Back In My Day: How much did things cost back in another decade ?

Former_MSE_Jessica

How much did a pint of milk cost in 1958? When was the cheapest time to buy a new house?

Choose a year between 1917 and 2016 and a UK region and 'Back In My Day', the new online tool will show you how much prices have changed over the decades.

For example, a pint of milk was just £0.13 back in 1958 (now £2.88) and the price of an average house was £2,049. That's 78% lower than today's price!

Give it a go and show us your results below!


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rob_s0

Not convinced on this one, as it tells me a pint of milk in 2016 costs £1.59. In Harrods, maybe...!

benidormgary

I looked at this website last week.Very misleading. ie-1 pint of milk today,£2.88p???.I dont think so!.

Bellisima

Oh dear, yes spotted the humongous pint of milk error so what else is wrong? Shan't bother.

C_J

Hmmm. Not sure. It says that the average salary in the South West in 1977 was £2,894. I had a very lowly summer holiday job in Cheltenham that year having just finished my A-levels and being about to head off to Uni and I was taking home more than £50 a week which equates to around £2,600 pa. I can't believe that the rock bottom pay earned by a student was close to the average wage.

[Deleted User]

I checked out the price for a grocery shop in 1967 and it was way out.I had £8.10.00 (£8.50p) a week in 1967 for my housekeeping to keep myself OH and new born baby.I know exactly how much cost as I still have a small red shopping list book from then in my bureau and there was no way I could have fed the three of us on just over a pound a week.A leg of lamb was 17/6 ( just under 90p) and it did us for Sunday dinner,(roasted)Monday(cold with mash and pickle) Tuesday( curried with rice) and the last bit did for Wednesday made into rissoles with the very last bit I could scavenge from the bone.Potatoes were 1s 8d for five lb about (8-9p) We had a very strict budget as my OH earned £21.00 per week basic plus o/time We had a rather battered Ford Anglia car and our rent on our flat was 4 guineas (£4.20p) But we were saving for the deposit for our first house so every sixpence was looked at twice before we spent it :):)

teamwork

I have documents showing my grandfather bought a 4-bed house in Battersea, London for £630 in 1969. That's about £1500 in new pounds that were used from 1971. In 1971, I also have payslips of a bookkeeper who was earning £3500 p.a. which means a house could be bought for about a third of a gross annual salary. He never did any repairs on the place and let it decay until it was sold in much worse condition (subsiding and infested with rats) for £610,000 in the year 2010!

1971 is also the year that the UK left the peg to the gold standard, which allowed the Bank of England to print unlimited quantities of money (what they call QE). Before that date, house prices went up very gently, and after that date they began to shoot up until we have today's inequality, where people who own property are far richer, and continually enriched, than those who rent. I have a graph that Moneyweek sent out showing this but I'm not sure how to post it.

Nothing else has appreciated as quick as house prices, because as the currency was devalued, all the new money was funneled into mortgage lending.

teamwork

This one is better http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/Historic-inflation-calculator-value-money-changed-1900.html

pollypenny

The only item which sticks in my mind is a pair of tights cost 9/11 which was a lot in 1965!

Petrol seemed to be about 5 shillings a gallon for ages.

lisa110rry

In 1977, my recollection is that a first class stamp was 9p and a second class was 7p. Milk I think was about 11-13p. Does that accord with others' recollections? It stands out to me because I came to this country in that year.

I took home £26 per week but was given a car (not new, but a French Blue Spitfire IV with hard and soft tops). I used to spend about half my salary on groceries (excluding milk of course which was delivered) at Waitrose. I used to make a list of my husband's shifts and arrange meals around them as I certainly didn't want to be doing a full meal if he wasn't at home!

Floss

I think the £2.88 referred to in the initial post is today's equivalent of the cost of a pinta in 1958 (no decimal until 1971).