What an odd phrase or saying!

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffs_(Royal_East_Kent_Regiment)

I guess 'steady the buffs' was said to the above regiment as they prepared for battle.

My Nan and Mother used bread and pullet in response to the question "What's for dinner", followed by "You pull one end and I'll pull the other" .
I can also remember my Gran saying, when things needed to happen, "This won't buy the baby a new frock"
I'd always thought these were family sayings because I had never heard them anywhere else, so it's fun seeing that others use them, or similar, too.

Ive just opened that link that Shysal put on. I'm still laughing! Really! The thought of it! Rofl!

Ive never heard of the 'shake a stick' saying, and I believe that 'steady the buffs ' is a naval saying.

my mum used to say my giddy aunt fanny - although i never knew who aunt fanny was!!
it seems that many gransnetters' families have also used the sayings that my family used too. perhaps it's something to do with our parents' generation as you don't hear these sayings very much these days.

A saying my mother said very often was 'Oh, my giddy Aunt'. Don't know which one she referred to.

Yes, where there's no aense theres no feeling!
Also : no room to swing a cat! I used to think it cruel to cats but understand now it means the cat'o' nine tails on board ships.

Oh i say (when wasting time) 'well this wont get the baby bathed'! Actually all my grandchildren still have daily baths.
Bread and pullet is a play on words:
It suggests chicken (pullet) but can also mean just bread, and pull it! My grandmother said that and thought it a great joke!

We always got "Wait and see" for dinner, too.

And my Nanna used to say "Oh dear, xxx o'clock and no baby bathed" - which is probably pretty self-explanatory.

Mind you, these days, bathing the baby seems to have gone out of fashion - our grandchildren certainly don't get bathed every day like we, and our own offspring, did.

And my mother often said "He's big enough and ugly enough to ...." which she claims her own Dad used to say a lot.

One of my favourites of hers, which is applicable more often than you'd think, was "No sense, no feeling".

We sometimes had Windmill Pie for tea "if there's enough to go round"
occasionally it was "bread and pullet" -no idea what that meant.
Regularly it was "Wait and see".
We also had "Whim whams for meddler's noses" whenever you asked anything really!

I always wanted to know about "more than one way of skinning a cat" - loved the riposte from the Cheshire Cat in, if I remember properly, I think it was Jasper Fforde, "a most unfortunate turn of phrase - please refrain from using it in future".

when I worked in a school the kids would often ask me how old I was as kids do no messing with them, I heard this saying once and I think I got it right as old as your hair and as young as your teeth. Always thought that was a strange one any body heard that one before?

What about 'she's no better than she ought to be'? Doesn't really make sense!

My Dad used to say, if something was missing, 'it'll be up in Annie's room behind the clock'!
Marmite - my Mum used to say that to me when I was small. I always thought she was saying "up in Nanny's room behind the clock". But my Nan didn't have a clock in her bedroom bu I was always looking for one!

My Gran had some sayings that would infuriate me as a child and I'm glad to say that they still do my grandchildren.
When I would ask why? the reply would be "because there's railings round the park"
What's that? would get "Leo's for Meddlers" and "he says" would get "It says Oxo on the back of busses but they don't sell it"

If we asked our DM what was for dinner she always said 'Air Pie'

I think "I'll be jiggered" is euphemistic for a less polite expression.

My mum use to say " that's as far fetched as a bucket of shit from China" if we tried to stretch the truth or worse a lie. Or when we shouted " it's not fair" she'd reply " nor is a pigs arse" I was well into my 50's when I realise that a pigs arse isn't fur it's pig skin. She'd been dead for over 30 ears by then. How slow am I. My sister remembers her saying better than me. Mum had so many. They did the trick though because we couldn't answer back, simply because we were trying to work out the meaning of most of them.

Local expressions for messes are interesting. My mother would look at my bedroom and announce it "Looked like Howden Fair" here in Newcastle it's always "Paddy's Market"

Have an inkling 'Steady the Buffs' refers to a regiment known as 'The Buffs' and it was an order to hold their position.

When I was a child and was caught misbehaving, my gran would call me a "little blinder".
I'm not sure if it was a way of disguising a coarser word or whether 'blinder' was something to do with the street gangs of her youth called Peaky Blinders.
Also, when my cousin's daughter visited us from New Zealand, we took her for a trip into the Shropshire countryside and pointed out The Wrekin. She was surprised that it existed as she thought 'Going round the Wrekin' was just a saying that she picked up from her mother and grandmother.
I wonder how many other local sayings have made their way to former colonies?

My Dad used to say, if something was missing, 'it'll be up in Annie's room behind the clock'!
If I asked where we were going he'd say 'there and back to see how far it is'. I used that one on my children and now with the gc's

My father used to say Swap me Bob, possibly a corruption of So Help me God, but used in his case as an expression of surprise.

We always said 'enough blue to make a pair of Sailor's trousers' as well (and still do!)

'Well, I'll be jiggered' (surprised)
or DM used to say she was 'jiggered' when she was very tired from working hard.

And my Mum said Sailor's trousers .