When was the last time you caught wild yeast in your
kitchen, made something totally useful out of a would-be cast-off (like a
crocheted grocery bag holder from VHS tape!), or washed your hair without
shampoo? Grandma and great-grandma likely did things like this all of the time.
Intrigued? I bet you are. This is Vintage
Savoir Faire, or “living the good life by rediscovering our roots,” at its
best.
Amanda, a young American woman living in London, is the doer of vintage projects and experiments, like making chilli-mustard foot oil for cold feet and foraging for nettles that can be turned into tea or pesto. She’s also the fun and inspiring voice behind the blog, Vintage Savoir Faire, where learning why great-grandma’s way is better is what it’s all about.
Amanda says a course she took on herbal medicine prompted her to re-evaluate not only the way she’d been treating minor ailments but many other areas of her life as well.
“I've always loved to cook and prior to the course did try
to eat whole foods and homemade items rather than processed foods,” Amanda
explains. “But I never gave medicine and beauty products a second thought. In
fact, I was really obsessed with beauty products! (I still am, I just make them
myself now). I had tons of shower gels, perfumes, lotions, eye shadows,
hair products etc. It never occurred to me to worry that I couldn't pronounce
half of the ingredients on the package. I never thought about how those
ingredients might actually absorb into the body. I bought into all the
marketing hype 100%! Realizing that some of the chemicals in beauty
products have either not been tested adequately or might cause harm was really
shocking to me, I had never even thought about it.”
While she’s quick to say she appreciates what science and technology have done for us, she says she’s now more sceptical and doesn’t take what she’s told—that it’s the latest and greatest way to do or treat something—as gospel.
Amanda says she now researches the ingredients found in health and beauty products before she uses them, or experiments to see if the ‘modern’ way of doing everyday tasks or making something is really the best way. In many instances, like food, health and beauty, Amanda’s posts show that the traditional skills, like cooking from scratch, treating minor ailments with natural remedies and making your own beauty products, produce superior results both in terms of your health and your wallet. There’s no doubt about it, some of the best money saving tips for frugal living come from the everyday practices and methods of days gone by.
When asked which area of her life required the biggest mental shift when she decided to start using and experimenting with more vintage methods, Amanda said her health, and the way she responds to a headache, flu or a cold, was a considerable adjustment.
“My biggest change is realizing that it's normal to be healthy,” she says. “So if you feel unhealthy, something is out of balance in your body. So before popping a pill at my headache, I now ask, what's going on? Am I dehydrated? Did I skip my cup of coffee today? How can I fix the underlying cause - because the headache is just a symptom of something being unbalanced.”
Whenever I visit Vintage Savoir Faire, I’m always impressed and inspired by whatever latest do it yourself project or experiment Amanda has tried. What’s funny is that my response to Amanda’s posts, which I’m sure is true for many readers of her blog, is typically, “oh, what a novel idea,” or “I’ll have to try that on the weekend when I’ve got more time.” Back in the day, grandma probably used these skills and made these things on a weekly if not daily basis, yet we often think we’re too busy or that making something from scratch ought to be saved for a special occasion.
Amanda’s site is an amazing source of information and ideas if real frugal living, with all of the do it yourself, more fundamental ways of doing things is what you’re after, but it’s also a reminder of just how much our modern conveniences have changed the way we get our food, clothing and medicines. As a result, the practical skills that were commonplace even 60 years ago have, in North America, gradually slipped further and further from our collective knowledge.
If there was ever a time where we needed a site like
Amanda’s it’s now. Luckily for us,
Amanda is as eager to learn new vintage
skills and techniques as she is to teach them.
“I think we have a totally different set of skills today (like tech skills) which are really important to be successful in our current lifestyles,” Amanda says. “So a lot of the traditional skills have fallen away. There are lots of people who enjoy cooking - but often cooking still involves opening packets and jars. I think most of us would be clueless if the grocery store or pharmacy suddenly disappeared. But for me the motivation isn't to learn how to be self-sufficient, it was the realization that maybe some of these new foods, medicines and products might actually have negative side-effects over time on me or on the environment. And also because I'm creative and find making stuff a lot of fun!”
In so many aspects of our lives, our modern, more convenient ways have caused us to lose touch; spending money needlessly on things we could easily make for ourselves, piling landfills with ‘stuff’ that captivated our attention for mere moments, and attacking our bodies with pharmaceuticals at the first sign of cold or flu symptoms, are a few examples.
What’s so refreshing about Amanda’s approach is that there’s nothing backwards or archaic about it. It’s about rediscovering the practical skills that never really needed to be substituted or updated in the first place; they are as valuable now, in terms of saving money, nourishing your health and protecting the planet, as they were 50 to 60 years ago. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing and, in fact, a good combination of modernity and vintage seems to be the ticket for successful frugal living, good health and all-round fulfillment.
“I still believe that modern medicine is amazing and definitely has a place in our lives,” says Amanda. “But the convenience of it has made us lose touch with our bodies. If you get in tune with your body, you'll know when something is out of balance and can make small adjustments before it turns into a full-blown illness. There are also lots of common ailments you can treat using food, herbs and lifestyle changes. Also, resting is so underrated. When you feel sick, your body is often telling you to slow down so it can heal itself.”
There are tons of easy, vintage skills that you can easily incorporate into your modern, everyday life. Visit Vintage Savoir Faire with a pen and paper* and try the do it yourself projects and skills that interest you. Amanda says that of all of the new old things she’s learned to do, making homemade body cream and sourdough bread rank high at the top of her list of favourites. Yes, if you’re wondering, making sourdough bread is the project that involves the catching of wild yeast in the kitchen…
“Sourdough bread absolutely amazed me because you catch wild yeast from the air,” Amanda explains. “I really didn't believe it would work - but by leaving out some flour & water you 'catch' the yeast, which then starts bubbling and growing, and you can bake bread with it! Mine worked so well it expanded out of the container and went all over the countertop. The bread I made with it was delicious though. I had never thought about how people baked bread when they couldn't buy a container of yeast in the grocery store. I found it incredible.”
We’re creatures of habit and although many of us may have
become quite comfortable in our pre-made and pre-packaged lives, it doesn’t
mean you can’t teach an old dog new tricks—or old tricks, I guess, in this
case. Amanda says all it takes is one instance, like when you discover that one
of the ingredients found in the moisturizer you’ve been using every day for the
last five years is also found in latex paint, or one vintage inspired do it
yourself project that really wows you, and you will be hooked.
“I think it takes an eye-opening moment, a bit of a mental shift, so that you actually think about what you put on and in your body,” she says. “There are lots of ways this can happen. Read Michael Pollan's books. Watch The Story of Stuff videos online. Look up your deodorant or toothpaste in the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep database. Read the ingredients list on the foods you buy and see if the ingredients listed are actual foods or chemicals and preservatives. Once you are conscious of what you are consuming, you'll want to improve it.”
*Amanda has started, Vintage Summer
Camp over at her blog. Readers can send in photos of the vintage-inspired
projects they’ve found and tried on Vintage Savoir Faire, earn camp badges and
even win a special mention on her site in September!
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