Making stuff last: learning from a lost generation

When I was a kid, everyone's grandparents lived through the Second World War. Now, there can't be many people under 35 who grew up with either parents or grandparents who lived through that kind of hardship. Most people just have no idea what financial difficulty is. You saw that last week: the poor don't panic buy. I'd guess mostly because you can't. But equally, if you are living with little or no spare cash then you just know better. Welcome to the daily life of thousands of people in this country where uncertainty, lack of resources and lack of access to just the basic necessities of normality is how they live every single day. The people who panic-bought are some of the most privileged people on the face of the planet. And, arguably, some of the softest.

I grew up with grandparents who lived through the War and parents who grew up in the post-war shortages. That experience lived with them for a hell of a long time. Even in the 1980's when I was a kid, where the world was full of "greed is good" affluence and surpluses, that memory of austerity lived large in our lives. I still remember going on holiday and my dad keeping a ledger of what we spent so there would be no shocks when we got home. Now, I find myself doing that when I go on holiday with my own daughter.

For the vast majority of people in this country, we have been able to forget how to live with hardship. You see it everywhere and the atrocious behaviour of great swathes of society just highlight that. We forgot how to be frugal because we thought affluence would go on forever. Whatever else happens in the next 12 months, I hope that lesson is learnt by society. I know it won't be, though.

Anyway, rant over. This blog post is inspired by that generation that lived through the War. They didn't panic buy because there was nothing to panic-buy. So what did they do? They made do. And that is what this post is about. Making do.

The easiest way to have enough to last you is not to go out and buy it. The easiest thing to do is make what you have go further. One of society's big mental sicknesses is that we have no idea what a portion size is. That's clear from the level of obesity and all that brings. So...

LESSON ONE: YOU NEED A LOT LESS THAN YOU THINK YOU NEED

That starts with food. We eat too much. And when you eat too much you also think you need too much. This wasteful, expensive and denies resources to people who need it. Just cut back what you put on your plate. Hunger will kill you but feeling hungry won't. There are tons of ways to make yourself feel satisfied without piling your plate up.

Add a bit more fat. Pour some olive oil over some green veg or toss a knob of butter on. Bread and pasta fills you but an hour later you're hungry again. Fat makes you stop eating sooner and keeps you going longer. A rasher of bacon will keep you going longer than a bowl of cornflakes.

Drink more fluids. It's an old cliche but a lot of the time when you are hungry, you're just thirsty.

Or just get used to it. "Hungry" is not "hunger", you can't die from a feeling. If you got your nutrients and got your calories then live with it. It won't kill you. Be comfortable with a little bit of hardship. (Because there is a lot coming our way so you better get used to it now)

Get into calorie restriction or intermittent fasting. This is maybe one of the few things that has real evidence for significant long term health benefits and god knows we could all do with that right now. Skip breakfast and you automatically end up with 18 hours between meals. You might feel hungry but the health benefits are major. I'll leave you to do your own reading.

But it isn't just food. You can just use less all over the place. Here are a few tips that I use:

• buy one of those skin scrubber things. They look like a ball of net curtain material. Use it in the shower, you put a small blob of shower gel in it and wash with that. You get a ton more lather than you get with just using your hand and shower gel goes a hell of a long way. Just stick it in the washing machine every now and again

• if you take sugar in tea or coffee then try this. Stir it. Yep, as simple as that. Stir it a lot longer than you do normally and I guarantee you'll notice your drink becomes a little too sweet.

• laundry liquid and powder. Manufacturers love you to use more and those scoops and balls are sized so that you'll rattle through it. I'll use half or even a third of what the label says depending on what I'm washing and I have never noticed any difference.

• washing up liquid. Same thing, we grab the bottle and squeeze. Make an effort to squeeze a hell of a lot less. Again, you don't need anything like you think.

• if you aren't leaving the house then go without. I'm working from home so haven't shaved in a week. And I hate to say it, if you cut back on deoderant and you smell a little stronger than usual then who cares? And if I run out then I'm not going out just to get it. Time are tough.

• do what everyone's dad says: put a fucking sweater on. We're all going to be at home a lot more. Where I was using someone else's power and heating, I'm now using mine. Put on a fleece first.

LESSON TWO: SAVE STUFF

One of the main reasons I didn't panic buy was that I have a hell of a lot of food in the freezer. Freezing leftovers and stuff headed for it's use by date is basic. And if it needs repeating, if it hasn't come from an animal then forget what the date on the packet says. It's good until it either looks or smells bad. We need to stop wasting things. If you have too much and you have to throw it out then you really need to be ashamed of yourself. There's an old African saying, the best place for extra food is in my neighbour's belly. Failing that, the best place for extra stuff is in some kind of storage or preservation.

• Instead of panic-buying milk, or wasting milk that is going out of date, freeze it. Here's what I've been doing: you get a litre of milk and you pour 330ml into three freezer bags. Tie a knot in the bag, put it inside another bag and stick it in the freezer. The great thing about this is that you can mould it to whatever space you have free. Bottles take up too much room. To defrost, put the bag in a bowl in the fridge. DO NOT LEAVE IT OUT TO DEFROST, it will go bad. And make sure you double bag it, old milk WILL contaminate anything it touches.

• Veg doesn't freeze very well and it's pretty bulky so I batch cook it into a big vegetable stew, portion it up into bags and freeze that. Takes up less space and fits anywhere like milk does. Defrost and use as a base for other things like curries.

• Learn traditional preserving techniques. Pickling is great, especially if you were stupid enough to clear the shelves of eggs. A glut of fruit and veg is perfect for chutney making. My favourite is ferment preservation. Basically storing fruit and veg in brine and letting its natural bacteria preserve it. I regularly make sauerkraut and fruit kvass. They take a bit of getting used to but I love the taste, earthy and acidic. I've got a big jar of salted citrus fruit that I made myself. These might not save a huge amount but they're fun experiments and you can end up with some lovely products.

• My parents and grandparents always used rags for cleaning. Old clothes, especially cotton, are great for cleaning rags. I have a bag of my daughter's old school socks in the shed that I keep for wiping up stuff, painting, etc.

• I have a wood stove and I save the bark from the firewood. It usually flakes off when chopping it. I keep it indoors in a mesh bag to let it dry out. Use it as kindling, either on its own or mixed in with dry wood. Stove always has charcoal in it which is great for kids' art projects. Amazon boxes make good fire lighters.

• I save egg boxes to start my tomato seeds off in. Last summer was shit but most summers I'm self-sufficient for tomatoes and salad.

• Anyone who grew up watching Blue Peter always had yoghurt tubs to hand. When my ex-girlfriend's dad died she found hundred of margarine tubs in the attic he'd saved for using for little jobs, mixing paint, storing nails, that kind of thing. Vitamin pill pots are brilliant for storage.

LESSON THREE: ALTERNATIVES

Find sustainable alternatives for things that are finite.

• kitchen roll. I bought a big pack of microfibre cloths from Screwfix for a couple of quid and I use one or two of them every day instead. Just chuck them in the wash at the end of the day. Same with dish-towels.

• I invested in a Karcher steam cleaner a few years ago and it probably paid for itself in cleaning products not bought. It's sometimes a lot more hassle than spraying a chemical everywhere but at least I don't have that shit in the air. They are expensive but you can get them cheap on Ebay. Buy a decent make, though.

• Get rid of your tumble-drier. It's a pain hanging clothes on a drying rack, especially in winter, but it saves a hell of a lot of money. You can buy heated racks or ones with a built in fan heater that are really cheap to run. Or just get a little oil filled radiator, stick it under the rack and chuck a cotton sheet over it all to make a warm tent. Works fine (just keep an eye on it).

• I use stainless steel wool balls for washing the dishes. Every now and again soak it in some bleach. I get through maybe two or three a year at most, they will last forever. Word of caution, when they fall apart you can get slivers of metal stuck to plates and utensils. Don't push them this far.

There are a shit load of things if you just stop and think: what else could I be using now? If you find yourself throwing out items after just one or two uses then you need to source something else. It's better on the wallet but it also helps the environment.

These are the basic principles I use all the time. Use less, reduce waste and find sustainable alternatives to disposables. It's no coincidence that these are exactly the same principles that are promoted to help the environment. In the developed world waste hurts us both economically and from what it does to our environment.

If nothing else, just cut down on stuff. Do not try to buy your way out of hardship.