2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Cherryfudge

A great discussion starter, @QueenJess! I've shared it to social media.

I think the three new garments probably means outer garments but my years-long campaign to reduce socks and underwear to an amount reasonably need rather than what I can cram in the drawer is gradually snowballing. In the first year of not buying more till I'd used things up, almost nothing got worn out. This week two or three pairs of socks have worn to the point of holes! Now my husband goes through socks rapidly so I darn the heavy weight pairs, needle-and-thread small holes and throw out light weight ones that are threadbare. Now some of my own threadbare ones are getting to that stage or worn-ness and some of DH's darned ones are developing holes around the darns. I have a bit of a dilemma. Do I repair further? I don't have to but I know that choice is a luxury not afforded to all. I know there's a balance of time and effort too but I don't cost my time in monetary terms because I have to have time when I'm not earning, and I find a good mend is quite rewarding.

What do others think? Where does one stop mending and just get new? I feel I'm too far down my particular rabbit hole of 'how do I repair this' to get perspective.

@Liverpool_Anne, what lovely news! I've noticed cotton yarn is getting prettier, though of course there's the question of the water used to grow it. I bought a 'superior' acrylic for GDG's blanket, hoping that it will be washable, last ages and maybe get passed down the generation(s) and so actually not get to landfill for a very long time. So I don't really have an ideal answer.  

I have some coupon-free buying to show off. This morning's car boot sale, first of the season, was very sparse and we arrived late but that didn't matter because the very first stall was a lady with oodles of yarn for sale. We got talking and she had inherited 45 boxes, the sort that slide under a bed, of yarn. She showed me her Mum's technique of combining a bright, lightweight crochet thread with a contrasting chunky yarn, it's eye-catching and would be a great way to vary reused yarn as they did during the war. I know there are folks here who combine yarns and now I've seen it, my imagination is getting going.

Ahem... I succumbed to 7 small balls of various yarns for all of a £. They can go on my spreadsheet and into The Stash. There were all sorts that I couldn't see myself using but from what I did buy there are two part-cones of what feels like cotton two ply - ideas, please!  

I wandered on to the second stall and came away with a  multi-cooker for £20. I am so pleased: I'd been looking into spending exactly that to replace our broken slow cooker, especially while we borrow our sister's house where the oven died on us. I'd hesitated as we don't have storage space, but this is actually a bit smaller than the broken slow cooker and does all sorts of other things besides slow cooking.

Then I went to the charity shop and came away with a linen shirt and a 'dressing-up' navy silk top, total £10.18, and the shirt in particular should be very versatile.

Pleased with those.  

Laura_Elsewhere

Cherryfudge said:

What do others think? Where does one stop mending and just get new? I feel I'm too far down my particular rabbit hole of 'how do I repair this' to get perspective.

A friend scared me witless by suggesting tossing a coin to make decisions - then she laughed and explained... 

You toss and coin and then you look at how the result makes you feel - and THAT in turn tells you what decision you wanted. 

So for each pair of socks you toss a coin and see whether you find your response is, "keep those?! There's barely anything there to mend..." or "throw those?! There's months of wear left in those ones!"

Does that make sense?

Hopefuljoy

@Cherryfudge Multi cookers are amazing g and that is a total bargain at £20. I bought my 3L Instant Pot at a reduced price on the Big Rivers warehouse site 18months ago and have become a pressure cooking convert. The best UK author of cookbooks for it is Jenny Tscheische and her books are often reduced in The W*rks. The slow cooker function tends to be a little less powerful than a conventional one so you may need to adjust to the highest setting for that. If you look online you will find thousands of recipes for the other functions of the cooker. I hardly use my oven now as it is so expensive to run.

The three items a year apart from 'drawing room unmentionables" is a a great goal so that is what I'm going to go for this year. Which means I can't actually buy anything!!!!! I bought three T shirts and a cardigan with Christmas money in January so technically I have gone over. I think I will cheat and say that one of them counts for 2021 as I bought one pair of jeans that year. May I have permission please?!! 

I have a day of tidying and cleaning to do today and have successfully put it off until almost 1530! One of my best achievements this week I feel. 

I have decided that in view of petrol prices I cannot justify using the car to commute the measly distance to work. So from Tuesday I start the half an hour walk to and from work. Providing I stick to it £60 of petrol should last two months. I am going to sock the surplus bi-monthly £60 to a new category called "Future fuel fund". That will be kept to take account of the two long trips to Cornwall and one to Norfolk  I have to make this year for DD graduation, family occasion and modest camping holiday and should cover the three. 

As my budget only has a very small amount of fat in it I have decided that I will stick to my current food budget rather than increase it and carry on buying the cheapest veg and other ingredients on offer at L*dl amd work out what lovely things I can make with them. The golden arches may have to go at some point as well! 

Hope you are all well and having g a good day. x

Wraithlady

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Cherryfudge said:

What do others think? Where does one stop mending and just get new? I feel I'm too far down my particular rabbit hole of 'how do I repair this' to get perspective.

A friend scared me witless by suggesting tossing a coin to make decisions - then she laughed and explained... 

You toss and coin and then you look at how the result makes you feel - and THAT in turn tells you what decision you wanted. 

So for each pair of socks you toss a coin and see whether you find your response is, "keep those?! There's barely anything there to mend..." or "throw those?! There's months of wear left in those ones!"

Does that make sense?

Funnily enough, pretty much the procedure we use for decisions when we're really not sure or at least one of us is going 'I don't mind' - from 'what to have for dinner' to 'where do we go on holiday'.

It's remarkably effective

QueenJess

Yikes - I just remembered I did buy a new t shirt this year, but it was for charity, was packaged plastic free and made with organic cotton. I also would happily wear it daily if I could, so definitely will be well used!

No other plans for new purchases of non under garments this year, so I should be able to stick to the one item. So 5 coupons used.

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

 for each pair of socks you toss a coin and see whether you find your response is, "keep those?! There's barely anything there to mend..." or "throw those?! There's months of wear left in those ones!"

Does that make sense?

It makes excellent sense, thanks! I think two of the three of mine can just go: the useful long ones will get repaired.

weenancyinAmerica

Reading of socks wearing out made me think of all the ways I have used odd ones over the years - as sock puppets when I was little, then to making teddy bears, sock monkeys, dolls, doll clothes and bedding as I was a little older, using them over the end of the mop for cleaning, dusting with my hand inside, cutting out squares for cleaning in the kitchen, even cutting good parts for making patchwork squares for blankets for the cats and dogs, and again into doll bedding. Even making scrunchies for hair. Safety holders for cell phones. Over shoes in the suitcase. To hold medicine together in suitcase. As dog toys and cat toys. Very little of my socks make it to the trash - what is left goes in the compost pile or is shredded for the birds.

Cherryfudge

Hopefuljoy said:

  

@Cherryfudge Multi cookers are amazing g and that is a total bargain at £20. I bought my 3L Instant Pot at a reduced price on the Big Rivers warehouse site 18months ago and have become a pressure cooking convert. The best UK author of cookbooks for it is Jenny Tscheische and her books are often reduced in The W*rks. The slow cooker function tends to be a little less powerful than a conventional one so you may need to adjust to the highest setting for that. If you look online you will find thousands of recipes for the other functions of the cooker. I hardly use my oven now as it is so expensive to run.

Perfect! Thanks for the information, especially the name of the author. I did have a moment's falter just then and thought perhaps the one I've bought isn't big enough as it feels so compact, but to my amazement when I checked, it's 5.5 litres. The seller had mentioned cooking a chicken in it and I thought it would be a small chicken, but I need to experiment.

The main reason I'd looked into buying a multi cooker was that we tend to use the oven quite often and generally there's wasted space. With fuel costs going into orbit, it sounded like a wise move but I was reluctant to invest in something I hadn't had and hadn't missed, if you see what I mean.

I have a day of tidying and cleaning to do today and have successfully put it off until almost 1530! One of my best achievements this week I feel. 

I love it 

Laura_Elsewhere

We're not really telling people exactly when (partly because I keep on wondering what *else* there is that could crop up unexpectedly and delay it!), but we do have a date for our wedding.... I'll just say "before midsummer"! 

Oddly - and amusingly - we've very very kindly been given a lump sum by a very thoughtful relative to buy nice things to wear, but after masses of soul-searching and trying very hard, we've actually ended up deciding on things we already have for the most part, clothing and fabric to make new bits (a silk tie for M.I. and a cummerbund for me in the same vermilion/green shot-silk; a ruffle-top for me in three colours of fine cotton in egg-yolk, orange-red and orange, a velvet little jacket thing for me in the length of very, very soft old cotton velvet in a rich burgundy-red I've had since at least the 1980s, which we usually use as a tablecloth in December, so I'll need to find a new tablecloth ) - but the one thing we are buying is some phenomenally good-quality scarlet silk from Beckford Mills, and I'll make five face-coverings for me and My Intended, and the Best Man and the Best Woman and the Best Woman's lovely mum who is a friend of mine as well and is kindly coming along to be All Our Families  

And even that silk is coupon-free - @Nonnadiluca did what so many people must have done back then, and gave us some of her coupons to use towards the wedding, and so with great joy I'm using those specific coupons for our mask-silk, so we shall have very lovely masks, bought by one lovely person, using coupons from another lovely person. 

I'm now sewing the miniscule glass beads onto my silk lace shawl at top speed because helpfully, well over a year ago, I committed to working away for five weeks, which is also going to involve quite a bit of prep-time, so I'm trying to get wedding prep and work-prep all done at the same time, argh  

Hopefuljoy

@Cherryfudge That's an ample size for a chicken. I'd have to joint mine and cook half but there's only me and DD and I have very little counter space. If you look up the zero minute chicken recipes you will be amazed. Good luck!