Igenlode Wordsmith

I ran a few figures on the conclusion of the "Ration Book Experiment":

I spent £106.30, of which £83.76 was on fruit and veg and £13.04 on meat, although this doesn't really reflect the cost of what I was eating, since all the dried goods and the lard and butter came from store (and, conversely, it includes money paid for chocolate and a bottle of oil that I didn't open during this period). I used 4oz of cheese, most of it very stale, 8oz butter, 4 eggs, 4oz lard, 4oz dripping, and 500ml of oil in lieu of the 1lb margarine I should have had.

In terms of dried goods, I consumed 8oz dried beans, 6oz dried fruit, 5oz lentils, 8oz oats, 1lb rice, 8oz split peas and about 4lb of flour during this period -- and around 6lb of potatoes! I still had 3oz of lentils left over despite my panic at the beginning of the final week. In addition, I had six portions of leftovers in the freezer and another one-and-a-half (half a portion of ratatouille) in the fridge, i.e. meals for another three or four days without cooking anything at all. So I really wasn't short of food.

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I did a retrospective 'working out of points' on my dry goods rations, and discovered to my alarm that I had managed to use a pound of rice already, and that rice was actually very expensive on discretionary points -- presumably because it was shipped from the Far East :-(

Just as well I did check since it turns out I now have no points left at all, even for such items as oats, lentils and split peas at only 2 points the lb. (Using rice was definitely a mistake, and I used too much of it in the first week thanks to attempting to make a lubia pollow, albeit without meat or tomatoes!)

So my dry goods store for the next week and a half consists of 3oz lentils, 2oz oats, 2oz dried beans and 1oz dried fruit. Probably not as alarmingly little as it looks, since the beans and lentils potentially do one multiple-serving meal each and I still have meat and veg -- including unlimited potatoes for bulk.( Read more... )

I'm probably going to be taking part in the Ration Book Experiment challenge, where you have to live for a month (or a week, or whatever) on the equivalent of Second World War ration allowances... mainly in order to see how hard it actually is, since I've been doing very much the same thing with my supplies for the last couple of years! (Although in the last nine months or so I've also managed to gain back the half-stone that I lost via an enforced low-carbohydrate diet -- thanks to getting access to snack foods again, however limited -- and am starting to have problems with buttons gaping and waistbands digging in...)

Looking at the meat allowance, I strongly suspect that's actually *higher* than what I'm allowing myself at the moment; I certainly don't get through 4 ounces of bacon in a week, let alone ham (I only have a single rasher of streaky bacon in the freezer at the moment), though the meat that I do buy is so expensive that £2·50 doesn't go very far, and I'm pretty sure I don't get through three pints of milk either, though it's hard to be sure when I'm diluting tinned evaporated milk most of the time. On the other hand, I get through about 3 eggs a week on average, or, at least, I buy them every other week or so.

I'm not sure I can face the whole WW2 experience with no citrus fruit, no onions, no spices or cocoa, trading off points for rice against points for split peas or dried fruit, etc. though -- and unlimited bread but rationed flour complicates matters if you bake your own! I'll probably just stick to limiting the rationed items...
( Allowances )