2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

thriftwizard

Laura, I can't take credit for the jumper, it was picked up for 50p at the recycling warehouse! It had a couple of tiny moth-holes which closed up after a stiff 60° wash. There was a pink cashmere one too, that I intended to do the same with, but DD2 got there first. Was size 16, now fits a slender 8!

Thanks for the cuppa, Pip, that was very welcome! I've just baked a batch of cheese scones, so I've brought some to share.

Ms_W

Im in for this year, so I guess I start with 66 coupons?.
Also a question, if you bought a present for someone did it come out of your coupons in the war ( just wondering) thanks

thriftwizard

On the coupon front, I'm minded, if you all feel it's OK, to carry my 33 left from last year - as one could & did, back in the 1940s - over, but add them to the 48 allowed from 1944 onwards, rather than the 66 of the early War years. 81 coupons should be more than enough!

Laura_Elsewhere

thriftwizard said:

On the coupon front, I'm minded, if you all feel it's OK, to carry my 33 left from last year - as one could & did, back in the 1940s - over, but add them to the 48 allowed from 1944 onwards, rather than the 66 of the early War years. 81 coupons should be more than enough!

That sounds just about as simple to follow as the real system was, especially once you got into food coupons and points working together, argh!

I'm not arguing with your plan, but I *think* clothing coupons had an expiry date on them, didn't they? So you had to keep spending them, you couldn't hoard them - they needed everyone to keep buying, after all! 

Cherryfudge

TwibbleDee said:

I dreamt last night that my office decided that we weren't allowed electric heaters in our offices anymore.  I told them that I'd work out 2 months' notice from home so they had time to find someone new and train them!

H'mmm... definitely some feelings towards work getting out of your subconscious!  

PipneyJane

Ms_W said:

Im in for this year, so I guess I start with 66 coupons?.
Also a question, if you bought a present for someone did it come out of your coupons in the war ( just wondering) thanks

Welcome @Ms_W.  Please grab a cuppa, pull up a chair near the fire and tell us all about yourself.  Do you craft?  

To answer your questions, yes you start with 66 coupons.  During the War, any time you bought something from the restricted list, you would have to pay with ration coupons so, unless you had access to the recipient’s ration book, you’d be spending your own.  (For the sake of the game, we assume that if you’re giving your partner or child a gift, then you’re spending their coupons not yours because you are the keeper of the family ration books.)

@thriftwizard - it’s up to you.  If you are happy with 81 coupons for 2021, that’s fine.  We’ll just assume that some of your coupons expired.

I am currently trying to persuade myself that I don’t want to spend £150 on a pair of pure merino ski leggings and matching thermal top.  On the one hand, they will be warm, will get worn a lot and should last as long as the pure silk ones I bought 20 years ago.  On the other hand, that’s a lot of money, equivalent to spending nearly 4 months clothing allowance. (What can I say?  I microbudget.).  Coupon-wise, I can afford it; I’m starting the year with 72, having brought 6 forward from last year.  The leggings would be 2 coupons and the top 3.

Hmmm......

- Pip

thriftwizard

I'm not sure, Laura; I know they were colour-coded so that you couldn't use them until a certain date, but when I asked my mother, all she could remember was that the ration was so "measly" that her grandmother (who held all the coupons for their household, and my great-aunt's too) never would have had any spare & it was generally cross-your-fingers, make-do-and-hope-for-the-best until the next ration came out! And they were reasonably well-to-do folk, not poor. But Mum remembers legs "dyed" with gravy browning, to look like "American Tan" stockings (only they didn't, especially not if it rained) and being horribly cold walking to school in the snow with bare legs, because they had no coupons for another pair of stockings when she wrecked hers running away from machine-gun fire from a German plane two streets away from where she lived.

OWD_nana

I have lurked for many years on the MSE threads but would like this year to be the one when i participate. If you will have me.
I am interested in many crafts but only a beginner since retirement 6 years ago. Was doing a patchwork class before lockdown, which i miss. I sew small projects and have tried some clothing for my grandchildren. Knitting & crochet are beyond me however. Love the chat and intend to try the challenge with your help. Have far too many clothes and need to concentrate on only buying what i need. But better quality.

thriftwizard

Hello & welcome, OWD_nana! Pull up a chair & sit by the fire in this horrible cold weather; do have a cheese scone, too!

Actually, maybe I should aim to stick to 48 coupons, reserving the 35 in case of emergency! (More than likely yarn-related emergencies; DD2 is romping through my supply just now & is currently using up a ball of hand-spun log-wood-dyed Dorset Down!) If anyone is well-placed to stick to that lower ration, it's me, with access to large amounts of second-hand stuff (which does include yarn) at knock-down prices & assorted bits of good equipment to assist my endeavours.

Laura_Elsewhere

Anyone want some rice krispie cake? Halfway through cooking our New Year's Christmas Dinner (we like it so much we have a second one a week later ) we realised we hadn't made the rice krispie cake we'd been meaning to for a fortnight or more, so we quickly rustled up a double-batch.... only to realise the initial weights were obviously twice the amounts we thought and so now we have four times the basic amount we wanted...! 

(butter, brown sugar and golden syrup boiled up, and stirred into rice krispies, pushed down firmly into a pan and left to cool and set. Utterly delicious...)