I might be remembering incorrectly but I believe that my grandma told me once that they used to use water on their cereal instead of milk.
I have not been able to find any sources of it being true (everywhere) so it might have been just their family or perhaps because of the depression or other circumstances.
I can believe it. More than a decade after the Depression, my grandma saved money by feeding my dad and his brothers watered-down reconstituted powdered milk. There was an entire category of foods my grandpa didn't allow in their house because he ate them as a child in the Depression, including turnips, rutabagas, millet, and certain kinds of beans, but they still felt like they couldn't afford to use the full ratio of milk powder.
