2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

MrsCD

Oooh, that sounds just the thing, @PipneyJane! Thanks very much.

Watty1

Thought of you all at the weekend as I decluttered a kitchen cupboard.  Stockpiling or just disorganisation on my part, I'm not sure what but I had A LOT of tinned stuff and some very random multiples of things like sunflower seeds.   Such hording in the 40s would have been frowned on and it did make me question why in these days of 24 hour deliveries and places open 24 hours and so on I have so much of things (14 cans of sardines for example and 3 bags of porridge oats).  I also have 6 bags of flour (all different) which is odd as I don't really bake much.   

I am resolved to meal plan around using this stuff up and try to address the emotional reasons why I am stockpiling.

MrsCD

Yes, hoarding would have been frowned upon in the 40's, but nowadays many people keep a few weeks or even month's worth of food etc. Just in case they can't get out due to illness, bad weather etc. I started to keep a food cupboard under the stairs when we had really heavy snow one year, and I had to buy more expensive food from the corner shop.
I'm currently trying to use up some of the items that have been there a while, and I need to decide which foods I would be able to use during a power cut, and which I've just put there, just in case...!!

Laura_Elsewhere

Food-hoarding, and things like electric batteries, during the war wasn't just frowned upon- it was a criminal offence and people were prosecuted... 

Hansard, 3rd March, 1942:
"It was stated to-day that there had been 40,000 prosecutions [for Hoarding, since the start of the war]. I have a Press report here about a woman being fined for food hoarding. One wonders when food hoarding becomes a crime, and whether the Minister will enlighten us on that subject. A statement was made on the wireless than 2,420 prosecutions had been made in January, 91 per cent. of which were successful"

The reply from the Minister was:
"The hon. Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Leslie) raised the very tricky question of hoarding. We have not altered what was laid down earlier, roughly, that not more than seven days' supply should be kept except in special circumstances. Special circumstances would be, for instance, very heavy weather in the Highlands of Scotland, as happened last year when communication was completely cut off. It is left to the courts to decide exactly whether there has been hoarding or not, having regard to the special circumstances of each case. The Order laid down at the beginning of the war that seven days' supply should be regarded as normal"

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1942-03-03/debates/c04b121e-2324-476f-911c-d04f427940ac/MinistryOfFood

Cherryfudge

I think I would have been hoping I didn't get inspected as I keep a (relatively small) emergency cupboard, against ice and illness. I'll admit I also raid it if the alternative is a buying trip for one item. I wonder if the Ministry changed its mind at all in the dreadful winter towards the end of the war? I'm just watching the programme on the winter of 1962-62 when there were ten weeks of snow and while I've not seen it all yet, I bet there were people who ran low on provisions.

@Watty1, I think I've maybe seen you on some of the other threads that deal with our accumulation of food: The all new using what you have from your Freezer, Cupboard or Shed (Barn) — MoneySavingExpert Forum which aims to try to use things up and Prepping: the new world... — MoneySavingExpert Forum where people are trying to lay up stores! So we evidently cater (ha, ha) for all sorts. I'm sure there are plenty of others and some will overlap.

thriftwizard

It's worth remembering that anyone who was able to was growing food & preserving any excess; the Ministry wouldn't have batted an eyelid at a winter's worth of HM jam, if you'd legitimately been able to acquire the sugar to make it & had grown (or picked) the fruit yourself. Which Mum's grandmother did by combining the rations for 5 people - herself, her husband, teenage Mum, my great-aunt & her husband, who both worked up in London & commuted back to Kent. Home-grown fruit was also bottled in a light syrup, which used less sugar than jam-making.

I was a small child during the winter of '62-'63 & my village, on the western edge of Dartmoor, was cut off for weeks. Despite the fact that we only had a couple of small shops - a grocers & a Post Office - no-one starved, because even my aunt's cob-cottage with outdoor bathroom & scullery had a cool (but also damp!) larder, full of salted beans, HM preserves & ancient HM cheeses - it's dairy country, as anyone who remembers the old rice pudding adverts ("This is Brent Tor...") will recognise - and people willingly shared with those who had less. So the danger of hoarding needs to be balanced against making sensible provisions for times when there's less available, for whatever reason.

Laura_Elsewhere

It's also worth remembering that almost nobody had a refrigerator- iirc in 1961 only two per cent of British households had a refrigerator... so people either shopped daily or near-daily if they had no paid work outside the home, or else they mostly ate at cafes and British restaurants during their working day and then just had toast with an egg or half a tin of sardines, etc., in the evenings. 

Also, many of the things we all keep stocks of were simply barely-known then- pasta, for example, was not common... rice was widely-used, and of course Potato Pete was well-known, but very little pasta, therefore no pasta sauces, etc. They did have dry goods, tinned goods, bottled goods, but not the ones we have.

Given the impossibility of definitely being able to buy *anything* during the war, it must have been a nightmare to have limited supplies of condiments, spices, all those things that enable someone to make a decent meal out of odd ingredients... and so little cheese!!!

PollyWollyDoodle

Goodness, I could probably eat for a month if I added up everything in the freezer, pasta, rice and dried beans. I don’t consider myself a hoarder though, as said above it’s the way we live now.  

During the war, my mum’s cousin worked for a large London store.  She was sometimes able to get hold of goods that weren’t readily available, like chocolate biscuits, for example.  My mother remembered visiting her, and her husband (who was notoriously tactless) saying ‘Now, Eve, I think we’ve got a nice tin of biscuits in the cupboard that we could offer our guest, haven’t we?’  She said her cousin glared at him because obviously she’d been saving them, but had no option but to get the biscuits out and graciously offer them round. My mum thought some harsh words were probably exchanged after she left!  Reading Nella Last (Housewife, 49) she kept things like a tinned ham for a special occasion. I should think everyone would have had one or two treats put by. 

PollyWollyDoodle

By the way can I thank someone last year who recommended ’Among You,Taking Notes’ by Naomi Mitchison which is another Mass Observation Diary. I got it for Christmas and have just finished reading it - fascinating detail about everyday life and how tiring it was constantly trying to feed everyone. 

Sorry I can’t remember who suggested it. 

PipneyJane

Another cup of tea, anyone?   Very interesting conversation.  The world has certainly changed since the War.

I think DH and I could live on 1941 rations if a) I was allowed to shop monthly instead of weekly, and b) if I could still have my fridge/freezer.  Monthly shopping would make the quantities workable for me, e.g. I can spread 1lb of cheddar across multiple recipies over a month, but I’d struggle with 4 ounces a week (2oz per person). FYI, until the Pandemic, I used to only do one main shop a month, with a fortnightly top up shop for veg and eggs at a local farm shop.

- Pip