New Month, New Points, New Rations

 

So, here we are a new month and my second 'official' month on rations and a new twenty points to spend ... and this is what I chose to spend them on this month.

First I had looked at what was left over from my first months rations ... a little rice, most of my lentils, pasta and dried fruit and about a serving and a half of oats.  Not a bad starting point and then I chose the supplies in the top photo

I played fair and just had one sleeve of the 'Weetabix' biscuits.  During the war years this was the size of the cardboard pack ... just twelve biscuits ... so it seemed a bit excessive to take thirty six.  The remaining packs will be in the cupboard for the next points spend.

Then it was time to sort out the Monthly rations.

This month I have decided to take a pack of two 'No Chicken Kyivs' from Aldi instead of the egg ration. As mentioned on the last post, each month I will choose one meat-free replacement for the eggs.  There is also a surprise item in this month's choice!!

At the start of my rationing journey I had decided to take 4oz of instant coffee in place of the jar of Camp Coffee that I could have had during the war years.  I really thought that I would need this to pad out the 2oz that I have each week on the weekly rations, but ... I have not touched this at all.  The two ounces that I get each week has been more than enough, and as you can see from the jar behind the monthly ration jar, my supply has been steadily building every week with each 2oz top up.

So I have decided that I will swap this 'coffee allowance' each month for something from my food cupboard, just as if I bought it and swapped it with a coffee loving neighbour during the war years.  This months swap choice is a jar of Mayonnaise.

And finally ... the Weekly Rations.

6oz Butter

3oz Cheese

2oz Oil

1 litre Almond Milk

2oz Coffee

8oz Sugar

4oz Vegan Sausages 

*Fish Fingers instead of the £3.50 Meat ration

and 

2oz Sweets.

Somehow this all feels so much more logical.

*Officially as they only cost me £1.75 I still have another £1.75 to spend, but I think I will leave it for this week and think a little more carefully about what I choose to buy with my £3.50 next week.

And of course, don't forget I have all the non-rationed vegetables and fruit in the fridge and freezer to bulk out the monthly and weekly rationed foods.  Including some homegrown tomatoes and potatoes from the Victory Garden.

Sue xx

First Thing on a Monday Morning

 

First thing on a Monday morning I am trying to get into the habit of checking through the previous week's menu plan, ticking off what I did eat and noting what I didn't use up.  Then I try and make those missed off items the first thing that I use on the following week's plan, especially anything that has been in the fridge for a few days.

Then I look in the fridge to double check that yes they are actually there and see what else I have that needs using.  I still have lots of vegetables that I want to use up this week if possible, but luckily everything seems to be in good condition at the moment.

Then using the freezer inventory I did a couple of weeks ago I start to plan out the meals, just roughly on a piece of paper.

Then I give myself a break from that and weigh out the new weeks rations.

I have found ... much to my surprise ... that I use only about one and a half ounces of instant coffee each week, I honestly thought I drank a lot more than that.  Maybe that amount will go up a bit now that the cooler weather seems to be here to stay, we'll see.  But even if it does I have my 2oz a week and the build up of all the extra half ounces that I haven't used, and I have not touched the first month's extra monthly ration of 4oz.

I'm going to have to switch to a bigger jar soon if I carry on having a backlog!!

Now that I have used a good proportion of my sugar for the Compost Heap Jelly I made last week, this weeks ration fitted into the jar easily.

One good thing came out of my search of the kitchen for the jelly bag for straining the fruit ... I found a stash of Love Hearts in one of my enamel containers.  It seems that I can have five packets for my 2oz sweetie ration.  😁

Week Six - Weekly Food Rations

Once everything is weighed I take a photo for the records and then get everything put away.

This is the first week that I am not taking an egg as part of my ration and I have instead chosen to take fish for the next few weeks.  So two veggie sausages instead of one egg, as has been the norm for the first five weeks, and a fish portion instead of the other.  The idea of this is that it will give  me a nice protein rich simple meal.  

This may be re-evaluated in the coming weeks as if I am trying to keep my food spend down this isn't really helping.  Fish is pretty expensive ... and quite rightly so ... and it would make up a large percentage of my £10 per week budget.   I will have to have a look through my cupboard and see what tinned fish I have in.  Although in reality tinned fish was only available through the points system during the war years, however, I may be lenient with myself to use up any reserves that I already have in as wartime housewives would have done ... we'll see.

Some things take a bit of thinking about!  🤔

Anyway after all the menu planning and weighing out it was time for my breakfast, and as per this weeks menu plan this was porridge ... and a well earned cup of coffee.

My Menu Plan for Week Six

Sue xx

The Foods I Already Had In

 

Of course at the start of rationing people had all sorts of food already available in their pantries, larders and cupboards, some wouldn't have had much and some, like me, would have started from a good place.

My fridge currently looks like this, well this is the neat shot for the header picture, it actually looks like this -

... still nice and neat and always clean, but a few more bits and pieces.  

The red blobs in the top drawer are two apples.  The bottom drawer has tomatoes, two onions, a homegrown courgette and cucumber, some peppers and a vacuum pack of beetroot.  All except the peppers are in-season and grown in the UK, so all except the peppers can be bought again.

I'm glad I sorted through the fridge and had a wipe out, because I found this, a handy little addition to this weeks margarine ration.

I also had all these.

At first I was going to eat one or two a day this week to use them up gradually, but after eating the first one I realised they were not that nice any more ... although Mavis thought they were, she loves mandarin oranges.  Instead I put them in a bag and popped them into the freezer, I will use them to make a batch of Compost Heap Jelly when I have enough of my sugar ration saved up.

I also realised that I had this roll of ready rolled pastry that needs using up.  

Last time I did a rationing challenge I used one of these instead of most of my weeks fat ration one week, but this time I decided on something completely different.  It's there so I can use it, but I want it to last me for a few weeks and not have to be eaten all at once ... so I have had a brainwave!!

I'll let you see just what that was when I do it.  😄

The door of the fridge is a motley mix of all sorts.

The sparkling orange juice cans on the top shelf are for Alan, I take him one can each week to Mum's to have with his lunch.  The bottom shelf mostly holds sparkling and still water, there's about half of last weeks milk left. (Pre-rationing.) And very happily I have half a bottle of wine and a couple of little cans of wine too.  Alcohol was available during the war years, but I think it was mostly beers and shorts and predominately sold in pubs ... wine will be my version of this, but I have to buy it within my £10 a week budget if I want to have any.  Or perhaps ask for some at Christmas again like I did last year.

The three drawer freezer is full, if your interested in it's contents I'll show you the inventory another day after I photograph it.

And the bottom part of my food cupboard is looking extremely healthy, mostly because during the Food Cupboard Challenge I was eating all the oldest foods that I had sorted into the top part of the cupboard.

 

So at least I know that everything in this lower cupboard should be well within date and able to be used as and when I need it.  I think that I mentioned the other week that it's as though all my previous Challenges have been leading me to this one.

The things in my cupboard will be available to eat alongside my weekly, monthly and bi-monthly rations only if they are not rationed items.  Anything that is rationed or on points, the rice and pasta for example will still need to be added as and when they are due or when I have my new months quota of points.  All the random items I will gradually use up as and when I need them.

I hope this little stocktake exercise has set you up to see where my starting point is as well as it has for me.  It's nice to know what's available, now I just have to make it last in a sensible way.  It would have been oh so easy to have eaten the two packets of biscuits that I found in one of my baskets ... but I reminded myself they are only available on points, so I have to wait until next month.

Back tomorrow with a look at the top cupboard which now holds all my rationed foods, some things that I already had and some more things that I can restock my rations from.

Sue xx