Turning a new leaf on our thriftyness

[Deleted User]

Gawd I sound like Methusalah :):).but I see younger people complaining that they don't have this gadget or that gadget and I wonder how we all managed to do without all the wonderful things there are now.
I certainly wouldn't want to go back to draughty houses and rationing again, and although I am pretty good at streeetching a shilling or two I also enjoy the comfort of wall-to wall carpets and not lino on the floor, and resting easy in my bed knowing no one is going to bang on the door for the rent.

I can remember when living in the eastend as a child lots of kids had to either look after siblings, often not much younger than themselves 'cos their Mum had to work ,or Dad had been laid off the Docks .Often dock-work was 'casual' anyway, so if your face didn't fit you didn't earn and no money meant stuff went off to 'uncles' (the pop shop) to be pawned.

I was lucky in that my late Dad, being a chemist, always had work but my late Mum ,bless her often fed local kids whom she knew were hungry as she hated to think of a 'bairn' going hungry ,even if it was only a jam sandwich.

Poverty that is around today is nothing at all like the poverty of post-war Britain.The 1950s really was a time of austerity.

To think that in the 21st century there are food banks feeding people in this country to me is obscene. :mad: Its said that 'the poor are always with us ' but it makes me so angry that we still have poverty ,albeit of a different sort in todays modern world.:(

cheerfulness4

JackieO wrote: »

I agree Ilona's blog is brilliant and she has captured many peoples minds with her simple yet effective way of life and is enjoying every minute of it I love her latest project for her sunhouse using re-cycled doors:j:j:j

Isn't it fab! We were hoping to do something similar to make a lean to for growing as we don't have room for a greenhouse. I love her 'have a go' attitude.

Hopeinhell

Loving this thread. Couldn't persuade OH to do it, but admire you v much. I remember my old dad saying one of his jobs as a youngster was tearing up the Keighley News into squares and threading them onto a string to hang up in the outside loo. I thought it was very funny as a teenager but now we collect rainwater to flush the loo with and I can see my granny's point of view!:D

jamars

Hopeinhell wrote: »

. . . . but now we collect rainwater to flush the loo with and I can see my granny's point of view!:D

We had the same idea last week - however our water butt was dry as a bone. Thankfully after the heavy rain over the past few days the butt is over flowing - and we can now flush the loo!

lillibet_dripping

( I initially read your name as 'jamjars'!)
Just had a look at your blog and what you are doing makes much more sense now.
Will follow with interest.
Lilli

Allegra

Yuk to vinegar mouthwash ! Try this instead:


http://mortgagefreeinthree.com/2014/07/herbal-mouthwash/


As for Metro loo paper - perhaps you'd be interested in a more, shall we say, gentle option ?


http://www.pennilessparenting.com/2010/06/reusable-toilet-paper-family-cloth.html

fatpiggy

I grew up in the late 60's and through the 70s in a cottage in Cornwall. We had a big garden and land which we rented to a local farmer who kept his beef cattle on it. We only kept pets ourselves, but Dad would bag a pigeon every so often (only because it was eating the garden) and Mum's teaching assistant was a farmers wife so they would do a deal on a carcase or two. We had 3 deep freezes, salted things like runner beans, picked blackberries and whatever else we could find in season and Mum made jam. Until we kids were full time at school Mum didn't work so money was VERY tight and I can remember spending a freezing day in a spud field with Mum because she must have needed some cash. Clothes were handmedowns, homemade (Granny and Aunty knitted us jumpers for Christmas)and jumble sale/charity shop finds. We all still haunt the latter! Back in those days cash and carry warehouses were just coming in and Dad did a private job for someone who part-paid him with a membership card for one so twice a year they would go off and literally fill the car to the gunwales with tins, loo roll, and a metre cubed box of cornflakes and so on. Dad made paper bricks with a home-made shape and squash thing, he did all the car servicing, could fix just about anything and even made the wardrobe that my sister and I shared. Mum cooked everything from scratch including bread, even after she went back to teaching, and we were able to grow almost everything in the garden apart from carrots, and she sewed/altered our clothes and made all the soft furnishings. Almost everything in the house was second hand, something I've carried on in my own home. Even walking home after school I would carry a plastic bag in my pocket and pick tasty leaves etc for the rabbit and guinea pig. It all sounds pretty idyllic, and for children it was fabulous because we had freedom that children today can only dream of, but I also spent alot of my time podding bucketfulls of peas and stringing and slicing runner beans and running the garden was practically a full time job for Mum and Dad. We didn't have mains water either if the electricity went off we couldn't pump it from the well and the freezers had to be covered in sleeping bags etc. We actually did have a petrol generator for a while as I remember, just for the benefit of the freezers really. Yes, it was hard and time consuming work for the whole family in reality but needs must when the devil drives!

OP, pigs and goats are great but remember that goats don't graze like sheep, they browse so need lots of shrubbery and herbage. They also climb like Spiderman - a friend bred them for showing and milk/cheese and hers used to shin up a tree and go walkabout around the area so she had to either tether them or make the field like Colditz Castle.

I wish OP and his family the best with his project, but I would also say proceed with caution and great thought and I wouldn't go into it wholesale, all in one go. I also wouldn't go with the newspaper toilet paper either. Even ordinary loo roll can cause blockages and there is a line to be drawn between money saving and living like a gypsy!!!

IDProtected

If you are going to eat mainly rabbit meat, you'll also need a good supply of indigestion tablets! (burp....)

Ilona

I would not put newspaper down my toilet, it would definitely block it. :eek: Toilet paper needn't be expensive if bought cheaply and used sparingly. I get mine from a cash and carry in bulk, at the moment I have about two years supply in the house. I do not pull off reams of it I count the squares, 2 for a p 3 for a poo.

I do all my foraging for food on the supermarket shelves, after 7pm when there is 90% off. I live mainly on yellow stickers, and I don't eat processed ready meals or junk. I don't eat meat, I eat tons of veg.

Ilona
aka Meanqueen
Life After Money

barneydee_2

Just been reading this from the beginning just wondering how Jamar was getting on? Good ideas some I will take on board but not news paper though lol
Dee x