced, supermarket / Primark etc. clothes that it has not been all that moneysaving to learn to knit etc. It is still popular with some as a hobby, but this is for fun. The quality of the fabric in these mass produced clothes is so bad that the clothes have become pretty much disposable - wear them for a season and then throw them away - few items are good enough quality that they could be made into childrens clothes for next year. Then you have the children that would not been seen dead in anything without a label; these children will have to come down to earth with a loud bump as money gets tighter for their parents.

Apart from being awful material, cheapie clothes are a bad fit - especially trousers (or am I just an odd shape!) I'm going to classes in the new year to learn pattern alteration so I can make clothes which fit properly. We learned to sew at school, but not how to alter patterns. It will be more economical in the long run to make my own clothes out of good material which will last. I'm lucky in that my children are not label people. They have never had a chance to be!

oldMcDonald wrote: »

As imported clothes become more expensive then I think that these hobbies will once again take off. Personally, I have taught myself to sew - painfully slowly - and I can just about make something wearable! Knitting, however, is something I constantly battle with....I have never been accused of having the patience of a saint and I get so frustrated by knitting.

We never had much money when I was growing up. My mum used to buy knitted from jumble sales, unravel them, wash the wool, and re-knit them. However that was in the days when most knitted clothes were hand-knitted in the first place. I can knit, but I find it incredibly boring so don't bother (and probably won't in the future either).

oldMcDonald wrote: »

In a way, I welcome clothes becoming somewhat more expensive, it has become rediculous the way that labels now have to be worn on the outside, and children expect to have £100 odd quid spent on a pair of trainers. We have become so wasteful over the last couple of decades.

I also think it's ridiculous that "names" are on prominent display on the clothes - and you pay a lot for the privilege. Let's face it, if you wear them you are advertising for them so they should pay you! :rotfl:. As for buying the "right make" of trainers, I buy Clarks for my children. As least they are fitted properly, which is my main concern for their growing feet.

Justamum

kersplatt wrote: »

DH and my friends mock me for my OS behaviour - apparently I was born too late - I'm 30, so I'm coming to be with like minded people.

Well your DH will be very grateful for you OS behaviour over the coming months! You're not the youngest by any means either. There was a thread a while ago, and there are plenty of OSers in their late teens and twenties (though I'm not one of them )

kersplatt

From a very personal point of view, it just seems that the skills of make and do have almost died with the older generation. My nan taught me to knit, my mum taught me to crochet, cross-stitch, bake and sew - these things were done out of necessity when my parents were so broke that they couldn't find 4p for the paper boy one evening in the early 80's. DH family were fortunate that his grandmother had funds to help them out when times were tough, my parents struggled by themselves.

TBH, as warped as it may sound, I'm looking forward to the challenge. I hate how throwaway our society has become.

My mum's motto - a bargain is only a bargain if you need it! How often do I think this in the sales when people go mad for a 'deal'