Old Finances (back in the day)

Justamum

Gigervamp wrote: »

Along with *Penny for the guy* :rotfl:

We were never allowed to do that - mum considered it to be begging :rotfl: I have had children asking me for a penny for the guy - but they hadn't bothered making one!

ChocClare

There seems to be a mix of years on here, but I can remember (sort of) both.

In 1980, I left home to go to university. I remember that my mum bought me a continental quilt from Brentford Nylons plus two covers and four pillow cases. I still have all the pillow cases (which have my name embroidered on them - by me - as all my stuff had to be labelled). The quilt covers became dog beds and I still have at least one of them too! Anyway, all the neighbours thought I was terribly modern to have this new sort of bedding, and wondered whether it would be as good as sheets and blankets...

I also remember that the local bank at college had an ATM. They were still very rare then.

My college room had a sink in it; a Victorian mahogany desk/dresser thing; a mahogany wardrobe; a marble-topped washstand; a small table; a bed; a wooden chair and a 1920's gas fire which you lit by turning a brass tap in the gas pipe. Then you chucked a match at it and stood well back. We used to hook forks into the bars and make toast - and we put milk and butter on the stone windowsills to stop them going off. There wasn't even a communal fridge. Loos and baths were at the end of a long corridor, as was the kitchen.

I went to a college reunion this weekend. I thought they would have updated the accommodation, but they really hadn't :rotfl: You still had to walk miles to the loos and the bath cubicles were just as I remember them :eek: I was sad to see that they had got rid of the gas fires and installed radiators (thus taking up valuable wallspace, as the chimney breast/mantels were still there, just with a board where the fire used to be). There were internet cables in the drawers of the mahogany dressers, but otherwise everything was much the same, just thirty years tattier. I also forgot my mandatory bit of cardboard, which was the first thing I did every term - to tape over the transom at the top of the door, otherwise the light in the corridors kept me awake. Also, when I was at college, the corridors were full of furniture - mainly large, mahogany pieces - and trunks outside the doors. All gone now - it took me a while to work out why the corridors seemed so wide

It wasn't until I was 20 that we had video - I remember coming home and my brother had recorded Top of the Pops. Eurythmics singing Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This and Michael Jackson doing Billie Jean. How we marvelled that we could play them over and over again!!

Gigervamp

Justamum wrote: »

My mum used to work at Tesco in the 1970s, and in those days bread had different coloured tag closures depending on the day it was baked. She would often send my sister and I to a small grocers round the corner and tell us which colour tag to look for to get the fresh bread. The grocer wasn't best pleased I can tell you - he obviously hoped to sell bread which was a few days old!

Oh gosh, I forgot about those tags! Hard plastic with a little slit ending in a circular hole!

butterflylady131

Anyone remember the Pop Man? Delivered fizzy drinks, as per your order the week before. That was the first time I tasted Cream Soda! Think you got money back for the empty bottles.
Also, it was proper bedsheets, no fitted elasticated edges, with hospital corners, and blankets with a thicker quilted blanket, no quilts or quilt covers. I remember going to bed in t shirt, nightie, cardigan and bed socks!!!! And you had the sheets for years too. Candy striped flannelette!
Ah, those were the days!

Ida_Notion

Another blast from the past and beyond our reach financially as kids - the Binatone Tennis game! Such things were most definitely not seen as essentials, just as one of the many things featured in adverts that you automatically assumed you'd never own. My ex picked up a second hand one for us several years after the height of their popularity (which was around 1979/80). Kids would yearn for one in much the same way that ipods and Playstations are yearned for today, although they were not exactly feature-packed in comparison

All there was to one was a bright orange and silver plastic box, from which ran a cable that plugged into the back of your telly somewhere, and a further two cables which each had a bright orange controller on the end. The TV screen would go dark grey and would be split into two by a white horizontal line, and there would be two small very small white vertical lines on either side representing tennis raquets. You and your opposition would use your controllers to guide these monotonously up and down the edges of the screen, one on the left and one on the right, endlessly trying to bat a square white 'ball' from one side of the screen to other in order to increase the scores shown at the top of it. Such was life on the cutting edge of technology - there was a very long way to go before the wii

anguk

Gigervamp wrote: »

Oh gosh, I forgot about those tags! Hard plastic with a little slit ending in a circular hole!

Our local bakers still uses those tags although they're all the same colour now.

butterflylady131 wrote: »

Anyone remember the Pop Man? Delivered fizzy drinks, as per your order the week before. That was the first time I tasted Cream Soda! Think you got money back for the empty bottles.
Also, it was proper bedsheets, no fitted elasticated edges, with hospital corners, and blankets with a thicker quilted blanket, no quilts or quilt covers. I remember going to bed in t shirt, nightie, cardigan and bed socks!!!! And you had the sheets for years too. Candy striped flannelette!
Ah, those were the days!

We got our pop delivered, I think we used to get 3 a week (there was 6 of us and you had to take care not to break them or you didn't get the deposit knocked off next weeks delivery. We got our pop from a company called Sykes and I knew a couple of lads from school who did the deliveries.

anguk

Ida_Notion wrote: »

Another blast from the past and beyond our reach financially as kids - the Binatone Tennis game! Such things were most definitely not seen as essentials, just as one of the many things featured in adverts that you automatically assumed you'd never own. My ex picked up a second hand one for us several years after the height of their popularity (which was around 1979/80). Kids would yearn for one in much the same way that ipods and Playstations are yearned for today, although they were not exactly feature-packed in comparison

All there was to one was a bright orange and silver plastic box, from which ran a cable that plugged into the back of your telly somewhere, and a further two cables which each had a bright orange controller on the end. The TV screen would go dark grey and would be split into two by a white horizontal line, and there would be two small very small white vertical lines on either side representing tennis raquets. You and your opposition would use your controllers to guide these monotonously up and down the edges of the screen, one on the left and one on the right, endlessly trying to bat a square white 'ball' from one side of the screen to other in order to increase the scores shown at the top of it. Such was life on the cutting edge of technology - there was a very long way to go before the wii

The game was Pong!!
http://www.ponggame.org/

My brother and I got one as a joint Christmas present one year, we loved it and thought it was a marvel of technology.

chocolate_buttons_2

blimey, great thread!

I was 10 in 1980.
We had a colour tv (courtesy of grandparents)
a camper van
no central heating (only lounge heated)
a shower (mum hovered outside in case we got electrocuted)

We ate the same food day in day out. I took (hm bread) sandwiches to school and these were about 4" deep. :eek:

Phone was only for Dad's incoming calls.
Pocket money 50p a week and Mum & Dad paid for my comic.

Had my first taste of coca-cola in 1984. First McDonalds in 1987.

Ida_Notion

butterflylady131 wrote: »

Anyone remember the Pop Man? Delivered fizzy drinks, as per your order the week before. That was the first time I tasted Cream Soda! Think you got money back for the empty bottles.
Also, it was proper bedsheets, no fitted elasticated edges, with hospital corners, and blankets with a thicker quilted blanket, no quilts or quilt covers. I remember going to bed in t shirt, nightie, cardigan and bed socks!!!! And you had the sheets for years too. Candy striped flannelette!
Ah, those were the days!

We had a delivery from the pop man each week for a brief period one year when my dad decided that the bottles he used for his home brew finally needed replacing. He worked it out that once you took the pop into account it was cheaper to buy the pop without returning the bottles for the deposit than it was to buy empty new bottles from the home brew shop. It always seemed to be my job to give the pop man his money and it made me feel really awkward fibbing that we hadn't finished with the previous bottles yet (everyone else couldn't take their bottles back for the deposit quick enough, so I suppose it was just expected that we would too).

We hardly ever had pop usually, so the awkwardness felt like it was worth it at the time. It all came to an end the minute my dad had got his bottle quota though.

ani_26

Riveting reading, a trip down memory lane, and food for thought.

I realise i find it difficult to remember some things from the past, particularly with regard to the cost of things. I simply can't remember how much we paid per month for the mortgage, when we first started paying it, or for utility bills or the weekly food bill, for that matter. Maybe they weren't as important as they are to me nowadays. Not that we were rich. We were as poor as church mice, but ultimately, it didn't matter. Not like it does nowadays, in this materialistic and consumerist soceity we live in. Ok shout me down, but remember i've lived in both worlds and i know which i prefer. It is very much, personal choice. If someone said on this thread they spent £12 a week or a month on food ? i forget, 30+years ago, but its not far from what i spend these days. Theres been no real change there, except i probably get less for my money.


Hmmm, whatever happened to spangles? They seemed to disappear without you noticing.

I too left home around 1972 ish, i can't remember exactly. I didn't go to university as universities were less common in those days, but it was no less thought of, in its field. I remember my folks washing machine wasn't a washing machine so much as a contraption which swished the washing from side to side, then you had to put it through a mangle, rinse and repeat through the mangle as required, ( from what i remember ). I remember Elvis died when we were on honeymoon, what was it the 16th august? Hmm, funny, things like that i remember. I'm surprised i remember that. I also always remember the name and date of birth of the first test tube baby. But i can't remember how much things cost, way back.



We didn't have anything except each other when we first got married, ( which didn't matter at the time ).No fridge, no washing machine, no sofa,etc i recall we had a bed! Not like many ( i'm not saying all ), people these days who have to have everything, including the honeymoon in the maldives, caribbean or wherever. A far cry from a few days camping in north wales, the caribbean of the uk :rotfl:Thinking about it, i never did get a 'proper ' honeymoon. Ah well, thats by the by, now. It was several years before i acquired a twin tub, ( does anyone rememember the twinset )? :rotfl:and several years before we acquired a fridge which someone was throwing out. As i recall, that fridge went on to last another 12 years ish Everything was home made. Clothes, curtains, bedding, rugs, ( does any one remember readicut ), or recycled, ( us oldies knew how to do it first ). All holidays were camping holidays, which included fitting everything into one small space, human, canine, or otherwise.



Parka's. I loved my parka. Always knew they would come back into fashion. Xmastime was always a stocking, with an apple and an orange in the foot. Guaranteed. You could'nt have xmas day without a stocking and the obligatory apple and orange, satsuma, whatever. Fruit and veg were bought from the greengrocers and placed in paper bags that spilt the minute you picked them up.


On saturday mornings you went to the local record shop and listened to records in record booths. At nightime you tried to listen to pirate radio stations, under the bed clothes, ( the same goes for reading a book with a torch ). Maybe you miight go to the picture's on a saturday afternoon. The highlight of any year was the local fair and the opposite sex :rotfl: ( latterly ). Its strange i was always brought up to believe i was reasonably posh, but in retrospect, i think my parents were deluded.


I concur everyone must have had a visit from the man from the pru in those days, ditto the football pools. Blooming radio rentals. My parents never ever owned a television, as i was surprised to realise when my mum passed away i had to take the tv back to its rightful owner, and settle the bill. But they did rent the first ever colour tv, in the town, i think by john logie baird. Oh my, times HAVE changed, from that perspective. Oh, and we had a gramaphone player, which was still in my mums possesion.


I vaguely remember green shield stamps changing to/ being replaced my blue chip stamps, for a while?

I've been full circle, in my lifetime, it would seem, and i would definitely say i'm worse off now then i've ever been, in most repects. Even though we had nothing, we appreciated everything and other ' things ' were far more important in life. The little things like love and respect for others, the sense of community, things you can't put into words. To me, its all gone nowadays and been replaced with something i struggle to comprehend.


If you have little financial wealth these days, its almost impossible, to survive. Sky tv, mobile phones, any possesions at all , is it really essential to have these, to exist? Yes, you need enough money to keep a roof over your head and pay the essential bills, which it seems impossible to avoid, these days. Yes - i DID read hovel in the hills etc, i can't remember when. Probably when it was first published? 40 ish years ago? I may be wrong.

Love, friendship, humanity, humility, create happiness.


Hmmm sorry, i seem to have gone on, a bit