LIVING BENEATH OUR means is one of the best habits to develop if we want a secure retirement. Like many others, I learned this sort of thrift from my parents and grandparents, who lived through the Great Depression and, by necessity, had to avoid waste.
Not only did our forebearers survive the Great Depression, but also the Second World War came right on its heels. These were years of conserving materials—such as metal, rubber, paper and food—to support the war effort.
My mother saved a food ration book from the war that still had some stamps in it. When she shopped, she had to hand the grocer stamps when buying meat, sugar, butter, cooking oil and canned goods. The number of stamps handed over depended on the scarcity of the item purchased. For instance, if bacon was 35 cents a pound, you might have to give the grocer seven stamps.
Once the stamps were used up for the month, people couldn’t buy any more of that food until new stamps were issued the following month. I wonder how many young people today know that, in this land of abundance, food was once rationed, and that thrift in itself can be a source of remarkable household revenue.
Mom also saved a booklet from the war years that gives information about saving or conserving just about everything—food, clothing, house furnishings, appliances, utilities, cars, even insurance. People found artful ways to scrimp on just about everything. Nothing was wasted.
We could all benefit from the advice in this little booklet. Here are 10 of the more memorable passages that appeared at the bottom of the booklet’s pages:
I’ll add to this list a quote from the 30th U.S. president, Calvin Coolidge, which seems apropos: “Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.”
Coolidge kept track of the grocery bills for the White House kitchen, and drove costs down over the years. He was also one of the few presidents who left office with a federal debt far smaller than when he entered.
A footnote: To get the flavor of what life on the home front was like during the Second World War, watch Woody Allen’s film Radio Days, which can be streamed free on the Tubi network. It’s worth watching for the tender and evocative songs of the 1940s, and it may be Allen’s finest movie.
Thanks for an interesting article and some good advice. I was born in England in 1947, and rationing didn’t end there until 1955. Apparently I didn’t care for the meat on offer at the time, and had a cheese ration instead. I also remember seeing bomb sites in London, now long gone.
Kathy..we are so glad to have you on this side of the pond. You are a credit to America.
During WW2 my American father ,age 19, was in a hospital in England after being seriously wounded in Germany. After many months in hospital he was able to walk and went into a shop asking for cocoa. The man replied, “Cocoa?? Even the f*$ing Queen doesn’t have cocoa Yank”
Thank you for all the wonderful information. Loved the passages from the booklet. How nice your mother saved the booklet and followed the advice. I look forward to your articles.
I didn’t discover the booklet until after she had passed..but written on the inside cover she had written..save for Marjorie Anne.
President Coolidge was an interesting character. Your HD article sent me to Wiki to start reading more about him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge
Silent Cal’s life appears to have been a study of frugality and humbleness. From Wiki –
He became President when he received word by messenger of Harding’s death. Coolidge dressed, said a prayer, and came downstairs to greet the reporters who had assembled. His father, a notary public and justice of the peace, administered the oath of office in the family’s parlor by the light of a kerosene lamp at 2:47 a.m. on August 3, 1923, whereupon the new President of the United States returned to bed.
Thank you for the additional information and you are so right…he was very interesting.
Not to mention that he had a pet raccoon while in the White House: Rebecca (raccoon) – Wikipedia
The Coolidges got Rebecca a companion—Reuben, another raccoon. He ran away.
I think Reuben was a democrat.
Thanks Majorie for a great article. It brought back memories of the stories my parents told, about tire drives, and blackouts. I haven’t seen Radio Days in years, but may re-visit it.
One of the great scenes in Radio Days is where the camera follows Joe, Aunt Bea and her current beau, throughout
Radio City Musical Hall in NYC, while a young Frank Sinatra sings “If you are but a dream” in the background. I guess the romantic in me just found it lullingly beautiful.
Thanks for your comments.
Great post Marjorie.
Some of the folks around today may see this as corny, but all the points make simple sense. I was born in 1943 so too young to remember first hand, but I too found my parents old ration books and heard the stories of about living with less. My father had a little hand machine that he used to roll his own cigarettes during the war – I wish he hadn’t done that though.
I cringe when I hear younger people talk about how things are different, so tough today, no opportunities. Etc. And then I think about the times my parents lived starting in 1910 and 1918 – and with none of the safety nets available today. My father was just 19 when the depression hit. He never got the chance to moan about student loans or only having a 401k and no pension.
Every generation faces its challenges, the current generation has it pretty good, but would be well advised to think about the messages you mention.
My great grandfather rolled his own cigarettes for most of his 96 years. He was frugal to an eccentric degree and managed to buy a large , lovely home on a factory worker salary. Three generations lived there at the same time , including my great grandparents , great aunt , grandparents , my mother and her siblings . The former servant quarters that the previous owner used for her staff were used as bedrooms for my family. In those days young people lived at home until they married- something you never hear of today. They usually had an ample downpayment for a home when they did marry.
My great grandfather and his brother in law, also a shoe factory worker, managed to save enough to buy other property and a business that they ran while still working in shoe factories. The property was sold decades later for a significant profit.
My great grandparents did what they had to during the Depression . They took in boarders who lived in the old servant quarters on the third floor while the family squeezed into other rooms.
Medicare did not into existence until my great grandfather was 91 years old. Both of my grandfathers died of cancer before Medicare and used their savings to pay for treatment.
Some may say imagine doing that today! Of course, it is coming to that again as history has a way of repeating itself. Young adults now living in mom’s basement; folks taking in boarders; some poor souls using their life savings to cover their Medicare co-pays for chemotherapy or other expensive maladies.
Yes, the current generation has it pretty good, at least materially. But it’s not in good shape in other important ways. It’s in crisis — call it cultural, spiritual, moral, whatever. It’s marked by serious mental health issues, increased suicide, a lack of meaning and purpose, sexual dysfunction thanks to ubiquitous porn. Many (not all!) seemingly lack Coolidge’s “industry, thrift and self-control.” That we see our own kids accomplishing great things, that their success rightly inspires a degree of optimism, doesn’t negate what’s clearly happening in the wider culture.
The question, Mr. Quinn, is, what responsibility does your (and my) generation bear for the failings you point out in younger generations? We Baby Boomers parented (when we chose to be in the home) permissively and indulgently. We allowed social guardrails to fall into disrepair. We allowed the hollowing out of education. We raised the kids that raise today’s kids. We set in motion the gradual, now accelerating, coarsening of culture. Individuals are ultimately responsible for their choices and the consequences that follow. But our progeny were not formed in a vacuum.
I’m well versed on your views of younger generations at this point. When should we expect a critique of your (our) generation?
Gee, you make me glad I’m not a boomer. My kids are in their fifties or very near.
My mistake. I’m sure your contributions as a three- or four-year-old to the Silent Generation were remarkable.
Thanks for commenting, Dick. There is a reason people of that era were called The Greatest Generation.
I really don’t understand why you feel the need to repeatedly criticize the younger generations.
I criticize the popular ideas about the younger generation. The idea that life is so much harder, that opportunity is diminished, that planning for the future is not possible, that work is harder and no fun, that saving is nearly impossible.
I base that on years of experience and observing my parents and grandparents, how they lived, what they dealt with and observing life today.
No doubt all that is different from the past, but not worse and in many ways better. As I see it the real issues are setting priorities, deferred gratification, defining needs versus wants, the accumulation of stuff.
And oh yeah, money spent on tattoos – just kidding.
Do you disagree that each generation faces different challenges or that generations in the past facing world wars, a depression, two additional major wars might have had it worse than younger people who don’t even know what the draft was?
Of course, each generation faces different challenges. However, I think those of us who were either born after WWII or were too young to have had to serve in it have had it every bit as good, if not better, than those who are younger than us. While many of us lived modestly when we were young, our parents taught us the value of a dollar and did everything they could to help launch us into successful careers.
Very true.
Yes, the current generation has it pretty good, at least materially. But it’s not in good shape in other important ways. It’s in crisis — call it cultural, spiritual, moral, whatever. It’s marked by serious mental health issues, increased suicide, a lack of meaning and purpose, sexual dysfunction thanks to ubiquitous porn. Many (not all!) seemingly lack Coolidge’s “industry, thrift and self-control.” That we see our own kids accomplishing great things, that their success rightly inspires a degree of optimism, doesn’t negate what’s clearly happening in the wider culture.
The question, Mr. Quinn, is, what responsibility does your (and my) generation bear for the failings you point out in younger generations? We Baby Boomers parented (when we chose to be in the home) permissively and indulgently. We allowed social guardrails to fall into disrepair. We allowed the hollowing out of education. We raised the kids that raise today’s kids. We set in motion the gradual, now accelerating, coarsening of culture. Individuals are ultimately responsible for their choices and the consequences that follow. But our progeny were not formed in a vacuum.
I’m well versed on your views of younger generations at this point. When should we expect a critique of your (our) generation?
I think all of the issues in Gen Z and so forth could be grouped under the heading of ‘lack of resilience’. That was the quality my parents had and the attribute I was glad to ‘inherit’ and pass on to my adult children. It seems to have vanished from society along with many other norms of comportment.
I think it’s part of the brand.
Dick has four children. Maybe he’s scarred!
We have three, 32, 31 and 30. I, for one, am eternally optimistic about millenials and Gen Z. I know Dick reads alot of the ” F.I.R.E”. blogs. Possibly that skews his perspective somewhat.
I think it’s great to be optimistic, they should be so with all the opportunities available in new and exciting ways. They should be able to save, to plan for the future, to come up with $400 for an emergency and no doubt many do and can, but you mostly hear about the doom and gloom and the life is too tough – and too often, I’m not responsible.
I think you hear about the gloom and doom on purpose because it drives discussions/controversy or hits or it goes viral. A young person just starting an entry level job who dutifully signs up for the company 401k, lives a modest life and works toward a better future is not nearly as exciting as reading about John and Jane Doe racking up $30,000+ in credit card debt and don’t have a clue how it happened!! Click here to read their story…..I know Jonathan has no control over the ads, but while I’m writing this, I have had the chance to buy a Goldendoodle (whatever that is), fine gold jewelry, designer eyeglass wear and the spring collection of dresses I assume for my wife. It’s a constant battle to tune this stuff out and it’s non-stop and everywhere.
You nailed it – these kids take it to heart when they hear about a contemporary earning thousands of dollars a day from being an Internet “influencer” while they toil away in real jobs. Best way to avoid such disappointment is to tune out all those stories, of course, and keep nose to grindstone. I’m not so sure the whole world is going to hell in a handbasket, but some are trying hard to make it so, for whatever the reason.
True
Be careful what you say about Goldendoodles. It seems HumbleDollar has been infiltrated by a large number of dog lovers….
It truly was meant as a question – not in any way a knock on the dog itself or dog lovers in general.
I can think of one writer in Phoenix who fits that bill.
My two kids are 30 and 34. I’m in awe of all they do — and, like you, very optimistic about their generation.