Holding back the Years

monnagran

O Jackie, its sickening isn't it? It seems so unfair when you have tried so hard all your life to do the right and sensible thing only to have it snatched away from you.

I found it really hard to find the money for a pension contribution when bringing up my boys as a single parent, but knowing that it was the only chance of a pension I had, I did it. I saved with Equitable Life which was the Rolls Royce of pension providers at the time. I think they were the first company to hit the skids.

Fortunately I have never had it easy with money so scrimping and saving is part of my make-up. I know it is the same for you.

I find it difficult when people ask me for tips and advice. What I do is what I've always done. I don't know any other way to live.

moneyistooshorttomention

Art_Deco wrote: »

:eek: I thought you had put she was struggling on £5 a week!! I wouldnt consider myself to be struggling if i had £200 a month left after everything had been paid.:)

I guess that's partly a subjective thing though.

Quite a chunk of £200 a month would have just gone out during this week on social life alone in my own life. It's a particularly expensive week socially this week (usually social life costs are around £15-£25 per week). But this week it's around £65 (if including a meal out and one of my morning coffees). My hair would be a shade whiter at the thought of trying to live on £200 a month or even every 4 weeks.:eek: and I do sympathise if the income is that low.

joedenise

I wouldn't mind watching this but can you tell me what channel it was on so I can find it on catch up and also what it was actually called?

Thanks.

Denise

[Deleted User]

joedenise wrote: »

I wouldn't mind watching this but can you tell me what channel it was on so I can find it on catch up and also what it was actually called?

Thanks.

Denise

Its on the BBC Iplayer and was on on Wednesday night at and called Holding Back the Years.
Monnagran, I was lucky enough to be brought up by a canny little Scots Mu who could make a shilling streetch ;)so managing was and always has been almost second-nature to me

joedenise

Thanks Jackie. Should have guessed what it was called by the title of the thread, doh!

Denise

monnagran

JackieO wrote: »

Its on the BBC Iplayer and was on on Wednesday night at and called Holding Back the Years.
Monnagran, I was lucky enough to be brought up by a canny little Scots Mu who could make a shilling streetch ;)so managing was and always has been almost second-nature to me

I think that those of us born before, and brought up during the war and the tough times afterwards will never take anything for granted. You are right, it is second nature for us to turn every penny over twice before parting with it. When you have grown up saving every inch of string, every rubber band, every used envelope and every butter wrapper just to NOT have to do that makes you feel quite well off.
Do you remember when paper was so scarce that if you wrote a letter you first wrote from left to right, then you turned the paper round and wrote fro m top to bottom. Couple of sides of that and it was fun alive for the recipient to have to decipher it.

All this and the ever-present threat of being blown up in our beds made us a pretty tough generation. It also makes stories of not being able to manage on £50 or £200 AFTER the bills have been paid rather less than heart-wrenching

I have many a wry smile at people's hard luck tales.

Art_Deco

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I guess that's partly a subjective thing though.

Quite a chunk of £200 a month would have just gone out during this week on social life alone in my own life. It's a particularly expensive week socially this week (usually social life costs are around £15-£25 per week). But this week it's around £65 (if including a meal out and one of my morning coffees). My hair would be a shade whiter at the thought of trying to live on £200 a month or even every 4 weeks.:eek: and I do sympathise if the income is that low.

I guess everyone is different but after all my bills are paid from my wages Im left with roughly £50/£60 a month I dont think of myself as struggling and I still have a social life of sorts

[Deleted User]

Monnagran Yes I remember the paper saving well.My late mum's sister lived in New Jersey and used to send parcels to us just after the war and every inch of space was crammed with stuff you couldn't buy in this country I can remember my mum getting a pair of nylons and sitting there with tears in her eyes because her little sister had thought of her and sent something that was just for her.She treasured them and wore them very carefully as they were the best pair she had.:)

When writing to our Aunt Edie the airmail used to be written to cover every inch of space it must have taken her ages to read

Nothing was ever wasted back then string was undone carefully ,no cutting knots as it was so useful for so many things. Paper that was beyond use was made into twists to light the kitchen range and wood was collected almost by second nature to burn to eke out the coal supplies My two older brothers would collect orange boxes from the local market late saturday afternoon to chop up for firewood for Mu to use on the range.Seeds were carefully hoarded for the following year. In our garden every inch that could be used was used for growing food My Mum had a small patch where she liked to grow her beloved Albertine roses, the rest was used to grow veg in .Even the 'nutty slack' ( tiny crushed up bits of coal at the bottom of the coal cellar) from the left over coal was used to 'bank up' the fires with.Butter wrappers were used for greasing cake tins with I still use a bit of kitchen roll to clean out the tubs with and use to grease the cake tins with .I have a small bowl in the fridge with rendered down bacon fat which is used when I am having a fry up Old habits die hard :):)

In my budget my social life is normally £2.00 a week for the pub quiz and a fiver a week for my history club My quiz night is on a Tuesday and we get a meal thrown in as well (usually a plate of pasta or a jacket spud ) so I don't bother to cook on a Tuesday night I can't have a drink there as I am driving but sometimes splash out on a coffee I keep about £20.00 in my purse for my 'Happy cash stash ' and use it for treats for myself or my DGS during the month.Its always seperate from my food budget purse which is carefully looked after as its used only for food during the month

I live quite well considering and could spend more ,but prefer to live in a reasonable way so I can treat the family when I want to. Last month I spent on food alone around £48 odd and still have a good bit of fresh stuff left for this month.Not much food shopping needed this month as I am off on my holidays shortly so I will eat out of the freezer and use up odds and ends left in the fridge .Certainly no waste whatsoever

JackieO xx

monnagran

Ha, Jackie, I do that thing with the kitchen paper to wipe out the last of the margarine tubs as well and have a dripping bowl in the fridge.
My father was the one for thrift though. My grandmother brought up 6 boys, for the most part on a widows pension, not great in the 1920s, and Dad had a legion of tales about walking 3 miles to another greengrocers where the potatoes were a ha'penny cheaper a pound. When Grandma had to have all her teeth out she couldn't afford the extra 6d for the anaesthetic so had them out with no relief at all and then walked a couple of miles home to cook lunch for the boys. She was one tough little body.
After being brought up like this Dad never lost the habits he was brought up with and woe betide anyone who boiled too much water for a cup of coffee or brought him washing up liquid in a clear plastic bottle (no good for cutting up to use as plant labels.)
After all this hard work and deprivation Dad and 3 of his brothers lived into their fit and healthy 90s, as did both of my grandmothers and all their sisters.

This all sounds very gloomy and sad but actually they, and we as children, had a whole lot more fun than I see a lot of children having today. My grandparents and my uncles and aunts were hilarious people, funny, quick witted and full of the joy of life.
Family parties and holidays were spent with us children aching with laughter.

Jackie, I think we should send everyone else home and just swap stories.

suki1964

Lol @ you two

Different generation but also grew up in times of hardship in the 60/70s

Our garden was also turned over to vegetables, spuds, cabbages, marrows ( no such thing as courgettes back then ) sweet corn , cauliflowers, peas, beans, tomatoes , cuecumbers, lettuces , just about everything. I actually would only eat veg with gusto when it came from the garden

Meat was awful back then, chickens were so expensive , pork only eaten in certain months. It always seemed to be a bit of rough old beef. Lots of gristle. My great aunt pat was one that could make a 2lb bit of beef feed 3 adults and three kids for three meals. Her plate pies were legendary. More pastry then meat but with gravy and veg they filled us. Suet puddings were on the menu a lot, even today I love steak and kidney pudding, spotted !!!!, jam roley poley. My mum had one of those massive old fashioned pressure cookers from which you had to release the steam manually, scared the life out of me that did. We ate a lot of offal back then and rabbit, both were cheap. I was always grateful the rabbits came skinned. The butchers sold them skin on which were cheaper , dad sorted them out. Oh and fish. We ate lots of fish, my dad and uncles would go fishing a lot then mum would be up to her elbows cleaning fish half the evening

Jams and cakes and biscuits were home made. Day trips in the summer were to pick your own and late summer we went blackberry picking and later on in the year we collected sweet chestnuts and cob nuts.

A tin of buscuits at Christmas was a real treat. The tin would only be opened on Sunday's an we were allowed one fancy and one plain each. The tins were saved and reused. Everything was saved and reused really. If there was no need for it in the house, dad found a use for it in the shed. The shed where he made things, mended things including shoes, sharpened the knives and tools. That and the greenhouse was his domain

Me and mum still don't like throwing stuff away and we do have to be strict with ourselves else we wouldn't get into the garage for boxes tins and jars. I still save cards even though I no longer make gift tags as we used to as kids, still save pretty paper, although we no longer make paper chains. Every few years I have a sort out and throw them to be recycled but it feels such a waste

And mum still makes her own plant labels from margarine tubs and uses the empty plastic drinks bottles as cloches