What does it mean to allow each person only certain amounts of foods gasoline and other goods?

When a government lacks abundant resources to fill everyone's needs, or when food, gasoline and other goods have to be diverted from one place to another (for example, to military troops during a war), the government sometimes uses rationing to ensure there are enough resources to go around.

This doesn't happen very often in developed nations, but rationing was used in the UK, Europe and the US during WW II, in the former USSR (a block of Communist countries that included Russia) due to food shortages in the 70s, and in the US (gasoline) in the early 1980s due to the oil embargo.

During WW II, the US government issued special rationing books of coupons or stamps to each member of a household limiting their consumption of certain items that were in short supply. Rationed food included meat, coffee, cheese, butter and margarine, fruit products, processed foods (canned and frozen items), and sugar.

Gasoline was also rationed in accordance with the level of importance the government assigned individuals' use of their cars. Each driver was issued a gas card, and was required to display a sticker in the car window, indicating the importance of the driver's transportation to the war effort. A stickers allowed the least amount of gas consumption, and were issued to regular workers; B stickers were issued to business owners and military manufacturing workers; C stickers were issued to doctors, dentists, and other professionals; M stickers were issued to motorcycle riders; T stickers were issued to truckers; and X stickers, which entitled the driver to unlimited amounts of gasoline, were issued to police, firefighters, ministers, and civil defense workers. Two hundred members of Congress created a scandal in 1943 by awarding themselves X stickers.

Other rationed products included bicycles, typewriters, coal, firewood, shoes, metals, and rubber. In fact, rubber was in such short supply, the government began confiscating spare tires and other rubber products from ordinary citizens.