by Michael Smith
Cooking with leftovers, swapping clothes, growing vegetables, baking bread... all of it is coming back in vogue.
With recession worries growing in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, no doubt, people are trying to rediscover the ways things were done in years gone by and how people adapted to the dire shortages of World War II and the Great Depression before that. Books on that subject are now well on the way to becoming the new bestsellers. In the same way, I should think, books that describe the skills of even farther back will too.
There is a slow-down in the housing market, which makes everyone feel less confident financially. Credit not only will be harder to come by, it is getting harder to come by. We all should and more than likely may soon have to be tightening our belts. The lest we must learn to – once again – live within our means and not beyond them. If you have not got the money saved to buy this or that then, well, you cannot buy it and, as far as I am concerned, that also applies for a car. With a house it may be a little different, I grant you, but in general the way should be that if you have not got the ready money in cash or in the bank account then you will just have to wait until you have managed to save up for it.
It's not quite as difficult as it sounds. Recession thinking tends to be practical but also ordinary and rather simple. Most of it sure is not rocket science.
Switch off the lights when you leave the room. Turn the heating down and put on a sweater. Turn off the tap when cleaning teeth and take showers instead of baths. Take your shoes to the mender rather than throwing them away.
The biggest problem at times is that, in our throwaway society, it is often cheaper to buy new than to have something repaired. This is utterly stupid, I know.
Personally I find it ridiculous that a printer, for instance, that costs £30 the company wanted to charge over £100 for repairs and when they were told that for that time about three of those printers could be bought the comment just was “suggest you get a new one then.”
Folks are also starting allotment gardens again and those with gardens at their own homes turn much of it over to food production.
Geoff Stokes, of the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardens, says that demand for allotments has been so huge that some London boroughs have a 10-year waiting list.
There are area though also where allotments are still going begging and no one has as yet taken a real interest in the plots, and that in areas in the outer boroughs of London.
"Fresh air, exercise and fresh food, what could be better?" says Geoff Stokes. "And because so many younger people have started working on allotments, and mothers come with their children after school, there tends to be a real community spirit."
Here are some tips from the book “Austerity Britain 1945-1951” that might come back into vogue:, and not too soon either:
1. Turn over old cuffs and collars: If a shirt cuff or collar looks frayed, instead of throwing the shirt away, simply turn them over.
Though there is a problem with that too and that is that, unlike in the days of old, collars and cuffs are rather attached and unless one is rather good in sewing it might b e a slightly difficult affair.
2. Refashion old sheets: There is an old phrase, "sheets sides to middle," which refers to the fact that bed-linen tends to wear out more in the middle. During the war, women would cut threadbare sheets down the middle, turn them over, then sew them back together.
3. Make the most of leftovers: In the spirit of thrift, nothing should be thrown away. Therefore leftover vegetables become bubble and squeak; the Sunday roast becomes Monday's cottage pie.
In order to do that, however, people will have to learn, once again, how to cook from scratch. “bubble and squeak” and “cottage pie” are not made in a microwave.
4. Create a soap ball in the kitchen: Collect tiny fragments of soap from elsewhere in the house, then stick them together to form a soap ball for the kitchen or scullery.
5. Wash and re-use silver foil: A common practice in the '40s and '50s, typical of that generation's attitude to recycling.
6. Buy from thrift stores and Charity Shops rather than new as and where practicable. I do for most of my clothes and books.
7. Walk, use public transport or cycle instead of using the car or taxis. Not only does this save yu money; it also keeps you fit – well, the walking and cycling at least.
8. Cut out the latte in the coffee shop and have ordinary coffee at home. Take your own homemade sandwiches and a thermos flask of coffee to work with you.
Look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves and it can be incredibly rewarding, this lifestyle.
Thrifty thinking is also about making creative, imaginative choices, even down to the cuts of meat you buy. Then again, does it really have to be meat all the time and nigh on every day. It did not used to be thus. Meat was for the more special occasions, and that includes chicken.
Thrifty food shopping is not only restricted to meat. Buying vegetables in season is also recommended and being experimental.
Again, however, the being experimental is linked to actually being able to cook from scratch, a skill which, alas, is sadly missing with so many people nowadays.
The current way of waste is not just scandalous, it is, in fact, immoral and must be stopped. We got into the habit of being sensible in the war; we managed beautifully when money was scarce. We used up our food instead of throwing it away.
We live in a disposable culture; everything is designed to have a short life, to be thrown out and replaced as soon as it no longer works – or even before that when it is “obsolete”, according to the manufacturers. No one has any idea how to mend things or repair them or when they do then the charges are astronomical and one can buy new several times over. Other things hjust are designed not to be repairable. This is not sustainable.
It is not only that we cannot do this ourselves – in fact many electrical things you are, theoretically, no longer allowed to fix yourself - it's almost impossible to find someone who will repair a toaster, say, because toasters have become dirt cheap. All this makes people think very little about stuff - where it comes from and the effort and energy that has gone into making it.
If you can buy a new T-shirt for £1, why bother to mend it when it gets ripped, so at least the attitude of the masses. I was taught me to mend stuff. We had leather patches on our jumpers,on the knees of our pants – or patches from other pants - but you never see a man with that these days, unless they have stitched on by some fancy designer.
Being from a large Gypsy family I was raised with the values of “waste not, want not” and not just as regards to food. Clothes were hand-me-downs, often that our Mom got given by people when out “calling”, that is to say, hawking. Shoes were only worn, I must say, at certain times of the year and occasions. Toys were very rare and certainly things that had been someone else's before us. I must say though that we did not even mind. At least I cannot remember ever doing so.
How many things might you not have to spend money on buying if you could and would make them for yourself either from scratch or by reusing or re-purposing some items of what would normally considered trash. It is always a challenge to me to see what I can turn this or that item of trash into for use on my desk or elsewhere in the home or office.
Our parents and grandparents re-purposed glass jars and tin cans for various tasks, from keeping buttons in them, or nuts and bolts, to measuring cups and a variety of other uses.
In an economic downturn heading for a recession and may be even, as some analysts of the economy reckon, a depression that could equal the Great Depression of the 1930s, such measures must be employed for sheer survival. In addition to that it is good for the environment and the Planet too.
© M Smith (Veshengro), February 2009
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Be thrifty in the downturn
