Those people in rural areas, were now faced with the task of growing more vegetables than they had done before. It was the people that realized that some form of food restrictions would have to be brought in by the government. When the opinion poll went out, most of Britain was in favour of rationing. At least this way they knew that they would be allowed the same amount of food as the rich and wealthy. If you wanted something that you did not have enough coupons for, you could go without for a week or two and use them all the third week. Often, coupons were transferable within the family when it came to clothing. If you wanted ten coupons to buy a child's dress, and you only had six, then you could take four from your husbands allowance. Coupons, whether they were for food or clothing, was only to control what you were able to purchase, they had no effect on the price. So if you wanted to buy a shirt or blouse, it would have cost you 2/6d plus three coupons. Even if you had the money to pay for a product, and you did not have the coupons, you could not buy.

Food rationing was expected soon after the outbreak of war, but was delayed by the government until such times that it became absolutely necessary. Many of the lower classes complained that food was being given to 'preferential' customers and that rationing should be brought in to be fair all round. The government, after much deliberation introduced food rationing in January 1940 and most foods were rationed by their weight or by points.  Sugar was rationed at twelve ounces per week, but meat was rationed by cost. Therefore each person would be allocated 1/10d worth of meat per week, 3 pints of milk, 8 ounces of sugar, 4 ounces of butter or fat, 4 ounces of bacon, 2 ounces of tea, 1 ounce of cheese and 1 egg.[1]  Other foods such as rice, jam, biscuits, tinned food and dried fruit was rationed by points and not by weight. Each item was given points, or to the holder of the ration book, coupons. Each family had to register with a shop or store where the foodstuffs would be purchased and this was the only place where the family could make purchases. Each member of the family had his/her own ration book, adults had a buff coloured book, children over three had a blue book while babies had a green book.

Food substitutes were also seen for the first time. Families were told to try to refrain from using sugar wherever possible, but if they had to, then they could use saccharin tablets, which although they had a tardy taste many used them in tea or coffee, while many thought the taste of saccharin disgusting and would sooner go without. Margarine was used instead of butter, and this became an alternative for that slice of bread and jam, but because margarine was not a 'natural' food, it was far less healthier than butter. Many other foods were in a powdered form, Milk powder had to be diluted with water, and was used for the usual 'cuppa' and for cooking. Although potatoes were in supply, people were encouraged to use potato powder to ease the demand on fresh potatoes. If any of the powdered foods became popular, it was the egg. Tins of egg powder could be used for many things, and the government actually introduced a cook book on how to cook successfully with powdered eggs. Many liked the flavour that the dried egg powder made to a Yorkshire pudding, and egg powder done properly made pleasant tasting scrambled eggs.

If a lady was not wearing her best white dinner dress, a string of the finest pearls or a spray of the finest stones in an elegant brooch, then this would give way to a fashionable siren suit. These were styled on the workers boiler suit, but instead of being oil and grease smeared fabric, they were made of a gas proof oil silk in a variety of pastel shades, and the inside was covered in a winceyette type of lining to match the exterior. These then became popular, and soon the ladies were adorning themselves with matching kid gloves, silk scarf in a colour to compliment the siren suit with a neat bow under the chin, and you always took along a small hand purse often called a siren purse.

These started to prove practical with the rich and wealthy. If your taxi got caught up in an air raid, and you had to walk the rest of the way to your club or restaurant, the siren suit was far more suited in dusty or wet conditions, and at your club, you would not lookout of place because everyone else was wearing the same. The beneficial side of these was that you could take them off to reveal a short skirt with frilly blouse that had been worn underneath......and the jewellery.

But to the working class, just clothing their children or themselves was all that mattered. Many a family had to go without because they had neither the coupons...or the money. Walk around the working class boroughs of south or east London and most of the women were wearing a full wrap around pinafore ("Pinnie" as it was often known as)tied in the middle with a turban around their hair that was often a mass of curlers. Young girls, out to impress a "fella" or their boyfriend, would buy what was known as a stocking kit because it was impossible to buy stockings. A cream in a variety of four shades was applied to the legs, and once dry, a special pencil enabled you to draw a straight line down the back of your leg to act as a seam. The 'bra' was in short supply and when they were available were not of good material and were uncomfortable and lacked the shape that many young girls wanted. A number of handkerchiefs or pieces of material often added those few extra inches that would impress 'as required'.

Trousers amongst women were becoming more practical. For the first time, now that women were in the work force, conditions insisted that they wear trousers. These, in wartime London were far more practical than the normal long or three quarter length skirt. To make them more feminine they were manufactured in fawn, dark brown, black or dark blue, and this allowed the use of colour co-ordinated blouses or jumpers to be used.

With clothes rationing, much the same as with food rationing, each person was allowed so many coupons that he/she was allowed to spend on themselves as well as money. Usually this worked out at 48 coupons per year and was the annual allowance for everybody no matter who or what you were. If you went shopping for clothes, and this included any sundry clothes items, such as handkerchiefs, ties, knickers or socks that you might purchase at Woolworth's, each item had the price with the amount of coupons required to purchase the item. It was left up to the mothers, who generally done the shopping to organize the coupons and how they would be used throughout the year. So, how would one balance the budget?

Adults generally had a good idea as to how to save and conserve on clothing, but it was the children usually who had to be educated in how to look after clothes. Most normal children would want to out and play and often came home with holes in their pants, or torn shirt sleeves. The government brought out a new slogan, "Make do and Mend". Pamphlets were issued, newspapers and magazines all had articles on how to make do and repair old clothes. Mothers were now being educated in how to mend holes in boys pants, how to repair frayed collars and cuffs, how to sew in patches on worn elbows, how to darn socks, many will remember having a potato in their socks.

And opportunity shops are not new, Britain, through the Women's Voluntary Service (WVS) organized centres where if you had any old clothes that your children had worn out of, you could take them along and change them into something more useful. Many old woollens were unpicked and turned into balls of wool so that they could be re knitted into something useful.

This also caused another problem, because being that fuel was now in short supply, with most of it going to the armed services, buses were taken out of service by 9.00pm and by 2.00pm on Sundays. In some provincial towns, buses did not run at all on Sundays.

Bicycle sales started to increase, and in many places stocks ran out as demand exceeded production. It is interesting to note that the demand for ladies bicycles was greater than for men's. Another interesting point was that in times of the air raids when many of the streets were closed to motor vehicles, and no one knew which street was to be closed next, the bicycle was one of the quickest methods of travel. You could pedal away, come to an obstruction, push the bicycle across, then on the other side, start to pedal away again.

The conversion to gas operated cars is nothing new. Gas was made available to British motorists during the war. All you had to do was to get your local coal man to deliver some coal, place it in the car, light up, and you would have enough fuel from a hundredweight of coal to travel one hundred miles. Maybe smelly and smoky, but at least it got you around.

But not many people turned to the gas conversion, which I suppose is understandable. The conversion was expensive, so only the wealthy could afford such a luxury, and taking your wife to your favourite London night-spot or restaurant in her nice white evening gown, and a hundredweight of coal in the back seat.

Many shopkeepers maintained a practice of keeping many goods 'under the counter', in other words, for some poor customers, he was ".....very sorry but we are out of stock", but for his best customers that same item/s were kept under the counter or "out the back" especially for them. Then came the practice of marking up and item above normal for sale to the occasional's, but was sold at the normal price to the best customers. Of course, all these practices were illegal, and anybody caught was fined £100 or sent to prison for three months, but with police engaged in more important matters there were not many who could keep track and arrest those offenders.

There was a story that a passenger on a London bound train was suspicious of the well dressed fellow in his compartment who kept a tight grip on his rather large suitcase. The passenger informed the guard of the train who must have alerted someone at one of the stations that they stopped. On their arrival at London, the well dressed man was stopped by police and arrested only to find that he was a genuine salesman selling women's cami-knickers and had just been doing business in York.