Lots more Sneaky Ways to save the pennies

Primrose

PipneyJane wrote: »

One of the things I do is to write the date opened on toiletries, makeup and cleaning products, together with how long the last one lasted. That way, I know when I need to buy the replacement without having to stockpile or, worse, running out first. In addition, it gives me an incentive to try to make a product last just a little bit longer than the last one did.

I also do this with dried goods (herbs, spices, rice, flour and baking power), sticking labels onto their Tupperware storage containers.

Somebody told me to write the date of first use on a white space on the base of these new low energy lamp bulbs which are supposed to be guaranteed for five years. I did, and one blew the other day but of course by then I'd thrown the packaging and the receipt away so I guess the manufacturers/retailers are banking on most customers doing the same so they never have to issue refunds !

purpleybat

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I'm sure that during WW2 ladies would use an infusion of tea leaves to apply to their legs, to imitate the look of stockings. A line drawn up the back of the leg with an eyebrow pencil completed the look

good thing I wasn't around then, my hands shake at the best of times so would look dreadful

[Deleted User]

purpleybat the 'Nora Batty ' look isn't good I can remember my late Mum doing that in the late 1940s and I thought it so clever when I was a little girl then my Aunt who lived in America sent Mum a big parcel every couple of months and stuffed inside using up the spaces inbetween stuff she sent nylons and I can remember my mum crying ,she was so pleased to get these wonderful things.There was a shop in Lewisham in London that had a lady in the front window that would use a machine to repair stockings with 8 ladders costing 2s6d If yo laddered you stockings,or later on tights you stopped it quickly with a dab of clear nail varnish to stop it 'running '


JackieO x

Primrose

Jackie O's comments about food parcels reminded me of a Canadian relative who, sent over a wartime or post wartime gift - a wooden case full of dried bananas. They were lined up in rows which resembled sticky dried dog poo and had a very strong fragrance. I remember the case sitting on the landing and my mum opening it up and picking one to nibble every time she walked past!
I also recall my first introduction to fresh bananas - my mum had queued at the greengrocers for hours to buy just two of them and her dismay was boundless when I thought you had to eat the skin and threw it on the pavement in disgust at the taste! Oranges too were an absolute rareity during the war and immediate post war years. Now they are so common we sometimes allow them to wrinkle and go uneaten in our fruit bowls!


Nothing like a period of food rationing to appreciate the value of the food we eat!

Siebrie

My Mum (10 years old at the time) remembers receiving clothes parcels from a distant relative in Canada after WW2, and they contained trousers for girls! The horror! She was only allowed to wear them underneath a skirt or dress, as if they were thick tights.

monnagran

I also remember my first taste of a banana - I loved it.

It was the idea of ice cream that puzzled me. My mum had described it to me but somehow, although I understood that it was cold and sweet, I thought that it was dry, like cold compressed powder. It was a great shock to find out that it was wet.

Does anyone else remember when "prewar" was used as a well-known adjective? I wasn't sure what it meant exactly, but knew that all things pre-war had to be something indescribably wonderful.

We are getting away from food here. Sorry.

ETA. Wrong thread. Even sorrier.

mcculloch29

I think it's absolutely fascinating. My older sister remembers parcels from her Godmother in Canada. My Mum and Dad met in a displaced persons' camp in Dusseldorf at the end of the war, and came over to the UK. My Mum was originally engaged to an older, Estonian man, (she was Estonian). Then she met my Dad, who was a handsome young Latvian.
Mum came across to the UK as one of the 'Balt Cygnets', one of the young women of Baltic heritage in Germany whom the British Government deemed suitable for 're-education' post-war, and effectively imported to solve the labour shortages in posts that British workers were reluctant to fill.

Mum was a TB nurse, Dad also became one when his English was good enough, but worked as a farm labourer first.
He had been studying to become a mathematics teacher in Latvia. Mum had worked as a children's nurse.

Caterina

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I'm sure that during WW2 ladies would use an infusion of tea leaves to apply to their legs, to imitate the look of stockings. A line drawn up the back of the leg with an eyebrow pencil completed the look

I heard they used gravy!

MandM90

Caterina wrote: »

I heard they used gravy!

Gosh, my DH loves gravy. If I did that the house would be stuffed full of children :rotfl:

VfM4meplse

MandM90 wrote: »

Gosh, my DH loves gravy. If I did that the house would be stuffed full of children :rotfl:

PMSL :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Bring on the menopause!