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Monday, February 23, 2009
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Grandma's Tips on Surviving Depression 2.0
My 93 year old Grandma thinks things are looking pretty bad these days, which is saying a lot for a women who survived the Great Depression. I asked her how they made it through those tough times. Her advice sounds a lot like what would work today.
The American People Have to Learn to Cut Down
Grandma was raised on a farm in North Dakota and she said they simply didn't have any money. Something she thinks people these days probably can't understand at all because people still seem to have money now. They were lucky even to buy food. Until Roosevelt there was absolutely no government help at all. Nothing. People were on their own.
- People didn't have luxuries.
- If they could afford shows they were worn for a couple of years and were fixed, not thrown away.
- Clothes were handed down. New clothes were rare and they usually made clothes themselves.
- If families even had a car there was just one car per family at most.
- Kids walked to school. She walked 3 miles to school unless the weather was really bad.
So learn to do with less. When you have less you don't need as big an income to survive and you can ride out anything.
Learn How to Cook
They didn't eat out in those days. Food was prepared and eaten at home. They bought beans and rice in 100 pound sacks. They made lots of soup, especially using cabbage grown in their garden and beef bones when they had them. To this day she still doesn't like beans because they had so much of them.
Grow Your Own Food
They had a big garden where they grew potatoes, carrots, greens, and tomatoes. Then they would can food so they could eat in the winter.
No Debt
Credit cards didn't exist so they saved up if they wanted to buy something. She doesn't have any debt to this day. I would think a lot of people from her generation kept those habits all their lives. It's the later generations that reacted to times of plenty by wanting plenty more.
I asked what they did about medical care. She said they didn't go to the doctor or the hospital that often, but when they did they worked out a payment plan. They would pay a little each month or at harvest times. Eventually it did get paid off.
It was definitely a different time. The US in that era was still largely rural, still largely farmers, and the population was tiny compared to now. It's hard to imagine how our urban population could live without money as the entire economy is based on money. But even if the world has changed the things they did back then to survive make a lot of sense now, even if it's not the path to a continual series of double-digit growth projections.
12:37:39 PM 
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© Copyright
2009
todd hoff.
Last update:
3/12/2009; 12:58:55 PM.
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