Do any of you NOT have a fridge?

buxtonrabbitgreen

No I coudn't manage without one. It is bad enough when you are camping with the milk in buckets of water etc.
Though people used to have a proper pantry with a marble block to keep things cool. I remember my mil did.

[Deleted User]

I would certainly miss my fridge and freezer if I didn't have one but to say you can't live without one is a bit daft.
My late Mum managed to bring up three kids without the benefit of a fridge,freezer,washing machine,dishwasher,microwave and until 1957 had to use flat irons heated up on the kitchen range.She never owned an ironing board and used to iron on the kitchen table on an old blanket with a sheet laid on top.She had a Ewbank carpet sweeper which was all she needed as she only had one carpet which was in the 'front room' and was only a square anyway not a fitted one.The rest of the house was 'lino'ed' or tiled in the bathroom.These were washed down everyday.Her nets were washed weekly, and were blindingly white .She 'donkey-stoned' her front doorstep daily, and God help and child with mucky boots who made it dirty. Todays generation thankfully don't have to work as hard in the house as the generation of their grandmothers yet never seem to cease complaining that their lives are 'hard'
I would hate to go back to the hard work that my Mum had to do but it was a different time, and fewer women went out to work in those days.
I like my central heating (no stoking up the kitchen range for me to do the weekly wash, or to get hot water with for a bath)I like being able to have cold milk for my breakfast without straining of the little flecks of stuff from my morning cuppa.I am all for the benefits of modern living and can't see the point of not having it. I am all for saving money as well, but to have to throw out good food because its gone off is not very money saving.Somethings from years ago are worth hanging onto, but in the same way todays technology is worth its weight in gold .Without it no one would be able to log-on and enjoy nattering as we do on this site.There are great advantages today, and we shouldn't rubbish them for a 'rosy-eyed glow of yesterday year' I am glad I have lived long enough to have seen the good and the bad bits of life over the past 60 odd years and appreciate todays modern technology. The most modern thing to come into our house when I was a little girl which I thought was an amazing invention was the biro pen. To own such a thing to me was the height of modernity. Todays kids don't think twice about such a mundane object but when I was small my Dad brought one home from work and he had paid something like a tenner for it which was quite a bit of cash in the early 1950s.I also remember my Aunt in the U.S. sending me a 'Viewmaster' toy with some slides which I took into school and was considered to be the most amazing toy ever seen. Todays children have their DS's and play stations and really don't consider how lucky they are to have such gadgets. In 1954 just to be able to go to a shop and buy food off ration was so exciting for a child who had never known what it was like to go into a shop without a ration book.
Times change thank goodness and to decide to do without a fridge seems a bit daft and perverse. Why not light your house with oil lamps or have bad teeth because you can't afford to go to the dentists or Doctor if you are ill. Plain barmy if you ask me .No, I enjoy all the benefits that I can and why not.

clutterydrawer

JackieO wrote: »

Times change thank goodness and to decide to do without a fridge seems a bit daft and perverse. Why not light your house with oil lamps or have bad teeth because you can't afford to go to the dentists or Doctor if you are ill. Plain barmy if you ask me .No, I enjoy all the benefits that I can and why not.

That was my thinking BUT he lives in one of those ye olde houses with 2' thick stone walls so it never gets warm....and he says he doesn't hav anything in the fridge except milk.

Taadaa

Sorry guys I forgot that I was doing workings on a group of fridge so a C rated would be around £50-£60 per year

Still thanks for the 'that's just rubbish' comment, very constructive and helpful attitude :rotfl:

BitterAndTwisted

I hear you, JackyO! I remember when my parents got their very first washing machine, a top-loader with a mangle. I just cannot conceive of how my mother managed doing the weekly wash by hand on one of those board things, especially the sheets and towels. It was always done on a Monday and everything had to be absolutely spotless because there was fear of disapproval if the neighbours thought they weren't. By the time everything was dried and ironed it was time to start all over again. She fitted that in around keeping a kitchen garden, knitting, making our dresses and baking once a week. No wonder she was stressed and grumpy half the time, poor soul

clutterydrawer

Taadaa wrote: »

Sorry guys I forgot that I was doing workings on a group of fridge so a C rated would be around £50-£60 per year

Still thanks for the 'that's just rubbish' comment, very constructive and helpful attitude :rotfl:

Well you know how passionate people can get about...uhh...appliance power consumption :rotfl:

I do wonder sometimes about how people managed in days of yore - pretty much everyone i know grumbles about the amount of housework they have to do but they don't know they're born really! I just can't conceive of doing all my laundry by hand :eek:

jordylass

I remember when we were small and my grandparents had an old static caravan with no fridge, my nanna used to keep the milk in a bowl of water in the shade under the van. I don;t remember it going bad and it must have worked OK. I lived in an old vicarage with thick walls like you described and the whole place was like a fridge so he may be right about that.
My daughter has been staying with a friend in a cottage with no electricity and only a gas bottle for cooking for a couple of weekends, the food hasn't had time to go bad, but they want to stay there a bit longer and any other tips on how to keep items chilled will be helpful.

emmwri

If he only has milk in it, I suppose he could get away without a fridge. So he may as well, as he'd still be making a saving even if it's only small and if he's not wasting money throwing stuff away then why not!

I don't think I could because I use it to keep fruit going for longer. But apart from milk and the fruit in my salad drawer my fridge is often empty apart from just after a shop. Should a fridge be packed full like a freezer to save energy on heating an empty space or does the same principle not apply?

PasturesNew

There's never much in my fridge usually.

Right now there is a bit more than usual, but most of it doesn't "need" a fridge. It's just somewhere to store stuff. I have
- a lump of cheese
- 2oz of butter
- salad cream
- mayonnaise
- a manky tube of tomato puree that probably needs throwing out now
- parsnips
- carrots