Old Finances (back in the day)

Butterfly_Brain

I was 12 in 1970 and there were five of us, We had just moved from a one bed flat in London to a four bedroom house, with parkray (coal) central heating - we thought it was a mansion.
Dad was a self employed builder and as such was in and out of work like a yoyo and Mum worked 2 cleaning jobs.
We had a coin operated black an white TV too, and I remember the man coming to empty it every month and everyone all had coin operated gas and electricity meters.
I got my first paper round and thought I was rich when I got my first pay packet 75p :eek: a week for three nights work
There were no computers, games consoles and the like, if we wanted to go anywhere we had to walk use our bikes or take the bus. Dad didn't do taxi service.

Everyone was in the same boat financially in those days and everyone helped each other out, there was a real sense of community.
Dad had a Ford Consul that was always breaking down especially in the winter and we all got called at 6am to give him a push start. It was like pushing a tank. If we couldn't get it going he would walk the eleven miles to work :eek: one particularly cold winter he was walking to work and a police car stopped and asked where he was going and when he explained they gave him a lift :T to the edge of the county.
I remember power cuts and we kids thought it was great fun, the only downside was that we got sent to bed early if they were in the evening.
We went Carol singing with the church choir and loved it because we all got mince pies and hot chocolate as a reward at every hotel and pub we visited.
Simple times, happy times

ppolly

30 years ago I was 8 and my dad had a reasonably good job. Although we always had a succession of very, very old cars that gave him nightmares before the M.O.T. My mum was a fanatic allotment holder and made home made bread and jam and a minestrone soup that was extremely thick. My brother made home made wine -I remember picking elderberries and suspending them, dripping, in a muslin cloth hanging on an upturned stool.
We also did alot of jumble sales -I had a fantastic pair of red dungarees that my mum found for 5p, that she couldn't get me out of. My aunt and grandma were great knitters too, although I hated wearing my brother's old clothes. My dad was excellent at making things and made me a hospital for my playmobil
We lived near London though, so I did get taken to Hamley's and McD's.
Our holidays were always in creepy old cottages in the UK. I didn't fly until I was in my 20's.
I had my brother's old portable black and white TV until I was about 27 -you had to turn the dial to tune it in.
As other people have said -simpler, but just as happy.

butterflylady131

Do you know, I think that's it. Simpler times, but not necessarily unhappy, in fact quite the opposite. No mobile phones (is it really that important for people to reach me at every moment of the day???), no games consoles, we had a stash of beaten up old toys, given to us by friends of my parents, and healthy imaginations.
There were marathon blackjack and monopoly sessions, and we were just generally happy.
I used to make the Sunday dinner when my mum was poorly, and my dad had a few hours break on a Sunday, and if it burnt a little because I was watching a 1950's musical on BBC2, it didn't matter.
That's what I want for my daughter. Happy times, and the ability to pull together when things are tough, and see the silver lining.

Hehe, old style parenting!

Ida_Notion

Just remembered my sister's fascination with Scholl sandals (the wooden sole things with a buckled leather strap across the front to keep them on your feet). The whole time we were growing up she wanted some of these, but my mum and dad could only afford a pair of Clarkes 'sensible' school shoes for each of us every year. They insisted on nothing less, and I can still remember my mum's indignation when we all trooped towards the relevant shelves in the shoe shop one year and the manager stopped her and said snootily "Excuse me, madam. The sale is this way!" I doubt he ever said the same thing to anyone else again

When we were just hitting our teens, my sister was delighted to find the instructions for creating a Scholl-like pair of sandals in a library book called '101 Things To Make From Newspaper'. This involved sticking sheets of newspaper together side by side and rolling them into a long tube about an inch wide, flattening it slightly and then coiling it into something like a sole shape, a lot like the way you'd coil a plaited rag rug. You'd keep a bit of your tube left to use as a strap, which you would stick across the front like the Scholl leather version. The memory of my sister doubtfully staggering into the front room to show me her handiwork and looking like she had two sardine tins strapped to her feet still has me laughing so hard that I'm having a job to type this. There is not a lot that's entertaining about being broke, but it's not entirely without it's moments either

scottishminnie

30 years ago I was 12. Also brought up on a farm so money wasn't always readily available but I didn't want for attention. New clothes came to me as birthday or Christmas gifts and the only other things I got were school uniform items, some of which were second hand.

When I was 13 my mother got me a job in a local newsagents on Saturday's and Sunday's. Most of the time I cycled there and back - 3 miles each way at 5am both days, finishing at 4pm on a Saturday and 2pm on a Sunday. If it was really bad weather my dad would give me a lift as he was up to feed the animals at that time.
There were no safety issues with a 13 year old girl cycling country roads in those days.

From the minute I got my job I paid for all my own clothes,school uniform included and my mum insisted I saved a certain amount. My friends had jobs in Saxone and places like that but mum wouldn't hear of it. I wasn't allowed to go near those kind of places as she didn't trust me not to spend my cash on "rubbish".

Holidays were few and far between and very much last minute as they were dependent on the hay being gathered in. We used to borrow a friends caravan and go North for 4 or 5 days.

We had a colour TV from Radio Rentals and an old radiogram which was given to me second hand by an uncle. Most of the furniture was second hand and my mother had an old twin tub washing machine until 1985.

I didn't have friends round often as their parents often didn't have cars so they had to be collected and brought to the farm. To be honest we country children were considered a bit backwards by the other kids and we didn't tend to be included much. The positive side of that is that I can content myself well with my own company and I've always been a positive bookworm.

We were considered one of the posh farms though as we had a telephone- not everyone had - even by 1981!

I do remember that there were things which we simply didn't have as they were too expensive - fizzy drinks, chocolate biscuits, crisps,bubble bath, trainers (I had black plimsolls - yeuch). We didn't have bottled milk either - ours came straight from the big tank in the dairy. I remember visiting a cousin when I was about 10 and asking what the stuff in the bottles was:rotfl:

It's quite disturbing to think of what we consider neccessity now.

Oh I forgot - mum used to collect green shield stamps and we didn't have central heating - if you got dressed fast enough you didn't feel the cold!

tallyhoh

I have started to clear my possessions out recently. While not a hoarder I have held onto things for the "memory" or because it cost "good money". I decided that I would be happier if any charity could benefit from my unused items and I would have less stuff to worry about or dust.

I remember being at my happiest (early '80's) when I had lost a good job, my home and all of my possessions and I was living in a hostel room with a few clothes & nothing else.

I had nothing to lose.

System

30 years ago i was saving to get married. Fortunately my fiance earned more than me or we would never have been able to afford it.

My Wage was £25 a week and i gave my Mom £15 a week board until i left home.

My contribution to our wedding was to buy my wedding dress, veil and tiara. Mom and Dad paid for our reception (a buffet type do) and my ex paid for everything else.

ALIBOBSY

What an interesting thread. I also remember the power cuts and as mum had a gas stove she used to warm stuff up for neighbours who only had leecy. Remember mum being terrified about us,nighties and candles when the power was off.

When we wanted a new dress we wouldn't go to the clothes shop, often we would go to the market and you picked a peice of material and a pattern for mum to make up. There seemed to be a thing in the 70's for kids to wear matching outfits even if not twins lol.

Alot of people grew some veggies in the garden, Dad had a veg patch and next door did loads of rasp/strawberries with less veggies so swaps went on.

Ali x

Spendless

30 years ago I was in my early teens. My parents paid out for a mortgage, rates, water rates, gas, electric, and phone, grocery shopping, school uniform for me at Secondary school, ordinary clothes for my sister at primary, plus the costs of running 1 car.

Credit was certainly available but in a different form, catalogues for example. My parents had this cylinder vaccuum cleaner that I hated as I found only my Dad had a firm enough hand to get it to suck up. They kept it years because 'they had put the cost of it onto their electricity bill from the YEB.

This was the year, life starting becoming easier though financially as my mum opened her own hairdressing salon in the next village. As childcare wasn't availabe and I finsihed school later and then had 30 mins walk home, my sis went to a neighbours when my shift worker Dad wasn't home, and then I picked her up on my way home.

anguk

30 years ago I was still living at home but 25 years ago I was pregnant with my eldest and we'd just moved into our first house. OH earned about £300 a month and every payday the rent was paid for the month (we were in a council house and in those days the rentman used to come round and collect) and money was put in a pot towards the gas and electric. All other bills were paid and the rest was divided up into weekly shopping.

All our furniture was donated by family & friends and everything for the kitchen, crockery cutlery etc. The sitting room carpet was bought on credit from a local shop who had a weekly payment scheme, the bedroom carpets were our parent's old one(they bought new and gave us their old). The washing machine was bought on credit from Northern Electric and I used to go to the shop every month to make the payment, I even had a little payment book!

We didn't even have a house phone let alone a mobile, if we needed to ring anyone we had to go round to the phone box and we didn't have a car either, OH sold his when we found out I was pregnant as we couldn't afford to run it. Our telly was a little black & white portable that I'd been given as a Christmas present a few years earlier, then we upgraded to a colour TV and video rented from Radio Rentals!

Yet looking back we seemed much more content than we did in later years when we had more money, it didn't matter that we didn't have much because everyone we knew our age didn't have much either. It was expected that most things you had for your first house were begged & borrowed whereas many young people now want the perfect show-home with everything brand new and get into lots of debt to pay for it.

I certainly think we've become a more selfish and materialistic society.