Old Finances (back in the day)

lightisfading

Rosanna79 your posts are fascinating :T

Are you in/near Scunny, perchance?

Rosanna79

Hi Lightisfading! You've guessed right- I was brought up near S!!!!horpe. It led to a lot of teasing by those in the south! As an 18 year old student nurse a ward sister called me into her office & told me to lose the accent pronto, or I would never get on in the profession! I did so & now people ask me how Iike it up here, not realising it's my hometown! Such things would not be allowed to happen today as regional accents are acceptable. However it's left me with the ability to do most accents which can be a useful tool especially when I'm speaking another language. It's good, however to return to my roots at last.

lightisfading

Rosanna79 wrote: »

Hi Lightisfading! You've guessed right- I was brought up near S!!!!horpe. It led to a lot of teasing by those in the south! As an 18 year old student nurse a ward sister called me into her office & told me to lose the accent pronto, or I would never get on in the profession! I did so & now people ask me how Iike it up here, not realising it's my hometown! Such things would not be allowed to happen today as regional accents are acceptable. However it's left me with the ability to do most accents which can be a useful tool especially when I'm speaking another language. It's good, however to return to my roots at last.

I'm the other way round, I was brought up in Brighton and moved here age 20, so I get teased for my posh southern accent

I find that strange though as I don't really notice people here as having a different accent, it's not a strong one like, say, Norfolk or Geordie!

mum2one

30 yrs ago I was 10, absolutely smitten with Duran Duran, Spanda Ballet, and Shakin Stevens...

My dad worked at Rolls Royce, it was the biggest employer in the tiown, my mum worked part time cleaning at the school.

TVs - they were always rented, and I remember we had a video not long after, it was amazing, really posh to have a video, there was 2 styles, the VHS (stuck around) or the other was bettamax.

Where we rented the TV from it was a family business, and we had a lot of items from them, can remember when mum and dad had their first proper sterro all in one, record player, radio, and casette area, it was one of the first in the area, as the compnay had just got it from a trade show.

We were council house then, and can always remember my mum being charged 5p per week for the radiaitors, and you had the rentman come and collect weekly.

I can remember 1980, we went to Torquay on holiday, felt like an adventure, never been further than Wales, the car was a Red Morris Marina. we stayed B+B, you had to be out of your room about 30 mins after breakfast, weren't allowed back in until 30 mins before evening meal, if you wanted a bath it was 50p per person, even if you shared the bath water.

If you had 20p for sweets, it was a luxury, you'd be spending ages choosing your sweets. x

papertiger

.............I had just come through a divorce - not so common then, so you didn't brag about it! i managed to be sensible with the outcome and laid the money down on a two bedroom 'tip' although it was partly my home! Ever since then I have been proud of what I have - no credit ever (unless you class a mortgage as credit ) so maybe i should say only my house was the noose I have !! All that I have is mine - completely saved for out of the wage minus all the mortgage, electric, gas, water and council rates, food - no TV, I made my own clothes both sewing and knitting usually, and had second-hand furniture which I was grateful for. I even wallpapered one room with an enormous ESSO tiger poster! Friends were true and not trying to beat each other at who gets what first. We would cook for each other, go fruit picking and make the best of what we had. I now appreciate what I learned from this - still have no credit cards, mobile phones, never smoked - managed to have my husband give it up, too!!
It was hard - but we were a proud productive nation - all has to be so cheap now that nothing is British as people can't get their heads around priority and pride!

imogen-p

My memories are more of the mid rather than early '80s. Living in a council house in rural middle of no where Surrey with my mum and little brother, who was in and out of Great Ormond Street hospital on nearly weekly basis.
There was never enough money for anything, and the 50p gas and light meter was always running out, somedays we couldn't pay the milk man and my nan would drop by with a pint or so so we'd have some. Friday night was omlette night, eggs and whatever veg and maybe a bit of ham was left.
There was stew made with heart, kidney or liver, and potatoes and swedes. We dug up most of the back garden to grow veg, and when it got to winter and we couldn't afford much coal (there was no central heating, just an old back boiler in the kitchen and a small fire place in the frontroom) we'd take the old pram frame and a saw and me and my mum would go to the wood at the back of the playing fields and get what bits of wood we could or else there'd be no hot water or heating at all.

We eventually rented a little portable telly from radio rental in about 86 or 7. we had to keep it in the kitchen by the back boiler as it was too damp else where and it wasn't unusual to have to dry the telly out with a hairdryer to get it to work some days.

Clothes were always second hand, usually from jumble sales. But shoes never were, my mum insisted on that.

Eventually the council stopped running the houses there and they because association and they put in central heating and a proper shower, but that wasn't until about 2001. I'd left in 1999 for Yorkshire and university. But my mum and my brother still live there.

It was an odd childhood (my mum home school me and my brother because he was so frequently in hospital) and she didn't like the other people in the council houses so there were no children than me and my brother were allowed to go and play with.) We managed, and there were some thing that I miss, mainly being the countryside and being able to go foraging (not so easy in Bradford), but the always freezing house, the loneliness and lack of just about everything we wanted (whether it was food, a fridge (we had to do with out one for a few months and that wasn't good as there was only 2 buses to the shops each week and trying to keep thing from going off was a problem) or even enough electricity to have enough light to read by in the evenings, are really things that I hope won't be a part of my life again.

Ageing_Hippies

Have enjoyed reading all the posts.
In 1980 I had been married 3 years and we were both working as nurses in the local hospital. When we first got married, it took all of one of our salaries to pay the mortgage. The other one went on bills and food. I often used to do a night for a nursing agency on my days off to pay for any extras. When we were paid, any bills went out first, though I don’t think we had direct debits then. I estimated what the bills would be for the year, divided it by 11 and put that amount away each month. Come December, I had that month’s money to spend on Christmas.
All our furniture was second hand and we were lucky enough to be given an old automatic washing machine which kept going for several years. We had a year or so without a tv, but then needed to get one so my husband could see his Open University programmes. Because of the unsocial hours they went out, we did go mad and rented a video recorder at great expense. When we first had it I think the tapes were £7 each!
We had a number of ‘end of the month’ meals which were cheap. Bacon and onion pudding was one – International Stores used to sell the off cuts of bacon very cheaply. Red kidney bean bake was another. I also used to make most of my own bread.
We used to brew our own beer and wine, the latter often from apples, blackberries or elderberries which we gathered for free. We have taken up home brewing again though in addition to the country wine, we buy the grape wine kits some of which make very acceptable wine at a fraction of the cost of bought wine.
We never had anything on HP and didn’t have credit cards. At that time I think I always thought credit cards were only for the rich, but I had been brought up to save and that if you didn’t have the money for it you went without. Having had a couple of cold winters, I withdrew my pension contributions so we could pay to have central heating fitted.
Our vehicle was an old telecom morris minor van which started off life yellow but which we hand painted brown! It was also the vehicle I learnt to dive on.
I remember green shield stamps which you exchanged for items. We got 2 sleeping bags and a step ladder with ours. The step ladder is still in use today.
I also used to make a lot of my own clothes and subsequently for my children, with material I got from a brilliant stall in the market. I rarely make clothes now though as material is now quite expensive.
Generally speaking we were happy and I don’t think we felt disadvantaged in any way. Our frugal ways have stood us in good stead and we are still together now. Our children have also learnt the important lesson of budgeting. :beer:

Chickenopolis

Thank you Ageing Hippies-what a lovely post

funkyT1972

I was 8 in 1980. Creeping very close to 40 now. How time flies.

We had a TV, but it was made of wood and had a dial. It had a coat hanger sticking out of the back, and when you turned on the radio, you picked up the sound! There was also no overnight TV. It went off at around 11pm I think, after Hammer House of Horror and Tales of the Unexpected. I do remember there being a lot of the test card/girl with a doll.

No car for us, too expensive. My granddad had a Morris Marina and had to drive the family everywhere. He always put £5 worth of petrol in the tank, which would last all week, even when we had been out for a 'drive'.

Pop was delivered weekly via a 'Corona' wagon and included flavours like cream soda and sasparella, dandelion & burdock and cherry aid.

My grandma made my dresses by hand. They were all from the same 2 patterns, just different material.

We did get a phone, eventually, but not sure when it was. I remember it being the talk of the street. The phone box was still very much in use back then.

I also remember we had both gas and electric meters, which took 50p pieces, but we never seemed to have any. As the oldest, it was always up to me to run across the road to bug our poor neighbour.

On the weekend, we use to stay with our elderly aunt. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a bathroom, so it was tin baths and wondering to the bottom of the yard to use the outside toilet. The house was heated by coal fires and paraffin heaters. You didn’t realise just how much the smell would stick to you until you visited the following week and the fumes would hurt your eyes as you walked in.

expeditionist

1985/1986? - blue/yellow Nike trainers - the first time I was ever aware of a desirable brand names for clothes - would love to go back to a time when clothes were bought for the quality and the name/brand couldn't be discerned except by looking at the inside label!

remember being excited when my pay for my starter job topped over £1 a hour!