This is the information sheet that really seemed to help me think about and put into action the new rations from today onwards. I think I am the kind of person who needs to 'see' what I'm learning and these little images made it all so much easier to plan from. It shows you which years more foods came onto the ration as well as the extras for pregnant women, invalids and children.
Here's the un-scribbled on copy so that any meat eaters can see properly what you could have.
I have been and will continue to follow 1942 rationing for the whole of my journey, I'm already chopping and changing enough without having to move forward each year as well and 1942 is the year that the most foods were rationed. Although looking at this image shows me that jam rationing went up to a whole 1lb each month instead of bi-monthly. But I think I will stick with my bi-monthly ration of it for now as I have the stash of compost heap jelly to add to my rations.
This is the plan that I typed out for myself to make gathering my rations together each week. It's nice to have something to reference especially as this month is different to last.
As you can see on here, on the 'monthly rations' section I am also being generous with myself and allowing myself a bag of British onions once a month rather than just 1/2lb which is only about two large onions. I use them such a lot and I do grow my own and hopefully will be doing so again next year if I get all the onion sets in soon.
With today being the first of October I will be getting my weekly rations weighed out, my monthly rations sorted and choosing my Points shopping to have for this month. Twenty points doesn't go far I need to think about this months choices.
I'll be back tomorrow to show you what I choose.
Sue xx
There's a lot of detailed thinking there - well done, Sue. I'm so looking forward to how it will pan out through the coming months.
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It would be so much easier to just go to the grocers clutching my ration books and ask for "Rations for one please". :-)
DeleteIt's good to simplify things and put it all on a chart, makes it easier for you. I like your substituting of things to take account of your dietary choices - it has to be workable for you doesn't it. It's interesting to see how much of things you've got left over after having followed it for a few weeks now....the coffee in particular surprised me, 4oz for a month didn't seem a lot, but I guess it's more than we think! Thanks for all this Sue, I'm finding it really interesting and helpful. xx
ReplyDeleteThe simpler I can get it the better for me. :-)
DeleteI get 2oz of coffee per week on the weekly rations (in place of the tea) and I was giving myself an additional 4oz of coffee per month as was allowed on the monthly ration (Camp coffee) but I have not needed to touch it at all during the first seven weeks of the challenge. So I have decided I won't be taking any more. Instead I am going to use this as a swap for something out of my food cupboard each month, and say it's 'off a neighbour' ... just as neighbours would have done for each other during the war years if necessary.
I found the chart with the pictures to be very helpful for seeing how the items being rationed changed over the course of the war. By 1942, quite a few additional things were being rationed, weren't they? It's helpful to see it all shown like that. Looking forward to seeing what you select for your points this month.
ReplyDeleteI chose 1942 specifically because so much was on the ration and I think it stayed this way pretty much until the end of the war. Gosh it's been hard choosing my points shopping this month!!
DeleteThat's a really good chart for working things out.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what average consumption of sugar is per person on 2023? I'll look it up
NHS information suggests that on average people in the UK are eating 60g of free sugars a day. Twice the 5% free sugars the NHS recommends as the maximum in our diet. I would not say this was independent and unbiased information. I read that the average five year old ate its body weight in free sugars a year.
DeleteA 150g glass of fruit juice contains 9 teaspoons of free sugar. Breakfast cereal should be in the same shelves as sweets in the supermarket.
For what I see on the internet, for Americans we consume about 126.4 grams per day (101.5 pounds per year) which explains why we are all fat and unhealthy. Most of that come from processed food. I agree on the breakfast cereal. I was in a hurry to get out the door this morning and fixed a bowl of Frosted Flakes. A one cup serving before milk is 130 calories with 12 gr of sugar. (24%). That’s just wrong. ~ Carol
DeleteWho are the frosted flakes purchased for, a child in your household? Or are you from the old school who grew up eating them and it is a force of habit. I am not scolding, just curious, because I buy a boxed granola which, I am sure, has far more sugar in it than I should be eating, but I justify it because I pour it over Greek yoghurt to make it healthy????
DeleteHi Ana,
DeleteNo kids here. My husband has a sweet tooth and likes the Frosted Flakes. He quite often has them as a snack as well as for breakfast. I try to make him eat healthier, but it’s not worth making both of us miserable 😩. Gotta pick your battles. I am working on a tasty tomato pie for lunch today. We’ll see how that goes over 🙂 ~ Carol
Sue ... seemingly the average UK adult consumes an average of just under 19 teaspoons of sugar per day or 40grams. That's shocking and a good reason to move away from processed foods isn't it. It just shows how easily it would be just by having a couple of cans of drink and a bowl of cereal and some sort of ready meal to get to the upper limit very quickly.
DeleteThe more I read of this sort of thing the more I am glad I have decided to do this, both for my purse and for my health.
I’m a visual learner and always need to see things to fully understand. I think the way you are doing your swaps is exactly how things worked in the period of rationing. Born in 1950, I had a ration book but benefitted from my Gran being a tailor as she cut down anything she could source to make clothes for us all but most of all for “the wean” ie me. Catriona
ReplyDeleteA couple of my Dad's Aunties ... my Nana had five sisters ... were dressmakers and tailors so they would have done really well during the war years for alterations and making clothes for all the family wouldn't they. :-)
DeleteThank you for the useful chart, Sue.
ReplyDeleteThe very small ration of fresh eggs must have made home baking very difficult. If women had been involved in the decisions on rationing, would more of the UK cereal harvest have been used for hens for meat and eggs for everyone, and less for beer for the men? USA dried eggs must have been a relief.
We have had a glut of 74 eggs in September, as the three older hens keep laying and one of the newbies is giving us dainty pullet eggs. I am preserving some for winter. We would have had to surrender our egg ration to buy chicken feed, and they need feeding even if they stop laying for a few weeks in the darkest weeks of winter.
On Utility Judes Wartime Cookery channel on YouTube she uses her dried egg ration in virtually all her baking so I guess a lot of people would have done this. You got a box of dried eggs per person per month and each box made up 12 eggs.
DeleteI think the rationing was worked out really well as I doubt that having more hens nationally would have worked, hen feed was also rationed and hens for meat on a larger scale, even using the older birds this way, would have meant too much food would be needed for them all. They don't begin laying until they are 18-20 weeks old so there would be far too many birds in the system overall. So really I think the back yard hen keeping system was the best and if you got your birds early on in the war years they would have lasted you all through rationing. My girls were all prolific layers until their fifth or sixth year.
As for hops, they grow off the ground on a rope and pole system, so this would have been a good crop no matter what as you can grow other things at ground level making good use of the space. I think beer and cigarettes kept a lot of our citizens sane ... I wouldn't like to be the minister taking that off them. ;-)
Hi Sue, Where did you find the year-to-year rations chart? I would like to print a copy.
ReplyDeleteI think you are doing great. And your adjustments make perfect sense to me. I’ve been keeping a “ration jar” of sugar for about 3 weeks now with 8 oz each for me and hubs. We have yet to use it all in a week. But obviously that doesn’t account for any processed food we have purchased included hubs beloved graham crackers. In wartime/under rationing all of those things would have been made from scratch so it’s hard to figure it all out. I’ve always tried to make as much at home as I could but after reading Ultra Processed People, I’m really trying harder. Kudos to you for your efforts and the inspiration yo provide to us all! ~ Carol
I found it online somewhere. You can take a copy of mine, just click on the picture and then save it for yourself.
DeleteReading Ultra Processed People is a REAL eye-opener isn't it and is what kick started this food journey for me.
If you grew your own onions during ration times, could you keep them all? Or did you have to turn in overage?
ReplyDeleteAnything you grew yourself you could keep, the only thing that you had to hand over 50% of was pig meat is you were in a pig club. All homegrown vegetables, fruit and eggs were for your own consumption or to use as swaps with your family and friends.
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