2026 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Cherryfudge

Nelliegrace said:

6 coupons used on thick, non-woollen socks in the sales at Aldi. Such an extravagance! I didn’t need them, my socks last for years, but they were reduced in price by half and then three quarters, and I forgot completely about ration coupons and no unnecessary clothes buying. £4.97 spent.

I think I wanted cheering up because of the wretched virus and the weather.

Dirty days hath September,
April, June, and November. 
From January up to May,
The rain it raineth every day.
All the rest have thirty-one, 
Without a blessed gleam of sun. 
And if any of them had two-and-thirty,
They'd be just as wet and twice as dirty.

That rhyme really made me laugh! I think the socks practically count as medicinal.

itsthelittlethings

Oh god! I popped in the village shop on the way back from mum's and who was in there but the tailor. She said she's had some new bits and bobs come in from London. One is a blouse in just my size like the one I got off her last time but with long sleeves and a high neck, and one is some sturdy trousers which will be perfect for my land girl work (not that I've done any yet), or just walking in the fields at the weekend (gym). Would be 9 coupons.

I do tend to get a lot of second hand clothes (honestly don't see the problem with that) so maybe I'll splurge and then just do without for the rest of the year.

Mother barely uses her coupons and told me she'd get me some wool when she goes to see her friend in Scotland later this year. I also have more than enough wool. Ho hum. Once the coupons are gone they're gone. I really find it quite hard to find people who sell under the table anyway.

Laura_Elsewhere

Like @pixtotts we don't use any heating either we have heaters but we're just still waiting til we need them... 12 years now...!  

People say, ah but you get the heat from the flats below you- but we had one year with both lower flats empty from summer til November and we still hadn't started using heating. We have thermometers and the sitting room is generally around 15-16 degrees except in a really cold spell. It did go down to about 12 degrees one winter, which was uncomfortable- but then it was -12°C outside overnight so...!
we have three Victorian "stone pig" hot water bottles which stay properly hot for several hours in a knitted cover, a good ten hours covered by bedclothes and even uncovered as a footrest at a desk will still stay hot for well over an hour... 

We do struggle with other people's hothouses!!  

I'm still working on my reversible dress but we've had various upheavals (plumber, landlord doing work, Mr E's ex-wife in poor health potentially moving to nearer their son which is good but probably leaves us to clear up and organise selling the house, etc...) so I haven't got on as I'd hoped....

itsthelittlethings

Used the phone this morning and rang the tailor (she said I can ring any time after 7 as she is a very early riser). I said I'd take the two things she mentioned and she said she'd throw in a swimsuit for coupons only. She sounded a bit down and said she hasn't had a letter from her husband for four weeks. I didn't know what to say.

Back to work today. I'm not going to take the job at the other company as I have thought about it and I don't think it's the right thing to do. I'm going to work on my typing and see if I can get into the typing pool. It's very competitive though. Even if I can't, I'm always ok somehow. I may regret taking this expensive room if I have to go back to char work but it is nice to have the space.

PollyWollyDoodle

I’m reading a book which may have been recommended in here, I can’t remember - it’s called ‘Private Battles: How the war almost defeated us’ by Simon Garfield, and it’s a collection of Mass Observation diaries from 1941 to 1945.  It’s all about the realities of living with rationing and the Blitz, hearing the news and so on. 

This entry from 1944: ‘Clothes; my underclothes and night attire..suffer most. Coupons nearly all go on top clothes. I had a fairly good stock of clothes to start with which has been pressed and cleaned and turned and renovated to give variety and interest. On paper (my wardrobe) would look extravagant but actually most of it is now five years old and beginning to look very shabby. I keep a few items to wear on special occasions only, the rest does duty every day - and very hard duty’.  

She goes on to say that her nightwear is so tattered that she hopes she never gets bombed out when wearing it!  

It’s a fascinating book. I had not realised that food shortages varied depending where you were in the country, one correspondent is sending dried fruit to his sister in Yorkshire where it’s very hard to come by.  Several correspondence receive food, including fruit, from friends or family overseas. Highly recommend this book. 

Keep up the good work, rationistas!  

pixtotts

@Laura_Elsewhere you really do get used to it don't you! My boyfriend is the polar opposite he has an electric car and his heating and air con can all be controlled from his phone so he is ALWAYS in a steady 18 - 19 degrees everything pre heated or cooled before he goes in - apart from when I'm there and make him turn the heating off at night, then he complains it's cold  But it also means going from the house to the car he finds super cold! 

I might have to get a themometer just out of interest... I'd be quite intrigued to see how it varies across the house - my bedroom was one of the later additions so has double glazing and insulation, where as other than two brick walls where the fire and aga are the rest of the house is hollow wooden frame and I wonder if it's worth upgrading the rest at some point. 



Another Vint. sale so I'm up to 3 coupons in my pot now hoping to get a couple more things listed today then I'm off to my boyfriends for the weekend x