We were registered at different shops and went to take our monthly ration. There was a sheer restriction: for instance, everyone's oil ration was one liter and a half. If you wanted more, you stood in a line elsewhere, at the shops that sold without restriction. Ration was ration, it did not cost less, but the advantage was that we did not stand in a queue, for there were normal queues at the shops that sold in bulk. Sugar, flour and eggs had also been rationed (starting around 1985). (M.C., 61)

Lists and cards (a kind of family file at the food shop) were introduced according to the number of family members. That meant each one had the right to a packet of butter a month, thirty eggs, a liter of oil, a kilo and a half or two of sugar. There was a monthly ration, goods were bought only by showing your identity card and signing afterwards. The queue spread behind the food shop.

Rarely could you buy meat. You stood in a queue for days and there was nothing left for you. Larger quantities were brought only on the 1st of May or 23rd of August or on Christmas.

You could buy meat products, but not in big quantities. They were made of soy bean, considered to be healthy, not of chemicals and colorants as today. Pressed ham was made of petroleum. It was processed in some tans at Grivitza and turned into synthetic ham wrapped in cellophane. Along the time, some fat was added in order to better resemble meat. (M. V., 121)

Meat products were sold on a ration basis, 200 grams a person. They did not exist in the province. Those people only ate fish, at least those of Pitesti. They came from the province to buy them, but no one would sell them any. (M. V., 156)

We used to wake up at 2 o'clock at night and wait for the shops to be opened, sitting on the little chairs we brought from home. If there was nothing left, we came back the following day. We bribed the butcher or tipped him to sell you an extra half a kilo. Gypsies were terrible. We came at 2 o'clock at night and some gypsy stood in the queue too, but at dawn twenty gypsies, relatives of that one, turned up. They bought all the meat and nothing was left for the others. (M. V., 156)

If you stood in a queue to buy butter, you were not allowed to take more than one packet, the same with oil. Sometimes, if you asked for an extra kilo you got it, even if it exceeded the ration. I just wonder where did they get it from? Once it was on a ration basis, how come you could get extra? (M. V., 156)