Old Finances (back in the day)

Ida_Notion

3v3 wrote: »

Crikey, so what did he do when he was out at work, have a cardboard cutout made? I suppose you never saw a Carry On film or Love Thy Neighbour type comedies then :rotfl: "Topless" was all the rage on TV following the "liberated" '60's females; any excuse for a bit of titivation on the TV.

TV was a bit different then. When he was out working during the school holidays all there was on were kids programmes, and maybe some Open University thing on the other side with a crusty professor talking about geology. We used to go out with my dad a lot of the time when he worked anyway, making our own amusement in the scrap yards or in the fields that backed onto the industrial estates where he'd pick up and dismantle machinery from some of the factories there.

He didn't take us with him to protect us from The Demon TV, but because he was worried that we'd wake my mum up if he wasn't there to stop us rioting. This bothered him, even though he often made more noise than we did. There were many times when we were all stuck at home because there was no work for him and the weather was too bad for us to go out and play. He'd be doing stuff in the kitchen and decide that the racket we were making was getting too much. His solution to this was to yell up the passage way at the top of his voice "Will you bleepin' be quiet, yer mam's in bed!"

anguk

GreyQueen wrote: »

I feel that I've personally witnessed an incredible cultural shift in that time regarding how people spend their money, their expectations of what their lives should be like, and what they and their children are "entitled" to have.
I was first paid (weekly) as a young worker in cash. Imagine a small manilla envelope with bank notes and coins and your payslip inside; how quaint that sounds. Once BACS technology came in, it broke the very visual linkage between what you got paid and what you could spend and made it barely possible to live without a bank account.

Excellent post GQ. DD17 and I were just discussing this last night, we were watching "Geordie Finishing School" and there was a young single mother on benefits talking about how she struggled and couldn't afford things, yet she had a big new TV. I do realise that for all we know her parents may have bought it but we ended up discussing poverty.

We're on benefits (OH unable to work, I care for him) and we've been on benefits for a number of years, even before that we were on a low wage. When the kids were younger I think statistically we would have been one of those families with children who lived below the poverty line yet I would never, ever consider that we were poor. We always have plenty to eat, we've never gone hungry, we've got a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs and the kids have always had everything they needed. Okay, we've still got the old big TV, no flat screen here, holidays have been cheap caravan getaways with The Sun we don't have the latest technology and most of our furniture is ebay bargains or given by friends & family but we're still not poor. DD said she'd never felt poor either, she's always known money was tight and there are things she hasn't had compared to some of her friends but she certainly doesn't feel hard done by. I so agree that some people's expectations are higher.

I also agree that wages by BACS made a big difference to many people. Money is no longer a real thing, it's just an electronic number, some people now very rarely actually touch real money. My friend got into a bit of financial trouble and said she doesn't feel like she's spending when she uses her debit card because she's not actually paying with real money. She stopped using the debit card and now draws weekly money out of the bank and is able to manage much better with cash.

Lily_The_Legend

I was born in 1980 and I don't think we had much money when I was little, but I had a lovely childhood. Weekends were spent going to the library and coming back with a stack of the maximum six I could borrow, going to the park which was within walking distance from our house, and spending time with my aunt, uncle and cousins who lived round the corner.

We lived in a little terraced house with a 'postage stamp' garden as my mum used to call it. It felt huge to me, I'd make mud pies in the flowerbeds and collect worms while mum and dad were doing jobs in the house and garden.

I remember the neighbour having some sort of party one afternoon and I went and sat in my little deckchair near the fence pretending to read my book. Really I was listening to what the partygoers where talking about and enjoying the music. :beer::rotfl: Mum had cottoned on and was asking what I was doing out of the kitchen window.

Meals out were for mother's day/father's day/birthdays/special occasions. I remember going to one restaurant for mother's day and mum got a free pot plant. I think that was her pressie!

We owned our telly, my aunt and uncle rented theirs. That meant they regularly got a new one and we were stuck with ours which was the size of a tank. :rotfl:

I don't remember getting pocket money until later on, but each Sunday I was allowed to go to the shop and buy a quarter of sherbert lemons for mum, a Bounty for dad and penny sweets for myself. I only had to cross one road, but I bet mum was watching me from the garden the whole time!

Mum was a housewife until I went to school, then got some part-time work. Dad used to leave for work at about 5am and come home at dinnertime. He'd read books to me each night.

Meals were things like spag bol, corned beef hash, etc. And if we had guests it'd be something like lasagne or a buffet.

I didn't have much music on tapes, so I used to play mum's old records and dance around with my friends and cousins.

Visiting the houses of primary school friends was always a bit of an adventure - they seemed to live in mansions (detached houses ). There was one whose mum made home-made lemonade and I'd pretend I was in a famous five book, it was so exciting!

I remember one birthday going and choosing a book to buy. It was the Witches by Roald Dahl. Oh the excitement of my very own book! I came home, sat in the chair in the corner and stayed there until I'd read it cover to cover.

Holidays were spent visiting family and going on day trips, or just doing the things we usually did on weekends!

Writing this has made me realise just how materialistic society (and perhaps I) have become.

ETA: My mum made a lot of my clothes and I was the only kid in school with a home-made school dress

One Christmas when we were short of money, mum made chutneys as xmas pressies for the whole family.

3v3

Lily_The_Legend wrote: »

..... ETA: My mum made a lot of my clothes and I was the only kid in school with a home-made school dress

This comment soooo struck a chord with me because I was talking to my teenage sons recently (actually it was about the NOTW phone hacking scandal which led on to me recalling the days when they used to sell sewing patterns) which evolved further to a cape my mother made for me to go and visit friends in (how embarassing to have to wear a homemade cloak .... etc,. etc.)

They took me to a really posh department store and the lady at the counter was very complimentary of my cloak and asked where it was from:
Me (aged 12): "The pattern came from "News of the Screws" and me Mam made it"

But, as I was explaining to my lads the other week, people will bite your hand off for a one-off, handmade item these days - particularly as my mother was exceedingly good at sewing! :rotfl:

Ida_Notion

anguk wrote: »

I also agree that wages by BACS made a big difference to many people. Money is no longer a real thing, it's just an electronic number, some people now very rarely actually touch real money. My friend got into a bit of financial trouble and said she doesn't feel like she's spending when she uses her debit card because she's not actually paying with real money. She stopped using the debit card and now draws weekly money out of the bank and is able to manage much better with cash.

My youngest son told me ages ago that he always gets cash out every week because he knows where he is with it (He also mentioned the other day that he's started putting some away in a savings account now that he's been with his firm long enough to earn a bit more money ). I'd rather use my debit card - I understand that it's 'real' money and budget accordingly - because I find that having everything automatically statemented via online banking makes it easier to see where everything is going. I record everything in Microsoft Money '99 every day or so, so that I always know where I am and where I've been. Financial OCD at it's finest

Youngest Son would probably do a lot better than I would now if we all had to go back to OS cash and savings jars. I expect I'd be so mathematically challenged that I'd end up in debt inside a month or two, and Youngest Son would be muttering darkly about having to bail out his confused and elderly mother

3v3

Speaking of sewing patterns and the '80's ... Prima magazine came out in the '80's and came with a free pattern for clothes/crafts in it. Following in my mother's example (hehehe) I made my own clothes from those patterns and clothes for my 3 little ones (you could always get good value fabric from the markets in those days). Actually ... I still have the original issue (and a few more besides)

Must did it out because the recipes were always priced/costed and articles such as "A summer wardrobe for £50" ....

Ida_Notion

3v3 wrote: »

Speaking of sewing patterns and the '80's ... Prima magazine came out in the '80's and came with a free pattern for clothes/crafts in it. Following in my mother's example (hehehe) I made my own clothes from those patterns and clothes for my 3 little ones (you could always get good value fabric from the markets in those days). Actually ... I still have the original issue (and a few more besides)

Must did it out because the recipes were always priced/costed and articles such as "A summer wardrobe for £50" ....

I used to do that too. 'Essentials' magazine came with a free pattern as well. I've still got a couple of the more classically styled dresses I made, and I expect some of the patterns are hanging round here somewhere too.

Lily_The_Legend

Something else I just remembered was that we didn't have long-life milk in the cupboard as a back up (like I do now) we'd have powdered milk. I'm sure my poor dad used to make some up and have it on his Weetabix each morning!

Justamum

Lily_The_Legend wrote: »

ETA: My mum made a lot of my clothes and I was the only kid in school with a home-made school dress

My mum made most of the clothes for herself, my sister and myself - not my dad or brothers. I remember when I went to secondary school the uniform was a brown pinafore with crossover bodice which she made as they were too expensive to buy. She made the crossover go the wrong way though, so I refused to wear it until she'd changed it. :rotfl:Her sewing was always really good though, and I remember there was another girl who also had a homemade school uniform. You could really tell hers was homemade which you couldn't with mine.

Lily_The_Legend

Justamum wrote: »

My mum made most of the clothes for herself, my sister and myself - not my dad or brothers. I remember when I went to secondary school the uniform was a brown pinafore with crossover bodice which she made as they were too expensive to buy. She made the crossover go the wrong way though, so I refused to wear it until she'd changed it. :rotfl:Her sewing was always really good though, and I remember there was another girl who also had a homemade school uniform. You could really tell hers was homemade which you couldn't with mine.

Mine stood out a bit as the material wasn't exactly the same, and the buttons were huge! I had a proper one other years, I guess we must've been pretty hard up that year.

I couldn't find a wedding dress I liked, so my lovely mum made one for me. So her sewing skills are still being made use of!