There's nothing really new about the TV programmes these days which look at the poor souls who can't manage their household budget and wildly overspend on essentials like five new pairs of shoes a week. The tone has changed, but seventy years ago the BBC was providing advice to the grandmothers of the current crop of overspenders on how to live within their means.

This booklet accompanied a series of morning talks for housewives, and gives advice on how to economically feed a family of five. Two weekly budgets are used, one of 21s. (£1.05) per week, and the other, for the slightly better off, of 27s.6d. (£1.37) per week. For each of these a menu cycle for three weeks is given, together with shopping lists for each week and a number of recipes for cheap but nourishing meals.

Whilst some of the recipes may not really appeal to the modern, affluent taste (home-made brawn from a sheep's head - and can you legally buy one these days anyway?), many are simple but tasty. Most of us would probably benefit from trying to follow the same regime these days. After all, do we really