First Results from the Randomizer!

Last Wednesday night we used Mr. Bowles' Amazing Marketplace Scenario Randomizer for the first time - something we will be doing every Wednesday evening during the rationing year. The roll of the die indicated that there would be three scenarios for the this week's shopping. They are:

Salad Oils - None available

Frozen Fruit - Scarce, available but only at 1 1/2 times the normal ration points

Processed Meats - Only substandard quality available

As far as the salad oils go, I'm glad I bought a new jar of canola oil last week. I think we have enough to get us through, but I hope we can purchase more next week.

Frozen fruit is already quite pricey on the rationing list, so 1 1/2 the regular points makes it a definite luxury for the week. Our family typically does not use much frozen fruit at all when not rationing, but that's because we eat lots of fresh fruit instead. Since we're limited to seasonal availability during the rationing project I have a feeling frozen fruit will be purchased more often as a nice break from canned and dried fruit during the winter months. Luckily we had just enough points to purchase some frozen strawberries this week as an extra treat.

Substandard processed meats showed up on our shopping list in the form of hot dogs and some pepperoni for homemade pizza night. In this instance I assumed that "substandard" meant off-brand. Again, not too bad of a scenario for our first week with the Randomizer.

For this week's shopping trip we used 63 of our 64 red rationing points and 185 of our 192 blue/green stamps. Red points were used on pepperoni, cheese, hot dogs and turkey and then buying containers of both shortening and margarine. Friday night will be a special night with 10 point pork chops! Most of the blue/green points were used on canned fruits and vegetables and those point-pricey frozen strawberries. Also, we purchased a modest-sized bottle of ketchup at a whopping 18 points - yowzer!

I also purchased our allotted 2 pounds of sugar (brown).

The dinner menu for this week is:
Saturday - homemade pizza (pepperoni and black olive)
Sunday - sloppy does (using non-rationed venison), mashed potatoes and cabbage salad
Monday - vegetable fried rice and egg-drop soup
Tuesday - baked hot dogs loaded with left-over mashed potatoes and cheese and (canned) green beans
Wednesday - vegetarian taco soup with sour cream and Fritos (yay for historically accurate Fritos!)
Thursday - waffles and (turkey) gravy (historical recipe) and (frozen) peas
Friday - pork chops, cabbage and fresh-baked bread

On Wednesday night we also reset the trip meters on our vehicles - this week will be the first full week to stay under our 193 miles-per-week ration. The Man of the House has been carpooling to work with a gentleman who prefers to be paid in soda (!); this saves us around 14 miles each day that he works. My round trip to work is only 2 1/2 miles, and I often walk to and from work two to three times a week, weather permitting. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't permitted much lately, so I'm itching for some nicer weather in the new year!

The next few weeks of shopping should be interesting because we are preparing for Sissy's birthday party, during which we will be feeding 17 people a noon-time meal. We've already developed a relatively ration-friendly menu and should be able to make all the items...as long as the Randomizer doesn't throw us a kink!

--Rational Mama

A Rational Review

Now that we've survived the first day of rationing, I thought I'd review all of the rations/restrictions that we are following during this rationing year.

These allotments follow traditional U.S. civilian rationing during WWII:

Gasoline: maximum of 193 miles per week combined for our two vehicles (equivalent to the 11 gallons per week we would have been allowed during the War).
Sugar: maximum 2 pounds per week for our family of four.
Meat/Cheese/Oils: maximum 64 red points per week, following point values on this handy dandy chart (we are including poultry, which was not part of the original WWII U.S. civilian rationing program).
Canned, Frozen and Processed Fruits, Vegetables and Soups: up to 192 blue/green ration points per week following the handy dandy chart. [Editorial Note: during the 4th week of the rationing year it was discovered that we are only allowed 48 blue/green points. Big change!]
Coffee: Up to 1 pound per adult every 5 weeks.

All of the above restrictions, as well as some additional food items, are subject to change as a result of Mr. Bowles' Amazing Marketplace Scenario Randomizer.

In addition to the above we have also incorporated a host of additional restrictions during the rationing year:

Eating Out: we will eat out at a restaurant as a family only once a month, and I will have one weekend lunch out with the girls just once a month as well.
Limited Processed Foods: minimally processed and/or minimally-packaged foods will be preferred over other options (i.e. "real" carrots vs. bags of mini peeled carrots, no prepackaged snack cakes).
Seasonal Produce: only seasonal fresh produce may be purchased, following this list (if off-season, produce must be dried, canned or frozen and thus cost more rationing points).
Soda: permitted at a maximum of three 12 oz servings per week, per adult.
Limited New Purchases: all purchases must be evaluated for needs vs. wants and when possible second-hand options should be considered (Craig's List, Ebay, Goodwill and Freecycle).

We're also in the process of re-evaluating our energy usage in the Rational Living household, so additional energy ration guidelines may be added. We're notoriously bad about leaving lights on in unoccupied rooms and don't use power strips to power-down idle electronics. But that will be fodder for a future post!

In the meantime...pretty much the entire gang at the Rational Living household suspects that the eating out restrictions are where we will feel the most pain.

How often does your family eat out? Do you have a family plan about eating out, or is it more loosey-goosey?

Thanks for stopping by!

--Rational Mama

Java Dilemma

Java, java, java.

We haven't yet figured out how to deal with the coffee ration during the project year.

Coffee was the second consumable to be rationed by the U.S. government during WWII, beginning in late November 1942. Strangely enough, coffee was rationed not because there wasn't enough to supply the troops, but because civilians were hoarding coffee in fear/anticipation of it being rationed; their own attempt to avoid a shortage caused a shortage. The U.S. government introduced coffee rationing as a way of getting coffee back on the grocery store shelves. The official coffee ration was 1 lb of coffee every 5 weeks for each individual age 15 and above.

That means our house would have 2 lbs of coffee available every 5 weeks.

But see, we're not big coffee folks, so even 1lb of coffee would last for months. Sounds pretty easy, right? Well, part of the reason we're not big coffee drinkers is because of soda. I may have a soda once or twice a week, filling in the other days with an occasional tea or coffee. Hubby, on the other hand, seems to drink soda in spurts - he'll go days without soda and then have a few. So, we could consider rationing soda, but soda was widely available during WWII and was never rationed (yay! an un-rationed, copious supply of sugar!).

So what are we to do with this seemingly easy (for us) ration?

Should we come up with some sort of rationing system that includes soda and/or tea?

Or should we call it good and have at least one ration that is easy to live with?

This also has me thinking...what food item(s) would you consider hording if you suspected rationing would soon be instituted?

For me...I think chocolate would be at the top of the list, along with cheese. Mmm...

--Rational Mama