If push comes to shove...?

valk_scot

Red_Doe wrote: »

then more often that horrid, hard and scratchy `medicated` stuff that was like plastic...Jeyes, or Sani-something, can`t remember offhand now.

Izal...yes, I remember that. And the newspaper!

I was thinking about something like reusable fabric "wipes" as well, made from squares of old t-shirts or similar. No worse than cloth nappies to wash I suppose. You get covered buckets to soak cloth nappies in. Have to say though that toilet paper and proper shampoo would stay high on my list of wants!

NewShoots

I know we, at home, would love to be able to grow enough fruit and veg to support ourselves and reduce the grocery bill. The reality though is that the time, effort and finance needed generally make it unrealistic.

There is nothing better than getting out in the garden on a nice day and enjoying the fresh air and reward of growing some veg.

In modern, often urbanised, Britain most people have to work full time and may not have the finances or garden space to grow more than a nod in the direction of self-sufficiency.

But, let us not be filled with doom and gloom!

Hopefully these 'Austerity Years' will bring people together and encourage collaboration and plain helping each other out.

There was a wonderful moment last summer when stood chatting with a neighbour he offered me some home grown apples. As we chatted our neighbour on the other side popped round and offered both of us cucumbers that he had grown. As we all stood chatting, I felt rather embarrassed that I did not have anything ready to pass back to these very neighbourly neighbours.

NewShoots

Farway

NewShoots wrote: »

But, let us not be filled with doom and gloom!

Hopefully these 'Austerity Years' will bring people together and encourage collaboration and plain helping each other out.

There was a wonderful moment last summer when stood chatting with a neighbour he offered me some home grown apples. As we chatted our neighbour on the other side popped round and offered both of us cucumbers that he had grown. As we all stood chatting, I felt rather embarrassed that I did not have anything ready to pass back to these very neighbourly neighbours.

NewShoots

Lucky you, my ex neighbour was complaining about too many apples / pears / plums and them going to waste, never even asked if I would like some, and I certainly was not going to beg for them :mad:

lostinrates

Farway wrote: »

Lucky you, my ex neighbour was complaining about too many apples / pears / plums and them going to waste, never even asked if I would like some, and I certainly was not going to beg for them :mad:

Next year I'm hoping to have stuff to sell....and thought about putting excess apples etc out for free as a loss leader.

NewShoots

Farway wrote: »

Lucky you, my ex neighbour was complaining about too many apples / pears / plums and them going to waste, never even asked if I would like some, and I certainly was not going to beg for them :mad:

Hi Faraway, we certainly are lucky.

Where we used to live we barely knew our neighbours. One of those estates where all the grass is perfectly cut, shrubs trimmed to perfection, car is polished on the drive (for show) and no one knows each other.

Looking forward to another year of trying to grow some fruit and veg for the family, friends and neighbours... roll on the spring!

ceridwen

valk_scot wrote: »

I would also think that if things got very tight with food supplies some form of rationing would be reintroduced. There is a somewhat nostalgic view of rationing and I suspect the reality was much grimmer but it's a fact that the UK population did improve their health overall.

There would certainly be a drop in obesity levels! After all if foodstuffs quadrupled in price even the most dedicated junk food addict would be seeking out the best value for money nutritionally, I would think. Someone commented that if meat, dairy, sugars and fats went up in price or were scarce then bang went the main source of calories for most folk? True enough, at the moment, but it's a fact that most of us currently consume far too much of the above and it's wasteful of agricultural resources to produce these. We would have to go over to far more cereal and vegetable production nationally, just to provide maximum nutrition for as many people as possible. So I think there would be a massive shift towards a more vegetarian based diet, with meat, dairy, fat and sugar consumption being either reduced by pricing or rationed in some way.

I have often wondered whether "if push came to shove" there might be an attempt to re-introduce rationing.

There ARE difficulties to any World War 2 style rationing that didnt exist in 1939 -1953. At that time - there wasnt effective contraception/sterilisation/legal abortion. Now there is (thankfully!). That is precisely one of the points where I see difficulty being - those of us with 0, 1 or 2 children AND who have seen this coming for some time (in my case - make that deliberately childless and started having the first inklings about 30 years ago and VERY well aware for probably about the last 5 years or so) will be very unlikely to accept it being on a per person basis - with the extra resources that would be taken by larger families (ie those with 3 or more children).

It will represent a huge psychological difficulty to accept extra being provided for 3rd and later children if those children were born AFTER most people know/should have known this was coming and bearing in mind all the extra financial help families have benefitted from for many years at other peoples expense (both from State and from the way supermarkets price things). Think that will rate as a much worse psychological difficulty there than families deliberately ignoring the effect of "family pricing policies" of goods on smaller households - because it suits them personally for the costs to be unevenly distributed and a higher proportion of them put onto single peoples shoulders.

I simply probably couldnt do it myself (ie accepting WW2 style per person rationing) - but tend to think that it will be "rationing by price" anyway (which DOES have the virtue of those who actually had the extra children would be the ones who "suffered the consequences" - rather than everyone else doing so...). I think we are already experiencing "rationing by price" - watching how much food prices are going up by (and thats with supermarkets apparently not passing much on much of the rises to customers...).

The effect is the same either way - whether its the WW2 style rationing or "rationing by price". Either way - I agree we need to get the greatest "nutritional bang for our buck" and grow as much food as we possibly can.

Re the foodwaste that we are currently experiencing so much of as a society - it would be interesting if there was a survey done of households of different compositions to see exactly what sort of food is being wasted and whether there are differences between different household compositions. I dont think we are going to be able to afford to waste the Nation's resources in the way they currently are for much longer.

Consumers have to change their ways and supermarkets have to stop all these BOGOF and similar ways of marketing goods. I have made a personal decision that supermarkets arent going to get as much as literally one penny out of me for "single supplement" additions to food costs now - ie smaller quantities of foods being sold at higher unit costs - and will struggle not to waste any food with that. For instance this weeks's supermarket shopping included:
- I want one carton of milk but had to buy 2 (because cartons are cheaper each that way)
- I wanted one head of celery but had to buy 2 (same reason).

if I'd bought just the one of each I actually wanted - then I would have been charged 70p "single supplement" IYSWIM.

Supermarkets havent realised/adapted to the fact that there are now literally millions of single person households and growing...and are still intent on doing "family size" pricing. I guess to some extent I was guilty myself yesterday of letting them "keep their illusions" that consumers all want "family size pricing" - with having deliberately bought more than I require so as not to waste money. Will have to go off in a minute and struggle with just how to get the "surplus food" I have as a consequence into a freezer that is already full (with all the foods I actually mean to have in the freezer of myself)...:mad:

ceridwen

Farway wrote: »

Lucky you, my ex neighbour was complaining about too many apples / pears / plums and them going to waste, never even asked if I would like some, and I certainly was not going to beg for them :mad:

I dont think that would count as "begging for some" to just turn round in circumstances like that and say something to the effect of "Well - if you've got some going spare - I wouldnt mind if you put a few my way;):)" and see if they take the hint. No harm in saying that...the thought probably literally didnt occur to the neighbour..but if you'd said that you might have got some...

I certainly take any chances like that that I see and comments like that usually work...

Kirri

Ceridwen, could you change supermarket? Which one do you use that prices like that? I now shop at Waitrose and it doesn't seem to offer loads of junk BOGOF's like some of the others so I prefer it. I don't like the shop but Asda are fairly good for now having much smaller packets of fresh veg available.

Given the large amounts of obese people now I think there would be a public outcry if rationing were ever to be introduced these days, I really can't imagine people accepting it, even if there were no choice. The amount people buy and eat now is staggering and I find it rather sickening and largely it's not even nutritious food!

Kirri

ceridwen wrote: »

I dont think that would count as "begging for some" to just turn round in circumstances like that and say something to the effect of "Well - if you've got some going spare - I wouldnt mind if you put a few my way;):)" and see if they take the hint. No harm in saying that...the thought probably literally didnt occur to the neighbour..but if you'd said that you might have got some...

I certainly take any chances like that that I see and comments like that usually work...

I am always happy for people to say something like that, normally it's hard to give spare veg away! People just want perfect shop veg I've found, and mine sometimes comes with free slugs or holes in!! Most people with an allotment have an excess or glut of something and are happy to share, I hate even wasting home grown stuff.

ceridwen

Sainsburys is my normal supermarket - and they have huge swathes of the most perishable food (ie fruit and veg) priced at something like "2 for £4 - but individual items cost more than £2" (ie those higher unit prices for smaller amounts). It doesnt matter much in the case of promotions like "5 cans of beans for £1" type promotions - because canned beans will keep for months - but with perishable stuff on the other hand...

Asda and Waitrose arent here in my area anyway.