So how much did it cost...

PasturesNew

Graham_Devon wrote: »

In the 1970s/80s to:

- Rent a TV
- Rent a VCR
- Rent a washing machine
- Have a landline telephone

My dad made our telly out of spare parts and an old metal cabinet.
We didn't have a VCR, in fact parents didn't have one until about the year 2000.
We had a twin tub, not a washing machine. Mother got her first automatic in about 1990.
Had a landline phone... by 'accident' as the house was already fitted with one.... if it hadn't have been, we'd have not had one fitted.

PasturesNew

GeorgeHowell wrote: »

Oh no ? Why than has the government introduced hiding of tobacco products at the point of sale in the attempt to stop young people starting smoking ?

To make them really exciting to buy .... the mystical and magical secret hidden boxes of treasure behind the big sliding doors.... every kid's gotta wonder....

PasturesNew

gravitytolls wrote: »

A better idea of value of money would likely be cost of fags, beer and fuel.

20 Number 6 Tipped used to be about 2/6d in 1968-1970 (12.5p), I know because back in those days I used to go and get mum's fags occasionally.... which you were allowed to do as a kid in many places.

2/6 then is equivalent to £1.60-£3, depending on whether you're using the price index or average earnings to calculate it.

I know at the time my dad earnt £1200/year, so he could have bought 9600 packets with one year's salary.... with cheap fags at £6/20 now, you'd need to nearly £60k to buy the same number.

I also used to go out (aged 8) to collect the Littlewoods pools money and hand out the sheets to the customers, door to door. I remember they cost the punters 2/6d too. That was probably illegal... but my bigger sister sent me, for no pay, while she sat on her 4rse on the sofa at home.

Graham_Devon

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Look I'm not trying to be horrible, I'm telling it like it is, and showing you a better way, like a boomer prophet.

You should be thanking me.

Well I think the iphone thing has been put to bed.

Expecting anything else would be a little much!

Loving the "I deserve it....I'm worth it" comments

thorsoak

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Yes, alongside the state pensions, the winter fuel allowances, the free bus passes and everything else you lot get that has to be funded by current workers who won't get them when they retire.

Have fewer children, I wish the generation before yours had.

Vote for RuggedToast - after ensuring that All wicked BabyBoomers sell their houses for £10,000 (if that) to all the Deserving 30s who are only able to purchase their second property, he will have all over 60s sent to the gas ovens ....which the aforesaid Wicked BabyBoomers will have to pay for the gas in advance of our demise!:rotfl:

Of course RuggedToast - had our generation had fewer children, you might not exist .....happy thought !

grizzly1911

PasturesNew wrote: »

To make them really exciting to buy .... the mystical and magical secret hidden boxes of treasure behind the big sliding doors.... every kid's gotta wonder....

I know our local Waitrose has them labelled with a discrete notice. The local COOP has them emblazoned with a notice 2 -3 feet high.

As my father passed away from, throat cancer first followed by lung cancer some years later, they should ban them completely but hey oh the tobacco companies made there killing in the trendy 40s -70s. No doubt Georgie would hate to lose the revenue however much it costs the NHS.

A._Badger

grizzly1911 wrote: »

I know our local Waitrose has them labelled with a discrete notice. The local COOP has them emblazoned with a notice 2 -3 feet high.

As my father passed away from, throat cancer first followed by lung cancer some years later, they should ban them completely but hey oh the tobacco companies made there killing in the trendy 40s -70s. No doubt Georgie would hate to lose the revenue however much it costs the NHS.

Are you capable of posting without trying to score party political points on behalf of the party you claim you don't support?

You see, I seem to recall the previous government failing to ban cigarette sales, too.....

"Georgie" doesn't come into it.

Incidentally, while we're on the subject, cigarette smoking costs the NHS nothing. Tragically, smokers die young and relatively quickly. They also pay quite astounding amounts of tax. It is the 'healthy' who linger for decades who cost the NHS most.

Ruthless pragmatism would suggest a government encourages smoking.

But even "Georgie" wouldn't do that, would he?

grizzly1911

A._Badger wrote: »

Are you capable of posting without trying to score party political points on behalf of the party you claim you don't support?

You see, I seem to recall the previous government failing to ban cigarette sales, too.....

"Georgie" doesn't come into it.

Incidentally, while we're on the subject, cigarette smoking costs the NHS nothing. Tragically, smokers die young and relatively quickly. They also pay quite astounding amounts of tax. It is the 'healthy' who linger for decades who cost the NHS most.

Ruthless pragmatism would suggest a government encourages smoking.

But even "Georgie" wouldn't do that, would he?

He just happens to be the guy in the hot seat at present. That is the way toy town politics works.

If it makes you feel better Georgie or Darling, Brown can be substituted or even "the then current CoE".

Interestingly there seems little fall off in either revenue or volume in fact increasing..

https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/Pages/TaxAndDutybulletins.aspx

As you point out it also saves on pension payments so a double whammy.

RenovationMan

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Look I'm not trying to be horrible, I'm telling it like it is, and showing you a better way, like a boomer prophet.

You should be thanking me.

You are looking a little bit Boomer obsessed there friend.

/edges away nervously

ash28

Graham_Devon wrote: »

In the 1970s/80s to:

- Rent a TV
- Rent a VCR
- Rent a washing machine
- Have a landline telephone

Then how much would that be in today's money?

Anyone?

It's just all kicking off on a guardian article between the boomers and the 20/30 somethings. You know the score, every 20/30 something just see's "ipod, iphone, trainers, fags, booze" and nothing else. Apparnely we use said iphones to book our 3 foreign holidays a year.

Though many will admit to "only" having a rented TV, washing machine and VCR, and had to make do. Apparently no one in that age smoked if they owned a house either...yer...really!

So wondering how many iphone contracts you could get compared to the VCR, TV and BT landline payments.

We got married in the mid 1970s, I didn't have anything except my clothes. We had a stereo at home but it had been a joint Xmas present between 4 kids so I couldn't really take my share with me.

OH, however had a black and white portable tv, he'd rescued it from the rubbish collection his parent's neighbours had put out, he repaired it. And that was our tv until 1983.

When we bought a colour portable for £199 on hire purchase. We did rent a VCR (betamax) with the opener on the top of the machine - and the remote was fixed to the VCR by a cable. I can't remember how much it cost a month now. To rent a film video was around £3 a day and to buy a film on video was around £60 - £100 (we didn't own any).

We owned a tumble dryer - a small one - it cost around £99 in 1976, we had a twin tub washing machine until 1982 that cost about £150, our first automatic washing machine cost £200 - that was in 1982. (No idea of the cost in "todays" money). But you can buy all of those things (at the cheap end) for a similar amount of money today.

They were all bought on hire purchase. We couldn't pull that sort of money out of a month's wages. Today we could buy those things out of a month's money and not have to save or take them on credit.

In about 1987 we bought a 21" tv and video player - they were from Dixons and were the cheapest we could get at the time - the tv cost £200 and the video recorder cost £300. They were Dixon's own brand Matsui. We couldn't afford anything else.

We used to buy our kids blank video cassettes as part of their Xmas presents as they were quite expensive. They weren't something that you popped in your shopping trolley as you went around the supermarket.

In the early 1990s we bought an IBM home computer, it cost £2000, and the memory was 16mb (those were the days). It had 2 x 8mb chips we increased the memory to 48mb by buying a 32mb chip (fortunately the pc didn't need matched pairs of chips) the cost for the chip was about £100.

The internet used to cost us £20 a month in the days before broadband, it was cheaper for us to have a contract rather than pay as you go. And our early broadband used to cost about £30 a month.

Our phone bills in the 1980s used to be around £50 - £60 a quarter. Today for a similar amount of money we get unlimited calls and broadband. (We pay our line rental annually which gives a big saving). By the late 1990s our phone bills were like a mortgage payment - the kids had discovered mobile phones and used to ring their friends mobiles from the landline. We used to have our calls routed through Sky and Sky billed them monthly - it wasn't unusual for a months Sky and phone to be over £300.

I also smoked and drank, gave dinner parties, barbecues, New Year parties, kids parties and had holidays abroad. I also have all (well some) of the gadgets I guess, iphone, Galaxy tablet (don't like the ipad - can't expand the memory - cost extra to have a sim card slot and doesn't support flash player)

In 1987 we took the kids on holiday to Ibiza (I can remember that one because the day we travelled was one of the kids birthdays) and it cost about £800 for 5 of us. That was 2nd June. That was our first holiday abroad with the kids.

Just had a look and you can get a similar holiday at the same accommodation (wow) and from the same airport for a family of 5 for £1724 next year on 5th June. I don't know whether that is more expensive or not.

http://www.thomascook.com/product/?brandCode=V&searchId=1343030747829&trail=19012%3A2_3_0_0_5_6_7_1%3A19008%3A05312013-06062013_06032013%3A19010%3AfacetGroup_1900019_0%3A62010%3ABalearic_Islands_-_Any%3A19002%3AfacetGroup_1800011_0&tcSearchResultId=AIRHOL%40789484-&sortOrder=ASC&journey=normal&srpTrail=19012%3A2_3_0_0_5_6_7_1%3A19008%3A05312013-06062013_06032013%3A19010%3AfacetGroup_1900019_0%3A62010%3ABalearic_Islands_-_Any%3A19002%3AfacetGroup_1800011_0&productId=prod1392241&sortingBy=PRICE&resultsCount=91&pageNum=1&searchType=tc&roomCodes=62BSTZ%40&dd=06052013&accomIndex=1

Although the top of the page says Portugal - they are actually in Ibiza and if you hit "continue" it is Ibiza - I recognise the inside - we were there more than once.





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