It wasn’t only food that was rationed. Clothes were also limited. A system of coupons was used to limit the number of clothes that any person could buy in a one year period. Different items of clothing were worth a certain number of coupons.

The fact that food and clothing was in short supply instilled a great sense of recycling in the general population which is, of course, once again becoming popular. People had to “make do” with what they had and so, if a sock had a hole in it, it would be darned rather than thrown away.

A common character in Government poster campaigns was the “Squander Bug”, who was used to try and encourage people to be frugal with their possessions.