Wartime recipes, substitutions and other related austerity hints

PipneyJane

VintageLady wrote: »

What a lovely thread. My husband and I have a lot of vintage clothing and homewares as we also do 1940s reenactment. I have a few recipe books both original and reprinted from the time. My favourite is Eating For Victory which is a collection of ministry of food leaflets reprinted.

Gingerbread without fat goes down well our house.
Mix 4oz plain flour, 3oz oats, 2tsp ground ginger, 2tsp mixed spice, and 2oz sugar in a bowl. Heat 1/4 pint milk with 3tbsp treacle or syrup in a pan to boil. Stir in 1tsp bicarb soda. Pour this into dry ingredients, mix thoroughly and quickly. Bake in lined tin in a moderate oven for 50 mind.

Oohhh!!!!! I have to try your gingerbread! Thank you for the recipe.

I'm curious about the 1940's reenactments. Please tell me more. From where do you source clothes? (I love 1930's-1940's styles. It's what got me interested in the War in the first place. That interest was then followed by food and gardening/self-sufficiency.)

- Pip

Siebrie

The stories keep popping into my head My Mum told me that when they got married in 1969, she insisted on buying a washing machine. She was at home, due to her work shutting down, and Dad was a trainee (so at work during the day...) and the whitegoods store would not let her buy the washing machine! She had to come back with her husband! My father was flat broke, it was all Mum's money!


My Mum worked at a children's home (for children taken out of unsafe environments), eventually being in charge. She took additional courses, and even a University course (Child Development or Sociology, I forgot). On one of the first days of the Uni course, the Professor told the students that they were now part of the national 'elite', and could no longer brown bag their lunch; they owed it to their new position to buy lunch! Hahaha, my Mum knew how to take care of her money and never bought lunch (still doesn't).

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

More reminiscences from me
We were not very well off - not poor but a struggle to pay bills etc. However mum always managed to put food on the table & keep us clothed & warm. She & dad both worked but mum was firmly in charge of the finances :rotfl: & dad got pocket money We lived above a launderette & mum used to do service washes & was in charge of the dry cleaning machine & all the attendant chemicals. (She also had a 2nd job in a greengrocers). No protective masks or clothing. My darling mum eventually passed away from lung cancer - I cannot help but wonder but of course in the mid 60’s onwards no such thing as Health & Safety. Apparently as an 5 year old I used to try & up our protein content by adding snails to mum’s stews :rotfl:
Very handy for infant/primary school as less than 100 yards away so DB (18 months younger) & I could go home for lunch - saved money on lunches & of course no bus fares :T
Happy memories as DSis was born in the dining room :rotfl: as well as sad memories - our dear Dad (aged 34) collapsed & died in the kitchen. I was brought up in such a way that as soon as I could I got baby sitting jobs, Saturday job in a chemist, paper deliveries & Sunday morning job in the newsagents next door - I liked being able to buy my own lady items & not have to pester mum & dad for money.
A park a short walk away & I seem to remember summers were always sunny :rotfl:

Forever grateful to my darling mum as she taught me the value of money & I have always been a saver rather than a spender
Random memory - mum always made our curtains

More stories please

MrsSD

Eenymeeny

'I was brought up in such a way that as soon as I could I got baby sitting jobs, Saturday job in a chemist, paper deliveries & Sunday morning job in the newsagents next door - I liked being able to buy my own lady items & not have to pester mum & dad for money.'
Me too! I always looked after my younger siblings and can remember taking my baby sister in the pram on Saturdays to do the add-on shopping. (Co-op Bakers mainly) I was with my older sister who would have been thirteen and I would have been eleven. We were expected to take responsibility early then as Mum had two younger ones to care for at home.
So babysitting came early to me with Mum volunteering me for friends that needed help and sometimes they would give me half a crown for my troubles! That was my first taste of independence and having my own money. I was also 'volunteered' into the local corner shop on Saturdays when I must have been about thirteen. Your post reminded me Mrs Salad dodger that I secretly bought myself a Mum roll-on deodorant at the chemists with my earnings as I was too embarrassed to ask for one! (I also shaved under my arms using Dad's razor and it stung for days!)

-taff

SO I'm too young to remeber the war, and my parents were born during it, but talking of hard times etc, does anyone remember T&G? It was a warehouse style shopping place, much like Lidls or Aldis are now but much bigger with the food set out on pallets, and we usually paid with Green Shield Stamps...

mummygems

I adore these stories!

I am incredibly thankful to still have my Nan - she is 91 years old now and loves to tell us her stories. She was moved from London to Snodland during the war (sadly her siblings were all split up but they have since found some of them in later years and one is all the way in America!). She tells us about growing up in Snodland and then travelling abroad with my Grandad when he was stationed in Egypt (in the 1950s).

I am 40 but I still use the wrapper to grease my tins just like my Nan showed me lol. All my cakes are still made the same way she taught me (weigh eggs and then same amount of other ingredients). Unfortunately I cannot knit, sew or crochet - I have just never ever got the hang of them not even when taught at school. I broke every single sewing machine I touched at school!!

My Nan still has a coat similar to those photos lol. She always has her hair and make up done and still always wears heels - even to do the gardening - much to my mums disgust as my Nan's eyesight has pretty much gone so shes rather accident prone. I always say my Nan is like Mrs Bucket from the TV show

Our house was always cold when I was a kid and I remember always sitting as close of possible to the fire and always getting into trouble for being too close. When I was 3 or 4 years old I was sitting in front of the fire with my brand new shoes on to break them in and my feet were cold so I put my feet onto the bars of the fire - melted the soles of my shoe. My mum still gives me "the look" over this incident!

I also still get corned beef legs on cold days ha ha ha

Whilst I wouldn't wish the war or the hardship and the money, food shortages etc I do wish we had a community feeling like there was back in those days and would love that sort of spirit to come back.

Brambling

I babysit at what now seems a frightening young age for my two nieces especially as I can remember them being still in cots and they are 9 and 11 years younger than me and by the time I left home at 18 I was in demand and had quite a few customers I got my first Saturday job at the local Spar the week I turned 15 which also included holiday cover. it was £7.10 for all day Saturday and 2.5 hours Friday evening and I was expected to buy my own clothes other than school uniform and shoes and any toiletries etc. These days there doesn't seem to be Saturday jobs for school kids in shops that there use to be they seem to covered by the as part of usual staff hours

When we sorted my mums paperwork 8 years ago I found her TV rental agreement with Radio Rentals early 1970s and her brother and brother in law where her guarantors I'm not sure if my dad wasn't earning enough or whether he didn't approve so wouldn't do it. I can remember the trip to the local town to pay the rent in cash because my parents only had cash. My dad died in 1984 and never had a bank or building society account or credit card he also never believed in HP so if we didn't have the money it didn't get brought. There was a small emergency fund kept in a jam jar in the loft. On a Friday night I can remember him sitting at the table with a gold colour long rectangle tin which was divided and I think there may have been slots in the lid ? and he would open his wage packet and put money aside for rent and bills etc what was left was for food.

We had very little money growing up but we had no debt either, I'm told by someone whose work includes directing families in debt to the correct help that the charity they use takes people back to the basics of dealing with money and not plastic and how to divide your money into pots and once it's gone it's gone, although I don't think it involves a gold colour tin

Nargleblast

I remember Mum and Dad having a long metal tin with slots in for different categories of bills, also coin meters for gas and electric (we used to get a few quid back when they were emptied) plus TV paid for by slot meter. I know I'm talking about 1960s and 1970s rather than Second World War, but it was the principle of paying in cash as you go, rather than using plastic cards. I think schools should be given time to teach pupils the absolute basics of financial management, using actual notes and coins rather numbers on a screen. I know decades ago people did use credit (Provident cheques, the tally man, the pawn shop) but generally if you didn't have the cash for something you went without, substituted something else or saved up. In some ways I think it would be good to get back to that mindset rather than today's buy now, pay later ethos.

Primrose

I think the increasing abandonment of cash is one of the reasons why many people find themselves unable to budget efficiently.

When you can physically split up coins and notes into different compartments or containers you have a visible idea of how your money is disappearing whereas paying everything by credit card divorces you to a large extent from the immediacy of having to budget and the reality of how fast money can disappear.

With cash, when it's gone, it's gone and you have an immediate check on your financial state of play.

My grandmother had to bring up six children when her husband was away fighting during World War I and the unemployment years thereafter and budgeting was a constant struggle for her. She lived in the same property for about 50 years. When it had to be cleared, my parents found loads of tins and jars of money squirrelled away in cupboards, drawers and wardrobes everywhere as her "emergency stash" (not to mention about 100 tins of peas which must have been about 30 years old stashed away in her loft!).

I remember my parents on one occasion in the seventies taking her into a gas showroom to help her buy a new gas fire. Apparently when the suitable appliance came to be paid for, she delved into her handbag and brought out a jar of tightly rolled "cigarettes" which were £1 notes. It took the cashier ages to try and flatten them out as they'd obviously been stored away tightly like that for years. As soon as the cashier tried to flatten them out, she grabbed them back, tried to roll them back up again and restore them to the jar in her handbag. It was a Saturday morning and the showroom was frantically busy so I think the patience of staff was sorely tested. Would make a good Mr. Bean comedy clip!

Brambling

I've had a few heated discussions with my nephew who's in his mid 20s and tells me there's no need for cash and seems to pay for most things by using his phone. Some people for whatever reason need to see cash coming in and going out, we live in a virtual world where people don't even buy a coffee with cash anymore or pay 60p for parking. We have a generation of kids who never see their parents use cash so have no idea about managing and budgeting, I've heard children asking for something in a shop and when told mummy has no money say just put it on your card. And if you factor in that for a lot of online shopping people save their card details and buy with one click so not even the reminder that they're spending by getting your CC out

It seems I need to move with the times I remind him mid 50s isn't old and I'm mortgage and debt free so my way works for me

We managed to persuade my mum to get a building society account in her mid 60s although she didn't fully trust them when it was no longer the lady who had a desk in the village estate agents. Both my parents remembered the depression and felt they had a reason not to trust banks they were the generation that every penny was hard earned and they felt it was safer in the loft or in a tin in the wardrobe