2022 Frugal Living Challenge

tooldle

Wow, London_1 a company car in the 70’s! My folks were born in the 30’s so a little older than you. I recall very few people owning a car in the ‘70’s. Walking, a push bike, or the bus were the norm in our circles. The few who did own cars were largely single men, still living in the family home with aged parents.
I remember the company buses, and passing these on my way to school. Many larger organisations located off the normal bus routes, would run their own bus(es) to get their staff to their site. 

London_1

poppy811 said:

sorry, my post came across as a bit negative, I have to say I love the instant access to information, banking shopping etc but just do not understand the have it now mentality.

I know exactly what you mean,years ago there was a film called 'By Now Pay Later' which was about a lady who got into serious trouble with debt and ended up using her body to pay her debts .Money lenders and loan sharks are a dreadful temptation to many folk I think, but not a great deal worse than the credit card companies who are thrusting their store and credit cards at folk who are deperate for cash.

I had a long tin box with a lock on it and inside it was divided up into compartments to hold rent,rates,electric, gas etc everything was calculated down to the last penny, I had one bit in the tin called Happy Cash Stash, if I could I tried to have a few shillings in there and often it really was a few shillings:) but they were for treats for my husband andI and the children.Sometimes it was only enough for a packet of four doughnuts on a Saturday ,but it was a treat and cheered us up through the really tough times.

HelenaPinky, no one got ill from a stew cooked in the haybox as far as I know, as it was on from first thing in the morning until dinner time in the evening around 6.30-7 so a good 12 hours.
It had worked for my late Mum, when she was bombed out twice during WW2, and she had shown me how well it worked when I was growing up in the 1940s-50s. It also makes a rather good rice pudding, and costs nothing to cook apart from the initial heating up. I may have to think about doing it again during the winter to save on energy. I think you can buy them on the internet now for around £40.00 odd but mine was cobbled together from pillow,cushions and blankets (in those days I still had blankets and not duvets). 

I too have no rose tinted specs about years ago,apart from the fact today seems so fast and furious and good neighbourliness is not as common as it was. 

I like the modern ways of being able to source information so much quicker, and modern technology is excellent for that. But sad at how the pace of life has increased, and the amount of hate there seems to be about almost anything.

A lot more nastiness around today and greed and envy. The feeling back then was usually everyone was in the same boat so we helped each other more.The nearest we came to it recently was during lockdown, when folk really did look out for their neighbours and there was more kindness around , but that seems to be disappearing now sadly.

But here on this forum we seem to be helping each other a little and big oaks from little acorns grow .:) So today, smile at someone during the day, and see how your smile and kindness will grow, it may spread like covid who knows  

have a good day chums 

JackieO xx

zafiro1984

London_1 I totally agree with what you say. I was born in the 40's and as I grew up families looked after neighbours and relations, nowadays problems seem to have been transferred to the authorities (government/councils etc) to deal with. I agree about the pandemic bringing out the best in people. fortunately, I live in a very small hamlet, on a very small/narrow road and some of that spirit remains to day. 

tooldle said:

Wow, London_1 a company car in the 70’s! My folks were born in the 30’s so a little older than you. I recall very few people owning a car in the ‘70’s. Walking, a push bike, or the bus were the norm in our circles. The few who did own cars were largely single men, still living in the family home with aged parents.
I remember the company buses, and passing these on my way to school. Many larger organisations located off the normal bus routes, would run their own bus(es) to get their staff to their site. 

We were one of those people who had a company car in the 70's
My DH qualified in 1970 and a car and a house were part of his salary. When he qualified he was offered a job at the same university but we would have had to provide our own accommodation so he opted for a job in the big world. We could have bought a house in those days for under 2K. Three years later when we actually bought our first house it cost 14.5K - that's what you call inflation!!!
I qualified in 1969, mine was a three year course against DH who had to do 5yrs. When we started a family I carried on working instead of staying at home to look after the children. No abuse like today, but it was certainly frowned on. How life changes

tooldle

Sounds like a decent career Zafiro1984. I’m always mindful that my university education was something others could only dream of. For many of my parents age schooling was limited not just by the war but also by the means of their parents. 

I too chose to keep working when my child arrived. Putting an engineering career on hold to stay at home, would likely close the door to returning as the research moves on and I would be out of date. This caused a lot of raised eyebrows!

wort

@HelenaPinky
like moving to a basic tv package without pause/record (I suppose it’s difficult as tape recorders have become obsolete!).

with regard to this I have a free sat box/ free view but satellite as I have a satellite dish, this cost £100 around  8 years ago and has record and fast forward/rewind options also options for all the catch up tv, YouTube ,Netflix features you get on new TVs. Mine is quite old!!
so we got rid of expensive tv packages and just pay for phone and internet. I don’t even have to pay for the basic package .
hope this helps

Floss

HelenaPinky said:
 I have no idea if we’re on a water meter…no-one comes to check it but when we get the bill every 6 months it says “you used 78p per day’, so I’ve always assumed we’re on a meter, am I wrong? 

Your meter will most likely be under a small cover in your street, so unless you see them you won't know when it has been read.

MazzieD

@HelenaPinky The other place to check for a water meter is near your stopcock.  I moved to current house almost 4 years ago and thought my water meter was outside as @Floss mentioned.  A few weeks ago a water meter reader knocked on the door and asked to read the meter.  Completely taken aback as didn't know where it was and couldn't find it at which point he said 'don't worry we can read it wirelessly from outside the property'.  I eventually found it wedged in a corner between a fitted cupboard and the washing machine in my utility room at the back of the house!.  Really inaccessible and can't imagine why it was arranged like that.

I would add that this is really unusual, I had to go online to find out the likely location.  Right, tea break over, back to work.

Primrose

I don't claim to be a regular hay box user but did use one during the 3 day week power crisis, having learnt the technique in my teenage girl guide years.  It,s basically just a VERY slow cooking technique using hay or some other effective insulation around your cooking pot.  This is obviously sealed with a tight fitting lid throughout so no polluting  elements can get in.
The beat pot you can use is probably a cast iron Le Creuset type pot which retains the heat well and at the end of the process you just then put the pot back up on the hob for a few minutes to get it piping hot again for serving.

The secret is to cut all ingredients, especially meat, in extremely small pieces, to reduce the cooking time needed. Not a cooking method for impatient cooks but in an extreme crisis it does work.  If dubious , it may be worth taking the pot out after 2 or 3 hours and refreshing its overall heat quickly on a gas or electric hob until it,s reached simmering point again. . Obviously you can't do this "heat refresh"  if your chosen cooking contain is something like a Pyrex casserole dish which can't take direct exposure to a gas flame or electric hob.  A stainless steel saucepan with a tight sealing lid would work though as long as your  chosen "haybox" is big enough to accommodate the protruding handle.

i think if I were to make another one from scratch these days I,d pick  one of those deep plastic storage boxes with a lid, line it with old pillows, cushions or a blanket on base & sides and cover the cooking pot with old towels before putting the lid on the box.  At least then after the fuel crisis had died down, one would still then have a useful storage box for other uses.

if anybody on here tries this experiment, , do please come on here and report your results so others can learn.  Sharing our knowledge and skills benefits everybody.

ZsaZsa

Primrose said:

I don't claim to be a regular hay box user but did use one during the 3 day week power crisis, having learnt the technique in my teenage girl guide years.  It,s basically just a VERY slow cooking technique using hay or some other effective insulation around your cooking pot.  This is obviously sealed with a tight fitting lid throughout so no polluting  elements can get in.
The beat pot you can use is probably a cast iron Le Creuset type pot which retains the heat well and at the end of the process you just then put the pot back up on the hob for a few minutes to get it piping hot again for serving.

The secret is to cut all ingredients, especially meat, in extremely small pieces, to reduce the cooking time needed. Not a cooking method for impatient cooks but in an extreme crisis it does work.  If dubious , it may be worth taking the pot out after 2 or 3 hours and refreshing its overall heat quickly on a gas or electric hob until it,s reached simmering point again. . Obviously you can't do this "heat refresh"  if your chosen cooking contain is something like a Pyrex casserole dish which can't take direct exposure to a gas flame or electric hob.  A stainless steel saucepan with a tight sealing lid would work though as long as your  chosen "haybox" is big enough to accommodate the protruding handle.

i think if I were to make another one from scratch these days I,d pick  one of those deep plastic storage boxes with a lid, line it with old pillows, cushions or a blanket on base & sides and cover the cooking pot with old towels before putting the lid on the box.  At least then after the fuel crisis had died down, one would still then have a useful storage box for other uses.

if anybody on here tries this experiment, , do please come on here and report your results so others can learn.  Sharing our knowledge and skills benefits everybody.

I’ve been wondering whether a picnic cool box/bag would work as the outer layer, as I assume that’s insulated

London_1

ZsaZsa, good point I don't know it possibly could work with a small casserole ,depending how big the cool box was and how tightly packed you managed to get maybe a couple of cusions or a throw in to completely seal the heat in

JackieO xx