Food rationing?

[wvugurl26]

At least you tried DQ to follow the arrows. Last week was the first week Walmart had them. Nobody was paying attention to them at all.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I preferred no arrows at the one Wal-mart personally.  I was able to avoid the most crowded aisles rather than being forced to walk down them despite not needing anything out of them.

I get the thought process behind the arrows but like I said I wonder how much more time people are now in the store because I have to go through all 13 aisles as opposed to grabbing what I need from 1, 2, 5 and getting the heck out.

[Tiny]

I'm not surprised by the rationing.

I'm wondering if this will be the turning point where 1/2 a chicken becomes the 2 or 3 servings of "meat" it use to be - versus the single serving it has become. A 12 to 16 ounce chicken breast is NOT a single serving... The same goes for other types of meat.

I read something about a limit of 5 pounds of hamburger meat at the top of this thread: -- that should be 20 servings - or 5 dinners for 4 people. But I suspect it's more like 8 or 10 'servings' - so maybe 2 or 3 dinners for 4 people.

[Tennesseer]

Apr 23, 2020 10:38:55 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Apr 23, 2020 9:45:18 GMT -5 Gardening Grandma said:

I remember my mother talking about it.  Sugar was one of the rationed items, so baking a cake was only done for really special occassions....  She always hated wasting anything.  I'm starting to see things that way.

I have some pictures stored on my computer of my mother's ration books. If they don't have too much identifiable information on them I will post several examples here.

I thought the picture would have contained some of the items which could be purchased but I was wrong.  This is what the front looked like.  This was my mom's ration book when she was a teen.

[kadee79]

We bought flour & sugar in 25 or 50 lb. cloth bags & then those bags were used to make clothing...grandma made me bloomers from some & shirts from some or she would make herself aprons.  NOTHING was wasted.

[Deleted]

Apr 23, 2020 16:53:22 GMT -5 kadee79 said:

We bought flour & sugar in 25 or 50 lb. cloth bags & then those bags were used to make clothing...grandma made me bloomers from some & shirts from some or she would make herself aprons.  NOTHING was wasted.

My mother would cut out patterns very carefully so that she'd have enough scraps from the flour and sugar sacks to make napkins. We had dish towels, napkins and tablecloths made from the flour sacks, along with my dresses for school. 

Believe it or not, I still use three white dish towels that have to be at least 75+ years old that were made from flour sacks. The sacks were muslin, and that stuff wears like iron.

[Blonde Granny]

Does anyone remember the days of getting the cartoon jelly glass was full of grape jelly? And dish towels came in powdered laundry detergent? You could go to the grocery store and collect stamps and then use the stamps to get a new (on display) dinner plate or sometimes you could qualify for new silverware? One stamp page gave you a life, fork & spoon.

oh those days........

[buystoys]

I remember my mom saving up S&H Green Stamps to get a really nice living room light.  Different coupons, most likely, than you're speaking of.

[Deleted]

Blonde Granny I remember. And cheese spread in jelly glasses, too (my fave was pimento). I didn't like the dish towels because they were too small. And stamps? Oh, hell to the yes! I got lucky once and won 10,000 S&H green stamps. They were in sheets so I had to paste them in books myself, but it was like Christmas to me when I "spent" them.

I also collected some really pretty dinnerware when grocery stores would offer it with a minimum purchase of however many $. It took forfeakingever, but I managed to get a service for 12 including the serving pieces. Used that stuff for many years, then sold the entire set at a garage sale when we were downsizing. IIRC, it sold for around $100.

Got silver plate service for 12 with serving pieces free with Betty Crocker coupons that was sold at the same garage sale for $50. For some reason I had two gravy ladles. I still have the odd one.

[Blonde Granny]

Speaking of Betty Crocker or one of those....you could collect the box tops and when you had enough points you could send in the tops and order something from their catalog. One time I was able to get one of the square griddle pans. And I vaguely remember something about getting an entire cookware set.

[deminmaine]

When we were kids we looked forward to licking and pasting Mom's Green stamps!  They went the way of the Dodo when I was a kid though....

[busymom]

Ah yes, saving up those stamps for something Mom or Dad REALLY wanted.  The younger generation really hasn't experienced delayed gratification much, have they?  

[Blonde Granny]

They don't know what it is and can't spell it either.

[kadee79]

I got many good items with green stamps....and believe it or not, I still have one set of cookware I got by saving my store coupons/stamps & buying it one piece at a time....it's enamel over SS....and the big pots are great for making big batches of things like chili & spaghetti sauce.
I also still have some of the white "flour sack" dish towels...got them at an household auction in Ill. so hard telling how old they are.
I think if I looked hard enough, there would be some of those cartoon jelly jars packed up in the attic.  
Anyone remember the tin containers of Log Cabin syrup?...I have a couple of those too.

[tractor]

Log Cabin syrup was the best 🙂

[happyhoix]

Heard in the radio that some restaurants have added a limited number of grocery items so that you could order take out and pick up staples at the same time. For instance flour, which has become hard to get in places ( like here) can still be bought in industrial size bags at restaurants so they take their 50 lb bags and weigh out 10 five lb bags of flour. Same with TP. Panera was one of the big chains doing that. Anyone on the board tried that?

[happyhoix]

I also noticed our local store had a brand of tp and paper towels I hadn’t heard of before, the name was Spanish so I’m wondering if they had to go further afield to get some stock

[Blonde Granny]

I remember the tin Log Cabin syrup, and I have a tin Of Nabisco Saltine Premium crackers. I still keep saltine crackers in it.

[weltschmerz]

Apr 23, 2020 20:59:53 GMT -5 kadee79 said:

I got many good items with green stamps....and believe it or not, I still have one set of cookware I got by saving my store coupons/stamps & buying it one piece at a time....it's enamel over SS....and the big pots are great for making big batches of things like chili & spaghetti sauce.
I also still have some of the white "flour sack" dish towels...got them at an household auction in Ill. so hard telling how old they are.
I think if I looked hard enough, there would be some of those cartoon jelly jars packed up in the attic.  
Anyone remember the tin containers of Log Cabin syrup?...I have a couple of those too.

Nope. We only used real syrup and I still do. That fake stuff is nasty!

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

Apr 25, 2020 18:10:00 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Apr 23, 2020 20:59:53 GMT -5 kadee79 said:

I got many good items with green stamps....and believe it or not, I still have one set of cookware I got by saving my store coupons/stamps & buying it one piece at a time....it's enamel over SS....and the big pots are great for making big batches of things like chili & spaghetti sauce.
I also still have some of the white "flour sack" dish towels...got them at an household auction in Ill. so hard telling how old they are.
I think if I looked hard enough, there would be some of those cartoon jelly jars packed up in the attic.  
Anyone remember the tin containers of Log Cabin syrup?...I have a couple of those too.

Nope. We only used real syrup and I still do. That fake stuff is nasty!

[kadee79]

Apr 25, 2020 17:54:14 GMT -5 Blonde Granny said:

I remember the tin Log Cabin syrup, and I have a tin Of Nabisco Saltine Premium crackers. I still keep saltine crackers in it.

Yes, I have one of those too!  And an original Coke Cola glass.

[kadee79]

Apr 25, 2020 18:10:00 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Apr 23, 2020 20:59:53 GMT -5 kadee79 said:

I got many good items with green stamps....and believe it or not, I still have one set of cookware I got by saving my store coupons/stamps & buying it one piece at a time....it's enamel over SS....and the big pots are great for making big batches of things like chili & spaghetti sauce.
I also still have some of the white "flour sack" dish towels...got them at an household auction in Ill. so hard telling how old they are.
I think if I looked hard enough, there would be some of those cartoon jelly jars packed up in the attic.  
Anyone remember the tin containers of Log Cabin syrup?...I have a couple of those too.

Nope. We only used real syrup and I still do. That fake stuff is nasty!

Not sure it was "fake" way back then, but it was GOOD!...not like what you get today with the corn sweeteners in them.

[Deleted]

We had one of those Log Cabin syrup containers once when I was kinda little. It was a stocking stuffer at Christmas, I forget which one of us got it. It was the biggest treat in the whole world to us because syrup at our house was homemade. Brown sugar, maple flavoring, water, boiled on the kitchen stove.

I still have and still use a Quaker Oaks tin.

[weltschmerz]

Apr 25, 2020 19:28:55 GMT -5 kadee79 said:

Apr 25, 2020 18:10:00 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Nope. We only used real syrup and I still do. That fake stuff is nasty!

Not sure it was "fake" way back then, but it was GOOD!...not like what you get today with the corn sweeteners in them.

Whether, the very earliest of the Log Cabin syrup sold was actually pure maple syrup remains to be seen. It may have been, but it was probably a blend of maple syrup and corn syrup or cane sugar even then.

maplesyruphistory.com/category/log-cabin/

[saveinla]

Apr 23, 2020 18:20:21 GMT -5 Blonde Granny said:

They don't know what it is and can't spell it either.

I would not under estimate the younger generation. I know a lot of kids who don't drive a car unless they have to and bike or walk a lot, shop in the second hand stores and try to not buy anything that is not needed to save the environment.

My son and quite a few of his friends are all like this - they eat well, but don't spend lavishly and they don't buy the latest everything all the time. They worry a lot about climate change and how it will affect them and I have also seen them send money to charities to support children all over the world. I get asked about some of the initiatives, so I can give my comments about them.

The news only amplifies the ones who are stupid, but please please don't paint everyone with the same brush.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

We do Walmart online ordering/parking lot pickup for some of our groceries. There seems to be a "Limit 2" default on EVERYTHING we try to order, so we end up getting two strawberry yogurts, two blueberry yogurts, two vanilla yogurts, etc.  A lot of items we attempt to order won't even go in the cart (presumably unavailable). And even once our order is in, we're averaging a 25+% substitution/items out of stock percentage when we pick up our groceries.  And sometimes we have to wait 2-4 days to even get a reserved time for grocery pickup. (We've found that if we attempt to reserve a spot just after midnight, we can get one 2-3 days out when they open new spots.)

On our last trip to Trader Joe's (in pouring rain, mid-day), the line/wait to get in was less than 15 minutes. They only let 5 new people in when 5 people in the store leave. They had individual rolls of toilet paper available, limit 4. Nothing else I purchased had limits, but most of what I was buying was fresh veggies, eggplant hummus, and tzatziki (not your typical hoarding items.) I haven't attempted to purchase canned good, rice, beans, pasta, etc. from them

On our last trip to the local independent grocery store near our house, they also had individual rolls of toilet paper, limit 4. They also had a 2 container limit on distilled water. (I use it for my cpap machine.) I noticed they had limits on eggs, too. And milk. I just purchased one thing of almond milk since they only had one left. I didn't notice any limits in the meat department, but I wasn't looking for chicken or ground beef. This store is on the pricier side and it's not really a place people would go to stock up, I would hope. Their paper products and pasta/rice aisles have been empty for more than a month. I mainly buy fresh veggies and items from their deli, but I also grabbed my four rolls of toilet paper.

[NastyWoman]

Apr 23, 2020 8:27:59 GMT -5 deminmaine said:

Excellent points on family size and shopping for others.  Solutions?  Vouchers?  "Permission slips"?

We still have very limited offerings as well, but as a single person I encounter the opposite problem. To help people with larger families they are only offering jumbo packs. So this weekend when I bought chicken, pork, and ground beef I ended up with enough meat for more than a month in those three packages.

Since I don't anticipate getting out of here any time soon it doesn't bother me too much as I bought enough other stuff to get me through at least 3weeks before I need fresh fruit and veggies.

[NastyWoman]

Apr 23, 2020 18:20:21 GMT -5 Blonde Granny said:

They don't know what it is and can't spell it either.

And for that we have to look in the mirror and accept responsibility as we, as a generation, obviously have failed to pass that skill along to the next generation