Old Finances (back in the day)

chocolate_buttons_2

Ida_Notion wrote: »

"Waaaahhhh donchew... go switch off your television set n go do sumthin' less borin' instead...?"

Yes. Despite the laidback grammar of the theme tune, these kids always seemed terribly, awfully posh to me, and not of my world at all.

I used to prefer spending my time crafting Blue Peter 'makes' from household junk. Our house had far too many polystyrene eggbox Pippa doll chairs and tables lying around the place for it ever to be considered 'posh' by anyone.

Poor Pippa. Another blast from the past consigned to the dustbin of history

I loved my Pippa dolls. I also made conker chairs and tables with pins stuck into them and cotton wound around... my aunt and uncle bought me a Sindy dining table and chairs as they thought I had a Sindy. Poor Pippa couldn't even see her dinner nor hope to pick up the fork, pmsl

Gigervamp

I made a dolls house for my Pippa doll out of a cardboard box. It had 2 floors and stairs made from a piece of card concertina'd. The furniture was fashioned from various bits and pieces. A bath made from a margarine tub, chairs from cut down yoghurt pots filled with cotton wool with a bit of fabric as the cushion cover, a dining table from a cotton reel and circle of card etc. Lol, I even put a plughole in the bath and stoppered it with a piece of dowling!

chocolate_buttons_2

scaredy_cat wrote: »

do you remember getting a rectangle of ice cream in rectangle cone? what were they called

I remember those!

We also got a block of icecream and Nan would put it in between wafers on the beach for us. Other children had proper icecreams (99's) we always felt we were losing out

chocolate_buttons_2

Gigervamp wrote: »

I made a dolls house for my Pippa doll out of a cardboard box. It had 2 floors and stairs made from a piece of card concertina'd. The furniture was fashioned from various bits and pieces. A bath made from a margarine tub, chairs from cut down yoghurt pots filled with cotton wool with a bit of fabric as the cushion cover, a dining table from a cotton reel and circle of card etc. Lol, I even put a plughole in the bath and stoppered it with a piece of dowling!

I did that too! I found a "bloo" packaging made a lovely big sink. Until my sister had the bright idea of actually using it as a sink and flooded my lovely house.

Of course it wasn't her that did it, despite her saying to me 3 hours earlier what a good idea it would be.

Naturally I vandalised my own dolls house. I liked to spend hours creating it to ruin it in 5 minutes. :mad: I wasn't allowed to play out for a day after that... :mad:

So I cut her baby dolls hair off and put their little hats back on so she didn't notice until about 6 months later when my brother got the blame pmsl pmsl

maganan

Gigervamp wrote: »

I made a dolls house for my Pippa doll out of a cardboard box. It had 2 floors and stairs made from a piece of card concertina'd. The furniture was fashioned from various bits and pieces. A bath made from a margarine tub, chairs from cut down yoghurt pots filled with cotton wool with a bit of fabric as the cushion cover, a dining table from a cotton reel and circle of card etc. Lol, I even put a plughole in the bath and stoppered it with a piece of dowling!

getting new shoes was as exciting for the making potential of the box, I was always creating something, often blue peter inspired, and longed for bits of "sticky backed plastic" I made lamps from cotton reels, pencils and some sort of paper shade held on with pipe cleaners and longed for mum to buy "gold" margarine so I could have the clear plastic lid to make a tv for Sindy I'd cut Pippa's hair by then and gone off her! I also had an Abba tape I got too cool for :rotfl:so put tape on the top bits so I could tape the chart over it!

louise3965

jannyannie wrote: »

Hi all

Some of these posts really make me laugh. Growing up in a village and discovering feminism was quite an uncomfortable mix. I read the Female Enuch when I was 16 and it really freaked me out. In the 1980's people didn't get divorced, domestic violence was never investigated by the police, no one was politically correct and a single woman had no chance of getting a mortgage. When I saw Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes it cracked me up, I remember attitudes and people like that. Apart from becoming a vegetarian, leaving home at 19 and sharing a house, fighting to go to university and have a career, I was considered very strange. In the 80's girls were still expected to settle down and have kids.

As women we've come a long way since then, unfortunately some girls today use this freedom to get drunk and nasty, but at least they have the choice, something that a girl back in 1980 didn't really have at all.

Jan x

I got my mortgage in 1985 as a single woman aged 20. It was £16,500 for a 2 up 2 down and god, I was SO proud.

luxor4t

louise3965 wrote: »

I got my mortgage in 1985 as a single woman aged 20. It was £16,500 for a 2 up 2 down and god, I was SO proud.

Well done! just a few years earlier & your dad or brother would have had to take out the mortgage for you or act as joint mortgage holder ... women were not seen as 'safe' risks!

The same happened with hire-purchase (at least, that was what I heard, my parents had a huge dread of the 'never-never' so we had second-hand or auction stuff). Men could get credit, women couldn't.

oopsadaisydoddle

:jThis thread is fantastic!! I've been in bed poorly all day and when I've woken up, the first thing I've done is picked up my phone to read!

Like pp said, I loved watching life on mars and ashes to ashes as well - it really did bring back memories!

I don't think I can add any more but I can only ever remember being happy. My mum was a single parent by 1978 when I was 2 but I still don't remember any hard times. We moved into a brand new council house with central heating. My mum worked part time and I always remember having decent food. I never seemed to want for anything. I belive my father gave her maintenance for me so that must've helped.

I always remember going to pay bills on a friday including the rent, rates and tv rental. We also had a brand new Morrisons open up behind our house so used to get a lot from there.


Holidays were caravans until I was about
6 and then we went abroad when my mum met my now dad!!


I look back after all your stories and think how lucky I was in comparison to some
but I suppose I didn't really think about it
back then it just was what it was!

I always remember my mum having to take me to work with her one day when my nana (who normally looked after me) was poorly! Can u imagine that now??

We certainly had a neighbourhood sprit - everyone looked out for each other and we all got together on occasions like Christmas, new year etc!

oopsadaisydoddle

Apologies for the layout of my last post - I am too poorly to fight with my phone!!

Thanks for a great thread everyone!xx

jackieb

oopsadaisydoddle wrote: »

Apologies for the layout of my last post - I am too poorly to fight with my phone!!

Thanks for a great thread everyone!xx

I hope you feel better soon. xx