Doesn’t mean that you CAN’T be happy, although yes, it does make it harder. But there are people, I know two off the top of my head, who work minimum wage (when they work at all) and don’t have any spare money for THINGS. One of those is easily one of the happiest people I know, he enjoys scrimping and saving, treats it like a challenge. He is happy.

Just watching Mrs Beckham on the telly. At least she admits she’s a wally.

Thank you for providing a real-life example of how it was, and what made it possible. I think that a lot of people today have little appreciation or understanding of (and I’m not suggesting that many or even any of them read here, just making a point) the sacrifices that were made.

Many (actually most) of my friends are older than me, and my own parents went by my grandmother’s maxim of ‘cut your coat according to your cloth,’ so I consider myself very fortunate that I have a good understanding of how to exist on not much at all, while not going without much at all. As I said, how one chooses to live one’s life today depends where one’s priorities and values reside, and how much one buys-in to consumerism.

It worries me that, within a few years, living memory of how to manage on little without being unhappy will no longer exist.