Popular Post ChipButty Posted April 26, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2020 Rationing in World War Two Ever wondered how much food a person was entitled to during World War Two? Rationing began on 8th January 1940 when bacon, butter and sugar were rationed. By 1942 many other foodstuffs, including meat, milk, cheese, eggs and cooking fat were also ‘on the ration’. This is a typical weekly food ration for an adult: Bacon & Ham 4 oz Other meat value of 1 shilling and 2 pence (equivalent to 2 chops) Butter 2 oz Cheese 2 oz Margarine 4 oz Cooking fat 4 oz Milk 3 pints Sugar 8 oz Preserves 1 lb every 2 months Tea 2 oz Eggs 1 fresh egg (plus allowance of dried egg) Sweets 12 oz every 4 weeks Yes, I know what you are thinking…This doesn’t look like much, right? In fact, ordinary people survived on such rations, although those who produced their own food were able to have that little bit extra. You might be wondering how this was even possible. https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Rationing-in-World-War-Two/ 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipButty Posted April 26, 2020 Author Share Posted April 26, 2020 Also lots of people had an allotment grow extra fruit and veggies my mother used to tell me people used to trade what they had for other things, We used grow alsorts a couple of apple trees and grow strawberry's in the summer. Kids these days dont do gardening at school would come in handy right now 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezzra Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 I fought in the first the boer war, God i'm so bored... 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kwasaki Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 1 hour ago, ChipButty said: Ration books in the UK? Remember me mum talking about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daffy D Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 (edited) Yes I was at boarding school and remember having rationing book to buy goodies from the Tuck Shop. Edited April 26, 2020 by Daffy D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baansgr Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 We had the "Particulares" scheme under Castro when I lived there which was a kind of rationing..can't remember the weights allowance of meats etc...of course the Greenback always got you anything you wanted from the $ shops..same as the black market in UK 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Estrada Posted April 29, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted April 29, 2020 (edited) I remember that we still had I.D. cards in the U.K. in order to by sweets at the village tuck shop until 4th July 1954. You could buy two black jacks for a farthing, hich is eight for an old penny. Edited April 29, 2020 by Estrada 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKDfella Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Oh yeah, remember my mum using when I went to the local shops with her. Today I think they have have to put cell phones on it too, Ha!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pedrogaz Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 I have my ration book from when I was a baby. I got extra eggs, sugar and milk because we were poor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xylophone Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Ah yes, I remember trundling up to the local shop (actually not that local as it happens) with a little ration book and bringing back all that we were allowed, which included a small rationing of sugar, and as we were three children and two adults we got extra saccharine to help out. I had a very sweet tooth and couldn't touch the sugar obviously, but on the way home I would dig into the little paper bag which contained the saccharine's and eat some of them.......not a good look when you think about it now, but that's all I had to satisfy my sweet tooth! Like someone else has said, we did have little allotments in which to grow things and unfortunately for me, most of the things that were grown were the things that I absolutely hated, such as, swedes, turnips, parsnips and broad beans, to name but a few, and anyway, even if I had liked them, the butchering that my mother gave them when cooking them would have made them inedible anyway. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phantomfiddler Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 I fought Hitler in hand-to-hand combat, anything to get a few slices of bacon ???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandyf Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 1 hour ago, Estrada said: I remember that we still had I.D. cards in the U.K. in order to by sweets at the village tuck shop until 4th July 1954. You could buy two black jacks for a farthing, hich is eight for an old penny. Although rationing came to an end in 1954, rationing of maternity benefits were transferred to the family allowance scheme. I remember going to the chemist each week for our ration of dried milk, orange juice and cod liver oil. Hated that cod liver oil, orange juice was ok, my brother got the baby milk. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gandtee Posted April 29, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted April 29, 2020 (edited) I remember it well. During the war there were very few fat people in those days but we were fit. We had a small back garden and I used to buy chicks and raise them using a hot water bottle to keep them warm. We had no electricity in those days. I also raised rabbits and of course had to dispatch them myself. I lived in London and my dad was in the Royal Navy. My mum would send me to the butchers with the ration books to say to the butcher "Half a leg of lamb, knuckle end, 2/6- Two shillings and sixpence - And any extras"? If I was lucky he might wrap something up under the counter, maybe a piece of liver or a kidney. If I was really lucky, a rabbit. Edited April 29, 2020 by Gandtee Additional words. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieH Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 I can remember petrol rationing in early 70's i think it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bert bloggs Posted April 29, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted April 29, 2020 I lived at the seaside just after the war and when i was about 8 we used to pick blackberries and then knock on peoples doors and sell them for 3p a bowl ,also in the sand dunes there were places where ammunition was stored during the war ,once we found some hand grenades(i kid you not) and threw them and they exploded ,nothing was done ,can you imagine what would happen these days ,also we all had air pistols and used to run around fireing them ,i cant believe what we got up to ,these days armed response would come .happy days ,my life was great . 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enoon Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 46 minutes ago, CharlieH said: I can remember petrol rationing in early 70's i think it was. 1973, during "Oil Crisis". They were issued in UK but not used. I continued to fill the Bantam as usual. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorecard Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 I can, in Australia but I was just a kid so I can't remember the details. I can remember going a 'lecture' before going to the shop to be careful that to shopkeeper only cut off/ kept the correct number of little squares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epidemiologist Dave Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 (edited) Remember Scott's Emulsion and liberty bodices with rubber buttons? By God we're getting old. Edited April 29, 2020 by Epidemiologist Dave Miss spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surasak Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 I can clearly remember Thursday mornings during rationing. I was given a large brown paper carrier bag containing the ration books and a list of items and the money wrapped in a piece of paper. This I was charged with delivering to the local grocery store on my way to school, and collecting on my way home. I was eight and it was quite a responsible task at that time. As someone else remarked, some of the daft things we kids got up to back then, would probably get you arrested today. Happy days and fondly remembered. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilotman Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 My parents kept my last ration book, for sweets, for me to keep. Unfortunately It got lost somewhere along the way. It had a few stamps taken out for purchases. Must have been around 1952 I guess? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidneyw Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Remember eggs, sugar and butter were the main things we wanted most. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gandtee Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 13 minutes ago, kidneyw said: Remember eggs, sugar and butter were the main things we wanted most. My two years old brother had just come out of hospital after recovering from diptheria 1943, when the doodlebugs were hitting London. She asked the old boy who kept laying chickens, to sell her an egg, for him. He refused. The miserable old sod. Times were hard then. Especially for the mothers who were raising their children and being bombed while their men were off at the war. They were the heros in my opinion. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thingamabob Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 I remember it well in the late 1940s. Queuing with my grandmother, ration books in hand, at various shops. We grew vegetables in our garden. Very occasionally an unmarked van would turn up with all kinds of goodies. We didn't have much to eat, but I don't remember being hungry. I never saw a single fat person in those days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchooptip Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Being born in London in 1944, when I was a boy my mother spoke to me regularly about the war years, of course, she was marked by the death of my father a volunteer paratrooper who had been killed three months before me being born. The two things she told me about the most were the V2s which fell on London towards the end and ... the ration books! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toofarnorth Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 2 hours ago, sandyf said: Although rationing came to an end in 1954, rationing of maternity benefits were transferred to the family allowance scheme. I remember going to the chemist each week for our ration of dried milk, orange juice and cod liver oil. Hated that cod liver oil, orange juice was ok, my brother got the baby milk. Cod liver oil , don't know about that , but I did like Cod liver oil and malt , came out the tin like treacle . Bottles of milk at school , had to be put on the radiators to thaw out , in the summer warm and disgusting. I feel sure those of us around 70 years are less picky with their food because as youngsters we ate what we were told too ! Only thing I never understood was sprouts with Xmas dinner. No one liked them but there they were . I still don't care for cabbage. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toofarnorth Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 18 minutes ago, Thingamabob said: I remember it well in the late 1940s. Queuing with my grandmother, ration books in hand, at various shops. We grew vegetables in our garden. Very occasionally an unmarked van would turn up with all kinds of goodies. We didn't have much to eat, but I don't remember being hungry. I never saw a single fat person in those days. And being born in '47 I thought I was old. My mother said that during the war if she went out to the shops and she saw a queue she would join it just to see what was on sale. Like you I think we ate well enough and never went to bed hungry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Burma Bill Posted April 29, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted April 29, 2020 Yes, I remember quite clearly. As a young lad I used to have to cycle with my mother to the local CO-OP to collect the groceries. I was born in 1944 and, despite the war ending in 1944/1945, rationing continued until July 1954 when meat and other food products were the final commodities to go "off ration". By this date, our present Queen Elizabeth had just commenced her reign. Photos of a Food Ration Book:- 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worgeordie Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Sweets were also on ration,but you got free concentrated Orange juice, and what was the other one, Malt ? regards worgeordie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnapat Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 I remember the lifting of the confectionary rationing. Was the start of many subsequent visits to the dentist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gandtee Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 8 minutes ago, worgeordie said: Sweets were also on ration,but you got free concentrated Orange juice, and what was the other one, Malt ? regards worgeordie Malt and cod liver oil? Dried eggs and spam from the US. Dried potatoes (Pom?)in school dinners. Horrible stuff! Whale meat and snoek sometimes which was not on ration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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