These days we expect so much, so many think they are entitled to such a lot for minimum effort. I think advertisers and social media are pushing everyone to expect to be able to have anything they want, when they want it.
It's amazing how things have changed in the last forty or fifty years isn't it, we have moved forward so much as a society and pressures build for each following generation to do better, to have more ... to be more. Maybe people forty or fifty years ago said exactly the same thing, but of course some changes are good changes.
Going back even further in time the menu plan in my top photo was taken from a 1913 book called How the Labourer Lives which is available to anyone as a fascinating download. There was definitely a LOT of bread and butter (or lard) consumed.
I guess there's living simply and ekeing out an existence.
I love it when I find a YouTuber or blogger or hear about anyone that is bucking the trend, actually going back to a more simple calm life. Eschewing modern 'must have' items in favour of something beautifully simple that has lasted for years and will not need to be replaced in a few months time, and maybe even more importantly not trying to sell me something.
And I love books that tell me or teach me all about more simple times and modern people taking a step back to them. I'm currently reading The Way Home by Mark Boyle, and it really has me hooked.
And it really has me thinking ... as all good books should.
Sue xx
Hello Sue, that's my kind of book. I have ordered it from Mr Amazon after reading your blog today. Another book with a similar story is The way of the hermit, by Ken smith. My shelves have more books on simple living and natural history than anything else. I lead a very simple life in a very small village and approaching 80 I am still fit and healthy. There's a lot to be said for simple living. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteHarriet xx
Keep up the good work yourself, it sounds like you are doing amazingly well. ❤️
DeleteMark also wrote The Moneyless Man, which is also one of my favourite books.
Have you seen the programme Mark did with Ben Fogle.. New lives in the wild
DeleteMorning, just read your blog as I do all the time, I have downloaded the book, and also bought the other book, you really are bad for me as each time you recommend something I buy it. Cheers
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, I'm costing you money ... stop it. 😄 I'm exactly the same if I'm honest. I've had to stop watching Miranda Mill's blogs, she kept recommending books ... that ended up on my shelves somehow!! 🤔😂
DeleteThank you for the book recommendation. I have ordered it from the library. Have you read Walden, Life in the Woods, 1854, Henry David Thoreau?
ReplyDeleteThe menu does make our frugal food seem like the luxury it is. Bread, potatoes, or oats were the staples, with lard if you could afford it, a poor harvest meant starvation.
I haven't read Walden, Life in the Woods yet, but I have been tempted to many times. 😀
Deletefantastic book. I read it a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt is a really good read isn't it. I keep losing track of time ... which is always a sign of a good book.😀
DeleteThat sounds an interesting book. Can I put in a recommendation for another. This is the Amazon link but it is available from other sources. Lifting the Latch, a Life on the Land. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lifting-Latch-Abbott-Enstone-Oxfordshire/dp/0953221334
ReplyDeleteI read it year's ago and have never given it away. It's a touching account of what would have been a typical life for many in the countryside.
That sounds brilliant, in fact I might have just accidentally purchased a second-hand copy off Amazon. 😄
DeleteI hope you enjoy it. Picking it up again today reminded me that I've never read her other book, Ramlin Rose, which I've now ordered second-hand. Reading about Sheila Stewart today, she had an interesting life against the odds of her birth and early life.
DeleteI don't much fancy the diet in that table, some days all they ate seemingly was bread and butter (or lard!), for every meal. We're so fortunate nowadays to have the variety of foods and means of cooking them - and the money to buy them. I'm inclined to say I couldn't live on that - but they clearly did! We have too much choice I think nowadays. I've recently come to the conclusion that I really like a simple clean diet, so I won't be cooking complicated fussy meals anymore - a jacket spud with beans and cheese and side salad suits me well. Oh, I love your new header photo, by the way. xx
ReplyDeleteI'm gradually simplifying all my meals too, I feel so much better after them. The new header is an old photo off my old Smaller Life blog, I've always loved it. I felt my blog needed more 'green'. 😀
DeleteThanks for the book recommendation x
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
It's a good one, well worth the read. 😀
DeleteLife was certainly different in times past and todays inventions to make our lives easier have caused other problems. I was brought up with bread and butter with jam for tea and I quite like bread and butter but with marmalade today!
ReplyDeleteSo many problems are caused by things that we see as solutions at the time. 🫤 I prefer marmalade to jam these days too, the tang takes away the sickly sweetness, and marmalade goes brilliantly with black coffee. ☕️
DeleteWe always had bread and butter with meals presumably to fill us up. I think bread was better quality than now and didn’t use bleached flour. I remember the frying pan grease got poured into a cup with no handle and then sometimes we were given a slice of fried bread with sausage or egg for tea. The biggest difference in my diet now is the amount and variety of vegetables that I eat along with a more measured amount of fruit. Chicken and green veg curry tonight for us. Catriona
ReplyDeleteWe always had a slice of bread and margarine each on a plate in the middle of the tea table. It was either used to mop up gravy or for a chip butty, and like you say as a tummy filler. Oh and yes to that little pot of frying pan grease, always available for fried bread or a 'dip butty'. 😀
DeleteAccording the Office of National Statistics, the average life expectancy for a working class adult female in 1910 was 55 - I'm sure the lack of a NHS was a major reason but that appalling diet couldn't have helped! It was bad enough growing up as a Vegetarian in the 1960s and 1970s...like you say, some changes are good - like access to a wide variety of reasonably priced fresh fruit & veg all year round ! xxx
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is that while life expectancy has slowly risen each year for decades, it is now on a downward trend. No doubt due in part to all the UPF in the shops. ☹️
DeleteAs much as I like bread and butter, I'm not sure if that meal plan provides adequate nutrition. Even so, I suppose there are still too many people living on a similar diet due to limited access to food for one reason or another.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely doesn't provide adequate nutrition, but it's all they had to fill bellies with. I guess they did their best for the most part, with what they had available. My ex-husband was brought on a similar diet, so it rolled forwards to the 1950s.
DeleteI am really trying to go back to a simpler way of living, but in this day and age that is hard. Here in Canada people are saying our children and grandchildren will never be able to afford a home. That is really not true, the problem is those children and grandchildren have been taught to go big, rather than start small. Our youngest bought a small home just three years ago. Nothing fancy, two bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, one bathroom and a basement. He is working on the yard planting veggies, berries, and flowers that can be used in salves. He works hard on his home and is fixing it up. I have friends whose children think they should be able to afford a 3/4 of a million dollar house and are mad when told they can't. Sometimes I think that some parents did not teach their children to plan and save.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I agree with your sentiment regarding expectations but when a home such as you describe starts at around $700,000 here in Toronto and it takes years to save the deposit - yes it is - and will be - impossible for many. It does depend upon where you live but even the suburbs are becoming out of reach - and then you have to pay the commuting expenses....
DeleteExactly Jackie, we were having this conversation yesterday with family. It's all about expectations fuelled by social media and advertising. It takes a strong parent to raise a child to manage their expectations and not blindly follow the indoctrinated masses. It sounds like you have done well with your youngest.
DeleteMargie, we have similar problems in the UK, especially in London and other major cities. Saving for a deposit on a first property is usually only possible if you remain at home with parents and save virtually your salary for a couple of years. Which is just the way it used to be if you didn't want to hand over half your earnings on rent.
DeleteI will never tire of eating a chip butty 😉 I lived the simple lift as a child in Manchester until I was 12 and now at my age I wouldn't want to go back to having an outside toilet in the back yard, tin bath and chamber pots under the beds but oh I had so much fun and I was very fortunate in having a wonderful childhood❤️
ReplyDeleteHappily, our local chip shops all sell 'chip barms' as they are called, and if you eat inside the chippy at the tables you are always provided with bread and butter to make a chip butty. It's good being back in Lancashire. :-)
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