2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

It might be interesting to work out how much it would cost now to buy what an average household might have got for their meat ration... I'm sure I've seen examples of eg X sausages, Y bacon and Z stewing meat, etc...  

People used to spend - generalising wildly! - approx one-third of their outgoings on their home (rent or mortgage, rates, insurance, maintenance, heating, bills, etc.) and one-third on their food and drink inc eating out and socialising, pubs, etc.; the remaining one-third covered everything else, transport, clothing, holiday funds, saving up for a big event... 

Apparently now we spend on average 10% of our outgoings on food... which is why there is so much nasty processed rubbish around, because for each person trying to make sure there is at least a 'red tractor' or RSPCA logo to indicate reasonable animal welfare, there are half a dozen just getting the cheapest brands of ready-made turkey swizzlers because they don't know how to cook. 

Laura_Elsewhere

The main part of my Chestnut-Sparkly Slipover is now completed, soaked, washed, trodden in a towel and now hung up to dry. I still need to cut the armholes and necklines open, pick up and knit a narrow ribbed edging round those, and pick up and knit a very long waist in k2p2 rib, at least 50 rounds and ideally more, with 260-odd stitches per round...

But I've done the body of it - k5p1 rib, in subtle stripes 7 rounds wide, alternating sparkly-chestnut with stripes of the chestnut with additional cobweb-weight yarns held in with it: a pinky-red silk-merino, a rust-orange mohair, a gloriously scarlet wool, a surprisingly effective navy-blue mohair. When I reached the top of he shoulder straps I grafted those in the middle of an added-navy stripe: not perfect but it will do.

And because it was all knitted with two strands of Chestnut-Sparkly cashmere, each with its gold lurex strand through it, i means there are twice as many sparkly bits!

About halfway there, I reckon. Started in early January, the 2nd, I think. 

This is it pre-washing. 

Nonnadiluca

Laura, that looks lovely, you never fail to impress!

maddiemay

Laura another lovely piece of work, you are so talented.
Well, you set OH and I off down a right rabbit hole after reading your earlier posts re costs circa 1942. OH was born in 1942, his father was away at war and didn't get demobbed until they had been sent off for a spell of peace keeping in Palestine. We chatted about how so many households held 2 or 3 families (as did his Nan's house) until the post war building projects produced homes  In 1968 as a young married Iass I used to pay ten shillings for joint of meat for 2 people, 3 meals. I think that my then OH earned about £18 pw and me just over £6

fiwen30

Realised I hadn’t actually bought myself anything ‘nice’ (read, mostly frivolous, a want vs a need) since my mum died in July. I had a big financial come-to-Jesus moment after her death, and with the focus shifting to buying a house and being self-sustaining for the first time in 29 years, I’ve wanted to save money more than I’ve wanted to spend it.

But after a long thought, I’ve ordered myself a weighted blanket with my personal spending allowance this month. Have wanted one for a while, am hoping it will help with my restlessness at night. Not sure if it costs any coupons? Have a bit of money leftover for a nice pair of slippers, as I always have cold feet, but for some reason never own slippers?? Work that one out.

Would be Nice to have a new set of pyjamas and loungewear, since that’s all we’ve been wearing, bar work uniform, for 10 months, but that won’t be in this month’s budget.

Also want a bit of a remake of my actual, wearing-clothes wardrobe, as it’s currently very disjointed and uninspiring, and likely doesn’t fit so well anymore! But I can’t stomach paying full price for clothing, or paying sale prices for cheap/unethically/non-environmentally friendly clothing, and all of the charity shops are still closed till early March. Not that I have anywhere to wear these clothes to! Going to try and settle this urge to ransack eBay by going through my teetering mending/alterations baskets instead, I’m sure there’s some lovely things in there that I’ve not seen for ages, which will feel just as new!

PipneyJane

PipneyJane said:

thriftwizard said:

A thing I sometimes use for handles on my woven-rag bags is packing tape - that woven-plastic stuff they put round big cardboard boxes - wrapped in fabric. You just cut two pieces to length (if you need two handles) thread them through, then melt the ends together (a gas hob is handy!) & wrap them as required. It's tough stuff & will take a lot of weight. 

That's really clever!

This morning, I got distracted and tried to work out how much the Meat Ration would be worth in modern money.  I couldn't find the value of a 1942 shilling anywhere.  According to the Bank of England, £1 at the end of 1941 has the equivalent spending power of £51.63 today.  The meat ration was 1s2d per week, so that works out as £3.01 in today's money.  Since I only shop for meat every couple of months, I reckon I could stick to that.  In fact, I probably already am.  It'd work out between £15 and £20 per person per month, while DH and I set aside £40/month for the "Meat Fund".  (I detailed what we last bought at the Butchers' in this post in February's Grocery Challenge.)

- Pip

I just realised my maths in the above post is totally out.  £3.01 per person per week works out at between £12.04 and £15.05, depending on whether it’s a four week or a five week month.  Still, while we budget £20 per person per month for the Meat Fund, we don’t spend it all, so I reckon we’re sticking to the ration.

- Pip

PipneyJane

Laura that top will be beautiful.  You have amazing colour sense.

maddiemay said:

Laura another lovely piece of work, you are so talented.
Well, you set OH and I off down a right rabbit hole after reading your earlier posts re costs circa 1942. OH was born in 1942, his father was away at war and didn't get demobbed until they had been sent off for a spell of peace keeping in Palestine. We chatted about how so many households held 2 or 3 families (as did his Nan's house) until the post war building projects produced homes  In 1968 as a young married Iass I used to pay ten shillings for joint of meat for 2 people, 3 meals. I think that my then OH earned about £18 pw and me just over £6

How big would that joint of meat be, @maddiemay?  Did it do leftovers?

The calculator I used was on the Bank of England website.   It only works in whole Pounds, unfortunately.   It wasn’t the one I used a month or so ago, which seemed more subtle... I’ll have to find the post on here that I linked to it.

@fiwen30 well done for articulating all your conflicting desires regarding clothes and spending, etc.  If you need suggestions about how to mend/alter items currently lurking in the mending basket, we’re happy to help.

Regarding the blanket, didn’t you have bomb damage in our parallel universe and get extra coupons?  (People got extra coupons in the War after suffering bomb damage, to replace household linens.)  The blanket can come from those and not from your personal allowance.

- Pip

maddiemay

PipneyJane  I have just realised that between typing my post and hitting the publish button, I have lost a wodge of text.
Briefly OH and I discussed how the cost of rent, rates, coal, electric, gas etc was often split between 2 or 3 wage earners in the household when men returned from WW2 and at first lived with parents/in-laws.
 Later when he was 9/10 he would be sent to buy the meat on Saturdays and his purchase would be a joint of beef to the value of eight shillings (1951/52) this would feed 3 hearty appetites for roast on Sunday, cold on Monday and minced for Cottage pie another day.  
When  I had my first home in 1968 my joint of beef cost ten shillings and fed 2 for 2 meals and packed lunch one day. One really good thing about "the olden days" LOL, was that prices did not change very much from week to week/month to month, except for seasonal shortages or gluts. Seasonally was the only way to eat, that is all that was available.

Cherryfudge

fiwen30 said:

Also want a bit of a remake of my actual, wearing-clothes wardrobe, as it’s currently very disjointed and uninspiring, and likely doesn’t fit so well anymore! But I can’t stomach paying full price for clothing, or paying sale prices for cheap/unethically/non-environmentally friendly clothing, and all of the charity shops are still closed till early March. Not that I have anywhere to wear these clothes to! Going to try and settle this urge to ransack eBay by going through my teetering mending/alterations baskets instead, I’m sure there’s some lovely things in there that I’ve not seen for ages, which will feel just as new!

I expect that weighted blanket could turn out to be a good investment.

I am a 'terror' for forgetting items of clothing, possibly because I often keep things I no longer wear. I found a long corduroy skirt that I wore in my late teens and which would be perfect now if I had the waistline for it! However I'm slowly losing weight so I hope by next autumn to be able to do a new waistband at my ideal weight and wear it again. I've also just come across a couple of tops from a well-known boho-style catalogue where the sizes are much larger (so a size 12 is at least a 14). They are both lovely in their own way but hard to wear as I'm small and they are long and floaty, so I will have to think hard about what happens to those. I've rediscovered a big bag of winter scarves that were in the loft, a useful plain black polo-necked top (whatever happened to my red, navy and off-white versions of the same thing?) and a pair of white sandals... I'm not sure such a stash of old favourites lurks in everyone's loft but sometimes you do come across unexpected treasures. The mending pile is always a good place to start, as those are likely to be items that you've chosen to wear quite a lot in the past. Pretend a friend dropped off a bag with them in and asked if you could help them clear out! That could help you see new potential in them.

(I'm reminded that I used to play a game with my daughter in the days when I ironed her clothes: they would be announced on arrival at her room as 'delivery from Next' or some other clothing retailer. I reckoned they were more likely to be put away if we pretended they were new!)

dolly84

fiwen30 - will you let us know how you get on with your blanket?  I suffer from Restless Leg Syndrome, I've had it since I was a child but I don't think it had a name then but I never mentioned it anyway as I thought that was just how everyone's legs felt, it is at it's worst in the evenings and when I am tired, terrible during pregnancy and sometimes I even get it in my arms, it is horrible

I watched an interesting video on YouTube a few days ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMCsRd3Rfgg.  I hope the link works, it is post war but interesting to watch.

I watch an American youtuber sometimes called Closet Historian, she makes a lot of period clothes and also alters second hand and vintage clothing to suit her style, some of you might find her videos interesting.

The liner for the coat I purchased last month arrived yesterday, it is lovely, brand new but pre-owned and cost considerably less than buying it new.