It goes without saying that as time has moved on things have become more expensive. What amazes me though is that people choose to spend so much when they really don’t have to.
When I was a young mother I could get most of the things I needed by swapping with other people, this approach seems very unfashionable these days, but discounting it is costing people a fortune.
Everybody goes on about how cheap the food is in supermarkets compared to local shops, and whilst that may be true the supermarkets are VERY expensive compared with getting stuff for free.
We didn’t raise chickens, there was no point, old Mrs Fisher was too old to tend her garden other than a few tomato plants near the back door so she had chickens…and we had a garden. We would simply take her some vegetables, and soft fruits and apple when they were in season and we got eggs by return.
I couldn’t sew dresses and things, but I could knit and crochet really well so that worked out fine.
There was always someone who needed a little job doing and we would get paid in goods rather than money. My youngest girl got her first dollies pram in return for two hand knitted sweaters, Ernie cleaned it up and I knitted a dolly to go in it and you would have thought she’d been given the crown jewels that Christmas morning.
People need to get back to the simple life, things were much happier then, people were much happier not having to strive for the latest this or that all the time. Generally, a roof, a hot meal and clothes to put on your back meant you were doing okay, but it’s nothing like that now is it?
I went to a huge Asda the other day, I used one of those little battery cart things which was great fun. I was zooming around having a right old time, until we got to the washing powder aisle. Have you any idea how many different washing powders (laundry soaps) there are on the shelves? What’s that all about? I was so shocked at the prices they are charging for soap, I could have fed the family for a month on the price of a box of Daz.
Then there was the ‘kill off the bugs because you’re washing at low temperature’ liquid which was almost as expensive as the powder, then there was the cost of the fabric conditioner…I love fabric conditioner, it makes everything feel so nice, I wish that had been around years ago. Then there’s the stain remover and the ‘make your whites even whiter’ powder. No wonder everyone seems to have skin problems these days. What I didn’t see was a bar of laundry soap, apparently you can’t get it easily any more, it’s old fashioned to wet clothes, rub in soap and scrub to remove stains.
Dear me, are these people going to have a shock if ever there’s a long power cut. Can you imagine Delores having to scrub clothes, by hand. My, I can hardly type for laughing at the thought of it.
I love Dolores dearly, she’s my granddaughter after all, but the thought of her handwashing clothes is just so funny. Bless her. She does work hard, in an estate agents office (realtors). She always looks immaculate, but she panics about getting her hair wet if it rains so coping with hand washing clothes would damn near give her a heart attack, and would most likely chip her nail varnish which would really annoy her.
I hope they take me shopping again soon. I hadn’t used one of those carts for oldies before, great fun, I think I could learn to drive a car after a few sessions on one of those. Our Paul went white when I suggested it. Kids these days have no sense of adventure…
Well, as usual love to you all and I’ll write soon
Regards
Maud