Vintage Frugalities
In the face of rising food prices there are but few alternatives for the housewife whose income is standing still. She can buy cheaper foods. Or she and her family can eat as well as usual by substituting work and intelligent planning for money. It is up to us to settle down to business, work a little harder, plan a little better and feed our families as well as possible without the outlay of extra cash. Where will we find the time to do all this extra work? Each woman must find her own solution. Mine is to let the cleaning slide. Clean clothes we must have so two days a week are spent in the laundry. But only one day is devoted to cleaning. When cutting corners in buying, omit the unessentials, the pickles, relishes, candy, ice-cream cones. Buy cheaper cuts of meat, seasonal vegetables and fruits. A large supply of home-canned fruits and vegetables is invaluable. Plan simpler meals. Anyone can toss off a dinner of beef steak, mashed potatoes, fresh-frozen limas, sliced tomatoes on watercress and pie from the baker. But it takes real planning, more time, but much less money to serve creamed dried limas, steamed brown bread, home-canned tomatoes and homemade apple pie. There is a budget trick that works. Home preparation of everything possible. This isn't idle talk. This year I have spent less for food than the preceding year. It takes more than penny-pinching tricks to do it- one weak moment can toss away a week's hard-earned gain."
The above is from a prize winning entry into a budget tricks contest held by Woman's Day magazine in 1942. Another entrant kept a few nonessentials on her shopping list, saying:
"I believe in good, plain cooking of course, but if repeated too often or served too 'as is,' " it dulls me to desperation. I require of myself each week, one new menu, one new recipe, and one major variation on an old inexpensive favorite.
I can really relate to that.
Another recommends the cook look through a cookbook regularly to see what recipes she's forgotten about or can rediscover to help her family save money.
Several suggest eating seasonally, and never going to the store with an inflexible meal plan- instead, go with an open mind and look for the best buys and build your meal plans around that. This was apparently before the days of the weekly sales flier coming into your home.
I've enjoyed reading vintage books and magazines on housewifery since I was about 13 years old. I've learned a lot from them. Not all the advice, tips, and recipes are pertinent for today (it's interesting to see which cheap cut of meat from yesteryear is a pricier cut today), but the principles generally are.
I have found this to be true whether I am reading a series on how to reduce the grocery budget published in 1974
or from a collection of frugal lenten recipes from 1948
or from 1937
or 1870
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5 Responses to “Vintage Frugalities”
June 17th, 2011 at 7:37 am
I love seeing & reading about vintage thrift! Have you ever read The Better Days Books Frugal Food Bible? It’s a compilation of three vintage economy books, my favorite is the American Frugal Housewife.
“We never shall be prosperous till we make pride and vanity yield to the dictates of honesty and prudence! We never shall be free from embarrassment until we cease to be ashamed of industry and economy.”
June 17th, 2011 at 7:13 pm
I’ve not seen the Frugal Food Bible, but I have The American Frugal Housewife.
June 19th, 2011 at 11:41 am
My favorite book on the subject is MFK Fisher’s “How to Cook a Wolf,” written during World War II.
June 20th, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Loved this post on vintage frugality, I look back on my grandmothers life a lot and ask myself what would she do as she raised 10 kids through the Great Depression and looking back now on the things she did when I was little she was a frugal hero in my book! Her frugal teachings has taken me far in my life, long after she has left this earth and is now being passed down to my children!
June 22nd, 2011 at 1:59 pm
I have a photocopy of Thrift Cook Book for the Economical Housewife, by Lillian Morton, published in 1918 by Shrewesbury Publishing Co. When this was given to me originally many years ago, I used it to avoid allergens for my young children. Now, I look through it for great ideas for recipes for things I can cook with pantry staples, as opposed to buying premade mixes. I agree it’s very important to keep things varied, so I am always experimenting with new recipes.
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