2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

I've been refreshing my Rail Replacement Jumper, knitted last autumn, which had faded a little - so it spent today in our biggest cooking-pot in a bath of white vinegar diluted 1:1 with water and some orange food colouring, and it's come up beautifully after a quick cold-water wash in the washing machine, and a 1400rpm spin. Now drying on my Shetland Woollie-Horse  
It had faded to more of a pinky-red, but now is back to its glorious rust-russet (with gold lurex thread, natch!)

Cherryfudge

PipneyJane said: Bedding and household goods were rationed in the UK, but I can't remember for how much.  (In Australia, blankets weren't rationed so my mum bought one and made it into a dressing gown for herself.)  

Let's just assume you had a bit of bomb damage so were granted extra coupons for specific items to help with your recovery.  That means, one set of bedding is "coupon free" (duvet, sheet and matching pillowslips).

- Pip

Perfect, thanks. Mr Google got me nowhere. (Though it's a bit worrying to think of a modern washing machine as a bomb... though I had one once which was found to shower sparks out the back when spinning. I haven't got it any more).

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge my friend's tumble dryer torched their house, they all had to live elsewhere for 8 months, almost everything had to be replaced because the smoke damage went right up to the attic bedrooms and insurance only paid for the specialist cleaning for a few very precious things like wedding photos, etc., but worst of all it happened when they were away and her 22-yr-old daughter was staying there with friends, who all had to be got out of first-floor windows by firemen as the stairs were alight, and the firemen got the daughter actually from the stairs, unconscious from smoke inhalation having tried to go down to find out what was going on... 

We are very careful with our washing-machine, but we are bloody paranoid about the tumble-dryer. Only ever run it in daytime and only ever when I am in the flat, and only when I'm actively doing things, if I feel drowsy I turn it off... 

(PS I love your ref to Mr Google - my Gran used to refer to Mr Safeway and Mr Waitrose and Mr Sainsbury ) 

Cherryfudge

That's so scary Laura! Admittedly the sparks were why I got a new washer: I'd previously kept it going by manually moving it on as it had a way of stopping before the spin. It just wasn't worth the risk once I'd seen the true state of affairs.

MrsCD

😱 That must have been so frightening for your friend, Laura. 
I'm the same as you, I only run my washer and dryer when I'm downstairs. I've heard too many stories like yours.

PipneyJane

She's "Madame Google" in our house.  We use Google Maps for SatNav, so bow and scrape in her presence.  (My sister calls her the "b ! t c h in the boot". )

Just making a really flying visit to say "Hello".  Work is manic and I'm on a steep learning curve.  (All good.)  I found a quote yesterday, that I saved years ago.  Read it in the Yarn Harlot's 2009 tear off calendar.  It's an old Jewish proverb:  "When a habit begins to cost money, it's called a hobby.".  Thought it was most appropriate for our group.

Have good weekends.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

Good to hear work is busy in a good way, @PipneyJane!

We've a busy weekend as we're defrosting the freezer and cataloguing its contents at the same time... a few odd meals coming up, no doubt! We're also making lists of what we find most useful in there, so we have best use of the limited small space... 

joedenise

That's a job I need to do this weekend too!  After being away for just over 3 weeks I've got no idea what is in my outside freezer nor in my fridge/freezer, although I've had a quick look at the indoor one but only enough for a few meals in there.

Need to know what I've got so I can get my next few weeks meal plan sorted and work out what I need to buy to make the planned meals!

Laura_Elsewhere

We only have a smaller-than-average fridge-freezer, so we really need to keep on top of how we use the freezer! 
Probably the two msot useful things we do is the ready-meal drawer, which holds up to 24 home-made ready-meals just needing pinged; and the bottom half-drawer which holds vegetables ready to use, cut up and blanched, etc., and bags of parmesan, mozarella and cheddar, grated and mixed with cornflour to stop it sticking together, so we can just grab exactly what we need and it doesn't go mouldy in the fridge unused  
But the other two drawers get a bit chaotic... 

MrsCD

A good tip I learned recently is to put minced beef into ziplock bags and flatten, and squeeze the air out before freezing. I also put the label in so I know how old it is. It saved so much space in my freezer!