Strict Wife Of The '70s Manages The Household-Chapter 716

Erwang, “When was the soap’s quality good though? From the past?”

Lin Lan, “Of course it will be better in the future.”

Erwang, “Then what should we do now?”

Lin Lan, “…Let me think about it. How do the other families wash their clothes?”

Maisui smiled and said, “Mom, we didn’t have soap before this, so we always used soda ash (sodium carbonate) all along. Though, Grandmother never had the heart to let us use soda ash, so we made do with burnt grass ashes. Sifting the bubbles from the bottom of the bucket and hitting the clothes a couple of times with a cudgel was probably all we did.”

Lin Lan hurriedly waved her hands, “What kind of fabric can be pounded like that? The clothes would be fine if you wash it once a year, but to wash them every couple of days with such harsh methods would definitely ruin the fabric itself. Let’s find a way to buy some soap.”

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At this time, coupons were used for soap. Each person had a small bar of soap every month, which amounted to almost 300 grams that was cut into four pieces with some nylon rope. Just this little piece cost 8 cents, so an entire bar cost 32 cents, which was considered to be very expensive. After all, in the countryside, 20 cents was enough to buy a catty of noodles.

Folks in the countryside didn’t have much cash, so they had to rely on chicken backsides to get their salt and matches(1). They basically didn’t buy things like soap, which could be replaced by soda ash or plant ash. Coupled with a cudgel to pound the clothes, they considered laundry to be done just like that.

(T/N: Can literally mean they value chickens and trade for items because you can get your eggs from the chicken and eat/sell them. Also, since they didn’t have a lot of money at hand, I’m assuming that chickens were considered their own form of ‘currency’ or livelihood)

Over time, the Supply and Marketing Cooperative no longer issued soap tickets to the brigade. Basically, everyone bought their own shares with their own tickets. Still, no one ever bought them in large quantities since most of the people chose not to buy them anyway.

In the entire Shanzui Village brigade, except for some families who bought one piece of soap per month, Lin Lan was the one who bought the most. Not only did she buy up her own share, but she also bought Han Qingsong’s additional share. Lin Lan’s family of 7 was not really allowed to purchase 2 bars of soap, but after becoming known from her work she did in the Publicity Team, everyone in the cooperative started to know who she was. And with that, the head of the cooperative allowed her to buy 2 bars of soap ever since. Plus, Han Qingsong would also obtain a bar of soap on his own accord as well.

Just like that, the family would be buying 3 bars of soap a month for a total of 96 cents, which was thought to be quite a luxurious spending. Even Dong Huaihua was secretly dumbfounded as she thought that Lin Lan’s household was too extravagant. After all, the amount she had per month was enough to sustain 5 or 6 other families.

After figuring out the calculations in her head, Lin Lan felt that it didn’t bother her to try and use some of her connections to ask for more, but a matter of spending so much money on soap a month. Was it really appropriate? The key point was that the quality of soap was truly crappy in this era since it was both hard and easily cracked. Sometimes, without the appropriate water quality, the clothes wouldn’t even be properly cleaned anyways.