2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

diminua

Only tangentially related to this thread I'm afraid but I thought I'd share my soap coupon moment today - I started off so well with soap, mostly because I went in with lots in the house, as I assume many people did at the beginning of the war (or rather in 1942, which google tells me is when soap rationing came in) - stocks of household soap, toilet soap, shower gel, washing powder. 
But then in late June I bought a diddy bottle of shower gel without realising that that liquid soap is a coupon for every half ounce (14gm) - 4 times what it is for the same weight of bar soap, and 8 times the same weight of hard kitchen soap.
So my small bottle cost 7 coupons - and you only get 4 a month. In real life I simply wouldn't have been able to buy it. 

Anyway fast forward to early August and I'd just got back into the black when I ran out of washing powder. My usual washing powder comes in boxes of nearly 2kg, a massive 11 coupons. I bought it anyway (to be honest the smallest box would be more coupons than I had, and I can't see Sainsbury's opening a box and weighing out 18 ounces of washing powder for me) but I'm now running an 8 coupon deficit. Or, to put it another way, I'm two months down. 

I can see now why soap was quite a normal thing to give as a present still in the 70s, on a par with chocolate, and there were all those Yardley and Woods of Windsor gift sets. People still thought of it as a luxury item. 

Baileys_Babe

That is interesting about the soap @diminua

Does anyone know if we can get hold of washing soda or is that also rationed?

Laura_Elsewhere

We have very very hard water which theoretically means we need to use more washing detergent, but when I moved here I struggled with the powerful stench of Laundry Detergent from My Intended's clothes (he'd been sensibly using just the right amount it said on the bottle) so we experimented with reducing it a fraction at each wash until it reached a point where he felt his clean work-shirts weren't feeling clean, at which point we bumped it back up a notch. 
We marked on the lid where that new amount was and I then made a tally-mark on a label tied to the bottle each time I used it. 

The bottle says: "42 washes"

We got 124 washes from it. 

 

Cherryfudge

I don't know about washing soda... I add it to the washing machine as this area has hard water and the machines at work furred up completely because no one added water softener. I imagine it wasn't as easy to get during the war but I don't know about points.

I buy washing powder tablets and dishwasher tablets by mail order as a concentrate which reduces packaging but possibly also weight. Would this be any help, @diminua? I could pm the name of the company though I think nowadays several are probably available.

I give soap/shower gel/hand gel as gifts even now - useful and clutter free. I do try to choose something that people wouldn't normally treat themselves to.

I'm delighted not to have to spend coupons on face masks (thanks @PipneyJane) but after I'd posted it occurred to me that I bought textile-based gifts for a couple of people yesterday. I don't regret the gifts at all and I have a backlog of coupons but I'd best go and count up.

Cherryfudge

Gift spending to add in: bath sheet 100cm x 150cm. At 2 coupons for 36", is it fair to say three coupons for this, given that 100cm is just over a yard wide but the shop didn't happen to sell towels a yard wide because I'm a time traveller and this is what happens to time travellers?

Also 6 pairs of men's socks which I think are 3 coupons per pair but we can't have our boys at the Covid front struggling with cold feet (I suspect from my own experience of PPE that cold is the least of their concerns).

New total 57 coupons spent though I still had some from last year so I still have leeway.

@Laura_Elsewhere, I cross posted with you, sorry. I'm amazed how much further your laundry detergent goes! Worth knowing.  

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge - obviously @PipneyJane is the authority on the rationing system in here but if the socks were for our boys on the Covid front then wouldn't those be coupon-free, just as during the War the authorities provided wool in the correct blues and green specifically for knitting socks, balaclavas and so on, and you had to return the unused wool with the finished items I believe, so your 8 ounces of wool as yarn returned as 8 ounces of wool regardless of format, to ensure none of it found its way elsewhere. 
So if the socks are to keep someone's feet warm as they serve on the Covid Front, then I'm not certain the coupons come out of your own coupons...

Baileys_Babe

Laura_Elsewhere said:

We have very very hard water which theoretically means we need to use more washing detergent, but when I moved here I struggled with the powerful stench of Laundry Detergent from My Intended's clothes (he'd been sensibly using just the right amount it said on the bottle) so we experimented with reducing it a fraction at each wash until it reached a point where he felt his clean work-shirts weren't feeling clean, at which point we bumped it back up a notch. 
We marked on the lid where that new amount was and I then made a tally-mark on a label tied to the bottle each time I used it. 

The bottle says: "42 washes"

We got 124 washes from it. 

 

This made me wonder how much detergent we use. We buy a "100 wash" sack of detergent, I checked the open sack about a quarter remains, I write the date on it when I open it to help me with planning stocks. We are a family of 4, I add a measure of laundry detergent and a measure of soda crystals to each wash, the current sack was opened October 2019 which makes it very economical. The washing machine does at least one load most days.

Cherryfudge

Baileys_Babe said:

That is interesting about the soap @diminua

Does anyone know if we can get hold of washing soda or is that also rationed?

I found this, brief but it seems washing soda was a popular alternative to laundry soap.

Laura_Elsewhere

Cherryfudge said:

I found this, brief but it seems washing soda was a popular alternative to laundry soap.

Interesting! I hadn't come across it being used as an alternative - but that DP site does say exactly that.... I'm more familiar with its being used to drastically reduce the amount of soap needed, typically by soaking beforehand.

Although, tbh, if you want to halve your laundry detergent use, then put the washing in the machine the evening before, and pour a bucket or two of plain cold tapwater in with it - or put the laundry in a bath with enough cold tapwater to make it totally sodden, or put it in a bucket or three. Or you might soak only things needing special cleaning, stained things, etc. Then put it through your usual machine-wash next day with half the detergent, and it will be clean, thanks to the soaking having loosened the dirt, stains, etc. Obviously only works with fabrics that are colourfast and can be soaked! 
Or you can start the machine he previous evening and hit the "stop" button once the drum is full of water, and put something across to stop you trying to absent-mindedly open the door! That's the simplest way to soak a load of laundry, actually in the machine... 

Woollens don't need any detergent at all, just a cold-water "rinse" cycle is all I ever use on mine, and a fast 1400rpm spin. 

We are so programmed to use a full measure of detergent, not bother soaking overnight beforehand, and don't start me on the ruddy fabric conditioner which damages textiles, and actively stops towels and bedlinen from being absorbent...! 

Cherryfudge

@Laura_Elsewhere, thank you for the heads up about front line socks. I will be sure to return any excess to the Ministry rather than decimate my coupons.