My Grandma Hochstetler continued doing all of that. They lived on a farm and they raised 6 children. 4'9" lady could schlep around 100lb milk cans, she baked bread every week, washed her clothing in a wringer washer (till Grandpa passed away in 77), sewed her own clothes, quilted, crocheted, knitted and she canned a lot of food. She made the best pickles! They didn't get an indoor bathroom till 1954! My little Mennonite Grandma was my rock And the hardest worker I know. She also was my prayer warrior! My Dad is the 4th generation now on that farm.
My paternal grandparents had an outside toilet during my childhood. They had one cod tap in the kitchen. I thought it was exciting to visit them and use the outside toilet. They got a flat with an inside bathroom in 1965.
My granny was born in 1903 and never stopped raising a garden. Even in her 80s. She always cooked from scratch and canned all her life. She lived in Kentucky.
I am 73 and still cook from scratch, hang clothes out to dry, heat with wood as a supplement to LP, grow most of our vegetables, and can vegetables as well as meat. I really wouldn't have it any other way. Don't do much ironing though.
Lol I'm 43 and I do those things! Not the wood (we heat with natural gas but keep thermostat down and use ceiling fans mostly in the summer) but we garden extensively, have many fruit-bearing trees and shrubs, I can and freeze all summer, buy excess from farmer's markets and put them up, hang my clothes outside, sew and repair and make do, cook from scratch (ESPECIALLY cakes!!!). I have multiple severe allergies, a disabled daughter, 5 kids and a single income from my hard-working husband. I learned most things from my grandmother, who was born in 1931. She grew up on the farm but lived in the city when she got married. When grandpa retired from the railroad, they bought the old homestead and proceeded to basically supply us with all our produce etc until it became too much in the mid-90's. This was their retirement job and it kept them young for decades. We ate very little from the store growing up, we'd go "grocery shopping" at my grandparents. Those were the best days in the summer when we would get left there.
So basically, none of those skills were transferred to the next generations, and it is no wonder we have a learning curve figuring out how to do these things.
My grandma continued cooking EVERYTHING from scratch, grow her own food, milk her own cow etc. I'm 38, so she would be about 100 right now if she were still alive. She put up a ton of food also. One day she pulled me into her kitchen and said that "as she got older, she started buying store bought pie crusts". This was when she was like 90. :) She still made home made fillings for all her pies. But they lived way out in the country and didn't go "to town" often, so it would be hard to go to the grocery store often.
@@exodusmass4575 I wished I would have had grandparents in my live to learn from and to enjoy their company. But I had a thrifty mother, who died when I was 21. All my life I have always learned from anyone that had a skill I cared to have too. Now with all the social distancing, there are the grandmothers on UA-cam. Mind you I am a grandmother myself. But never too old too learn more.
My grandma taught me how to bake from scratch. I was a little girl when I sat in her kitchen watching her bake. Ohhh if I could go back just for an hour or two
So they basicly gave up doing the things that required extra work. I stopped doing some of the frugal things that don’t save that much since I started working more. I am still not giving up my chickens and goats even though I work over 60 hours a week at work, and i homeschool 3 kids, because it’s more of preparedness thing than a money saving thing.
They rose above the poverty line and had money and could cut back on the 14 hours of labor that has been normal for most of history . The middle class doubled in size after WW2. With money for the store the amount of labor needed for daily life dropped. It was about a six week period spent canning the garden, the fruit, and chicken, pork and beef. One modern homesteader said 3000 qt of food per person. Labor on the land took 12000 calories in harvest and round up so blue collar work mean more money and less need to consume 3000 calorie meals.
My mom lived through the depression and WWII. She said she would never have a garden or can again. Way too much work. You are spot on about the box cake mixes. She did make her own icing. Mom was frugal at the grocery store and used coupons.
My grandmother's gardened and so did my parents. I today still garden, can what our garden produces. I remember watching my grandmother's cook from scratch. I cook from scratch most of the time now a day's.
Same here I remember helping mom and gramma hang out the clothes and I hang out clothes.Grandma didn't have in door plumbing they had a wringer washer and saved rain water to do the laundry . Grandma own maybe 3 dresses and one for Church a pair of milk pants the dresses and aprons were all cotton.they had chickens and cows and a huge garden. I remember her teaching me to make butter I still make my own noodles. And so on.All my relatives had a clothes line.
My Gran did all of the things others quit doing well into the 1980’s and she was in her 80’s. She had my Mom 22 years after her last child so my Gran was the age of everyone else’s great grandparents. Despite being only an hour from the largest city, she had a wood burning stove and a wringer washer. I learned how to use both as I lived there nearly 50% of the time. I learned to make home made lye soap, garden, can, bake bread, tend the stock, etc. I still do a lot of that. It’s different though, choosing a time and place to do those things because you like to do them. I’m grateful I know how, but when we were doing them all of the time, it was soooo much more work. You don’t realize it at the time because it’s just life, but it’s sure nice to have a choice.
My grandparents cooked from scratch. I learned how to cook from my dad and my dad's mom. They loved to cook. They taught me so much. I was blessed to have them in my live for as long as I did. Which wasn't very long.
I never knew either of my grandmothers but my mother cooked from scratch, raised a garden, and raised a pig and beef. We ate "junk" food a couple few times a month. We heated the house with coal for a few years then wood. We used a ringer washer and clothesline and washed dishes by hand.
We ate very few canned veggies but my mother did buy frozen; I have an Italian background and back in the late 60s, Ragu jar sauce was given as a free sample at our market. My mother had it on the counter and when my dad saw it, he said, "We're not having this are we?" Ha! I think my mom did sneak it one day but she really did make all our Italian sauces from scratch. Puddings were My T Fine and she did very little baking. Desserts were usually some ice cream, nothing fancy. But chicken, and meats were bought in a butcher shop and fresh veggies were bought at the fruit and vegetable store. I grew up in a tenement and we lived on the third floor. There was a clothes line outside our kitchen window and my mother leaned over and hung heavy wet towels and sheets. God bless her.
I married in 1976. The older teachers told me that a good wife pressed her sheets. So, I did press the pillow cases, but I gave that up within a year. Still married at 44 years.
🤣🤣🤣 My Grandma used to iron her bed sheets AND (ehem)...."underbroos"...... Ouy!!!! Not me! Nope! Lol 😂👍 She suffers from Alzheimers now, so she is still with us in body; however, not in mind....😌
marilyn kozlow Me too. Hankies & pillowcases that had been sprinkled with water. The irons were so heavy. Can you imagine making a kid iron today? Child abuse!!
I really enjoyed this video. I am 63, almost 64, and my mom made almost everything from scratch. My father grew a garden so we didn't have to buy produce at the store. I am like your grandma's except that I do make almost everything from scratch. It was nice to know that Grandma didn't use vinegar and didn't wash her windows with newspaper. I used to use old towels, etc., for cleaning, but since I discovered microfiber clothes I don't use them. I love my microfiber clothes and find them quite superior to using old towels, etc.
One set of my grandparents kept everything up after the depression and WWII, cooking from scratch, gardening, being frugal, canning, etc. But on my dad's side, this video is true for all of them
I came here because your subject lines and voice help me relax but honestly I’m just trying to keep my mind off the fact my son was on his motorcycle and was hit by a car. It was a hit and run. I don’t have any friends to talk to so I find youtube videos with people that have similar goals to be the best company so be most comforting. My son and his wife have been working on your program to pay of debt. Last week he paid his last credit card. But now I don’t know what way his life will go. He’s expecting his third baby. Please pray for him. 🥲❤️
They also never had any plumbing issues, using an outhouse. Likely no water bills to pay. There always is a brighter side.😎 Certainly no frozen water pipes.
My grandma thought jello was the Be All End All. But I did see a history of jello once. Jello was something rich people had. You had to have refrigeration to have jello. Early boxes depicted a butler on the box. My grandma loved it! Always jello in the fridge. Can't say I have the same love of jello 😁. My family grew up dirt poor until my mother's generation. Guess they thought they made it when jello was in the fridge daily.
I think most people fall into categories . One does everything for convenience regardless of cost. Another will be fanatical about everything from scratch, line drying clothes, gardening canning etc. Most of us probably fall into a middle category in that we use both from scratch and convenience for cooking, will garden and preserve some, use a clothes line on nice days etc. I think it was in the Tightwad Gazette where she did costings on cheapest way to do cakes and cake mixes were more frugal. While I've very glad I don't have to do the hardship things, I think there is a danger in losing these skills because who knows if or when hard times might reappear. At least during the Depression those women already knew how to keep a house and food on the table for their families. My paternal grandmother said that the Depression didn't affect them much because they were already living self-reliant on a farm. That was their way of life before and after the Depression.
I think it depends where you live I am 60 and all my grandparents grew gardens and canned food right til they passed in their 90s. They also lived rural Alberta Canada. They did quit ironing sheets but still hung their laundry. Went from wood to propane heat. They were also all debt free.
I agree cooking from scratch is so much healthier I do think buying instant foods is why we are such a sick country of people too much processing high processed food has truly no nutritional values
Hi Gloria, I’m from the UK, our country has gone down hill health wise too. I remember hearing on the news about fifteen years ago that there was going to be an epidemic of people being overweight, at the time I said what a load of rubbish, how wrong I was. Now everywhere I look people are really overweight, I agree with you, people who aren’t cooking good filling meals are the ones who are overweight. It saddens me terribly. Apparently that’s why America and the UK have been two of the countries so affected by COVID.
Depression people used tea bags more than once. Things were not available for food and you learned to be very frugal. Mashed peas for soups etc. The lucky ones lived in the country and grew Victory Gardens.
My grandma and great grandma and my mom all cooked by scratch !! All veggies were put up each summer and peaches !! Its a southern thing here.Theres nothing better then garden grown.
My parents grew a garden all their lives. It was enormous during WW II. They always had a compost pile... because they had to carry things to the dump. With 7 kids my parents did watch the grocery store budget. I got taught how to figure cents per ounce in the grocery store, way before I learned it in school. The big thing they stopped was raising chickens, my mother hated killing and plucking them. We didn't have a lot of desserts, but I grew up with Jiffy mix as a staple. Lots of homemade pies, including the crust. Freezing took the place of canning for my mom.
You can also be a resource to your community and to the younger folks. You can volunteer, and you can as well share your skills and teach others. Because at 71, you must have acquired some knowledge and skills, that you can pass on.
Good to see y'all. Even though I'm subscribed with notification bell, haven't seen any videos in months. So our grannies and great grannies worked so hard in the factories during the war, growing, canning, baking, cooking, raising the kids alone, after the war when the men came home, moms wanted an easier life. Squeegee Squeegee Squeegee! That's my thoughts about it. Blessings
My mamaw was born in 1906 and my papaw was born 1897. I asked her when I was a teen, "mamaw, do you miss the old days?" She said, "no, it was too hard." She had 10 kids. My other mamaw had 16. My mamaw loved Pinesol. She still used her treadle sewing machine, canned food, and helped my mom do our canning. My dad still raises a large garden, and my mom still cans. My mamaw was always debt free as well. She loved Zero candy bars. She still hung clorhes to dry, but also used her gas dryer. She loved her Mr. Coffee, microwave, toaster oven and gas cookstove. She was still frugal, but not with everything all the time. She moved from the farm to town after my papaw passed away, so she didn't grow big gardens, but she did grow tomatoes and cucumbers and had an apple and plum tree in her small yard. You are right though....as things got easier for them they eased up on doing things that were time consuming and hard. When it was time to go to the city for a doctor's appointment she loved to have my aunt stop at Rax and get a roast beef sandwich. She still cooked a lot from scratch, but once again...not everything all the time. When she passed away she had a bucket of sulfured apples going in the basement. I should have tried them, but I didn't. She used a square sulfur candle to preserve them. She still canned and preserved any food that her garden growing kids would bring her. She made leather britches beans. I think that's what they were called. Her pies were always from scratch. She didn't make cake often. When she did it was usually pound cake from scratch. She loved buying little Debbie oatmeal cakes. She drank instant decaf coffee at night. She made me hot tea. Back then adults didn't offer kids and teens coffee, at least not in my family. I never saw kids and teens drinking coffee. Funny how times change. I still drink hot tea because of her making it for me. I really enjoyed a cup of hot tea at mamaws. My mom never fixed it for me. So many great memories.
My dad's mom cooked from scratch. We grew up the same way although we do order food to eat uber . My mom's mom cooked from scratch up til after the depression was done and things got back to normal They both canned food and grew gardens. I no longer can and tend to dry food and smoke meat. I still garden and have a compost garbage can for the garden. I grow outdoors and then indoors during the winter. I also built a greenhouse and the grow light shelf units which no one in my family ever did. We were raised to know how to grow our food, fish or hunt for it. We also had know our way around repairing things, building things etc. I'm retired but still work because it finances my gardening :) We also were raised to keep a few months of food on hand at all times. I have campstoves for cooking if needed as well as an electric heater or two and some propane heaters. Candles, oil lamps and some old school things. Both grandmothers used bleach and amonia. Vinegar did a great job on the windows. My kids would die if hit the fan, but my daughter is married to a good man who was in the military so he knows how how to roll pretty well. My son loves reading the books I have about how folks made do in hard times. He is learning and he also is not one to waste much of anything.
I am 54 years old. I barely have enough time to get my clothes on. Little alone Iron them! Lol! I don't even know where my IRON is. As I think back. My grand mother didn't do a lot of those things. Here in Collierville Tn an Antique store opened up in the 90's. I said, "Mom, do you want to go in there?". She said , "NO I have seen that stuff my whole life"! "I want something NEW!" I totally get it now.
Anyone who went through what all those people went through deserved being able give up all those things. They had to have gone through so much it must have been so hard for them. Every single one of them are hero’s and supermen and women in my opinion. All those conveniences were there reward for being such troopers. God bless them. 💗
Still cook from scratch. Make cakes, biscuits, muffins. Always cooking meatloaf, roasting chickens, and making pot roast. Do you some frozen vegetables in my soups and dinners. But do not use salad mix
I hung up clothes on a line up to two years ago until I needed to move. In the 90's I worked for two doctors. The husband like hanging clothes on the line also. We both thought it was very therapeutic. Love the way the clothes smelled. I am 66 now. Loved to can tomatoes with my mom in the 70's.
The only thing I really liked about hanging clothes on the line (back when I had a clothesline after I was married) was hanging sheets and pillowcases on them. Towels no way though...they were always too rough feeling from being dried on the line so I always dried them in the dryer. When I was growing up at home, I remember a lot of years when we did hang everything on the line to dry though until we finally got a dryer...but I was already a teenager by the time that happened, so lots of memories of the clothes line & clothes pins lol.
My initial thought is that your grandmothers were the exception. Most of the people I knew that lived through the depression and wars continued to live frugally. All of my grandparents were born between 1900-1910. Not sure when your grandparents were born, but maybe if they were the next generation they weren't as apt to continue?
After the war, more women worked outside the home. In an effort to 'encourage' women to work, there was a huge push through advertising to give up the old ways. No more breast feeding, no more gardening or any labor home making. These things were considered low class, old fashioned, and unnecessary. "Easy" replaced better. The shame on domestic life, unpaid tasks, and heavy reliance on government programs was the new way. Now we are paying the price.
I grew up having to can, freeze produce that we grew on our own! We ate everything we grew...we had to work hard as kids as there was always something to do. We had peach trees, plum trees, apples, grapes, etc. and we made our own jams and jelly's. My mom usually made all her cakes from scratch and she made the best cobblers all from scratch. She made homemade biscuits almost everyday. We hung out the laundry until my parents bought a dryer in the 80's, but we still hung out the sheets on the line! They always smelled so good and felt so good to sleep on. When I would visit my mom would sometimes ask me to hang a load of clothes on the line...LOL! They never believed in spending much for groceries!
My paternal grandparents kept a garden until my grandmother broke her hip and went to a nursing home. My parents had a garden until my father could no longer work it. My parents grew up in the Depression Era and they wasted NOTHING! Being very poor as a child and raised by Depression Era parents makes it really hard to get rid of all of the “just in case” items. My maternal grandparents lived “in town” and their children went hungry since they could raise very little food on their small piece of land.
My grandma had a small graden but it was mostly as a hobby to give her something to do. My great grandma had a huge flower garden than was featured in our newspaper every year. I have a clipping of her at 101 out in her flower garden. My mom and aunt used to can foods and my cousin does now, my cousin also has a large greenhouse and grows all their fresh produce and herbs and cans foods, dries the herbs, and makes jams and jellies. So it's funny that these things my grandparents didnt do the generations after have done them. My dads parents had a wood stove up until the past 5 years. My moms mom did continue to line dry her clothes but my dads mom didn't. She loves her dryer lol.
Food back then in the grocery stores was REAL! The soil it was grown in was richer. It wasn’t loaded with pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, GMO’s, BPA lined cans, etc. like it is now. So yes it makes sense to me that they were perfectly satisfied with getting there food from the grocery store.
And groceries were cheaper back then. My father in law was livid once because he had to spend ten whole dollars on a Oldsmobile trunkload full of groceries. Those cars/trunks were huge! Please don't tell me I'm wrong about prices because I'm not.
Food back then was grown by more traditional farmers, and the soils where not so depleted. The flavors are in the micronutrients, the trace minerals, severely lacking in today's depleted soils, on huge megafarm operations, using the latest technologies. The food cannot contain what the soil it grows in, or on, is lacking. Most people are suffering from nutrient insufficiency and usually have no idea. Trace minerals do make a difference.
@@katharinedodson8665 I remember those cars, loved them. His issue likely may have been, that food was supposed to be grown at home for the most part. Back in the day when people had amazing vegetable gardens, berry bushes, and an orchard. Not to mention they would have had chickens too, maybe quail and rabbits, and if in the country also larger animals. The older houses still have huge backyards, for that very reason. Most of the new neighborhoods now have beautiful homes, but very little outdoor space, and often nowhere to grow a garden. If they have a tree, it likely is only ornamental. Very sad. Because the kids will never know how wonderful homegrown tomatos taste. They will never learn how to grow anything useful.
I can remember after serving in Viet Nam, One of my friends was explaining to several others (all recently discharged) that they needed to go through their closets and get rid of anything that was not permanent press. He just said "Do you want to iron? Is Mom going to iron your cloths? Can you afford dry cleaning? Does it even fit you any more? Donate it and get new "permanent press" stuff. You can thank me later."
Great video. I had 1 grandma that wasn't super frugal and one that still spent summers on their farm (summer in upstate New York and winters in Florida) and had a huge garden, canned and had both a gas stove and a wood burning one. She cooked the best fried chicken on that wood burning stove. I hate ironing too - and don't. Good luck convincing my husband to stop cleaning the outside windows with newspaper 😊. I gave up on that one. Have a wonderful week.
Thanks for telling people it's Ok to spend when you have money. I can buy what I want but spend wisely. Living on 8-10k a year isn't that hard debt free. 14k a year for me lets me buy nice things. I can, cook, smoke meat, garden, sew and enjoy doing them. I share the food at work and hope that people can rediscover you can eat like a king and do it for hardly nothing. I like your cook book because it condenses what my other cook books have. I hold on to my old cook books I found at local garage sales. They are church cook books when I was a kid with the recipes for the foods served at the church food stand at the fair. I will be fun to compare books! have a great weekend!
My grandparents were born 1884. Hitched up the buggy and went to town twice a month. America was a rural society with large families to work the farm and cook on wood stoves. No electricity until 1936, indoor plumbing 1961. ( farm was located 60 miles south of Washington D.C. ).
My great grandma and grandma always cooked from scratch, except for Jell-O. My great grandfather always had a huge garden. They canned every year. My mom did more box stuff but not much she always cooked from scratch except Jell-O and cake mix.
I used the newspapers for awhile and hated the ink all over my hands. I do hang up a significant portion of my laundry. I also have a garden because I enjoy it. Life is short. Unless you really are in a dire situation, you don’t have to save money in every area of your life.
I cook like the women before me: from the family cookbook that has recipes from the 40s & I'm still adding to it. Only thing I can't match is my mom's chicken cacciatore. No recipe & I can't do it. I have revived the gardening even though I don't have a lot of space. 5gal buckets are my friend. No one taught me though. Plus I'm thrifty. If it's not on sale or I cant get it somewhere else for cheaper I don't buy it unless absolutely needed.
If I had the money I would have a car, and not walk home with heavy groceries. But at least I have the groceries. If I had a car, I wouldn't have to walk everywhere. But it keeps me healthy. But it really would be nice to have a car and get out more, and travel country roads, and see more.
My parents were super economical. I thought it was from their experience during the depression and also from necessity. It was also just how they grew up doing things. My Mom and Dad grew most of our food and Mom canned hundreds of jars of food and froze a lot too. We had a couple of pigs sometimes too and they sure filled the freezer up. She also sewed the majority of our clothes, at least for us girls. I'm now 64 and was the youngest of five.
My mother used a wringer washer and hang up to dry cuz she didn't have washer and dryer when I was a kid in grade school. My grandmother cooked from scratch, particularly around the holidays.
Yep, I just retired and enjoyed cooking the first 8 or 9 months but not so much now. I think women get tired of doing the same activity (cooking) 2 or 3 times a day. I know I am starting to cook more homemade soups, chill, using my crockpot, sheet pan baking and a few more frozen meals. Lol I still do healthy cooking veggies and chicken a lot but I do it as simple as I can for the most part. Tired of cooking lol
I'm older now, and I remember growing up that my mother didn't like food that had been home canned either. I'm not sure if she got sick from it once in her life, or if she just didn't want to put in the effort to do all the work it requires, plus we didn't have a garden either growing up, but she sure didn't want anything to do with self canned food though.
I rarely iron. I also do not purchase 100% cotton clothing because it must be ironed. My husband likes 100% cotton shirts, so I told him that if he wants them, then he has to iron them himself or take them to the dry cleaners. He didn’t want to spend the money, so he ironed them himself. He had trouble getting the sleeves to look good, so now he is back to cotton blends.
We have a wood stove and it is messy and ours has to be stoked every 3 hours or so- hubby doesn’t get good sleep in cold weather. Then you have to cut the wood but we didn’t have ginormous electric bills at least.
My Mom and Dad raised 10 kids and aftet WW2 still had s garden and made jam from the plum tree. With many kids they also made a lot of their food from scratch because they needed to feed all those kids.
I think this is natural for anyone is frugal not by choice, but because of necessity. My mom used to grocery shop at Aldi with a calculator when I was very young. But as she got older and finished school and got a good income, she gradually stopped being frugal and bought whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted.
I am 65 now, I finally am able to buy within reason what I want now at the grocery store . I think I am not driving to another store Too waste gas and time for a dollar savings .
I was in shock the first time my mother told me to go to the fruit stand and get her a pound of the Washington Cherries, the white ones. I remember telling her that I would never pay that price, but she insisted that she Could buy them and she wanted them. What a shock!
All my reatives continued doing all these things til they passed. My mom also. Until I got in high school all cakes were homemade. Only when company was coming quick only then did she make a box cake or the Jiffy Mix Coffee Cake
Plus their mothers likely worked out of the home, and nobody ever had any time or the inclination to do any of these traditional things... once electricity and big grocery stores became available to most. Daycare, babysitters, and television certainly never cared to teach good old skills. People have lost so many good and useful traditions ever since electricity and convenience came along. Without skills hard times will be a lot harder. Those hard times are coming, as the economies worldwide are tanking.
My grandma would be 83 and I didn't even know that she knew how to cook. She and my grandpa went out to eat every night or grandpa picked it up and brought to home. That's how they met up with friends and socialized and that's how we got to eat at restaurants when we were kids because my mom didn't spend money going out to eat.
@Heidi they did ok (my papaw was a hard worker) and lived modestly. When dining out they ate the special and many times shared !a plate. As a kid, I had to ask permission before placing my order when I got to go with them.
My Aunt had 14 children in the 50s-70s. She made her own soap with lye she also hung her laundry out to dry. My mother would sprinkle her clothes and refrigerate them.
I premix my scratch cakes with the dry ingredients in jars. The wet ingredients and the page number of the particular cookbook are listed on the outside. Takes about five minutes to mix up a cake.
Wood stove is something you do when you really have time to burn My rocket stove is the preferred method I cook beans now power is out but I have multiple E pressure cooker. I can use pressure cooker in the car but I don't want to piss away the fuel.
I am 60 and my grandparents were born in the 1800's. One set were farmers, and I witnessed the wood cook stove and the wringer clothes washer be replaced with electric appliances in the 1960's. Each transition was celebrated. My grandmother worked hard in the kitchen every day but I remember the pudding and cake mixes in the pantry with large cans of crisco nearby. She used lots of white sugar and refined flour. It wasn't a particularly healthy diet for me growing up on a farm. We did have fresh eggs and meat, and some fresh produce that my mother eventually stopped canning. The store bought stuff seemed more efficient. The store bought dairy was thought to be cleaner and safer. I agree also with the cotton clothes. My mom and grandmothers thought clothes that needed ironing were a waste of time. But they all did live within their means. They budgeted their money, saved for years and years for things to improve their lives. They had no debt.
Wow I grew up with an entire family who everybody had their own farms and my dad and mom had a farm and a dairy. They all had gardens until they got two old to garden. We all had our own meat, beef, pork, lamb, chicken, and deer. I was going to the cannery when I was old enough reach over the conveyer belt to put sugar or spices into the cans. We canned at home and froze food in the freezer. We made like 200 berry and fruit pies every summer to freeze for winter. They were dividend up between 4 families. You talk about disinfectants, my mom and aunt thought it was a good thing to go clean my grandmas house while she was in the hospital. I have no clue why her house was so clean you could eat off the floor all the time. But they thought they were going to clean something???? Well all they did was accidently kill my grandmas awesome Parakeet. That poor little guy fell over dead. My grandma loved that bird. She would sing to that bird and he would sing back to her. That ammonia is deadly. I hate that stuff. I miss all the canning at home and gardens we had. We didn't have to buy a bunch of stuff at the store every month.
I agree with the generation that fought WW2 and moved to town, gave these things up. This would have been my Grandma's. My Great Grandma's stayed on the farm though and continued to do these things. Both my parents have talked about their Grandma's killing a chicken on Sunday's for that nights dinner. This would have been through 50's-60's. They didn't have running water till then, in some rural areas.
So glad you posted this. I'm tired of people telling me I should do this and do that. I don't have the room to grow food or the desire🙊. If I needed to I could do it but I'm good for now 😄
Prices are going up because of Covid. Now it’s a “fad” to grow because people are in a panic. I thankfully always buy extra seeds each year. Lumber is ridiculous right now.
My mother is 92. She said to me, when I was 17 and I had discovered canning, why on earth my time canning when I can buy from the store? Same with my mom!!
Your so right cuz my said growing up my grandmother and her mom canned, gardened and nine yards then when I came along my grandparents didnt do none of it...I asked due my grandparents celler was all set up for it the dark cool dirt areas and tons of canning jars with dust collecting...so as a kid I asked grandma why they dont do it no longer she said we watch our pennies
my grandma didnt stop everything. although she did use cake mixed and other convenience foods she never stopped gardening and canning. Mostly because she couldn't find anything store bought that in any way compared to her stuff. As I've grown into a Nanna myself I have not found a store bought vegetable that in any way compared to what I grow.
People still had gardens when I was growing up. Part of my chores when about 6. As soon as I had a real home and no roommates, back to gardening then canning. I enjoy it. I dream of a woodstove. Bills were so much cheaper then. Even the 90s, heating a larger house and garage was way cheaper at 75 degrees than what I do in a smaller house at 64 degrees. I have cats so little cotton.😹Cat hair magnet. Same with bedding. Gets destroyed faster washing too much.
We have used wood to heat since we got married in 1983. It sure saves a ton of money. I am all about not spending money if I don't need to. Not messy if done correctly. We hang dry our clothes. P.S. We don't even own an iron. I hate ironing.
My grandmother, and her 4 daughters made cakes from scratch. They did not use mixes till the 70's. My Birthday cake was always poppy seed. LOL.. We had a garden my entire life and a compost pile. We did can too till the late 60's because fruit trees and vines grew on the fields right behind our home.
Depends on where they lived and what they did for a living. My farm grand parents did all of those things. My city grandparents did not. Also, using newspapers for window cleaning became a no-go in the late 70s to early 80s. The newspapers changed the type of ink they used. As the old ink, which DID work to clean windows was phased out, using newspapers was no longer effective and many folks stopped doing it.
Wow! My grannies didn’t. That’s interesting. My granny clipped coupons and went from one store to another with sales papers in hand circled to get and cooler in her car. Saved s&h greenstamps. Maybe we were poorer and we never got soda or candy , unless a special occasion. Yeah, complete opposite here growing up... I’m 54.
The best window cleaner is newspaper and vinegar. Sorry... Also put newspaper between garden rows for weeds. I’m debt free and I still don’t buy what I want. I save
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My Grandma Hochstetler continued doing all of that. They lived on a farm and they raised 6 children. 4'9" lady could schlep around 100lb milk cans, she baked bread every week, washed her clothing in a wringer washer (till Grandpa passed away in 77), sewed her own clothes, quilted, crocheted, knitted and she canned a lot of food. She made the best pickles! They didn't get an indoor bathroom till 1954! My little Mennonite Grandma was my rock And the hardest worker I know. She also was my prayer warrior! My Dad is the 4th generation now on that farm.
My paternal grandparents had an outside toilet during my childhood. They had one cod tap in the kitchen. I thought it was exciting to visit them and use the outside toilet. They got a flat with an inside bathroom in 1965.
God bless your grandma she sounds like a wonderful lady❤
I thought I was gonna cook in my car when power went out. I've found this is so much a pita it's better just to spend
My granny was born in 1903 and never stopped raising a garden. Even in her 80s. She always cooked from scratch and canned all her life. She lived in Kentucky.
Mine too
I am 73 and still cook from scratch, hang clothes out to dry, heat with wood as a supplement to LP, grow most of our vegetables, and can vegetables as well as meat. I really wouldn't have it any other way. Don't do much ironing though.
Lol I'm 43 and I do those things! Not the wood (we heat with natural gas but keep thermostat down and use ceiling fans mostly in the summer) but we garden extensively, have many fruit-bearing trees and shrubs, I can and freeze all summer, buy excess from farmer's markets and put them up, hang my clothes outside, sew and repair and make do, cook from scratch (ESPECIALLY cakes!!!). I have multiple severe allergies, a disabled daughter, 5 kids and a single income from my hard-working husband. I learned most things from my grandmother, who was born in 1931. She grew up on the farm but lived in the city when she got married. When grandpa retired from the railroad, they bought the old homestead and proceeded to basically supply us with all our produce etc until it became too much in the mid-90's. This was their retirement job and it kept them young for decades. We ate very little from the store growing up, we'd go "grocery shopping" at my grandparents. Those were the best days in the summer when we would get left there.
So basically, none of those skills were transferred to the next generations, and it is no wonder we have a learning curve figuring out how to do these things.
The young ones today, who had working mothers, certainly do have a great lack of skills altogether.
My grandma continued cooking EVERYTHING from scratch, grow her own food, milk her own cow etc. I'm 38, so she would be about 100 right now if she were still alive. She put up a ton of food also. One day she pulled me into her kitchen and said that "as she got older, she started buying store bought pie crusts". This was when she was like 90. :) She still made home made fillings for all her pies. But they lived way out in the country and didn't go "to town" often, so it would be hard to go to the grocery store often.
I think we had the same Grandma!
Mine too! Wish I had took the time to learn from her. She’d be proud seeing me learn to can. Though I’m in my 50’s...
Love your grandma
That quite likely is how she stayed healthy and lived so many years.
@@exodusmass4575
I wished I would have had grandparents in my live to learn from and to enjoy their company. But I had a thrifty mother, who died when I was 21. All my life I have always learned from anyone that had a skill I cared to have too.
Now with all the social distancing, there are the grandmothers on UA-cam. Mind you I am a grandmother myself. But never too old too learn more.
My grandma taught me how to bake from scratch. I was a little girl when I sat in her kitchen watching her bake. Ohhh if I could go back just for an hour or two
So they basicly gave up doing the things that required extra work. I stopped doing some of the frugal things that don’t save that much since I started working more. I am still not giving up my chickens and goats even though I work over 60 hours a week at work, and i homeschool 3 kids, because it’s more of preparedness thing than a money saving thing.
They rose above the poverty line and had money and could cut back on the 14 hours of labor that has been normal for most of history . The middle class doubled in size after WW2. With money for the store the amount of labor needed for daily life dropped. It was about a six week period spent canning the garden, the fruit, and chicken, pork and beef. One modern homesteader said 3000 qt of food per person. Labor on the land took 12000 calories in harvest and round up so blue collar work mean more money and less need to consume 3000 calorie meals.
The vinegar was to cut through grease and grime, not to disinfect.
Yes :-)
My mom lived through the depression and WWII. She said she would never have a garden or can again. Way too much work. You are spot on about the box cake mixes. She did make her own icing. Mom was frugal at the grocery store and used coupons.
Grandma was still canning, and cooking from scratch into her late 90’s, until she passed in 2010.
My grandmother's gardened and so did my parents. I today still garden, can what our garden produces. I remember watching my grandmother's cook from scratch. I cook from scratch most of the time now a day's.
Funny, my grandparents, aunts, uncle's and even my parents continued to do all these things!!!
🤗🤣♥️🤣🤗
Same here I remember helping mom and gramma hang out the clothes and I hang out clothes.Grandma didn't have in door plumbing they had a wringer washer and saved rain water to do the laundry . Grandma own maybe 3 dresses and one for Church a pair of milk pants the dresses and aprons were all cotton.they had chickens and cows and a huge garden. I remember her teaching me to make butter I still make my own noodles. And so on.All my relatives had a clothes line.
My Gran did all of the things others quit doing well into the 1980’s and she was in her 80’s. She had my Mom 22 years after her last child so my Gran was the age of everyone else’s great grandparents.
Despite being only an hour from the largest city, she had a wood burning stove and a wringer washer. I learned how to use both as I lived there nearly 50% of the time. I learned to make home made lye soap, garden, can, bake bread, tend the stock, etc. I still do a lot of that. It’s different though, choosing a time and place to do those things because you like to do them. I’m grateful I know how, but when we were doing them all of the time, it was soooo much more work.
You don’t realize it at the time because it’s just life, but it’s sure nice to have a choice.
My grandparents cooked from scratch. I learned how to cook from my dad and my dad's mom. They loved to cook. They taught me so much. I was blessed to have them in my live for as long as I did. Which wasn't very long.
I never knew either of my grandmothers but my mother cooked from scratch, raised a garden, and raised a pig and beef. We ate "junk" food a couple few times a month. We heated the house with coal for a few years then wood. We used a ringer washer and clothesline and washed dishes by hand.
We ate very few canned veggies but my mother did buy frozen; I have an Italian background and back in the late 60s, Ragu jar sauce was given as a free sample at our market. My mother had it on the counter and when my dad saw it, he said, "We're not having this are we?" Ha! I think my mom did sneak it one day but she really did make all our Italian sauces from scratch. Puddings were My T Fine and she did very little baking. Desserts were usually some ice cream, nothing fancy. But chicken, and meats were bought in a butcher shop and fresh veggies were bought at the fruit and vegetable store. I grew up in a tenement and we lived on the third floor. There was a clothes line outside our kitchen window and my mother leaned over and hung heavy wet towels and sheets. God bless her.
I married in 1976. The older teachers told me that a good wife pressed her sheets. So, I did press the pillow cases, but I gave that up within a year. Still married at 44 years.
We grew up ironing our pillow cases. Needless to say I don't do that any more.
🤣🤣🤣 My Grandma used to iron her bed sheets AND (ehem)...."underbroos"...... Ouy!!!! Not me! Nope! Lol 😂👍 She suffers from Alzheimers now, so she is still with us in body; however, not in mind....😌
I’m 66 now and learned how to iron by doing the pillow cases and hankies. I can’t remember the last time I drug my iron out to use it, lol.
marilyn kozlow
Me too. Hankies & pillowcases that had been sprinkled with water. The irons were so heavy. Can you imagine making a kid iron today?
Child abuse!!
Us here in the UK find it so odd that American people don't iron most of their clothes and bedsheets.
I really enjoyed this video. I am 63, almost 64, and my mom made almost everything from scratch. My father grew a garden so we didn't have to buy produce at the store. I am like your grandma's except that I do make almost everything from scratch. It was nice to know that Grandma didn't use vinegar and didn't wash her windows with newspaper. I used to use old towels, etc., for cleaning, but since I discovered microfiber clothes I don't use them. I love my microfiber clothes and find them quite superior to using old towels, etc.
One set of my grandparents kept everything up after the depression and WWII, cooking from scratch, gardening, being frugal, canning, etc. But on my dad's side, this video is true for all of them
Sounds like they had "frugal fatigue!"
I came here because your subject lines and voice help me relax but honestly I’m just trying to keep my mind off the fact my son was on his motorcycle and was hit by a car. It was a hit and run. I don’t have any friends to talk to so I find youtube videos with people that have similar goals to be the best company so be most comforting. My son and his wife have been working on your program to pay of debt. Last week he paid his last credit card. But now I don’t know what way his life will go. He’s expecting his third baby. Please pray for him. 🥲❤️
Oh Kim I am so sorry! We will pray for him!
Praying.
My grandmother used today that anyone who talked about the good old days never had to use an outhouse in a Minnesota winter😳.
True my mother lived in Little Fork MN, from 1939 after she was born until 1949, after they moved to Yakima Wa, and they had an outhouse...
They also never had any plumbing issues, using an outhouse.
Likely no water bills to pay. There always is a brighter side.😎
Certainly no frozen water pipes.
@@heidimisfeldt5685 Good point!
We had an outhouse when I was a kid, no running water so we hauled water in milk cans from the neighbors, that was in the 60’s in northern Michigan.
My grandma thought jello was the Be All End All. But I did see a history of jello once. Jello was something rich people had. You had to have refrigeration to have jello. Early boxes depicted a butler on the box. My grandma loved it! Always jello in the fridge. Can't say I have the same love of jello 😁. My family grew up dirt poor until my mother's generation. Guess they thought they made it when jello was in the fridge daily.
I think most people fall into categories . One does everything for convenience regardless of cost. Another will be fanatical about everything from scratch, line drying clothes, gardening canning etc. Most of us probably fall into a middle category in that we use both from scratch and convenience for cooking, will garden and preserve some, use a clothes line on nice days etc. I think it was in the Tightwad Gazette where she did costings on cheapest way to do cakes and cake mixes were more frugal. While I've very glad I don't have to do the hardship things, I think there is a danger in losing these skills because who knows if or when hard times might reappear. At least during the Depression those women already knew how to keep a house and food on the table for their families. My paternal grandmother said that the Depression didn't affect them much because they were already living self-reliant on a farm. That was their way of life before and after the Depression.
I think it depends where you live I am 60 and all my grandparents grew gardens and canned food right til they passed in their 90s. They also lived rural Alberta Canada. They did quit ironing sheets but still hung their laundry. Went from wood to propane heat. They were also all debt free.
I agree cooking from scratch is so much healthier I do think buying instant foods is why we are such a sick country of people too much processing high processed food has truly no nutritional values
Hi Gloria, I’m from the UK, our country has gone down hill health wise too. I remember hearing on the news about fifteen years ago that there was going to be an epidemic of people being overweight, at the time I said what a load of rubbish, how wrong I was. Now everywhere I look people are really overweight, I agree with you, people who aren’t cooking good filling meals are the ones who are overweight. It saddens me terribly. Apparently that’s why America and the UK have been two of the countries so affected by COVID.
My mom always did her ironing in the afternoon while she watched her soaps. 🙂 That was in the late fifties though.
Depression people used tea bags more than once. Things were not available for food and you learned to be very frugal. Mashed peas for soups etc. The lucky ones lived in the country and grew Victory Gardens.
My grandma and great grandma and my mom all cooked by scratch !! All veggies were put up each summer and peaches !! Its a southern thing here.Theres nothing better then garden grown.
I asked Grandma how she made such great biscuits. Her answer: “I take that paper tube and whack it on the edge of the table...”
My parents grew a garden all their lives. It was enormous during WW II. They always had a compost pile... because they had to carry things to the dump. With 7 kids my parents did watch the grocery store budget. I got taught how to figure cents per ounce in the grocery store, way before I learned it in school. The big thing they stopped was raising chickens, my mother hated killing and plucking them. We didn't have a lot of desserts, but I grew up with Jiffy mix as a staple. Lots of homemade pies, including the crust. Freezing took the place of canning for my mom.
I'm 71 it's too late to save retirement. So it's time to enjoy life.
You can also be a resource to your community and to the younger folks. You can volunteer, and you can as well share your skills and teach others. Because at 71, you must have acquired some knowledge and skills, that you can pass on.
Huge thanks for this upload! Depression is terrible but we can fight it!
Good to see y'all. Even though I'm subscribed with notification bell, haven't seen any videos in months.
So our grannies and great grannies worked so hard in the factories during the war, growing, canning, baking, cooking, raising the kids alone, after the war when the men came home, moms wanted an easier life.
Squeegee Squeegee Squeegee!
That's my thoughts about it.
Blessings
My mamaw was born in 1906 and my papaw was born 1897. I asked her when I was a teen, "mamaw, do you miss the old days?" She said, "no, it was too hard." She had 10 kids. My other mamaw had 16. My mamaw loved Pinesol. She still used her treadle sewing machine, canned food, and helped my mom do our canning. My dad still raises a large garden, and my mom still cans. My mamaw was always debt free as well. She loved Zero candy bars. She still hung clorhes to dry, but also used her gas dryer. She loved her Mr. Coffee, microwave, toaster oven and gas cookstove. She was still frugal, but not with everything all the time. She moved from the farm to town after my papaw passed away, so she didn't grow big gardens, but she did grow tomatoes and cucumbers and had an apple and plum tree in her small yard. You are right though....as things got easier for them they eased up on doing things that were time consuming and hard. When it was time to go to the city for a doctor's appointment she loved to have my aunt stop at Rax and get a roast beef sandwich. She still cooked a lot from scratch, but once again...not everything all the time. When she passed away she had a bucket of sulfured apples going in the basement. I should have tried them, but I didn't. She used a square sulfur candle to preserve them. She still canned and preserved any food that her garden growing kids would bring her. She made leather britches beans. I think that's what they were called. Her pies were always from scratch. She didn't make cake often. When she did it was usually pound cake from scratch. She loved buying little Debbie oatmeal cakes. She drank instant decaf coffee at night. She made me hot tea. Back then adults didn't offer kids and teens coffee, at least not in my family. I never saw kids and teens drinking coffee. Funny how times change. I still drink hot tea because of her making it for me. I really enjoyed a cup of hot tea at mamaws. My mom never fixed it for me. So many great memories.
My dad's mom cooked from scratch. We grew up the same way although we do order food to eat uber . My mom's mom cooked from scratch up til after the depression was done and things got back to normal They both canned food and grew gardens. I no longer can and tend to dry food and smoke meat. I still garden and have a compost garbage can for the garden. I grow outdoors and then indoors during the winter. I also built a greenhouse and the grow light shelf units which no one in my family ever did. We were raised to know how to grow our food, fish or hunt for it. We also had know our way around repairing things, building things etc. I'm retired but still work because it finances my gardening :) We also were raised to keep a few months of food on hand at all times. I have campstoves for cooking if needed as well as an electric heater or two and some propane heaters. Candles, oil lamps and some old school things. Both grandmothers used bleach and amonia. Vinegar did a great job on the windows. My kids would die if hit the fan, but my daughter is married to a good man who was in the military so he knows how how to roll pretty well. My son loves reading the books I have about how folks made do in hard times. He is learning and he also is not one to waste much of anything.
I am 54 years old. I barely have enough time to get my clothes on. Little alone Iron them! Lol! I don't even know where my IRON is.
As I think back. My grand mother didn't do a lot of those things.
Here in Collierville Tn an Antique store opened up in the 90's. I said, "Mom, do you want to go in there?". She said , "NO I have seen that stuff my whole life"! "I want something NEW!" I totally get it now.
My immigrant grandparents were always frugal. They saved their extra and passed it onto their kids.
Anyone who went through what all those people went through deserved being able give up all those things. They had to have gone through so much it must have been so hard for them. Every single one of them are hero’s and supermen and women in my opinion. All those conveniences were there reward for being such troopers. God bless them. 💗
Still cook from scratch. Make cakes, biscuits, muffins. Always cooking meatloaf, roasting chickens, and making pot roast. Do you some frozen vegetables in my soups and dinners. But do not use salad mix
I hung up clothes on a line up to two years ago until I needed to move. In the 90's I worked for two doctors. The husband like hanging clothes on the line also. We both thought it was very therapeutic. Love the way the clothes smelled. I am 66 now. Loved to can tomatoes with my mom in the 70's.
The only thing I really liked about hanging clothes on the line (back when I had a clothesline after I was married) was hanging sheets and pillowcases on them. Towels no way though...they were always too rough feeling from being dried on the line so I always dried them in the dryer. When I was growing up at home, I remember a lot of years when we did hang everything on the line to dry though until we finally got a dryer...but I was already a teenager by the time that happened, so lots of memories of the clothes line & clothes pins lol.
Thanks for sharing all of this with us!😊
Good video. I love to clean with vinegar though. I have a green thumb that I got from my mother, but I enjoy landscaping more than veggies.
My initial thought is that your grandmothers were the exception. Most of the people I knew that lived through the depression and wars continued to live frugally. All of my grandparents were born between 1900-1910. Not sure when your grandparents were born, but maybe if they were the next generation they weren't as apt to continue?
Didn't say they didn't live frugally altogether. :-) They were all born between 1890-1928
Point taken, I guess the title of the vid was a little off. :-)
After the war, more women worked outside the home. In an effort to 'encourage' women to work, there was a huge push through advertising to give up the old ways. No more breast feeding, no more gardening or any labor home making. These things were considered low class, old fashioned, and unnecessary. "Easy" replaced better. The shame on domestic life, unpaid tasks, and heavy reliance on government programs was the new way. Now we are paying the price.
I grew up having to can, freeze produce that we grew on our own! We ate everything we grew...we had to work hard as kids as there was always something to do. We had peach trees, plum trees, apples, grapes, etc. and we made our own jams and jelly's. My mom usually made all her cakes from scratch and she made the best cobblers all from scratch. She made homemade biscuits almost everyday. We hung out the laundry until my parents bought a dryer in the 80's, but we still hung out the sheets on the line! They always smelled so good and felt so good to sleep on. When I would visit my mom would sometimes ask me to hang a load of clothes on the line...LOL! They never believed in spending much for groceries!
My paternal grandparents kept a garden until my grandmother broke her hip and went to a nursing home. My parents had a garden until my father could no longer work it. My parents grew up in the Depression Era and they wasted NOTHING! Being very poor as a child and raised by Depression Era parents makes it really hard to get rid of all of the “just in case” items. My maternal grandparents lived “in town” and their children went hungry since they could raise very little food on their small piece of land.
My grandma had a small graden but it was mostly as a hobby to give her something to do. My great grandma had a huge flower garden than was featured in our newspaper every year. I have a clipping of her at 101 out in her flower garden. My mom and aunt used to can foods and my cousin does now, my cousin also has a large greenhouse and grows all their fresh produce and herbs and cans foods, dries the herbs, and makes jams and jellies. So it's funny that these things my grandparents didnt do the generations after have done them. My dads parents had a wood stove up until the past 5 years. My moms mom did continue to line dry her clothes but my dads mom didn't. She loves her dryer lol.
Food back then in the grocery stores was REAL! The soil it was grown in was richer. It wasn’t loaded with pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, GMO’s, BPA lined cans, etc. like it is now. So yes it makes sense to me that they were perfectly satisfied with getting there food from the grocery store.
And groceries were cheaper back then. My father in law was livid once because he had to spend ten whole dollars on a Oldsmobile trunkload full of groceries. Those cars/trunks were huge!
Please don't tell me I'm wrong about prices because I'm not.
Food back then was grown by more traditional farmers, and the soils where not so depleted. The flavors are in the micronutrients, the trace minerals, severely lacking in today's depleted soils, on huge megafarm operations, using the latest technologies.
The food cannot contain what the soil it grows in, or on, is lacking. Most people are suffering from nutrient insufficiency and usually have no idea. Trace minerals do make a difference.
@@katharinedodson8665
I remember those cars, loved them.
His issue likely may have been, that food was supposed to be grown at home for the most part. Back in the day when people had amazing vegetable gardens, berry bushes, and an orchard. Not to mention they would have had chickens too, maybe quail and rabbits, and if in the country also larger animals.
The older houses still have huge backyards, for that very reason. Most of the new neighborhoods now have beautiful homes, but very little outdoor space, and often nowhere to grow a garden.
If they have a tree, it likely is only ornamental. Very sad. Because the kids will never know how wonderful homegrown tomatos taste. They will never learn how to grow anything useful.
Interesting subject, thanks for sharing.
🙏❤️👍👏
I can remember after serving in Viet Nam, One of my friends was explaining to several others (all recently discharged) that they needed to go through their closets and get rid of anything that was not permanent press. He just said "Do you want to iron? Is Mom going to iron your cloths? Can you afford dry cleaning? Does it even fit you any more? Donate it and get new "permanent press" stuff. You can thank me later."
Yup, ironing is not on my list. Never has been.
My mother used to iron everything. Not me ever.
If it needs ironing, it gets donated. Bye-bye.
Great video. I had 1 grandma that wasn't super frugal and one that still spent summers on their farm (summer in upstate New York and winters in Florida) and had a huge garden, canned and had both a gas stove and a wood burning one. She cooked the best fried chicken on that wood burning stove. I hate ironing too - and don't. Good luck convincing my husband to stop cleaning the outside windows with newspaper 😊. I gave up on that one. Have a wonderful week.
In the winter frugal granny worked in the citrus canning plant (in Florida). Non frugal granny mowed her own yard until she died in her 90s .
Thanks for telling people it's Ok to spend when you have money. I can buy what I want but spend wisely. Living on 8-10k a year isn't that hard debt free. 14k a year for me lets me buy nice things. I can, cook, smoke meat, garden, sew and enjoy doing them. I share the food at work and hope that people can rediscover you can eat like a king and do it for hardly nothing.
I like your cook book because it condenses what my other cook books have. I hold on to my old cook books I found at local garage sales. They are church cook books when I was a kid with the recipes for the foods served at the church food stand at the fair. I will be fun to compare books!
have a great weekend!
I think as you age, you can see the end coming so you might as well enjoy the fruits of your labor. (. I’m 63 and 8m heading in that direction😆)
Thank you very much for your video it made me think how spoiled we are now and the luxury we have at hand
My grandparents were born 1884. Hitched up the buggy and went to town twice a month. America was a rural society with large families to work the farm and cook on wood stoves. No electricity until 1936, indoor plumbing 1961. ( farm was located 60 miles south of Washington D.C. ).
My great grandma and grandma always cooked from scratch, except for Jell-O. My great grandfather always had a huge garden. They canned every year. My mom did more box stuff but not much she always cooked from scratch except Jell-O and cake mix.
I used the newspapers for awhile and hated the ink all over my hands.
I do hang up a significant portion of my laundry. I also have a garden because I enjoy it.
Life is short. Unless you really are in a dire situation, you don’t have to save money in every area of your life.
I cook like the women before me: from the family cookbook that has recipes from the 40s & I'm still adding to it. Only thing I can't match is my mom's chicken cacciatore. No recipe & I can't do it. I have revived the gardening even though I don't have a lot of space. 5gal buckets are my friend. No one taught me though. Plus I'm thrifty. If it's not on sale or I cant get it somewhere else for cheaper I don't buy it unless absolutely needed.
If I were rich I'd send my hand wash sweaters out to laundry and have someone change my sheets daily. That would be luxury.
If I had the money I would have a car, and not walk home with heavy groceries. But at least I have the groceries.
If I had a car, I wouldn't have to walk everywhere. But it keeps me healthy.
But it really would be nice to have a car and get out more, and travel country roads, and see more.
My parents were super economical. I thought it was from their experience during the depression and also from necessity. It was also just how they grew up doing things. My Mom and Dad grew most of our food and Mom canned hundreds of jars of food and froze a lot too. We had a couple of pigs sometimes too and they sure filled the freezer up. She also sewed the majority of our clothes, at least for us girls. I'm now 64 and was the youngest of five.
My mother used a wringer washer and hang up to dry cuz she didn't have washer and dryer when I was a kid in grade school. My grandmother cooked from scratch, particularly around the holidays.
All women I know, once we hit 55-60 begin to hate cooking and grocery shopping becomes torture.
Yep, I just retired and enjoyed cooking the first 8 or 9 months but not so much now. I think women get tired of doing the same activity (cooking) 2 or 3 times a day. I know I am starting to cook more homemade soups, chill, using my crockpot, sheet pan baking and a few more frozen meals. Lol
I still do healthy cooking veggies and chicken a lot but I do it as simple as I can for the most part. Tired of cooking lol
Yes !!! I thought it was only me
I'm older now, and I remember growing up that my mother didn't like food that had been home canned either. I'm not sure if she got sick from it once in her life, or if she just didn't want to put in the effort to do all the work it requires, plus we didn't have a garden either growing up, but she sure didn't want anything to do with self canned food though.
I rarely iron. I also do not purchase 100% cotton clothing because it must be ironed. My husband likes 100% cotton shirts, so I told him that if he wants them, then he has to iron them himself or take them to the dry cleaners. He didn’t want to spend the money, so he ironed them himself. He had trouble getting the sleeves to look good, so now he is back to cotton blends.
We have a wood stove and it is messy and ours has to be stoked every 3 hours or so- hubby doesn’t get good sleep in cold weather. Then you have to cut the wood but we didn’t have ginormous electric bills at least.
It is a lot of work but I’m so grateful for our wood stove when power goes out and I see our gas bill. I’m in East Central Indiana.
My Mom and Dad raised 10 kids and aftet WW2 still had s garden and made jam from the plum tree. With many kids they also made a lot of their food from scratch because they needed to feed all those kids.
I think this is natural for anyone is frugal not by choice, but because of necessity. My mom used to grocery shop at Aldi with a calculator when I was very young. But as she got older and finished school and got a good income, she gradually stopped being frugal and bought whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted.
I am 65 now, I finally am able to buy within reason what I want now at the grocery store . I think I am not driving to another store
Too waste gas and time for a dollar savings .
I was in shock the first time my mother told me to go to the fruit stand and get her a pound of the Washington Cherries, the white ones. I remember telling her that I would never pay that price, but she insisted that she Could buy them and she wanted them. What a shock!
Thanks Tawra , love this video !!!
All my reatives continued doing all these things til they passed. My mom also. Until I got in high school all cakes were homemade. Only when company was coming quick only then did she make a box cake or the Jiffy Mix Coffee Cake
The reason they don't do it anymore bc everyone works and they don't have or make the time the way they did back then its sad
Plus their mothers likely worked out of the home, and nobody ever had any time or the inclination to do any of these traditional things... once electricity and big grocery stores became available to most.
Daycare, babysitters, and television certainly never cared to teach good old skills.
People have lost so many good and useful traditions ever since electricity and convenience came along. Without skills hard times will be a lot harder. Those hard times are coming, as the economies worldwide are tanking.
everyone HAS to work
My grandma would be 83 and I didn't even know that she knew how to cook. She and my grandpa went out to eat every night or grandpa picked it up and brought to home. That's how they met up with friends and socialized and that's how we got to eat at restaurants when we were kids because my mom didn't spend money going out to eat.
They must have had a lot of money, because retaurants sure aren't cheap.
@Heidi they did ok (my papaw was a hard worker) and lived modestly. When dining out they ate the special and many times shared !a plate. As a kid, I had to ask permission before placing my order when I got to go with them.
My grandmother and mother certainly didn't stop. My mom canned food and we had a big garden and both grandma and mom were constantly using coupons.
Thank you Tawra! 👍💕
My Aunt had 14 children in the 50s-70s. She made her own soap with lye she also hung her laundry out to dry. My mother would sprinkle her clothes and refrigerate them.
I premix my scratch cakes with the dry ingredients in jars. The wet ingredients and the page number of the particular cookbook are listed on the outside. Takes about five minutes to mix up a cake.
Wood stove is something you do when you really have time to burn My rocket stove is the preferred method I cook beans now power is out but I have multiple E pressure cooker. I can use pressure cooker in the car but I don't want to piss away the fuel.
I am 60 and my grandparents were born in the 1800's. One set were farmers, and I witnessed the wood cook stove and the wringer clothes washer be replaced with electric appliances in the 1960's. Each transition was celebrated. My grandmother worked hard in the kitchen every day but I remember the pudding and cake mixes in the pantry with large cans of crisco nearby. She used lots of white sugar and refined flour. It wasn't a particularly healthy diet for me growing up on a farm. We did have fresh eggs and meat, and some fresh produce that my mother eventually stopped canning. The store bought stuff seemed more efficient. The store bought dairy was thought to be cleaner and safer. I agree also with the cotton clothes. My mom and grandmothers thought clothes that needed ironing were a waste of time. But they all did live within their means. They budgeted their money, saved for years and years for things to improve their lives. They had no debt.
Wow I grew up with an entire family who everybody had their own farms and my dad and mom had a farm and a dairy. They all had gardens until they got two old to garden. We all had our own meat, beef, pork, lamb, chicken, and deer. I was going to the cannery when I was old enough reach over the conveyer belt to put sugar or spices into the cans. We canned at home and froze food in the freezer. We made like 200 berry and fruit pies every summer to freeze for winter. They were dividend up between 4 families.
You talk about disinfectants, my mom and aunt thought it was a good thing to go clean my grandmas house while she was in the hospital. I have no clue why her house was so clean you could eat off the floor all the time. But they thought they were going to clean something???? Well all they did was accidently kill my grandmas awesome Parakeet. That poor little guy fell over dead. My grandma loved that bird. She would sing to that bird and he would sing back to her. That ammonia is deadly. I hate that stuff.
I miss all the canning at home and gardens we had. We didn't have to buy a bunch of stuff at the store every month.
I agree with the generation that fought WW2 and moved to town, gave these things up. This would have been my Grandma's. My Great Grandma's stayed on the farm though and continued to do these things. Both my parents have talked about their Grandma's killing a chicken on Sunday's for that nights dinner. This would have been through 50's-60's. They didn't have running water till then, in some rural areas.
Loved this Tawra.
I still clean with newspaper to clean my car window.
I always thought it was strange my grandparents lived on farm but they did garden- they did can.
So glad you posted this. I'm tired of people telling me I should do this and do that. I don't have the room to grow food or the desire🙊. If I needed to I could do it but I'm good for now 😄
It's got to the point where it is cheaper to buy then grow.
Prices are going up because of Covid. Now it’s a “fad” to grow because people are in a panic. I thankfully always buy extra seeds each year. Lumber is ridiculous right now.
My mother is 92. She said to me, when I was 17 and I had discovered canning, why on earth my time canning when I can buy from the store? Same with my mom!!
You came up with perfect points! ! !
Your so right cuz my said growing up my grandmother and her mom canned, gardened and nine yards then when I came along my grandparents didnt do none of it...I asked due my grandparents celler was all set up for it the dark cool dirt areas and tons of canning jars with dust collecting...so as a kid I asked grandma why they dont do it no longer she said we watch our pennies
my grandma didnt stop everything. although she did use cake mixed and other convenience foods she never stopped gardening and canning. Mostly because she couldn't find anything store bought that in any way compared to her stuff. As I've grown into a Nanna myself I have not found a store bought vegetable that in any way compared to what I grow.
My Grandma still kept gardening, canning but she did stop quilting and just bought blankets
that's so funny, my grammy's never made a boxed cake or store bought pie crust but i do remember they used bag noodles
People still had gardens when I was growing up. Part of my chores when about 6. As soon as I had a real home and no roommates, back to gardening then canning. I enjoy it.
I dream of a woodstove. Bills were so much cheaper then. Even the 90s, heating a larger house and garage was way cheaper at 75 degrees than what I do in a smaller house at 64 degrees.
I have cats so little cotton.😹Cat hair magnet. Same with bedding. Gets destroyed faster washing too much.
We have used wood to heat since we got married in 1983.
It sure saves a ton of money.
I am all about not spending money if I don't need to.
Not messy if done correctly.
We hang dry our clothes.
P.S. We don't even own an iron.
I hate ironing.
That’s right
Good stories!
My grandmother, and her 4 daughters made cakes from scratch. They did not use mixes till the 70's. My Birthday cake was always poppy seed. LOL..
We had a garden my entire life and a compost pile. We did can too till the late 60's because fruit trees and vines grew on the fields right behind our home.
Depends on where they lived and what they did for a living. My farm grand parents did all of those things. My city grandparents did not. Also, using newspapers for window cleaning became a no-go in the late 70s to early 80s. The newspapers changed the type of ink they used. As the old ink, which DID work to clean windows was phased out, using newspapers was no longer effective and many folks stopped doing it.
That’s how my Mom back in Nebraska was. She didn’t do what you would think. They lived polyester
Wow! My grannies didn’t. That’s interesting. My granny clipped coupons and went from one store to another with sales papers in hand circled to get and cooler in her car. Saved s&h greenstamps. Maybe we were poorer and we never got soda or candy , unless a special occasion. Yeah, complete opposite here growing up... I’m 54.
My family still acted as if depression and war was going on.
I am doing so today.
The best window cleaner is newspaper and vinegar. Sorry...
Also put newspaper between garden rows for weeds.
I’m debt free and I still don’t buy what I want. I save