I do most of these already. I have no credit cards, no debt. I have not bought washing powder or kitchen/bathroom cleaners for 30 yrs; one of my children was allergic to them so I began using vinegar. I’ve always made jam & pickles, often from home grown & veg. During the pandemic I sorted all my shoes & clothes; I’m now in the process of ‘wearing them out’ before I buy anything new.
I react to vinegar, is there anything else I could use? I have a debit card that can be used like a credit card only with my money. I spent more during the pandemic to help small businesses and made sure I thanked the workers. Mind you I got more work then too.
Like you, I do many of these things already. I make my laundry liquid with the small slivers of soap left from non-chemical bars, mixed with washing soda and hot water. Thin it down with more water and it makes up to 5 litres for pennies. As for the cash systems and change pot, which I also do, this is getting harder and harder as they want us to use digital currency and so are closing banks and cash points on the high streets. Having cash will soon be a thing of the past
@dilly239I take out most of my pension and pay cash. I have been saving money for some reason. No one has turned me away so far, but I haven't gone into the city centre yet.
@iriswaterford2685 try bicarbonate of soda? I love it. As well as useful in baking, sprinkle some in sinks, bath, surfaces even carpets, it deodourizes and cleans and breaks down dirt. (leave on carpets overnight if poss then vacuum up). For everything else, use warm water with it and maybe a squirt of washing up liquid and Bob's your uncle. For unblocking drains, use its cousin, the more caustic washing soda (which can also be used to wash clothes in place of laundry powder) and tip a mug full down the plughole with about 3 kettle fulls of boiling water. I type from experience!
@dilly239 it is necessary that we all use cash when we can to slow down the process of digitalisation. With cash there is no spending trace or data and it is the data and control they want as well as THEIR convenience and profit-making.
The corporations worked with governments to create a system where both parents had to work and there was little time to run a tight ship in the household and feed a family healthily from scratch. That way, the money went to the corporations and government instead as supermarkets and convenience became a necessity.
It is impossible to do this today, people want their avocado toasts and branded cups of nonsense coffee and eat out and throw books and clothes away. The moment the new collections hit the shops, people run to buy the new trends. They will never realize that while they’re taking the plastic bracelets and earrings, they are triggering themselves to never save enough to buy real jewellery or a silk scarf.
@esthahyahgeh6533yup. I still do that today. What is oldest, what goes together to use this or that up, add some spices or condiments, and that's dinner. I also have "clean out the fridge Friday" so stuff doesn't get overlooked or wasted. If it makes soup, great. If it makes salad, fine. If it makes stir fry, ok. I make a conscious effort to avoid wasting food money.
I think it is because ppl had purpose and had to work together so built community and eveyone had to have skills to survive. There was no room for self entitled pre-madonna types.
@carolineowen7846 IMO, It was simpler times. Banks were 10am to 3pm, no weekends, no 24/7 banking. News wasn’t 24/7, it was at 6 or 11pm. A limited number of tv channels. Every brand of toothpaste, etc. didn’t have 5 different iterations to choose from. With online, everything now never shuts down and is a constant cacophany. It makes everything alot more exhausting and stressed.
@carolineowen7846 I mean it's also because when you're a kid, unless your parents are shit at their job, your life *is* simple and calm and relatively happy, because you're a child. You're largely ignorant to the bad shit in the world, you don't have adult experiences or responsibilities, and your brain is *literally* simpler. Everyone feels that way, in 20 years gen alpha's gonna feel that way too.
I grew up in the 70s in England and this is exactly how my life was. I still do all of these and my boys all know how to be thrifty too…..and can all cook!
Every Friday evening, my Grandad would hand over his wage packet to my Nana, and she would divide the money as necessary. First off, she handed him his 'baccy money for his pipe. That was usually the only concession. Then, she would put the necessary amount in little pots in various places around the house...so much for the rent, so much for electricity, so much for housekeeping, etc. It worked well, but the trouble was that burglars were wise to this common system, and they once had most of the money stolen from her little hoards when their house was broken into while they slept. They acquired a dog. It never happened again, and in the end their little spaniel was a godsend for another reason: it sensed when my Grandad went blind, and without any training at all, would keep him right when they went for walks.
That paints such a clear picture of how things were managed back then-everything had its place 💰 Do you think that kind of system would still work today?
THATS SO HORRIBLE TO HAVE GONE THROUGH THE BREAK IN...THE SPANIELBWAS A GODSEND TO THEM...THE OLD DAYS HOW PEOPLE LIVED WERE THE BEST.. NO MOBILES AND INTERNET...HEAVEN PEOPLE COULDNT COPE TODAY WITH HOW WE LIVED YEARS AGO 😅😂😅😂😅😂 BECKY 🇬🇧
I grew up with all these things in my life as it was the normal way, today at 80yrs old I still live by these rules and have passed many onto my children and grandchildren. Living my life this way has given me the knowledge of how to cope with every situation and survive intact. I live a basic life now, light breakfast plus still cook a hot meal at lunch time and having a snack or sandwich for tea or supper each day. No clutter or extra cleaning for me. Back to basics, make do and mend.
Industry has introduced so much plastic, tetrapacs, mylar, synthetics into civilization that recycling has to be top of mind. Being conscientious about recycling isn't complaining. It is necessary.
That’s true-reusing and making do was just part of everyday life back then ♻ Do you think people today are starting to move back in that direction, or not really?
If people are recycling (rather than reusing) it's because councils are providing more collection services because landfill sites are full, incinerators are nearing capacity and disposal costs are therefore rising. Central government has painfully slowly backed this by obliging the local authorities to collect 6 'core materials' for recycling by next Tuesday - this becomes mandatory by 31.3.26
@daniellecomeau2996But recycling doesn't cut waste, or help the planet. Used materials still have to be collected in 20 ton trucks, driven to distant facilities and reprocessed using yet more energy. So recycling just delays the evil moment when material degrades to the point where it has to be burned or buried. Nan didn't recycle, she reduced or reused because she didn't buy things she couldn't afford or which hadn't hit the market in her day, like single-use products. But it's getting off oil that will help the planet, not reusing milk bottles, worthy as that may be! (I do that for old time's sake but it's expensive and I doubt it wins over plastic bottles which are recyclednon and economic scale in Essex).
I hate throwing things away, to save money and the planet. That can be a different problem though because I don't want to part with things when I should.
There really was a different level of discipline back then-people made the most of everything 👀 Do you think that mindset is something we could realistically bring back today?
I think that until we ban adverts and influencers we have no hope of reclaiming the sanity of this system. (Banishing the Oligarchs would certainly help!) I'm 72, and in the US (which country I believe is almost exclusively responsible for the shift). My parents married at the height of the Great Depression in 1937. My mother did all of these things. I was her fifth child (of six). My friend's parents were closer in age to my oldest sibling. So my friends were pampered and taught to indulge themselves, because THEIR parents declared "my child will never suffer the way I did!" I never thought I was suffering! I still have a Christmas Jar. And I pay cash. Thank you, Mom.
No, we can't bring it back because women have experienced a life unhampered by this kind of domestic drudgery. If people want to darn socks or make jam nowadays, it's a choice, not a necessity. The 70s brought a big economic change for the 'Nan' referred to here of the 50s, the Silent Generation who'd soldiered on during the Second World War. Once Mum discovered darning wool cost £1 a card, nearly the same as a new pair of socks, Mum stopped darning! Mum and Dad used to work as a team each autumn over a couple of days to make a batch of homemade marmalade. I found this rather charming. Then it stopped. I mentioned it to Dad and he said 'Oh, that was such a chore'! They'd probably done it because their parents had, but was a slog after a day's work and didn't save any money over shop-bought marmalade.
My lovely Nan and Great Auntie would use the mending basket scraps and make clothes for my dolly. Fully kitted she was. Winter clothes summer clothes. They taught me to sew. Old bedsheets became tea towels, my grandad’s old PJs were polishing cloths and rags for my ringlets. Same with Mum and Dad but Nanny and Auntie made the dolls clothes. They had retired and my parents were working every hour God sent so they minded me every day until I was old enough for school and then after school when I started. We are poor but never knew it but absolutely minted with love and now the memories. Only 3 minutes in and I’m beaming with joy ❤️🐾Now I finished it I’m remembering the Green Shield stamps tin, washing up water over the garden to stop the greenfly and the rest, and too much else to write just now but thank you for this, I’m smiling like an idiot and really enjoyed my quick sit down ❤️🐾
My mum made me a dressing gown out of fuzzy fabric trimmed in blue, and with the scraps she made our JRT a coat with her name spelled out in the blue trim. Some months later, the last of the fabric was used to make my brother a Fred Flintstone outfit. We dog was most put out, she thought he had her coat on and kept pulling at it 😂
Oh my goodness, Green Shield stamps!! Coming home from my Nan's shops, sticking them in the books, and then going through the catalogue to see what she could get. Wow! That brings back so many memories ❤
Green Shield stamps!! One Christmas my friend and I worked in the local shop. It was packed every day with people exchanging them for Christmas presents.
What a wonderful account of your life. Lovely memories. I remember the green shield stamps too. I grew up London …I was born in the 60s. You should write a book. A wonderful history lesson of what it was really like back in the day. ❤
My hubby got some old China off the loft that hadn't seen the light of day for 25 years. One picture was of my Nan at our wedding 39 years ago wearing a hat that she made from a cushion! We were both smiling reminiscing the things she used to do & say.
I was 10 yrs old before electricity was brought to our home and it was another 12 years before running water. My mum raised 7 children in these conditions. No bathroom or inside toilet. No sink in the kitchen, everything was done on the kitchen table. Two trout caught from the local river made a meal for us all. I'd like to know how often Mum didn't eat a proper meal to make sure her brood were fed.
What an amazing Mother. Women used to die in their 60's due to exhaustion. My Great Aunts and Grannies lived on Sheep station in New South Wales. Others before were in Wales and Sweden/ Denmark.
They used to teach, Home Economics, in schools back then. It wasn't just cooking classes. It was also nutrition, sewing, house keeping (basic health and hygiene for the home and family) how to balance a ledger for the bills etc. We've lost so much. Housewives were valued now these days mocked. Just curious does anyone else still open the windows of their house in the morning to let the bad air out and the fresh in? That's an old health and hygiene tip from the past.
I was only recently telling my granddaughter about our home economics classes in the 1970's. Ours had a little flat as well as the 6 kitchen cubicles, and we were taught how to make beds, clean bathrooms, dust and Hoover etc, boys as well. We were also taught how to iron clothes and manage a budget. So much of the old teaching ways have gone and with mums mostly having to work outside the home nowadays, the kids don't learn these basic life skills. I also did an afterschool Mother craft course when I was about 14, learnt all about baby care, and when I had my first child the visiting nurse commented that I was very confident handling my baby and I told her it was because I had been taught how to do it at school, she was impressed!
I do open all my windows in the morning. Attended an academy so no useful lessons like home economics. Learned all the ‘tricks of the trade’ from my Gradma and Mum. I can cook but can’t sew very well. My friend who did Home Economics at school is a beautiful seamstress and knitter but can’t cook so we help each other out. Isn’t that how it should be? Helping each other is going to become even more important in the near future. Get to know your neighbours if only to exchange a ‘good morning with a smile’. Lots of people are lonely these days.
I sincerely think you are right! We fall into the “we need these things” trap, bits and pieces, collecting and storing, but, the more you “collect” or have the more problems those things bring! You got to have a place for the things, you might need to “upkeep” the things, you waste money on the things, then you don’t have money for what you really NEED, it goes on and on and on!
We don't need it, but we have free will not to buy it. Poor Nan had no choice but to lug coal, wash up with ineffective soda crystals, spend her evenings darning socks etc. Once most Nans had the choice you wouldn't see those so-called 'rules' (devised by Nan's Nan to make the slog seem noble and tolerable) for dust!
I am extremely frugal...however meat prices are way too expensive today...wool socks are too expensive to buy...don't have enough money to buy in bulk...live on beans potatoes eggs...no money for extras...happy to have what I have...blessed
Maybe learn to knit, some yarn brands like 'drops' are VERY reasonably priced. Can you grow some food as well? Or plant a fruit tree somewhere 'en-route' ?
It is an evil thing they have done - putting the price up of natural things like wool and mutton (yet the retailers pay the farmer a pittance until they have to shut down the farm) that used to be cheap, and making the unhealthy stuff cheap.
I've gone to a charity sho before and buy a cardigan or scarf really cheap, then undo the whole thing and make your own clothing, like socks for example. With £2 you may be able to make 2-4 pairs of socks (cotton or acrylic depending on season too) lasting for years.
Great show. I am 84, we lived in North Toronto next to grandparents and aunts and uncles. Everybody did down preserves in the fall together. My dad was a milk man after the war, then got a good job as a journeyman pressman. Nothing was wasted. My grandmother was from Stratford on Avon, so brought her British thrift habits with her. We always had stew on the back of the stove, a roast on Sunday used up during the week. Dad took sardines and a thermos of coffee to work on public transit. They bought several homes and a cottage by painting their own homes, DIY shared by everyone, darning socks, 5 kids, mittens made from tops of wool socks, ashes on the sidewalk in winter, veggie gardens and the dog ate food scraps. Everybody learned to sew and cook at a young age. Nobody every went to a food back in my family.
I got a baptism of fire with frugality in the early 1990's when I became unemployed. I HAD to cut back. Thankfully I had three of my grandparents at the time and I learned a lot from them. I do most of these today. Maintaining a vegetable garden and a jam making station is off atm because I hold down a full time job but I am definitely going to do so when I retire. I have been frugal all my life and thanks to these 'Nan habits', I am going to have a prosperous retirement. Only one thing...the last one. There's something even better than living within one's means. It's called living BELOW them. We used to have a shop where you could buy ingredients, pulses, etc, by weight. I miss it. I used to shop there all the time.
I do the envelope saving now that we have gone back to using cash. My dad always told us children if we don't have the money in our back pocket we can't afford it. So far at the age of 58 we have never owed money.
I'm old fashioned, I still do most of this, I have a ward, he's autistic with other issues, I'm now teaching him although there is 33 years difference, I'm 61 soon, a very young lad, he copes so much better than relying on supermarkets, less distress and not so depressed, he's managing to save money too every months, he's lost weight, it seems to be building his confidence too as he is finding other ways to do things, save, re-use. He's even managed to do some sewing all by himself and save his favourite shirts and t- shirts. Cooking has been his major hurdle but he's doing much better. I can't get him to do batch cooking yet. Autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, emotional personality disorders, but what a change in a year! He compares me between his older neighbours and his gran 😂, laughs how every day he's going back in time😂.
I still live by these rules today. My mom has kept cashbooks for her entire married life and religiously notes down her pension, her bills and itemised grocery costs (she is 87). I have been incredibly skint in my life and I would visit mom once a week for dinner (invariably roast chicken) and I would be sent home with the carcass usually with enough meat for a sandwich and the rest would make soup. There is barely any food waste in my house because of the tips I picked up from my mom and grandma over the years. I have nothing against foodbanks but I have always felt proud to have kept away from them. I have a well stocked pantry and I batch cook for myself. I have a moneybox that I add to and empty it when I go on holiday for my spending money.
Clothing then was all made from natural fabrics, they lasted longer to start with and repaired well. At the end of the it life they could be down-downcycled , and then actually had a residual value to the rag and bone man. ( who came downe your street and actually bought clean rags and bones!) You can’t do that with modern synthetic clothing, most of which even with carful treatment has a very limited life.
I am 83 and the whole way of saving and managing money was totally normal, you saved up for anything big. I still feel anxious about going into debt, and if I have to use my credit card, pay it off well before interest can start being charged. Simpler way of living, those days were less stressful.
Growing up as a British born citizen. I remember we didn't have a colour TV, just a tiny b/w one my father had. I didn't have books or writing pencil. Back in 1980s. Poverty a family of 8. My mum managed however she can. I've been doing 28 things from the list without thinking it's a thing 😅 I don't like wastage either. I am blessed with whatever i have. To others, they look down on me, which i dont care about. I am living within my means and what God provided me.
I do a good lot of these tips today. However things were so different when I was a child. In the early 1960s my mum didn’t work and they bought a detached house. A man doing the same job as my dad did today couldn’t hope to have a family life like we did. However sensible or frugal people are, there still has to be sufficient income coming in.
Yes, it sadly means a system has been created whereby more of our money goes to the government and corporations - they like it when both parents have to work and we owe them money...they make interest out of us and ensure we have to rely on their 'convenience' food.
1957. Mum Worked 5 days a week, so we got egg or beans on toast. Sat was when she Baked Bread Pudding and Rock Cakes. Sunday was only day we had a meat and veg meal, with rice pudding after. First time we had full dinner on weekdays was 1963, when I got a job too.
I was bought up in the 50s & 60s so none of this is new to me, I still live as I was taught to live, dont waste anything, dont spend on things you do not need & if you cant afford i t wait until you have saved enough to buy it & ask yourself if you really need it.
Leftover pickle juice is basically vinegar so use that as homemade drain cleaner with baking soda and salt. Also, add 1-2 cups into a crockpot as seasoning for a pork roast, a quartered onion and pepper. No salt until the end as the juice is already salty.
I must thank my grandma, as I use old socks for dusters, old tee shirts for wash cloths, and old jars and bottles for storage for dry goods or oils. Thanks nan.x. Love my grandparents. ❤️❤️🙏
We used to wrap gifts in newspaper or paper grocery bags. People nowadays spend so much on non essentials or buy new rather than fix or mend. Save your money People, live like your poor and you'll find yourself with enough money to buy a house, retire etc...
No,this English. I was born in 1950 and this is exactly how we lived. However there were no supermarkets and yellow stickers back then as stated on this article.
Yes I agree before supermarkets you went to the local butcher greengrocer and hardware store Woolworths sold broken biscuits oh those were the days I still prefer butchers meat and before anybody says the local butcher is more expensive its a myth
@patgregory4320Ah, I remember when we'd get to a Woolworths, the broken biscuits and the pick n ' mix. Didn't have one near where I live in Ireland, but when we'd get to one, it was a treasure trove for a child. Remined of those times by another comment about the Green Shield stamps. While it was still a struggle for many back then, it was simpler.
I'm Dutch and my grandmother and mother taught me every tip in this video. I was working 60 hours a week but no excuse to make a budget - if I can make a budget for a company department I can definitely make one for myself 😁 and you know what - I have never had any debt in my life!
I'm 81 years old now, I remember Sunday mornings going into the garden with Dad to pick/dig up the food for the day.For example, potatoes,carrots,cabbage,peas for dinner, lettuce, tomatoes,celery, radish,spring onions for the teatime salad. Fruit to make a pie, soft berries to go in the trifle for tea. We always had a roast dinner on Sunday, the left over meat cold on Monday with mashed potatoes and home made pickles.The rest minced and made into cottage pie for Tuesday. When Mum boiled a gammon joint the flavouring veg, (onion,carrot,celery) saved and added to other veg to make soup. A cloth containing split peas was boiled in with the joint to make peas pudding.
I lol watching this. I do quite a lot on the list that I learned from my mum naturally growing up and never really though about it. It's common sense when you have limited funds.
My Nan did all of these things and it's something my Hubster and I have done all our married life and still do the same even now, although we have made one item non negotiable......Heinz beans! My children have been doing the same since they married and had children, their partners were confused as to why we do what we do, now they know why, they do the same.
What this overlooks is that many women of nams did not go out to work so bad time to do all this mending and recycling,shopping for bargains. I'm 74 and my mum worked making blouses from home for a local factory. She worked about a 55 hour week between taken and fetching us from school, shopping doing laundry meeting clothes ironing etc. If a friend decided to visit she could end up losing pay because her production dropped. She never had a day off as weekends she caught up with cleaning.
This was my mother! The envelopes and the little red tin for dividing up dad's Friday wage. She would give him back a token amount for his pipe backy and we would have a small sweet as a treat. She still managed nice Christmas presents and an expensive grammar school uniform (no choice only one outfitters) for me si I wasn't 'different' from the other girls. She died aged 96 and still kept to this. I'm 79 and tried to follow these habits (not 100% unfortunately 🤔 as my late husband believed in 'one pot and spend on nice things and I spent to allow this. Not good.). Different now I'm on my own and keep within my means. My daughter and husband both in their 50s, both having been destroyed by first marriage spenders, operate the 'modern version' of a spreadsheet system now and have managed to get their own house, have holidays and still spoil their 6 grandchildren.
Vinegar and salt made into a paste and scrubbed on a stain, don't rinse out but leave in the sun all day and many stains will disappear. Hydrogen peroxide will magically take away blood stains in an instant.
in large factories or big industrial locations the Union reps or someone else trustworthy ran 'Christmas Clubs' pennies per week, sometimes in conjunction with an outside professional company sometimes with a loose agreements between a group of local shopkeepers
I’m the youngest of seven, then went on to have four children I fed all six of us on £25 a week in the 80s my mother always told me to cut your cloth according to the width and luckily my children have followed my lead.
The problem with today is there are more household bills we didnt have council tax back then yes we had rates etc but we still pay water and electric on top. I live a very cheap life but still broke
Then the 1970s arrived, rent and mortgages soared and Nan went back to working outside the home. She heaved a sigh of relief at giving up all this tedious manual labour, bought the washing machine and central heating system she'd always wanted and enjoyed the company of the people she worked with - freedom!!!
10 years ago, my winter coat had missing and loose buttons; I still had the ones that had fallen off. I replaced them with a reinforcing sewing technique, and reinforced the buttons that had not fallen off. With regular wear in the winter, none of the buttons have become loose. Edit to add: this video shows the technique. ruclips.net/video/xNy9hLCl0NM/video.htmlsi=sk0i1BK2kcbR2Vsf
Agree with all of this.. I have a comfortable clean tidy home. Younger family members treat me like the "poor relation" but do not understand I have no debt and savings stashed. They might live with all new on credit, but are constantly worrying about juggling money just to survive!
It’s very hard today to use the envelope method when bills get paid by direct debit. You could go to an electricity shop and pay for your electric bill or pay for your gas by having a meter.
We didn’t have a tv until I was 11, we made our own villages from Lego and dad made us a huge blackboard painted base with corgi cars Mum worked in supermarket and tins with bashes or no label she could have for half price, I used to open a tin after school expecting tuna got pineapple
I am fortunate and do not have to watch every penny. I am frugal none the less. Shop bargains and arrange my meals around these bargains. Nothing is wasted. Good clothes become work clothes, old clothes that are still neat go to goodwill. Others get turned into rags for our warehouse. Always bring my water from home and treats if the trip is longer.
My dad had a set of coffee tins in his bedside cupboard. With labels written on sticking plaster. He divided his weekly pay packet up and saved for bills and the annual seaside holiday. Having an ice-cream every day on holiday was a real treat. And we got a half crown for holiday pocket money. I spent mine mostly on secondhand Girls Annuals. Still got them - the books date back to the 1930s.
Good afternoon from Connecticut, USA. I shop the managers specials at my local supermarket for meat/ dairy/ produce/ bakery items at reduced prices along with the clearance section for groceries. I'm having leftover pulled pork for dinner tonight as I always freeze any leftovers into individual meals as it's both a time and money saver. I regrow some of my veggie scraps such as lettuce, some fresh herbs, onions, celery and carrots. Less waste.
Isn't it sad that women today feel that they are wasted as stay at home wives and mothers? To be a career woman is fine, but if a woman chooses to stay home and care for a family, that woman needs to be an economist, a tailor, a carer, a driver, an educator, a nurse, a cleaner, a handyman/woman , a therapist etc. My mum had to work out of necessity, and there was nothing more miserable, for me, than coming home from school to an empty house. I promised myself that my children would come home to a warm home and dinner almost ready.
Great video, thanks! There is no need to ever waste bread, even if you don't make bread pudding, just pop it in the freezer before it gets mouldy and pull it out by the slice for toast. I have an allotment and share vegetables with the neighbours when we have too many, the one neighbour goes fishing and he gives us trout in return for the veg, another buys us wine at Christmas as a thank you, it's lovely!
We make French toast or bread & butter pudding, depending on how many eggs and milk we have. We also make breadcrumbs to coat fish when frying or to make a crisp topping for fish or other pies.
If we all followed these habits there would be less problems of recycling and eliminating waste. I must admit that over the years I do almost all the things on the list. I was brought up in the sixties I suppose this is why
I am a millennial, and I was looked after by my Nan while my mum went to work (she was still a good and hands on mum.) She taught me how to cook, bake, sew, darn, knit, and crochet. I now have a husband and 3 children of my own, I am a SAHM, and I homeschool. We own our 5 bed house and both of our cars (with no help from anyone.) We have zero debt on a single middle income (I have never owned a credit card/store card), and I do all but 2 of the things in this video. It really does help, and I owe most of it to my Nan (now in her 90s), who I am still very close with ❤
Fabrics today cannot be mended as they were 50 years ago. Finding wool and cotton is difficult, even in thrift stores. Synthetic fabrics can hardly be ironed, much less patched. About 30 washings is the life of today's garments. I've been sewing and mending most of my life. Can't darn modern socks; I've tried.
It’s not only nans that used to do that. I’m 46 and my mum also used to do most of these things. Plastic was very little used that time. We reused old clothes and made jams, pickles and other condiments from our garden harvest. I lived in Latvia, in capital city yet we didn’t depend only on store bought food. Recycling was the way of life. Milk and kefir were sold in glass bottles which were brought to recycling centres in exchange for some money. Any plastic bags were washed and reused. No plastic bin bags- instead we lined the bin with layers of newspaper and rubbish was tossed straight into rubbish containers. Was little bit more inconvenient maybe but so much better for the world and us.
I am 55, and since my 20's I strictly budget my income, I have always and still do to this day write everything in a paper page a day diary, I write incomings and outgoings to the penny. Instead of using envelopes I have a savings account (which pays good interest) and it allows you to open as many separate pots in that account as you like, so everything gets divided up, then I know what I am left with. I don't understand how some people just spend and spend without budgeting or writing anything down, it's just common sense right?
Cant pay Bill's with gas, no gas or electricity shops in high streets. Post offices closing down. No choice but to pay it through banks. Banks and companies have more control over our money than we realise. Walking into digital currency with blinkers on😢
Didn’t mention ripped up newspaper as toilet paper stuck on the nail on the door of the outside toilet. A lot of nans shopped in the reduced section because they didn’t have the money so they didn’t save anything but were able to afford things they wouldn’t at the beginning of the week.
4 shillings for a joint of beef in1956 is now £5.50 today. Nowhere can you get a joint of beef for that now. I bulk buy when prices are low.I have 3 freezers for that purpose and an outbuilding with shelving for tinned and dried goods. Darned socks feel horrible on the heel where the darn is. Vinegar is great as a cleaner if you don't mind your house smelling like a chip shop. I used to collect soap scraps in thin sponge fabric, sew it in a square and use it as a sponge. Got another month out of it.
Wish I had a garden to grow food in :( My late nan grew all sorts in her garden and I haven't had a gooseberry since she moved out of that house into supported accommodation. No room for herbs on the windowsill either in my teeny weeny kitchen. I repair my clothes, and buy well. Wish I could spend only £3 on replacements, because literally no clothes of worth are that low priced any more (and its getting harder and harder to buy worthy clothes these days).
I’m growing my own flowers and veg, I shop to a list, and have completely stopped buying clothes and shoes, I drive a small car, we burn collected cured logs in our wood burner, if we need furniture it’s purchased from a charity shop 90% of our furniture is second hand. With imagination you can really save money. My husband used to buy maybe three times a month Tandoori Chicken kebabs for £16 per kebab, I replicated the recipe, I can make four of them for approximately £6.50 but that is a treat. If we want a beer or glass of wine it’s purchased from the supermarket, we have no credit cards and I prefer to deal in cash because it’s too easy to just tap a card.
We live off grid now in Spain, we save rain water in barrels and use it to flush the toilet and wash the dishes in winter, no rain in summer, saves us 300 euros a year, water is so expensive, we forage when we can, husband has just managed to make a chicken coup out of some skipped pallets, so we'll have hens soon for our eggs, we've always used the envelope system, I make as much as I can, macrame fly curtains, plant pots, we buy from charity shops, so that's a win win, I use vinegar instead of fabric conditioner, not only does it soften clothes, it keeps the washing machine drawer clean and calcium free. We have all mod cons but are mindful of what time of day or how the batteries are doing so we don't need to put the generator on, vinegar again to clean glass and windows.
Quite an interesting trip down memory lane. The using of left over meat to make bolognese sauce, mentioned here, would have not happened in Britain until probably the 70s as it was mostly unheard of before that.
Well, take your nan go shopping for grocery and she might have a heart attack. Necessities used to be affordable, food, rent, utilities, education. MY parents didn’t have to pay for tuition fees and they’re gen Xers, not even Boomers. My generation went from 9k to 12k in a blink of an eye. No Nan wouldn’t be able to conjure her magic on today’s depravity. And don’t even tell nan we’re back to the 70s, with petrol and energy about to skyrocket.
The ONLY gripe I have with this information/framing: quoting the prices in the '50's, and using to cost of current habits in the current rates. Let's do both: Nan's costs and Nan's savings in Nan's times, and/or OUR costs and OUR savings in OUR times. IT WILL STILL BE SIGNIFICANT. Thank you for this video! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
I do most of these, learnt from my Mum. I do have a credit card which I pay back every month but I can still hear my Dads' voice saying' If you haven't got the cash then you can't afford it'. When I was in my teens in the '70s I desparately wanted a sewing machine to make my own clothes, my Mum was supportive as she said it would help with repairs. My Dad relented and said he would loan me the money and I could pay it back monthly. It took 18 months! As I made my last payment, my Mum said to let me off as I'd stuck to the agreement. My Dad said I had agreed the terms to pay the whole amount and I should be grateful he hadn't charged me interest! Home economics.😊
Ah, the good old days! My mum and grandma kept things simple. Every meal was home cooked. You went to the library for a book. We had three tv channels to choose from. I recently went to a thrift store and towards the back of the shop there were bookcases. There was a gap between the bookcases and all I saw was mountains of stuff, clothing, books, you name it that hadn't been sorted or put out on the floor yet. It really struck me how so much unnecessary purchases are wasted and maybe those same items are still being paid for on a credit card!
I was born in 1957 and my Mother was a great housekeeper. All meals were made from scratch and nothing was wasted. She applied the envelope system for all bills and my father was the only one with a bank account. Everything seemed simpler and happier as neighbours spoke frequently and helped out in any way. The world's system now is to try and get everyone in debt by having too many clothes and eating takeaways that are not good for your health. I thank my Mum for bringing me up the right way to appreciate everything you have right down to that last bit of soap. Thanks Mum
I remember turning the collars of my dad's shirts. I still use the envelope method of budgeting, bulk cook, use cheaper cuts of meat in a slow cooker, and grow my own veg. I begin to feel I was born out of time!
unfortunately my mother was hopeless at budgeting the money for food never lasted the week and we used to have credit at the corner shop, I'm the opposite I'm frugal not mean but 'save the pennies and the pounds look after themselves'
I do the soap thing! It's not dirty. Yesterday the soap was clean enough to use. Today it is just a bit smaller - that's all. I don't collect the scraps though. Just put my small piece I was using fine yesterday onto the top of my new piece - first bit to be used off the next bar.
It is how I have always lived my life. My grandmother taught me about charity shops and jumble sales. At sixteen when I first started working I bought a sewing machine to repair clothes. When I became a full- time working single mum after my marriage fell apart I could repair my son’s clothes. A grew vegetables in the garden to help spread the food bill and made my own bread things my grandmother and mother taught me. Even now I still shop in charity shops and use Facebook marketplace and car boot sales. There is far too much waste in Britain.
I have used the envelope system for years. The yearly bills I divide by 12 and every month put that amount in the marked envelope. It is really a way to not get lost or sidetracked by bills and always have it when you need it. Even my post office box fee and car registration are saved by the month. With the strait of hormuz problem, I decided to fill the propane tank early, not wait till fall, and the money was there since I saved since last October when tank was filled. Nice feeling.
100% about the shoes. I always had the cheapest shoes as a kid and they each lasted 4-6 months, then 5 years ago I actually spent about 10x more (150€) on a pair of hiking runners and I still wear them every day ever since.
The garment industry thwarted thrifty nans - collars and cuffs are one sided now, can’t be turned, and modern clothing is made from fabric so flimsy that it tears away around the mend, even expensive shoes are cheaply made from substandard materials. These days a newspaper costs more than paper towels. I collect soap scraps and dissolve them in water over a low heat, then add more cool water to make liquid handsoap. Bring-your-own-container stores are the most expensive way to buy pantry staples now, because it’s eco-trendy I guess 🤷🏻♀️ I still only heat the sitting room. Showering when it’s-5c is invigorating and prevents bathroom queues 😄 I’ve never owned a credit card - never needed one.
I do most of these already. I have no credit cards, no debt. I have not bought washing powder or kitchen/bathroom cleaners for 30 yrs; one of my children was allergic to them so I began using vinegar. I’ve always made jam & pickles, often from home grown & veg. During the pandemic I sorted all my shoes & clothes; I’m now in the process of ‘wearing them out’ before I buy anything new.
I react to vinegar, is there anything else I could use? I have a debit card that can be used like a credit card only with my money. I spent more during the pandemic to help small businesses and made sure I thanked the workers. Mind you I got more work then too.
Like you, I do many of these things already. I make my laundry liquid with the small slivers of soap left from non-chemical bars, mixed with washing soda and hot water. Thin it down with more water and it makes up to 5 litres for pennies. As for the cash systems and change pot, which I also do, this is getting harder and harder as they want us to use digital currency and so are closing banks and cash points on the high streets. Having cash will soon be a thing of the past
@dilly239I take out most of my pension and pay cash. I have been saving money for some reason. No one has turned me away so far, but I haven't gone into the city centre yet.
@iriswaterford2685 try bicarbonate of soda? I love it. As well as useful in baking, sprinkle some in sinks, bath, surfaces even carpets, it deodourizes and cleans and breaks down dirt. (leave on carpets overnight if poss then vacuum up). For everything else, use warm water with it and maybe a squirt of washing up liquid and Bob's your uncle. For unblocking drains, use its cousin, the more caustic washing soda (which can also be used to wash clothes in place of laundry powder) and tip a mug full down the plughole with about 3 kettle fulls of boiling water. I type from experience!
@dilly239 it is necessary that we all use cash when we can to slow down the process of digitalisation. With cash there is no spending trace or data and it is the data and control they want as well as THEIR convenience and profit-making.
The difference is that women were valued homemakers. One wage kept the family.
I ran our single income family. I always considered it my job. An important job.
The corporations worked with governments to create a system where both parents had to work and there was little time to run a tight ship in the household and feed a family healthily from scratch. That way, the money went to the corporations and government instead as supermarkets and convenience became a necessity.
It is impossible to do this today, people want their avocado toasts and branded cups of nonsense coffee and eat out and throw books and clothes away. The moment the new collections hit the shops, people run to buy the new trends. They will never realize that while they’re taking the plastic bracelets and earrings, they are triggering themselves to never save enough to buy real jewellery or a silk scarf.
My mother had to work
So true,they appreciated everything
"What's for dinner?" Started with "what needs eating up?" and NOT "what do I fancy?".
Yes, and nobody asked the kids what they wanted. You got what you were given.
Exactly. 👍🏼
@bethel1019DOUBLE exactly!! 🤣😆😂👍🏼
Right?! We had two choices for dinner; take it, or leave it!
@esthahyahgeh6533yup. I still do that today. What is oldest, what goes together to use this or that up, add some spices or condiments, and that's dinner. I also have "clean out the fridge Friday" so stuff doesn't get overlooked or wasted. If it makes soup, great. If it makes salad, fine. If it makes stir fry, ok. I make a conscious effort to avoid wasting food money.
Is it me or were they happier times. As a child we lived like this and things seemed so much calmer simpler and happier
I think it is because ppl had purpose and had to work together so built community and eveyone had to have skills to survive. There was no room for self entitled pre-madonna types.
@carolineowen7846 IMO, It was simpler times. Banks were 10am to 3pm, no weekends, no 24/7 banking. News wasn’t 24/7, it was at 6 or 11pm. A limited number of tv channels. Every brand of toothpaste, etc. didn’t have 5 different iterations to choose from. With online, everything now never shuts down and is a constant cacophany. It makes everything alot more exhausting and stressed.
@carolineowen7846 I mean it's also because when you're a kid, unless your parents are shit at their job, your life *is* simple and calm and relatively happy, because you're a child. You're largely ignorant to the bad shit in the world, you don't have adult experiences or responsibilities, and your brain is *literally* simpler. Everyone feels that way, in 20 years gen alpha's gonna feel that way too.
@SooV-b6fabsolutely
A lot of people say that-life felt slower and more simple back then 🙂
Do you think it was actually better, or just different because we were younger?
I grew up in the 70s in England and this is exactly how my life was. I still do all of these and my boys all know how to be thrifty too…..and can all cook!
Nan didn't buy on credit because women were not allowed to have credit cards back then.
Every Friday evening, my Grandad would hand over his wage packet to my Nana, and she would divide the money as necessary. First off, she handed him his 'baccy money for his pipe. That was usually the only concession. Then, she would put the necessary amount in little pots in various places around the house...so much for the rent, so much for electricity, so much for housekeeping, etc. It worked well, but the trouble was that burglars were wise to this common system, and they once had most of the money stolen from her little hoards when their house was broken into while they slept. They acquired a dog. It never happened again, and in the end their little spaniel was a godsend for another reason: it sensed when my Grandad went blind, and without any training at all, would keep him right when they went for walks.
That paints such a clear picture of how things were managed back then-everything had its place 💰
Do you think that kind of system would still work today?
THATS SO HORRIBLE TO HAVE GONE THROUGH THE BREAK IN...THE SPANIELBWAS A GODSEND TO THEM...THE OLD DAYS HOW PEOPLE LIVED WERE THE BEST.. NO MOBILES AND INTERNET...HEAVEN
PEOPLE COULDNT COPE TODAY WITH HOW WE LIVED YEARS AGO 😅😂😅😂😅😂
BECKY 🇬🇧
I grew up with all these things in my life as it was the normal way, today at 80yrs old I still live by these rules and have passed many onto my children and grandchildren. Living my life this way has given me the knowledge of how to cope with every situation and survive intact. I live a basic life now, light breakfast plus still cook a hot meal at lunch time and having a snack or sandwich for tea or supper each day. No clutter or extra cleaning for me. Back to basics, make do and mend.
Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.
EXACTLY ❤
BECKY 🇬🇧
“Make do & Mend”…. most of us had to do that…🇨🇦✝️🇬🇧
@mreale2811TOTALLY
BECKY
That saying really sums it all up perfectly 👏
Do you think people today would be able to live by that mindset?
@BritishNostalgia1they’re not of that mindset because it’s skipped 2 generations so they don’t know how.
And this generation complain that we don't recycle.its all we ever knew
Industry has introduced so much plastic, tetrapacs, mylar, synthetics into civilization that recycling has to be top of mind. Being conscientious about recycling isn't complaining. It is necessary.
Exactly right!
That’s true-reusing and making do was just part of everyday life back then ♻
Do you think people today are starting to move back in that direction, or not really?
If people are recycling (rather than reusing) it's because councils are providing more collection services because landfill sites are full, incinerators are nearing capacity and disposal costs are therefore rising. Central government has painfully slowly backed this by obliging the local authorities to collect 6 'core materials' for recycling by next Tuesday - this becomes mandatory by 31.3.26
@daniellecomeau2996But recycling doesn't cut waste, or help the planet. Used materials still have to be collected in 20 ton trucks, driven to distant facilities and reprocessed using yet more energy. So recycling just delays the evil moment when material degrades to the point where it has to be burned or buried. Nan didn't recycle, she reduced or reused because she didn't buy things she couldn't afford or which hadn't hit the market in her day, like single-use products. But it's getting off oil that will help the planet, not reusing milk bottles, worthy as that may be! (I do that for old time's sake but it's expensive and I doubt it wins over plastic bottles which are recyclednon and economic scale in Essex).
You didn’t take milk bottles back to the milkman, he picked up the empties
Excellent disipline. I still practise most of these things. Today's society is so wasteful.
I totally agree, I still make a lot of the meals my Mum used to make in the 50’s too.
I hate throwing things away, to save money and the planet. That can be a different problem though because I don't want to part with things when I should.
There really was a different level of discipline back then-people made the most of everything 👀
Do you think that mindset is something we could realistically bring back today?
I think that until we ban adverts and influencers we have no hope of reclaiming the sanity of this system. (Banishing the Oligarchs would certainly help!) I'm 72, and in the US (which country I believe is almost exclusively responsible for the shift). My parents married at the height of the Great Depression in 1937. My mother did all of these things. I was her fifth child (of six). My friend's parents were closer in age to my oldest sibling. So my friends were pampered and taught to indulge themselves, because THEIR parents declared "my child will never suffer the way I did!" I never thought I was suffering! I still have a Christmas Jar. And I pay cash. Thank you, Mom.
No, we can't bring it back because women have experienced a life unhampered by this kind of domestic drudgery. If people want to darn socks or make jam nowadays, it's a choice, not a necessity. The 70s brought a big economic change for the 'Nan' referred to here of the 50s, the Silent Generation who'd soldiered on during the Second World War. Once Mum discovered darning wool cost £1 a card, nearly the same as a new pair of socks, Mum stopped darning! Mum and Dad used to work as a team each autumn over a couple of days to make a batch of homemade marmalade. I found this rather charming. Then it stopped. I mentioned it to Dad and he said 'Oh, that was such a chore'! They'd probably done it because their parents had, but was a slog after a day's work and didn't save any money over shop-bought marmalade.
My lovely Nan and Great Auntie would use the mending basket scraps and make clothes for my dolly. Fully kitted she was. Winter clothes summer clothes. They taught me to sew. Old bedsheets became tea towels, my grandad’s old PJs were polishing cloths and rags for my ringlets. Same with Mum and Dad but Nanny and Auntie made the dolls clothes. They had retired and my parents were working every hour God sent so they minded me every day until I was old enough for school and then after school when I started. We are poor but never knew it but absolutely minted with love and now the memories. Only 3 minutes in and I’m beaming with joy ❤️🐾Now I finished it I’m remembering the Green Shield stamps tin, washing up water over the garden to stop the greenfly and the rest, and too much else to write just now but thank you for this, I’m smiling like an idiot and really enjoyed my quick sit down ❤️🐾
My mum made me a dressing gown out of fuzzy fabric trimmed in blue, and with the scraps she made our JRT a coat with her name spelled out in the blue trim. Some months later, the last of the fabric was used to make my brother a Fred Flintstone outfit. We dog was most put out, she thought he had her coat on and kept pulling at it 😂
Oh my goodness, Green Shield stamps!! Coming home from my Nan's shops, sticking them in the books, and then going through the catalogue to see what she could get. Wow! That brings back so many memories ❤
Green Shield stamps!! One Christmas my friend and I worked in the local shop. It was packed every day with people exchanging them for Christmas presents.
What a wonderful account of your life. Lovely memories. I remember the green shield stamps too. I grew up London …I was born in the 60s. You should write a book. A wonderful history lesson of what it was really like back in the day. ❤
My hubby got some old China off the loft that hadn't seen the light of day for 25 years. One picture was of my Nan at our wedding 39 years ago wearing a hat that she made from a cushion! We were both smiling reminiscing the things she used to do & say.
We had to cut buttons off dresses, cardigans etc and very zip got taken off trouser and jackets and saved in a tin to be used later
Yes, I still have a big collection
Problem is that most adults and teens do not know how to do basic hand sewing or use a sewing machine.
I have the tins with buttons and zip from my late mum.
Buttons are so expensive.
I was 10 yrs old before electricity was brought to our home and it was another 12 years before running water. My mum raised 7 children in these conditions. No bathroom or inside toilet. No sink in the kitchen, everything was done on the kitchen table. Two trout caught from the local river made a meal for us all. I'd like to know how often Mum didn't eat a proper meal to make sure her brood were fed.
Mums, the backbone of Britain.
What did your dad do?
probably many times poor soul but loved her kids,
What an amazing Mother. Women used to die in their 60's due to exhaustion. My Great Aunts and Grannies lived on Sheep station in New South Wales. Others before were in Wales and Sweden/ Denmark.
Wonderful mum.
They used to teach, Home Economics, in schools back then. It wasn't just cooking classes. It was also nutrition, sewing, house keeping (basic health and hygiene for the home and family) how to balance a ledger for the bills etc. We've lost so much. Housewives were valued now these days mocked.
Just curious does anyone else still open the windows of their house in the morning to let the bad air out and the fresh in?
That's an old health and hygiene tip from the past.
I was only recently telling my granddaughter about our home economics classes in the 1970's. Ours had a little flat as well as the 6 kitchen cubicles, and we were taught how to make beds, clean bathrooms, dust and Hoover etc, boys as well. We were also taught how to iron clothes and manage a budget. So much of the old teaching ways have gone and with mums mostly having to work outside the home nowadays, the kids don't learn these basic life skills. I also did an afterschool Mother craft course when I was about 14, learnt all about baby care, and when I had my first child the visiting nurse commented that I was very confident handling my baby and I told her it was because I had been taught how to do it at school, she was impressed!
I graduated in 1993, and in Jr high they offered a home economics class like that.
I do open all my windows in the morning. Attended an academy so no useful lessons like home economics. Learned all the ‘tricks of the trade’ from my Gradma and Mum. I can cook but can’t sew very well. My friend who did Home Economics at school is a beautiful seamstress and knitter but can’t cook so we help each other out. Isn’t that how it should be? Helping each other is going to become even more important in the near future. Get to know your neighbours if only to exchange a ‘good morning with a smile’. Lots of people are lonely these days.
I open all the windows in the morning.
Yeah i do
We have been "seduced" with lifestyle illusion.
Its been an utter Scam!
I sincerely think you are right! We fall into the “we need these things” trap, bits and pieces, collecting and storing, but, the more you “collect” or have the more problems those things bring! You got to have a place for the things, you might need to “upkeep” the things, you waste money on the things, then you don’t have money for what you really NEED, it goes on and on and on!
@suecoelho467 So do we actually need most of this stuff, or are we just trapped in buying things we don’t really need?
We don't need it, but we have free will not to buy it. Poor Nan had no choice but to lug coal, wash up with ineffective soda crystals, spend her evenings darning socks etc. Once most Nans had the choice you wouldn't see those so-called 'rules' (devised by Nan's Nan to make the slog seem noble and tolerable) for dust!
Learn to cook at home and use those leftovers. Learn the difference between wants and needs.
Envelope system
I am extremely frugal...however meat prices are way too expensive today...wool socks are too expensive to buy...don't have enough money to buy in bulk...live on beans potatoes eggs...no money for extras...happy to have what I have...blessed
Maybe learn to knit, some yarn brands like 'drops' are VERY reasonably priced. Can you grow some food as well? Or plant a fruit tree somewhere 'en-route' ?
Charity shop sometimes sell wool socks that haven't been used.
It is an evil thing they have done - putting the price up of natural things like wool and mutton (yet the retailers pay the farmer a pittance until they have to shut down the farm) that used to be cheap, and making the unhealthy stuff cheap.
@BirdsAloudmost farmers butcher and sell their own locally, now
I've gone to a charity sho before and buy a cardigan or scarf really cheap, then undo the whole thing and make your own clothing, like socks for example. With £2 you may be able to make 2-4 pairs of socks (cotton or acrylic depending on season too) lasting for years.
Great show. I am 84, we lived in North Toronto next to grandparents and aunts and uncles. Everybody did down preserves in the fall together. My dad was a milk man after the war, then got a good job as a journeyman pressman. Nothing was wasted. My grandmother was from Stratford on Avon, so brought her British thrift habits with her. We always had stew on the back of the stove, a roast on Sunday used up during the week. Dad took sardines and a thermos of coffee to work on public transit. They bought several homes and a cottage by painting their own homes, DIY shared by everyone, darning socks, 5 kids, mittens made from tops of wool socks, ashes on the sidewalk in winter, veggie gardens and the dog ate food scraps. Everybody learned to sew and cook at a young age. Nobody every went to a food back in my family.
I got a baptism of fire with frugality in the early 1990's when I became unemployed. I HAD to cut back. Thankfully I had three of my grandparents at the time and I learned a lot from them. I do most of these today. Maintaining a vegetable garden and a jam making station is off atm because I hold down a full time job but I am definitely going to do so when I retire. I have been frugal all my life and thanks to these 'Nan habits', I am going to have a prosperous retirement.
Only one thing...the last one. There's something even better than living within one's means. It's called living BELOW them.
We used to have a shop where you could buy ingredients, pulses, etc, by weight. I miss it. I used to shop there all the time.
I’m 76 years old and still do most of these things, and I have never had any debt, they definitely save you money and well worth doing,
The best gift was Mum's heel so I could mend socks. Three males ruined their socks weekly, thankfully yarn that was close in colour was good enough. 😊
I do the envelope saving now that we have gone back to using cash. My dad always told us children if we don't have the money in our back pocket we can't afford it. So far at the age of 58 we have never owed money.
Great way to control spending n budget. Plus no worries of fraud/ theft through tech.
My dad said the same thing, and I’ve never been in debt, just learned to wait and save
Yes, you’re right, it’s the best system.
I’m trying to pass this down to the next generation - this cashless society is so dangerous
I'm old fashioned, I still do most of this, I have a ward, he's autistic with other issues, I'm now teaching him although there is 33 years difference, I'm 61 soon, a very young lad, he copes so much better than relying on supermarkets, less distress and not so depressed, he's managing to save money too every months, he's lost weight, it seems to be building his confidence too as he is finding other ways to do things, save, re-use. He's even managed to do some sewing all by himself and save his favourite shirts and t- shirts. Cooking has been his major hurdle but he's doing much better. I can't get him to do batch cooking yet. Autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, emotional personality disorders, but what a change in a year! He compares me between his older neighbours and his gran 😂, laughs how every day he's going back in time😂.
I still live by these rules today. My mom has kept cashbooks for her entire married life and religiously notes down her pension, her bills and itemised grocery costs (she is 87). I have been incredibly skint in my life and I would visit mom once a week for dinner (invariably roast chicken) and I would be sent home with the carcass usually with enough meat for a sandwich and the rest would make soup. There is barely any food waste in my house because of the tips I picked up from my mom and grandma over the years. I have nothing against foodbanks but I have always felt proud to have kept away from them. I have a well stocked pantry and I batch cook for myself.
I have a moneybox that I add to and empty it when I go on holiday for my spending money.
Clothing then was all made from natural fabrics, they lasted longer to start with and repaired well. At the end of the it life they could be down-downcycled , and then actually had a residual value to the rag and bone man. ( who came downe your street and actually bought clean rags and bones!)
You can’t do that with modern synthetic clothing, most of which even with carful treatment has a very limited life.
I am 83 and the whole way of saving and managing money was totally normal, you saved up for anything big. I still feel anxious about going into debt, and if I have to use my credit card, pay it off well before interest can start being charged. Simpler way of living, those days were less stressful.
Bag of broken biscuits from Woolworths. Had a tin with slots labelled electricity, gas, clothes, etc.
My Mum had one of those tins. With a little key to lock it up safely !
Growing up as a British born citizen. I remember we didn't have a colour TV, just a tiny b/w one my father had. I didn't have books or writing pencil. Back in 1980s. Poverty a family of 8. My mum managed however she can. I've been doing 28 things from the list without thinking it's a thing 😅 I don't like wastage either. I am blessed with whatever i have. To others, they look down on me, which i dont care about. I am living within my means and what God provided me.
I do a good lot of these tips today. However things were so different when I was a child. In the early 1960s my mum didn’t work and they bought a detached house. A man doing the same job as my dad did today couldn’t hope to have a family life like we did. However sensible or frugal people are, there still has to be sufficient income coming in.
Yes, it sadly means a system has been created whereby more of our money goes to the government and corporations - they like it when both parents have to work and we owe them money...they make interest out of us and ensure we have to rely on their 'convenience' food.
1957. Mum Worked 5 days a week, so we got egg or beans on toast.
Sat was when she Baked Bread Pudding and Rock Cakes. Sunday was only day we had a meat and veg meal, with rice pudding after.
First time we had full dinner on weekdays was 1963, when I got a job too.
I was bought up in the 50s & 60s so none of this is new to me, I still live as I was taught to live, dont waste anything, dont spend on things you do not need & if you cant afford i t wait until you have saved enough to buy it & ask yourself if you really need it.
That poor horse with the coal cart, I bet it never saw a green field in its life.
i remember bartering dad grew strawberries the next door neighbour had tomatoes
Leftover pickle juice is basically vinegar so use that as homemade drain cleaner with baking soda and salt. Also, add 1-2 cups into a crockpot as seasoning for a pork roast, a quartered onion and pepper. No salt until the end as the juice is already salty.
I must thank my grandma, as I use old socks for dusters, old tee shirts for wash cloths, and old jars and bottles for storage for dry goods or oils. Thanks nan.x. Love my grandparents. ❤️❤️🙏
Strips of old tee-shirts can be woven into rugs, trivets, place mats etc too.
We used to wrap gifts in newspaper or paper grocery bags. People nowadays spend so much on non essentials or buy new rather than fix or mend. Save your money People, live like your poor and you'll find yourself with enough money to buy a house, retire etc...
I wrap all my gifts in pillow cases and then keep them for next year!!
My favorite Christmas presents were wrapped in the Sunday comics. By the time Christmas morning came around, the comics were “new” again.
No,this English. I was born in 1950 and this is exactly how we lived. However there were no supermarkets and yellow stickers back then as stated on this article.
Yes I agree before supermarkets you went to the local butcher greengrocer and hardware store Woolworths sold broken biscuits oh those were the days I still prefer butchers meat and before anybody says the local butcher is more expensive its a myth
@patgregory4320Ah, I remember when we'd get to a Woolworths, the broken biscuits and the pick n ' mix. Didn't have one near where I live in Ireland, but when we'd get to one, it was a treasure trove for a child. Remined of those times by another comment about the Green Shield stamps. While it was still a struggle for many back then, it was simpler.
I'm Dutch and my grandmother and mother taught me every tip in this video.
I was working 60 hours a week but no excuse to make a budget - if I can make a budget for a company department I can definitely make one for myself 😁 and you know what - I have never had any debt in my life!
I'm 81 years old now, I remember Sunday mornings going into the garden with Dad to pick/dig up the food for the day.For example, potatoes,carrots,cabbage,peas for dinner, lettuce, tomatoes,celery, radish,spring onions for the teatime salad. Fruit to make a pie, soft berries to go in the trifle for tea. We always had a roast dinner on Sunday, the left over meat cold on Monday with mashed potatoes and home made pickles.The rest minced and made into cottage pie for Tuesday. When Mum boiled a gammon joint the flavouring veg, (onion,carrot,celery) saved and added to other veg to make soup. A cloth containing split peas was boiled in with the joint to make peas pudding.
I lol watching this. I do quite a lot on the list that I learned from my mum naturally growing up and never really though about it. It's common sense when you have limited funds.
My Nan did all of these things and it's something my Hubster and I have done all our married life and still do the same even now, although we have made one item non negotiable......Heinz beans! My children have been doing the same since they married and had children, their partners were confused as to why we do what we do, now they know why, they do the same.
I agree with you on this bar one thing Heinz beans are no longer what they used to be I prefer Branston or cheaper makes and just add brown sauce
Nan worked full time at home and Pap's income was sufficient to raise a family.
What this overlooks is that many women of nams did not go out to work so bad time to do all this mending and recycling,shopping for bargains. I'm 74 and my mum worked making blouses from home for a local factory. She worked about a 55 hour week between taken and fetching us from school, shopping doing laundry meeting clothes ironing etc. If a friend decided to visit she could end up losing pay because her production dropped. She never had a day off as weekends she caught up with cleaning.
Wonderful woman.
This was my mother! The envelopes and the little red tin for dividing up dad's Friday wage. She would give him back a token amount for his pipe backy and we would have a small sweet as a treat. She still managed nice Christmas presents and an expensive grammar school uniform (no choice only one outfitters) for me si I wasn't 'different' from the other girls. She died aged 96 and still kept to this. I'm 79 and tried to follow these habits (not 100% unfortunately 🤔 as my late husband believed in 'one pot and spend on nice things and I spent to allow this. Not good.). Different now I'm on my own and keep within my means.
My daughter and husband both in their 50s, both having been destroyed by first marriage spenders, operate the 'modern version' of a spreadsheet system now and have managed to get their own house, have holidays and still spoil their 6 grandchildren.
Vinegar and salt made into a paste and scrubbed on a stain, don't rinse out but leave in the sun all day and many stains will disappear. Hydrogen peroxide will magically take away blood stains in an instant.
The only thing your Nan had that many nowadays don’t ….. time. Her job was running the home and she was proud to do it.
in large factories or big industrial locations the Union reps or someone else trustworthy ran 'Christmas Clubs' pennies per week, sometimes in conjunction with an outside professional company sometimes with a loose agreements between a group of local shopkeepers
I’m the youngest of seven, then went on to have four children I fed all six of us on £25 a week in the 80s my mother always told me to cut your cloth according to the width and luckily my children have followed my lead.
Shopping was done daily not weekly as few had fridges.
The problem with today is there are more household bills we didnt have council tax back then yes we had rates etc but we still pay water and electric on top. I live a very cheap life but still broke
Then the 1970s arrived, rent and mortgages soared and Nan went back to working outside the home. She heaved a sigh of relief at giving up all this tedious manual labour, bought the washing machine and central heating system she'd always wanted and enjoyed the company of the people she worked with - freedom!!!
This is how I was brought up and how I still live😂😂😂
10 years ago, my winter coat had missing and loose buttons; I still had the ones that had fallen off. I replaced them with a reinforcing sewing technique, and reinforced the buttons that had not fallen off. With regular wear in the winter, none of the buttons have become loose.
Edit to add: this video shows the technique. ruclips.net/video/xNy9hLCl0NM/video.htmlsi=sk0i1BK2kcbR2Vsf
Agree with all of this.. I have a comfortable clean tidy home. Younger family members treat me like the "poor relation" but do not understand I have no debt and savings stashed. They might live with all new on credit, but are constantly worrying about juggling money just to survive!
It’s very hard today to use the envelope method when bills get paid by direct debit. You could go to an electricity shop and pay for your electric bill or pay for your gas by having a meter.
We didn’t have a tv until I was 11, we made our own villages from Lego and dad made us a huge blackboard painted base with corgi cars
Mum worked in supermarket and tins with bashes or no label she could have for half price, I used to open a tin after school expecting tuna got pineapple
I remember this and still do a lot of it, but I think that these habits came mainly out of wartime rationing, when people had no choice.
I am fortunate and do not have to watch every penny. I am frugal none the less. Shop bargains and arrange my meals around these bargains. Nothing is wasted. Good clothes become work clothes, old clothes that are still neat go to goodwill. Others get turned into rags for our warehouse. Always bring my water from home and treats if the trip is longer.
Where can you find a cobbler these days.
Timpsons!
This makes my soul feel calm. I think all the 'stuff' and having to buy this and that leads to massive anxiety problems
My dad had a set of coffee tins in his bedside cupboard. With labels written on sticking plaster. He divided his weekly pay packet up and saved for bills and the annual seaside holiday. Having an ice-cream every day on holiday was a real treat. And we got a half crown for holiday pocket money. I spent mine mostly on secondhand Girls Annuals. Still got them - the books date back to the 1930s.
We have always lived within our means. No debt apart from mortgage. Married 1972. Still use most if these habits. Grandparents died 1980.
Good afternoon from Connecticut, USA. I shop the managers specials at my local supermarket for meat/ dairy/ produce/ bakery items at reduced prices along with the clearance section for groceries. I'm having leftover pulled pork for dinner tonight as I always freeze any leftovers into individual meals as it's both a time and money saver. I regrow some of my veggie scraps such as lettuce, some fresh herbs, onions, celery and carrots. Less waste.
I do the same.
Isn't it sad that women today feel that they are wasted as stay at home wives and mothers? To be a career woman is fine, but if a woman chooses to stay home and care for a family, that woman needs to be an economist, a tailor, a carer, a driver, an educator, a nurse, a cleaner, a handyman/woman , a therapist etc. My mum had to work out of necessity, and there was nothing more miserable, for me, than coming home from school to an empty house. I promised myself that my children would come home to a warm home and dinner almost ready.
Great video, thanks! There is no need to ever waste bread, even if you don't make bread pudding, just pop it in the freezer before it gets mouldy and pull it out by the slice for toast. I have an allotment and share vegetables with the neighbours when we have too many, the one neighbour goes fishing and he gives us trout in return for the veg, another buys us wine at Christmas as a thank you, it's lovely!
We make French toast or bread & butter pudding, depending on how many eggs and milk we have. We also make breadcrumbs to coat fish when frying or to make a crisp topping for fish or other pies.
If we all followed these habits there would be less problems of recycling and eliminating waste. I must admit that over the years I do almost all the things on the list. I was brought up in the sixties I suppose this is why
I am a millennial, and I was looked after by my Nan while my mum went to work (she was still a good and hands on mum.) She taught me how to cook, bake, sew, darn, knit, and crochet. I now have a husband and 3 children of my own, I am a SAHM, and I homeschool. We own our 5 bed house and both of our cars (with no help from anyone.) We have zero debt on a single middle income (I have never owned a credit card/store card), and I do all but 2 of the things in this video. It really does help, and I owe most of it to my Nan (now in her 90s), who I am still very close with ❤
Fabrics today cannot be mended as they were 50 years ago. Finding wool and cotton is difficult, even in thrift stores. Synthetic fabrics can hardly be ironed, much less patched. About 30 washings is the life of today's garments. I've been sewing and mending most of my life. Can't darn modern socks; I've tried.
It’s not only nans that used to do that. I’m 46 and my mum also used to do most of these things. Plastic was very little used that time. We reused old clothes and made jams, pickles and other condiments from our garden harvest. I lived in Latvia, in capital city yet we didn’t depend only on store bought food. Recycling was the way of life. Milk and kefir were sold in glass bottles which were brought to recycling centres in exchange for some money. Any plastic bags were washed and reused. No plastic bin bags- instead we lined the bin with layers of newspaper and rubbish was tossed straight into rubbish containers. Was little bit more inconvenient maybe but so much better for the world and us.
I am 55, and since my 20's I strictly budget my income, I have always and still do to this day write everything in a paper page a day diary, I write incomings and outgoings to the penny. Instead of using envelopes I have a savings account (which pays good interest) and it allows you to open as many separate pots in that account as you like, so everything gets divided up, then I know what I am left with. I don't understand how some people just spend and spend without budgeting or writing anything down, it's just common sense right?
Cant pay Bill's with gas, no gas or electricity shops in high streets. Post offices closing down. No choice but to pay it through banks. Banks and companies have more control over our money than we realise.
Walking into digital currency with blinkers on😢
Cash is still king for me. ‘use it or lose it. ‘
Didn’t mention ripped up newspaper as toilet paper stuck on the nail on the door of the outside toilet. A lot of nans shopped in the reduced section because they didn’t have the money so they didn’t save anything but were able to afford things they wouldn’t at the beginning of the week.
4 shillings for a joint of beef in1956 is now £5.50 today. Nowhere can you get a joint of beef for that now. I bulk buy when prices are low.I have 3 freezers for that purpose and an outbuilding with shelving for tinned and dried goods. Darned socks feel horrible on the heel where the darn is. Vinegar is great as a cleaner if you don't mind your house smelling like a chip shop. I used to collect soap scraps in thin sponge fabric, sew it in a square and use it as a sponge. Got another month out of it.
You’re earning a lot more now!!
Your lucky to get beef for thirty quid that’s edible
The smell of vinegar dissapates almost immediately. No need to scare people like that.
Wish I had a garden to grow food in :( My late nan grew all sorts in her garden and I haven't had a gooseberry since she moved out of that house into supported accommodation. No room for herbs on the windowsill either in my teeny weeny kitchen.
I repair my clothes, and buy well. Wish I could spend only £3 on replacements, because literally no clothes of worth are that low priced any more (and its getting harder and harder to buy worthy clothes these days).
I’m growing my own flowers and veg, I shop to a list, and have completely stopped buying clothes and shoes, I drive a small car, we burn collected cured logs in our wood burner, if we need furniture it’s purchased from a charity shop 90% of our furniture is second hand. With imagination you can really save money. My husband used to buy maybe three times a month Tandoori Chicken kebabs for £16 per kebab, I replicated the recipe, I can make four of them for approximately £6.50 but that is a treat. If we want a beer or glass of wine it’s purchased from the supermarket, we have no credit cards and I prefer to deal in cash because it’s too easy to just tap a card.
Thanks! For sharing the Useful saving money tips. 😊🤗❤
We live off grid now in Spain, we save rain water in barrels and use it to flush the toilet and wash the dishes in winter, no rain in summer, saves us 300 euros a year, water is so expensive, we forage when we can, husband has just managed to make a chicken coup out of some skipped pallets, so we'll have hens soon for our eggs, we've always used the envelope system, I make as much as I can, macrame fly curtains, plant pots, we buy from charity shops, so that's a win win, I use vinegar instead of fabric conditioner, not only does it soften clothes, it keeps the washing machine drawer clean and calcium free. We have all mod cons but are mindful of what time of day or how the batteries are doing so we don't need to put the generator on, vinegar again to clean glass and windows.
I’m 66 and live this way and taught my daughters to also. A roof over your head and bread and jam in the belly is all you need
Quite an interesting trip down memory lane. The using of left over meat to make bolognese sauce, mentioned here, would have not happened in Britain until probably the 70s as it was mostly unheard of before that.
Well, take your nan go shopping for grocery and she might have a heart attack. Necessities used to be affordable, food, rent, utilities, education. MY parents didn’t have to pay for tuition fees and they’re gen Xers, not even Boomers. My generation went from 9k to 12k in a blink of an eye. No Nan wouldn’t be able to conjure her magic on today’s depravity.
And don’t even tell nan we’re back to the 70s, with petrol and energy about to skyrocket.
Taxed into poverty
🤺💐
The ONLY gripe I have with this information/framing: quoting the prices in the '50's, and using to cost of current habits in the current rates. Let's do both: Nan's costs and Nan's savings in Nan's times, and/or OUR costs and OUR savings in OUR times. IT WILL STILL BE SIGNIFICANT.
Thank you for this video! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
I do most of these, learnt from my Mum. I do have a credit card which I pay back every month but I can still hear my Dads' voice saying' If you haven't got the cash then you can't afford it'. When I was in my teens in the '70s I desparately wanted a sewing machine to make my own clothes, my Mum was supportive as she said it would help with repairs. My Dad relented and said he would loan me the money and I could pay it back monthly. It took 18 months! As I made my last payment, my Mum said to let me off as I'd stuck to the agreement. My Dad said I had agreed the terms to pay the whole amount and I should be grateful he hadn't charged me interest! Home economics.😊
My Nan taught me well & I have got her sewing box 😊
Such a wonderful video! Diane
I still use a washing up bowl. I have a big Belfast sink so I put the bowl inside.
My Aunty in her 90s still does this, I noticed how much water we save now we do it 😊
Ah, the good old days! My mum and grandma kept things simple. Every meal was home cooked. You went to the library for a book. We had three tv channels to choose from. I recently went to a thrift store and towards the back of the shop there were bookcases. There was a gap between the bookcases and all I saw was mountains of stuff, clothing, books, you name it that hadn't been sorted or put out on the floor yet. It really struck me how so much unnecessary purchases are wasted and maybe those same items are still being paid for on a credit card!
I was born in 1957 and my Mother was a great housekeeper.
All meals were made from scratch and nothing was wasted.
She applied the envelope system for all bills and my father was the only one with a bank account.
Everything seemed simpler and happier as neighbours spoke frequently and helped out in any way.
The world's system now is to try and get everyone in debt by having too many clothes and eating takeaways that are not good for your health.
I thank my Mum for bringing me up the right way to appreciate everything you have right down to that last bit of soap. Thanks Mum
I hate throwing away food. Only when it is truly spoiled. Thank you very much for sharing. I already apply many of the tips.
Are you peeking in my windows?
I remember turning the collars of my dad's shirts. I still use the envelope method of budgeting, bulk cook, use cheaper cuts of meat in a slow cooker, and grow my own veg. I begin to feel I was born out of time!
Suet costs a fortune now.
unfortunately my mother was hopeless at budgeting the money for food never lasted the week and we used to have credit at the corner shop, I'm the opposite I'm frugal not mean but 'save the pennies and the pounds look after themselves'
I do the soap thing! It's not dirty. Yesterday the soap was clean enough to use. Today it is just a bit smaller - that's all.
I don't collect the scraps though. Just put my small piece I was using fine yesterday onto the top of my new piece - first bit to be used off the next bar.
It is how I have always lived my life. My grandmother taught me about charity shops and jumble sales. At sixteen when I first started working I bought a sewing machine to repair clothes. When I became a full- time working single mum after my marriage fell apart I could repair my son’s clothes. A grew vegetables in the garden to help spread the food bill and made my own bread things my grandmother and mother taught me. Even now I still shop in charity shops and use Facebook marketplace and car boot sales. There is far too much waste in Britain.
I have used the envelope system for years. The yearly bills I divide by 12 and every month put that amount in the marked envelope. It is really a way to not get lost or sidetracked by bills and always have it when you need it.
Even my post office box fee and car registration are saved by the month.
With the strait of hormuz problem, I decided to fill the propane tank early, not wait till fall, and the money was there since I saved since last October when tank was filled. Nice feeling.
100% about the shoes. I always had the cheapest shoes as a kid and they each lasted 4-6 months, then 5 years ago I actually spent about 10x more (150€) on a pair of hiking runners and I still wear them every day ever since.
The garment industry thwarted thrifty nans - collars and cuffs are one sided now, can’t be turned, and modern clothing is made from fabric so flimsy that it tears away around the mend, even expensive shoes are cheaply made from substandard materials. These days a newspaper costs more than paper towels. I collect soap scraps and dissolve them in water over a low heat, then add more cool water to make liquid handsoap. Bring-your-own-container stores are the most expensive way to buy pantry staples now, because it’s eco-trendy I guess 🤷🏻♀️ I still only heat the sitting room. Showering when it’s-5c is invigorating and prevents bathroom queues 😄 I’ve never owned a credit card - never needed one.