Could we have managed nowadays?

[sallysmum]

Oh Carol

That's so sad.   I know there is more about my grandmother which is heartbreaking when you think how strong they were in their heyday.
Wendy

[sharonf73]

I beleive it is the way you have been brought up.  My parents started off with hardly anything and taught my sister and I how to save and you don't get anything until you have the money for it.  We both still work like that and tried to explain to our partners how it works (I ended up throwing mine out!).  Trying to get them to understand cards are not there because they have no money it still has to be paid.  We came to the conclusion it is the way we were taught by our parents.

I used to work in the social work department in a residential school.  I still get angry when I see people throwing money about and all I can think of is how many kids are out there with no winter shoes and sleep on matresses on bare floorboards.

Sharon

[CarolBurns]

Exactly Sharon - though the parents will have plenty of money for everything else.

Luckily my hubby is like me and doesn't like credit cards. We have one for the business and that is it and then we don't use that either. Sometimes to pay a bill over the phone but that is all.

Amazing what sticks with you through the years

Carol

[sharonf73]

Exactly Sharon - though the parents will have plenty of money for everything else.

What also amazes me is when I work at my second job in the local supermarket (so I can pay my mortgage and have those little extras!) is the amount of parents who come in and realise they don't have enough money.  So what do they return?  The sweets or decent food for their dinner but of course they keep and pay for the beer!

Sharon

[meles]

We are all indeed very lucky, not only to have good lives, but when you see what our ancestors (immediate and longer ago) went though, just to be here at all.

meles

[CarolBurns]

Very true Meles

We are who we are because of them

Carol

[behindthefrogs]

This thread caused me to examine my own habits.

I walk to the shops and will go twice if there is too much to carry.

I use old clothes as cleaning cloths

Dinner last night was ham salad followed by blackberries and apple.  Only the ham and the milk and custard powder were purchased.  The only other food items used during the day which were purchased were bananas, butter and bread.

Yes I have a credit card but it will only have about a dozen purchases on it a year.

Since I paid off the mortgage I have no borrowings.  I don't purchase until I have saved up for it.

It would take me a month to fill a black bin bag.  Half of my waste is composted.  

I sound like a goodie goodie but it was the way I was brought up and both of my children who are in their thirties live in very much the same way.

David

[karenlee]

I think that some people from years ago would cope quite well today.  BUT then again they would cope no matter what happened when ever, where ever.  Some people just have IT.  My aunt used to say to heck with the good old days, she wanted the convenience of electricity, flushing toilets, hot running water and the like.  She did not miss coppers to wash in , newspaper as loo paper or outdoor toilets with snakes and spiders under the seat.  Still she did her bit to conserve water and reuse just about everything.

AND don't get me started on bananas David,  who ever heard of paying $15.00 Aussie  for a kilo of the things.  Used to be about $2 or $3 per kilo until the cyclone, and now the government won't let us have imported ones at a cheaper price. 

Karen

[Jean McGurn]

Qote "My daughter's life is about to end if her mobile phone battery dies and she can't contact someone she has not spoken to in about an hour. Tragic really " unqote"

 There is a programme on Children's BBC at the moment called Evacuation.  12 children (6 boys & 6 girls) have left the 21st century to go back to the 1940's when so many children were evacuated during the war and live as they would have.

They are living on a farm  as if it is 1940. The boys had their hair cut including one lad who hadn't had his hair cut in 6 years. They do the tasks that children would have done and are being treated just like the children would have been treated in the 40's, even schooling and going to church.

One girl only lasted a couple of days and returned home but the other 11 have stuck it out. They all do video reports or comments I would say. It has been amazing to watch them change and I wouldn't mind betting that when they return back to their own homes after tomorrows episode their parents are going to find completely changed children.

A couple of the girls said they they missed phoning their friends but as the series has gone on they haven't even mentioned home. In fact they seem to be enjoying life even though they have had to help prepare food like chicken (one of the hens killed and plucked), rabbit  (skinned) and collecting nettles then making soup, things that would have been common place during the war.

Jean