2025 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Nelliegrace

One of the earliest lessons in road safety was the kerb drill, 1942, by Jocelyn Arthur Adair Pickard. Director General of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, RoSPA. This ‘code’ was military style, helping children to understand the seriousness of road safety.
1942 Photograph from The IWM, note the white paint to help in the blackout. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LNT6zBkSX10

https://joemoran.net/academic-articles/crossing-the-road-in-britain-1931-1976/

We had The Tufty Club in the 60s. The advice I remember best was in a lesson on Kerb Drill from the school English Comprehension book, where one of answer options was, “Shut your eyes, take a deep breath, and run.” 

Sarahspangles

Sarahspangles said:

Firstly, thank you @PipneyJane for keeping us in line last year (clutching our coupons). Please may I join for 2025? I have saved 23 coupons from 2024. I did restock my yarn stash in 2024, having donated most during the pandemic. Any yarn or fabric purchases from this point are going to be on the ration.

As we’re expecting to be snowbound tomorrow I am going to spend the day sorting my wardrobe.

….and after two weeks in the closet I’m back to report! We had ten days of snow lying, and slippery side roads, but my Ministry job is home based so we only needed to venture forth to exercise. In between, I’ve been sorting out clothes.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before that I have my entire wardrobe listed on a spreadsheet. I started it nine years ago after moving house and losing half my wardrobe space. It prompted me to sell or donate lots of suits, as my job had become ‘smart casual’, and after that I started doing Project 333 which is a capsule wardrobe approach. I let my quarterly capsule reviews lapse last year, which explains why I had coupons left over. Updating the sheet over a couple of weekends to remove things that had worn out revealed how few outfits I actually had.

Even within the guide rails set by having a capsule, I’ve managed to spend 41.5 coupons, and that’s after OH treated me to a new coat. I have 47.5 left for the rest of the year. I also - unilaterally - decided that as I’m about to retire from the Ministry I get a ‘demob’ outfit, off-coupon. My rationalisation is that I will no longer be piloting a desk! I replaced some hiking gear and a second gym outfit. This does mean I can retire the last couple of office outfits, and those are bagged up to donate, so I could also reverse-coupon those items.

The fun bit of a capsule review is picking a colour scheme. For Winter, it’s coffee cake with cream and cherries. A maroon scarlet as the brightest colour through to chocolate, taupe and shell colour. The maroon can be put away in Spring (it’s in the coat and some thermal items) and I can pick a more Spring like colour to go with the various shades of coffee.

I do feel I’ve been quite frugal alongside the spending. I worked out how to get an oily mark out of a merino top (white spirit) so that’s one item back in circulation. At the same time I washed and debobbled two items for donation. Finally, I had two white T shirts which didn’t go with anything, which I’ve dyed mid-blue today. One for the gym, and one to wear with jeans in Summer - blue is always in rotation then!

Cherryfudge

laura_lau said:

I have to report my first use of coupons for the year (and first ever!), as I had to buy a duvet cover for my new bed. I refurbished the bedroom at the end of last year, and had 1 full set of bedsheet for the new (bigger) bed, which I bought years ago in the hope it would happen soon (it took much longer to get the budget to do it, but I'm glad I purchased ahead, as it was way cheaper back then!). I bought 2 fitted sheet in November, but it is really annoying to have only one duvet cover, so I finally bought one this week. It should arrive tomorrow or early next week. 

So, doing some calculations, it's 4 yards (4 metres) of non-woolen cloth, as it's 200 cm long, and, it being a duvet cover, it's folded over, = 8 coupons. Am I doing this right?

I hope so, @laura_lau, as I've bought a duvet set (king size plus two pillow cases) and a fabric remnant. I need to do some measuring but both are mixed fibres. I do think they are saving me money as I can dry one set while the other is in use instead of putting the tumble dryer on.

I remember the Tufty Club and the Highway Code too. I had a toothbrush mug with Tufty on: a  red squirrel in a jacket, I think. I wonder what happened to it?

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

laura_lau said:

I have to report my first use of coupons for the year (and first ever!), as I had to buy a duvet cover for my new bed. I refurbished the bedroom at the end of last year, and had 1 full set of bedsheet for the new (bigger) bed, which I bought years ago in the hope it would happen soon (it took much longer to get the budget to do it, but I'm glad I purchased ahead, as it was way cheaper back then!). I bought 2 fitted sheet in November, but it is really annoying to have only one duvet cover, so I finally bought one this week. It should arrive tomorrow or early next week. 

So, doing some calculations, it's 4 yards (4 metres) of non-woolen cloth, as it's 200 cm long, and, it being a duvet cover, it's folded over, = 8 coupons. Am I doing this right?

I hope so, @laura_lau, as I've bought a duvet set (king size plus two pillow cases) and a fabric remnant. I need to do some measuring but both are mixed fibres. I do think they are saving me money as I can dry one set while the other is in use instead of putting the tumble dryer on.

I remember the Tufty Club and the Highway Code too. I had a toothbrush mug with Tufty on: a  red squirrel in a jacket, I think. I wonder what happened to it?

Bomb damage again, @Cherryfudge?  You are so unlucky!

@laura_lau, your logic reads right to me.  However, it’s up to you whether you include your bedding spends in your Coupon ration.  If it’s a one off, then you can “claim a voucher for bomb damage” and get it coupon free -  ditto Cherryfudge - but if you’re someone who just has to have new sheets every few months, then we’d insist on you including them in your coupon count, because you have a larger problem that needs addressing.

(In real life, all curtains, bedding and towels had to come out of your coupon count.  If you were bombed out and had to set up home again, there were extra coupons available at official discretion, but I’ve not seen sources quoting coupon costs.)

HTH

- Pip

PollyWollyDoodle

@Sarahspangles I think a ‘de-mob’ Suit is perfectly justified. Congratulations on retiring, if that’s what you are doing?  

I really admire anyone doing Project 333 - even though I often wear the same things most of the time, when I looked at it, I found it too hard to limit myself to just those items. Your colour scheme sounds lovely

Sarahspangles

PollyWollyDoodle said:

@Sarahspangles I think a ‘de-mob’ Suit is perfectly justified. Congratulations on retiring, if that’s what you are doing?  

I really admire anyone doing Project 333 - even though I often wear the same things most of the time, when I looked at it, I found it too hard to limit myself to just those items. Your colour scheme sounds lovely

Despite appearances (41.5 coupons spent already…) my tendency is not to have enough to wear. I’m usually an under-buyer. I currently have 25 items of my 33 allowance slotted in. The main gap is a going-out outfit for a couple of meals out coming up, but I will probably look on eBay - or Vinted, which people keep mentioning. I think it’s worth buying new for basics as they get so much wear, but not for ‘best’ unless it’s something really classic, like my 20+ year old formal coat.

I’m semi-retiring, I joined the Ministry short term when there was a pan[dem]ic on and it will have been nearly four years when I leave. I feel like I’ve done my bit ‘for the duration’. I'm not ruling out working again but I hope I’ll feel busy and productive without formally having a job, if you see what I mean.

pixtotts

@Sarahspangles I tink that makes perfect sense re buying new for basics and not for best. It's very much a frame of mind I would follow myself. Some basics it's worth a check on vinted too though, I got a replacement pair of my favourite jeans brand new with tags! I've sold a few things like that too... >.< 


Going back to the road safety stuff, my school definitly taught us along with don't walk on frozen ponds, and stay out of quarrys, but I (and my sister who is much younger than me) went to a rural school where our cross country runs were still done on roads / lanes. My friends - inner city (though small town / city) definitely didn't have the same kind of experiance... seems we had very different school experiances despite being all the same age! 


I don't really have anything to report today but I fell off the wagon 11 months ago after our cat died, sadly his brother was run over at the weekend - he definitely did not heed the road safety info shared above!
But I'm mainly just posting to keep myself in the frame of mind - hope you don't mind! 

On a less morbid note, I have decided I need to figure something out to knit with a selection of brown toned wool that I bought for a project many years ago but can't remember what now... I shall have a count see how much there is first I think then go from there. Determined not to start yet another scarf! (my nanny was an avid knitter and every time she would knit I would start a scarf, I'm not sure any of them even got long enough for my teddy though) x

PipneyJane

Big hugs @pixtotts.  Here, have this spot by the fire, a cuppa and a large piece of cake.  Fur-balls are members of the family and should be mourned appropriately - if you feel up to it, do tell us about him and his brother.  If not, I completely understand.  

- Pip

CapricornLass

I'm beginning to wonder if there was an coupon allocation made  for household linens and things, as I haven't been able to find anything like that on the internet.  Thinking about it, you don't tend to need to buy a new duvet every year  (they would have had blankets, but the the principle is the same).  A lot of the materials would have ended up being diverted to support the war effort.  Probably there was something left to make sheets and blankets and things, but I bet there was a restricted choice, and it would have been expensive to buy.

There was probably a 2nd hand market in such things too. All those jumble sales must have had more than just clothes!

CapricornLass

P.S I was a paid up member of the Tufty Club too!