It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

Rosa_Damascena

Deleted_User said:

JackieO I would humbly beg to differ... my NDN has a horse and our children were in his field at the weekend shovelling manure into trugs for me! They are only 8&9, but got on with it just brilliantly. It will line our raised beds. They then turned our compost heap with the pitchfork 😊

But we are different to the norm I admit, and living as rurally as we do means things are still much more of the older ways xx

OMG, child cruelty! 

Brambling

Unfortunately my dad had a friend who had pigs so a few times a year a load would be dropped off on the road and we were roped in to help move it around the back  one year I came off my bike and landed in the roses, my mum has hysterics because he had just put some of it around them. I wasn't happy as I had two hands full of thorns which needed removing and I got smacked as I should've been riding up the path 

My parents moved from a old thatched cottage with no electricity or bathroom and only a cold water tap in the scullery when I was 18 months and for them their council bungalow was wonderful even if the only heating was a coal fire in the lounge with a back boiler. I can remember they got old storage heaters when I was about 10, my brother was a gas fitter and removed them from a house, it meant no more coats on the beds 🙂

ladyholly

Doesnt everyone cut of damaged parts of fruit and veg and use the rest? I have also been known to scrape the mould off the top of the jam. Cheese never lasts long enough to go mouldy in this house. I remember holding hanks of wool over my arms while my Mother rolled them into balls.

In many ways we were lucky as my father was in the RAF so we lived in quarters which while not luxurious had everything that you needed down to the teaspoons. We had no central heating or phone but then neither did anyone else and there was only a carpet square in the sitting room and a small mat by the bed. The rest was lino. We had an open fire when we first got married almost 50 years ago and when we move into our modern centrally heated house it was pure luxury and I have to confess one I would not like to be without now.

Talking of valves its not that long ago that my husband built a valve amplifier for his guitar and he still has spare valves stashed for it. He used to go round the junk shops in manchester and pick up old ex MOD equipment very cheaply and build his own radios etc.

QueenJess

I think we should be careful not to tar everyone with the same brush.  I'm sure there are lots of people who this will be a shock for, but many others who are very sensible with their money too (you never seem to hear about the latter who quietly go about their business).  I don't think I've ever been silly with money and always budgeted.  My sister is the same.  When I got a couple of promotions in the past I only slightly increased my spending money and put the rest away in savings (mainly for a house deposit at the time) so I've never got used to my real salary.

I also don't think it's a bad thing that living standards have improved and people are able to be warm without thinking too carefully about how much it costs.  Going the other way now though will be tougher.  I'm sure people will adapt as they'll have to, but I do really worry about the people who have nothing left to cut and the higher bills to come in October.

I think we all tend to look back at the past with rose tinted glasses a bit (me included!).  There are many things I would like to come back myself (and plenty would be much better for the environment too), but equally there are lots of things no one would want to return to.  I always had central heating (shows my age!) and definitely would not want to be without that as I really feel the cold.

Woolsery

Slinky said:

I have to disagree that having a lot of supplies of food is ridiculous at this moment in time. Food price inflation is rocketing, anything you buy now you can keep to eat later in the year is a hedge against the increased prices that are coming down the track......It's highly unlikely food prices will be dropping anytime soon, if ever.  I think this situation we're in with high food and fuel prices is likely to be the 'new normal'.

Although the term 'new normal' was penned long before, it's now most used in relation to the outcomes from Covid, which continue.In broad terms I see it referrring to to a state of flux and uncertainty, but others may think of it differently.

With regard to food, demand is always there, so the price increases are a symptom of scarcity caused by dislocation of the distribution system and now increased disruption to normal farming practices. Ukraine and Russia are some of the largest producers of wheat and fertiliser, so it's not hard to see what will happen next. We won't be sold any fertiliser by Russia this year, never mind sanctions.

Some of us cynics, sceptics, nutters, tin foil hatters, call us what you like, have been putting a little long-storage food aside since about mid-2020 when we began to question the disproportionate response to Covid, the huge amount of extra money printing etc. It seemed obvious then that there would be disruption and prices would shoot up, though it's taken longer to happen than I expected. That's a testament to those who kept producing, trading and the supply chains moving through their determination and adaptability.

Now, we're eating some of the first things we stored. Due dates may only be a guide, but we don't want to exceed them too much and there's a limit to what our outhouse will take. So far, we haven't saved a lot of £ but we've avoided the runs on certain things like loo roll (and beer/cider in our local supermarket - what does that say?!) That's beginning to change; for example, mayonnaise up 25p this week. However, the biggest advantage we see is knowing we'll cope moderate shortages, even if it means spaghetti bolognaise 4x a week! It'll also be possible to swap with like-minded neighbours, because there will be things we've not foreseen etc. and some people here barter quite a lot.

As for inflation generally, I decided to borrow when maybe I shouldn't have done, but 2.8% was very tempting and it went into a several liquid assets. I'm not saying what, and they might not pay, but I can always consume one of them and forget my worries if things get really bad!

London_1

QueenJess, I know people often think of the times gone past with fondness, but the fondness I recall is not the idea of comfort and warmth, as there was very little of that in the post war years when coal ,especially in the bad winter of 1947 was really hard to get hold of I certainly wouldn't want to be cold today as my aged bones would just seize up

But the courtesy and politeness of those days would be nice, along with the inate kindness of people who often were in the same boat as oneself yet they shared stuff,even if it was a quick shout over the garden fence about what was in the local shop at the moment .
I think there was probaly a lot less of the 'keeping up with the Jones' in those days as the absolute lack and availabilty of so many things made folk a lot more inventive than today.

Today many teenagers would think the world had ended if they had little or no wi-fi or phone coverage and seeing how the shops (even with empty shelves at the moment ) are full of goods to buy that my late Mum would have never thought possible.

When as during rationing you bought things like sugar and tea or cheese by the ounce, and eggs by a stipulated amount by the week you really couldn't run out of things as it was a week before you could buy anything else. My Mum didn't hold with black marketeers at all having relatives in the merchant navy who risked their lives to bring food to this country. So she stuck to what she was allowed to buy.

 I wonder what she would have to say to see the shops today full of so much stuff and to hear that so much of it would end up in landfill sites.I'm pretty sure she would be horrified.

I have no rose tinted specs about life back then as it was often cold ,houses damp, little decent sanitation and a bath was a thing that happened once a week after boiling lots of kettle and saucepans to get enough hot water. Then the bath was once more hung on the back of the cellar door until the following week. I was always first in the tin bath as I was the youngest followed by my two brothers who were a lot more mucky than I was   Ice on the inside of windows was the norm and extra coats over your feet was also normal for a lot of people. But a cuddle from Mum went a long way to make you feel warmer.

Children did chores as a matter of course and it wasn't considered unusual in our house mY brothers both chopped firewood and dug the garden and shoveling  horse dung onto the garden helped to produce the food we ate. We kept chickens for their eggs and then happily ate the chickens when past laying . We had an uncle who owned a market garden in herne bay and every year we would make trips on the train from London down to the seaside and come home with lots of fruit and any spare veg. things were never binned when it came to eating as it was important to streetch the rations as much as possible. 

Sadly I think that there will be many people struggling this winter to heat and eat through no fault of their owns so squireeling away a few extra things may help. but so many folk are struggling now to feed themseelves , perhaps instead of cookery programmes full of chefs telling us about food the majority of people can't afford to cook and eat may at some point have a replacement for food they can learn to cook. Many people have never had the opportunity I had , to watch my late Mum turn something bland and boring into something tasty. I alway find it funny to see bagged up veg 'ready made and peeld to cook. How hard is it to peel a carrot or slice and dice onions I know there are folk who have problems with perhaps arthritis (I know I do at times )but there are an awful lot who just haven't got a clue when it comes to basic cooking
My late husband was 18 and a young RAF recruit in 1951 before he tasted any veg from a tin. So many things are available now to learn from Even looking on YouTube you can learn how to make your food streetch a bit better. 

Maybe this coming year will be an epiphany for many people and they will learn how to make their budgets work better for them. Hopefully less food waste at least would be a great start

JackieO xx

Woolsery

London_1 said:

Today many teenagers would think the world had ended if they had little or no wi-fi or phone coverage and seeing how the shops (even with empty shelves at the moment ) are full of goods to buy that my late Mum would have never thought possible.

You make some really good points about the past, though I know 'keeping up with the Joneses' was happening even by the early '50s in some places. I recall exactly which two families had the TVs at the time of the Coronation (I was 4) and who the first people to own cars in our road were. It wasn't us! That was a road of poky 2 bed maisonettes in London, but no doubt it was different elsewhere.

As I see things, those with the greatest power and influence today actually want most youngsters to remain glued to their phones and escape into virtual reality, rather than engage more fully with the world. If they can be kept amused, docile and consuming poor quality food and entertainment in high density urban areas their impact on the planet will be lower. That's the theory, but we all know about those. Every fad has its day.

And there are others, Mr J and his Dad among them, who think the real problem is overpopulation, but I'd better not go there! 

Wednesday2000

NatashaRyan said:

@Wednesday2000It may sound silly but one thing I've started to do is to look through the cupboards and freezers to think what I'd need to add to turn the things I have into a meal, rather than going to the shops and buying whatever I fancy. For example the other day I discovered a pad thai sauce I'd bought a few months back and forgotten about, along with some noodles, so I only have to spend a pound or two on some fresh vegetables to add to it and I had a filling meal with leftovers. I'm sure this is the default for many people already but I'm really guilty of having cupboards full of ingredients and feeling as though I don't have any 'meals' in, even though I'm a decent and creative cook!

Rosa_Damascena said:

EssexHebridean said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

otb666 said:

we are on a budget but I am not changing my usage as i have done the sums and can afford 220 which is what we use.  I want to have 2 years of normal usage as just retired Before i go full circle and have to scrape ice from inside my windows like when i was little in the 1970s

I remember those days and don't want to go back there. Maybe we are just too used to having a high standard of living?

I think a lot of people have learned to take for granted the (relatively) affordable energy of years gone by and so their standard of living has increased beyond “decent” and into “luxury” without realising it. Now with the costs increasing that will have to change for a lot of folk - and this in turn means that the planet’s resources will be taking less of a battering too. I’m not thinking about having a home that is “warm enough” or being able to pop the oven on at lunchtime AND tea - more of the folk who have a thermostat set at 22° then sit around in shorts and t-shirts, those who have several showers or baths a day for no better reason than “wanting to” and the ones who routinely put all their worn for one-day-only clothes into the laundry basket every night without establishing whether the outer layers need washing, or not. 

@Wednesday2000 - the big Tesco has lots of YS BUT there is a scrum for them. There is one elderly lady in particular who hovers and elbows everyone else out of the way as soon as the trollies are wheeled out - f&v, chilled and bakery. (I noticed this having been forced to commute out of town over the winter months and would drop by around 7pm on the way home). Otherwise there is an Aldi near Chalkwell Park, and the small Waitrose on London Road may have good offers at the end of the day.

That is a good point Natasha. I did go through a phase of cooking from scratch almost every day and I would go on Pinterest and type in what ingredients I had and try new recipes. I should do that again!:)

Rosa - I will watch out for that elderly lady! Lol. I am definitely going to use that Aldi as well.

Siebrie

My Mum (86) told me she never understood people who had to break the ice on the water to wash themselves in the morning; they used the water from the hot water bottles

GaleSF63

I grew up in a well-built 1950s council house, 3 bedrooms and coal fire downstairs. My parents bought the house in 1969/70, and immediately put in loft insulation (which was topped up some years later) and cavity wall insulation. My mother lived in the house until 2013, and never got central heating - partly I suspect because she wouldn't clear the hoarded house for it to be done. I stayed there in bad winters sometimes and the house was never very cold in spite of the single gas fire so the insulation must have been doing its job.

I don't have children and therefore not grandchildren either, so please feel free to tell me if I'm way off the mark! People are used to what they grow up with. Someone who has only ever seen dated produce is going to assume it's done for a reason and they should take notice. I don't believe any generation is substantially different from any other except in environment and if the younger generation have to get used to harder times, then I'm sure they will even if it takes a lot of adjustment. Some won't of course but that's not new either; people who are lazy and entitled have always existed.