Thriftlady's wartime experiment

recovering_spendaholic

I haven't had my computer for about three months and so haven't been on this board but am loving this thread - I went on Amazon last night and bought Marguerite Pattens 100 years of food book and have planted up some tubs and baskets with herbs and tomatoes and am going to look into planting up a cold frame later today. Thanks Thriftlady - post of the month definitely!!

thriftlady_2

I have thought about posting the cost of everything I'm buying, but it is quite problematic.

I'm not going to be buying any meat for a while (I don't think) because I recently had a freezer order from the butcher and so want to use that up.The order includes bacon and sausages.

Other things are tricky too because you can't buy the exact rationed amount of some things like dripping, lard or butter(or sweets and chocolate). So I'm buying a 500g block of lard or 4 packets of butter and then weighing the ration out at home and stashing the extra in the freezer. This means that the following week I get out the stuff in the freezer and work out how much I've got to buy. This week I only needed to buy 6 and a half oz of cheese because my parents gave me a big chunk of Stilton last week. I don't need to buy eggs this week as I've got 5 left so that's our egg ration for this week. Our ration of milk is 16 and a half pints, but you can't buy half a pint so I have to get extra -although we didn't use all our milk so maybe I'll just take 16 pints.

I have spent less though, because I'm not stocking up. I usually like to have a good stock of all the things I might regularly use. For instance I'm pretty low on rice, normally I'd buy a big bag before it ran out, but now I'm just going to manage without it -we'll eat spuds instead. I'm also really low on olive oil, but as I'm only using it in small amounts as 'salad oil' I'll make it last.


I have cycled to Tesco as the rain is holding off for the moment -I've got my butter, cheese (they couldn't give me the exact amount I wanted so I've got 10 g extra !), a bag of flour and my ham. I buy wafer thin ham -not the wet, slimy stuff the good stuff;) . I think this is cheating though because it goes a lot further than thick slices and I don't think very thin slices were possible then. I'll try and post a pic of my family's weekly rations later.

ladybird35

thank you thriftylady i have just joined the forum and find all your tips very informative as i grew up in war time ladybird35

ladybird35

thank you thriftylady i have just joined the forum and find all your tips very informative as i grew up in war tim:j e ladybird35

thriftlady_2

This doesn't include meat, or sweets and tea. The fruit and veg are just there to make the pic look pretty-none of them were rationed.

The fat shown is half lard and half dripping.

flourgirl

Thriftlady, this is a great thread, I've nominated you for post of the month.
I have been interested in this subject for a few years now, and probably have all the same books you have, just never been brave enough to take the plunge and put it all into practice. I take my hat off to you for being so commited and making it work for you. Glad to see you are using your wicker basket, just like Lyn did in the 1940's house.
Good luck
Karen

thriftlady_2

I forgot the sugar ration -here it is (sorry the photo is so big -I've resized it but it won't copy in the new size ) This is 2 and a half lbs.

We didn't use all our sugar last week but we used most of it. I had some cheese left and plenty of fat also a bit of butter. No ham or bacon. By the way the butter shown in the previous pic is the amount of butter (10 oz) and marge(20oz) we'd have got put together.

sorry my picture has disappeared, can't find it anywhere.

Dobie

thriftlady wrote: »

This is a fantastic website. I was just googling Worcester in wartime and found some storie of wartime worcester on the site -one chap remembers American soldiers marching in convoy down Ombersley road where I'll be later today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/

Thanks for posting this link thriftlady. I'm really enjoying reading people's recollections of the war years. My dad was born in 1930 & mum in 1925 so dad was a little young to serve although mum was in the WRACS.

I'm another who has nominated you for post of the month - it's a fascinating experiment.

sairy2005

Looks an awful lot of fat doesnt it. We wouldnt eat that much. Surprising people werent fatter isnt it. I could never manage on that amount of eggs but as we have always lived in the country I would keep chickens. We also kept goats for about 10 years so would have plenty of milk to swap As I dont eat meat I could swap that as well. I think the points ration was 16 points per person per month but not sure how much that bought. I have a good web site that explains the rations and points so will look it up and do a link

sairy2005

This is a good site if you havent seen it already-:

http://www.worldwar2exraf.co.uk/Online%20Museum/Museum%20Docs/Homefrontmuseum.html