2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Primrose

When I was young I thought all the tales and advice from my grandparents about living economically were tedious stuff.  It,s only having grown old and living through our own hard times that you realise the hardest  learning experiences are the ones you,ve had to learn for yourself.

i think it,s a form of youthful arrogance we all think that a generation on,those lessons are not relevant to us, but those who listen, take note and prepare themselves for difficulties later  in life are generally more resilient in coping when they  arise. .

Floss

Those of us around my age (late 50s) can likely remember 3-day weeks of the early 1970s and power cuts in the late 70s. I can clearly recall mum using a camping burner to cook,  making toast at the coal fire in the first & the gas fire in the second (we'd moved home in between) with candles being lit and a battery radio & board games for entertainment. During the 3-day weeks I was at infant school in the afternoons only while my junior age brothers were there in the mornings. Classes were part time as we were in the old Victorian, too small school building because it was heated by big boilers while our shiny new school was all-electric.

The forthcoming winter could be just like those 1970s days, dark & chilly and I am trying to prep as best I can.

mandy47

Floss said:

Those of us around my age (late 50s) can likely remember 3-day weeks of the early 1970s and power cuts in the late 70s. I can clearly recall mum using a camping burner to cook,  making toast at the coal fire in the first & the gas fire in the second (we'd moved home in between) with candles being lit and a battery radio & board games for entertainment. During the 3-day weeks I was at infant school in the afternoons only while my junior age brothers were there in the mornings. Classes were part time as we were in the old Victorian, too small school building because it was heated by big boilers while our shiny new school was all-electric.

The forthcoming winter could be just like those 1970s days, dark & chilly and I am trying to prep as best I can.

Oh the memories. I'm also late 50s.
 So many blankets on the bed you couldn't move because we had a gas fire in the lounge and no other heating. Keeping the teapot warm on top of the gas fire. I remember the school served sandwiches and yogurt once a week to save on fuel costs of cooked lunches. My dad was made redundant and mum worked 2 jobs to keep things ticking over. Dad grew veg and potatoes were a staple of our diet. My brother and myself both had a paper round.
I don't remember feeling unhappy, hungry or hard done by in any way. We all just got on with it as best we could and waited for better times.

nmaria

I have stocked up on UHT milk this week. Have bought some extra pasta and flour and sugar as I reckon those will rocket in price soon. 

With the drought declared I don’t hold much hope for a good wheat or sugar beet crop.
dairly is going up all the time. 

We have decided to buy cheese every other week now as that’s another steep increase.
we have enjoyed sandwiches with home grown cucumber and tomatoes. 

The surplus tomatoes have gone in the freezer so far. 

Has anybody pickled cucumbers before? 

boultdj

@nmaria, here in Lincolnshire the farmers have been harvesting the wheat for the last 3 weeks as I've been going round the shire seeing clients, along with hay, not seen any silage, which the livestock is having to eat now due to not enough grass, it's going to make dairy very expensive come winter time.

Primrose

nmaria said:

Has anybody pickled cucumbers before? 

I,ve done so in the past. In my view the best ones to pickle are those small "mini munch" types.  My effort last year wasn,t too successful. I followed the salt and vinegar proportions but the vinegar was too strong and the cucumbers would have been more palatable with a weaker vinegar dilution.  Some dill added s nice.

skye_blue

Hi

Long time reader but don't usually post but wanted to say Tesco had all the seeds for 50% off today, veg not just flowers, seem to have long sowing dates on.  Thought it may be a help to some of you but I dont know the regular costs of seeds as I don't grow myself

Keep posting everyone, it does help us all

newlywed

@Floss I remember late 70s power cuts and am not yet 50. We had a gas stove so always had food but then it was board games by candle light and us kids were disappointed when the lights came back on! 

Have candles, board games, jigsaws and craft things to do. Also have a small power pack that’s always charged up, but must get another.  

Am keeping a small stock of food that could be eaten cold from the tin as well, since we have electric cooker.

ladyholly

We cook on electric - not my choice but cant have gas due to kitchen cupboards being too near. We have however a cooker in our van so have got an extra cylinder of gas in preparation for possible winter problems. I have also started to build stocks with easy cook food. We also have an LED lighting bar that works off an old car battery along with a tv that does the same. It is very small but at least we will be able to get the news. There was someone on the radio this morning talking about possible power cuts. Are we going to replay the 3 day week? I, for one, wouldnt be surprised or at least a version of it.

 

My next purchase will be thermal curtains for the lounge which will be pricey as we have big windows. I also want a door curtain for the front door which will also be expensive as it needs to be double width or 2 curtains. Before next summer we will be getting blinds for the conservatory which should help summer and winter I hope.

RateTartExtraordinaire

I was a little too young to remember what life was like in the first half of the 1970s. I do remember being told to eat my dinner or I would be eating it again the next day. I can't remember what it was I didn't like so much, might have been liver! But that might have been my mum's style of parenting rather than shortage of food