2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

MrsCD

Thanks for the shiny new thread, @PipneyJane
I'll try to keep up this year, but I know I'm going to have to buy some undies, as the ones I got last year have holes in them already!🙄

florianatwobob

Hello everyone. Sadly I was ‘called away’ last year and have been MIA (all hush hush obviously) so will be starting the year with a fresh 66 coupons (and a list of required items)!

thriftwizard

Aaargh! I nearly fell before the first fence! I decided to spend some of my Christmas money from my Mum on a pair of salt & pepper mills as all of ours have broken over the years and our local kitchenware shop only had Le Creuset ones, at £45 each. Found some online from a big chain that has one of its grocery outlets near us; nothing special, but reduced to a sensible price. But they wanted nearly £4 to deliver it to their own store for me to collect! So I started looking at what else they had, to get me up to the free delivery threshold, and there was a pair of (sale) leggings in my basket before you could say boo to a goose! Luckily I saw sense before pressing "buy" and went off & found some nicer mills on Etsy instead... I do NOT need more leggings! (But I may need to darn the ones I'm wearing again...)

Watty1

I'm in.  TBH I don't really need anything, just to get a grip on what i have and to sort my life out and I love the tone of the thread.  Thank you

flamingo747

@thriftwizard Leggings are my downfall too! That and knickers.

Teadrinker_4

Cherryfudge said:

Teadrinker_4 said:

Hi everyone, could I join please? I'm a newbie on MSE.  I have the Fashion on the Ration book and love the idea of couponing.  Do I start on 66 coupons for the year?  I'm also an avid sewer - Sewing Bee is my favourite programme - having just completed a pair of pjs for my DH.  It'll be interesting to see how many coupons I use when I total my fabric stash that I use in the year.
Happy New Year everyone.

Welcome, draw up a chair! You don't need to count things you've already bought, in fact @Laura_Elsewhere had the bright idea of trying to reach 66 coupons in terms of making things. A sort of reverse couponing, I suppose. Those of us with stashes of fabric and/or yarn are all aiming to use not buy, but it's harder by far than you can imagine!

@Cherryfudge Thank you. I’ll definitely look at ‘reverse couponing’

CapricornLass

I'm in too.  Like Laura, I overspent by 1 coupon last year.  

Birthday on Sunday - OH has kindly agreed to pay for a pair of ankle boots to replace the ones I've been wearing for the past three years. Shoes and underwear are my big spends.

retiredinfrance

@Laura_Elsewhere, I agree about men’s versus women’s pants. I bought DH some this summer when I was buying for me and his are likely to last years and mine months. It’s the same with shirts/ blouses. In fact I was so struck by the quality of shirts that I’ve bought some for me  in the CS. It’s a feature of life here that men especially bring their “good “ shirts to France and then never wear them , so I stocked up this year for DH with unworn ones from  a Mr Pink and Jermyn St at 3 euros per shirt. I’m also going to use up 2023 ‘s unused 23.5 coupons on CS purchases, mainly to curb my CS habit.

Gem-gem

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Gem-gem said:

For 2023, once again, thank goodness that DH didn't use all of his coupons. I wonder in1941 how many wives used their husbands coupons for other members of their family. Target for 2024 to using just my coupons. 

I wonder how much of that is a reflection of a) men being able to wear the same suit to work or formal occasions and just a different tie or shirt and nobody caring tuppence whereas women are still expected to wear different oputfits all the time and b) men's clothes being better-made from better-quality fabrics- I was really taken aback when I bought new underpants for my husband to see the difference in the materials and quality of stitching and finish; his last years, whereas when I used to buy ordinary "good quality" briefs the stitching started coming apart after six months and were typically very very thin fabric to begin with. 

So true @Laura_Elsewhere. When I was first courting my DH, I went to three Christmas / New Year's Eve dances in one year, my Mum was horrified that I intended to wear the same dress to all three dances. But didn't batter an eyelid to the fact that the men wore the same suit. Mum would be frantically going down to a secondhand formal wear shop to pick up different dresses because she couldn't be seen to wear the same one twice to a dance or meal out in such short time. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. (At least she was buying second hand).
Regarding quality, I'm pretty sure that Men's T-shirts are made with a thicker cotton too. 

dND

I agree with the comments on men's clothing.  I was looking for a hoodie; all the women's ones were lightweight but I went round the corner of the aisle and saw the men's ones.  Result! A thicker, warmer hoodie for a few pounds less.