Butter Vouchers

Cherry Blossom

So in the 90’s for a summer in between two third level courses I signed on. After my parents income was means tested I got twenty something punts a week from social welfare. Thank dog for the butter vouchers though. A few pence off a tub of butter once a month or so. What was the point of them though? Why was butter so important to everyone’s diet that the government gave special money off vouchers for this product to the unemployed? Why not bread vouchers for example? When and why did these vouchers start and why did they stop? It seemed totally random to me as a young adult at the time. I was expected to live off 20 odd quid a week but at least I had plenty of butter.

Leg End Reject

The smart people got their 10 box of cigarettes on the cheap with them.

Cherry Blossom

My local shop wouldn’t accept them for smokes but would let you use them for other groceries.

6541

Leg End Reject wrote: »

The smart people got their 10 box of cigarettes on the cheap with them.

We used to swap butter vouchers for fags. Mad stuff. Thanks for invoking the memory !

Leg End Reject

Cherry Blossom wrote: »

My local shop wouldn’t accept them for smokes but would let you use them for other groceries.

You were unlucky!

dxhound2005

I see somebody on eBay is asking for €800 for a book of "rare butter vouchers".

Cherry Blossom

Leg End Reject wrote: »

You were unlucky!

Na, I sold them to my mam for face value.

Leg End Reject

Wasn't there a cheese mountain at some stage too?

Bass Reeves

Leg End Reject wrote: »

You were unlucky!

Or unlucky if he still smokes

buried

Better Butter than Gun vouchers

Leg End Reject

Bass Reeves wrote: »

Or unlucky if he still smokes

There's always one!

dxhound2005

They should have given out some extra education vouchers.

Leg End Reject

dxhound2005 wrote: »

They should have given out some extra education vouchers.

Not to worry, you can always return to education.

Dunfyy

I swapped mine for beer

Leg End Reject

Dunfyy wrote: »

I swapped mine for beer

We've got a professional here, the rest of us just got cheap fags!

buried

Do not underestimate the power of butter. You could buy the most meanest ingredients for food for the week. Add 25g of butter to each meal and the whole thing becomes a feast the fatty Louis XIX wouldn't even be ale to handle.

Leg End Reject

Isn't it mad when you think about it though? At the time, I literally imagined a huge storage facility with a mountain of butter.

Did EU quotas solve this, or did we buy our way out of it with reduced fags, booze and groceries?

Answers on a postcard please to PO Box ...

Cherry Blossom

I’m not sure the butter vouchers were given out because of the butter mountain. Maybe it was because butter was considered one of the more expensive products at the time and it was an extra help to buy something you may otherwise have not been able to afford. At least that was the theory that you would actually spend it on butter.

Rrrrrr2

There was a butter mountain from over production in the EU in the 80s/early 90s- to help reduce it they had that scheme of vouchers for the needy.
I remember my granny using them in that era- must have came with the pension!

smellyoldboot

We had a return of sorts in the 00s when the government decided to give out industrial sized lumps of cheese to the masses. Just as well we're for the most part lactose tolerant as a people.

smellyoldboot

Also reminds me of my all time favourite "Hardy Bucks" line: "Face on ya like an oul butter voucher"

Leg End Reject

smellyoldboot wrote: »

We had a return of sorts in the 00s when the government decided to give out industrial sized lumps of cheese to the masses. Just as well we're for the most part lactose tolerant as a people.

I know there was a cheese mountain!

Isn't it just as well we have a mild climate? All that rancid butter and cheese would put you off your cheap fags and booze.

Mmmmm, fags and booze.

Stovepipe

You also got EU beef on the dole, along with the butter vouchers. I recall my then girlfriend showing me a pile of several kgs of beef given to her Mam and there was a frantic search for recipes on how to make different dishes out of it. Some of it was in very large pieces and had to be roasted for ages.

simongurnick

A little shop in Galway used to take them as part payment for bottles of buckfast

Cherry Blossom

I never got beef or cheese, just the butter vouchers.

Atlantic Dawn

There was beef vouchers too that gave you beef in a can, looking back now it was like something that belonged in Russia or a Third World Country, did all EU countries get them for their poor or only the basket case countries at the time?

Surreptitious

I can't remember any of this. I must have been one of the sad cnuts who had a job.

wexandproud

Stovepipe wrote: »

You also got EU beef on the dole, along with the butter vouchers. I recall my then girlfriend showing me a pile of several kgs of beef given to her Mam and there was a frantic search for recipes on how to make different dishes out of it. Some of it was in very large pieces and had to be roasted for ages.

I worked in a factory that used to distribute the beef . The reason it took so long to roast was because it was meant for stewing . Used to come to us frozen and we'd cut it up using a band saw . The amount that was returned to us was unbelievable , too lean , too fat , to hard to cook , could you not dice it up for me , today doesn't suit i'd prefer to have it some other day. While some people were glad of it the amount of it wasted was criminal . Although the people in the factory didn't qualify for it , because there was so much being returned and wasted we all ended up with freezer's full of it .
Before that in the early 80's i worked in a wholesaler and publicans redeemed the vast majority of butter vouchers . Eventually the manager had to enforce the proper policy that they could only be redeemed against butter so the publicans had to start to buy butter and arrange with a shop to take it off them . This was a time when most pubs were not serving food and even if they were the vouchers were not accepted against ''catering'' packed butter .

Pawwed Rig

Surreptitious wrote: »

I can't remember any of this. I must have been one of the sad cnuts who had a job.

My Dad was working too but I remember people arriving at the door handing out free butter from the EEC.

Aglomerado

I was on the dole for a few months in 1998 and I used to get them. Never bought fags or drink with them though! (Damn!)

McGinniesta

Leg End Reject wrote: »

The smart people got their 10 box of cigarettes on the cheap with them.

The really smart people didn't smoke and spent it on cans and pringles instead.