General Discussion and Whimsical Banter

ToastLady

DasTechniker said:

When I was young in the 1950’s, the co-op was the Tesco of its day. It was the first port of call for groceries, clothing, hardware and furniture. It even had its own coal and milk rounds! My mother used to send me into the local office to get a ‘check’ (Instant credit), a small book with tear out strips that would be used when repaying the loan weekly. Ahh, great days. 😁

I have vague memories in the 60's of going to the Co-op with my Gran. She used to get stamps in a wee book, for what reason I don't know, but must have been the loyalty scheme of the day. Everything was behind counters, none of this self service nonsense. I think the Co-op was used for everything back then, including funeral services.

s71hj

Don't know if this is the correct place for this, but I guess by it's title this thread  is a bit anything goes. I want to create some sort of spreadsheet type thing that helps me to keep track of things like the following: 0% credit card expiry dates and balances, savings account balances and introductory rates expiry dates interest and other imcome earned for tax return. I have zero skills for spreadsheet creation. Are there any boff the shelf ones available or apps etc that help with the creation of such things.

Bridlington1

s71hj said:

Don't know if this is the correct place for this, but I guess by it's title this thread  is a bit anything goes. I want to create some sort of spreadsheet type thing that helps me to keep track of things like the following: 0% credit card expiry dates and balances, savings account balances and introductory rates expiry dates interest and other imcome earned for tax return. I have zero skills for spreadsheet creation. Are there any boff the shelf ones available or apps etc that help with the creation of such things.

This one's mainly geared up for managing multiple savings accounts but could be modified/extended to include credit cards:

https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=ED08144CBC200A55!107&authkey=!AJ7sjPncOD2q0wo

TheBanker

DasTechniker said:

When I was young in the 1950’s, the co-op was the Tesco of its day. It was the first port of call for groceries, clothing, hardware and furniture. It even had its own coal and milk rounds! My mother used to send me into the local office to get a ‘check’ (Instant credit), a small book with tear out strips that would be used when repaying the loan weekly. Ahh, great days. 😁

In the 1980s, my mum worked for the local council who banked with the Co-op bank. My mum didn't have a bank account, so every week she'd take her wages cheque to the local Co-op supermarket where there was a little Co-op bank kiosk who would exchange it for cash. Then she'd spend most of it in their shop. At some point, the bank kiosk closed but cheques could still be cashed at the tobacco counter. 

And when I turned 18, I booked my first holiday with the Co-op travel agents. Only because my mate's sister worked there and said she'd get us a good deal.

ToastLady said:

DasTechniker said:

When I was young in the 1950’s, the co-op was the Tesco of its day. It was the first port of call for groceries, clothing, hardware and furniture. It even had its own coal and milk rounds! My mother used to send me into the local office to get a ‘check’ (Instant credit), a small book with tear out strips that would be used when repaying the loan weekly. Ahh, great days. 😁

I have vague memories in the 60's of going to the Co-op with my Gran. She used to get stamps in a wee book, for what reason I don't know, but must have been the loyalty scheme of the day. Everything was behind counters, none of this self service nonsense. I think the Co-op was used for everything back then, including funeral services.

Those stamps were the Tesco Clubcard of the time - you got them for spending in the shop, stuck them in the book and when the book was full you got money off your shopping. We had a Co-op department store in our town and my parents bought something expensive - might have been a carpet or a sofa - they recived thousands of these stamps and as a young child I got the fun job of sticking them all in the books. I seem to remember there were big stamps (worth more) and little stamps. 

And vaguely related to saving... does anyone remember putting money aside at the butchers each week through the year to pay for the Christmas dinner?

IanManc

TheBanker said:

DasTechniker said:

When I was young in the 1950’s, the co-op was the Tesco of its day. It was the first port of call for groceries, clothing, hardware and furniture. It even had its own coal and milk rounds! My mother used to send me into the local office to get a ‘check’ (Instant credit), a small book with tear out strips that would be used when repaying the loan weekly. Ahh, great days. 😁

In the 1980s, my mum worked for the local council who banked with the Co-op bank. My mum didn't have a bank account, so every week she'd take her wages cheque to the local Co-op supermarket where there was a little Co-op bank kiosk who would exchange it for cash. Then she'd spend most of it in their shop. At some point, the bank kiosk closed but cheques could still be cashed at the tobacco counter. 

And when I turned 18, I booked my first holiday with the Co-op travel agents. Only because my mate's sister worked there and said she'd get us a good deal.

ToastLady said:

DasTechniker said:

When I was young in the 1950’s, the co-op was the Tesco of its day. It was the first port of call for groceries, clothing, hardware and furniture. It even had its own coal and milk rounds! My mother used to send me into the local office to get a ‘check’ (Instant credit), a small book with tear out strips that would be used when repaying the loan weekly. Ahh, great days. 😁

I have vague memories in the 60's of going to the Co-op with my Gran. She used to get stamps in a wee book, for what reason I don't know, but must have been the loyalty scheme of the day. Everything was behind counters, none of this self service nonsense. I think the Co-op was used for everything back then, including funeral services.

Those stamps were the Tesco Clubcard of the time - you got them for spending in the shop, stuck them in the book and when the book was full you got money off your shopping. We had a Co-op department store in our town and my parents bought something expensive - might have been a carpet or a sofa - they recived thousands of these stamps and as a young child I got the fun job of sticking them all in the books. I seem to remember there were big stamps (worth more) and little stamps. 

And vaguely related to saving... does anyone remember putting money aside at the butchers each week through the year to pay for the Christmas dinner?

The big stamps were called Big 40s and you only needed one of them to fill a page instead of 40 of the little stamps. I remember getting loads of them to stick in books as a kid when my parents bought a fridge, freezer and washing machine at the same time from the co-op department store in the next town.

Baileys_Babe

Another one here who as a kid was given the job of sticking the stamps in the book, both from the co-op and the local petrol station (not co-op).

Eco_Miser

ToastLady said:

DasTechniker said:

When I was young in the 1950’s, the co-op was the Tesco of its day. It was the first port of call for groceries, clothing, hardware and furniture. It even had its own coal and milk rounds! My mother used to send me into the local office to get a ‘check’ (Instant credit), a small book with tear out strips that would be used when repaying the loan weekly. Ahh, great days. 😁

I have vague memories in the 60's of going to the Co-op with my Gran. She used to get stamps in a wee book, for what reason I don't know, but must have been the loyalty scheme of the day. Everything was behind counters, none of this self service nonsense. I think the Co-op was used for everything back then, including funeral services.

They still do funeral services.

Back in the 50's i was regularly sent to the local co-op store (one of three in my small town, and hundreds in the local Society) for groceries, and had to give my mother's membership number, so she would get her 'divi' - an annual dividend payout, based on how much you spent. I can still remember it.

The divi was replaced by the stamps after other shops started giving Green Shield Stamps with purchases. The shops couldn't just lower prices because of Retail Price Maintenance.

Bob2000

I'm a relatively young 'un being born in the 70s so can't remember the  co-op  stamps.
But do remember  going into the local corner shop and getting sweets and pop on the "book", it really was a notepad which the shop owner wrote in. 
For my lovely  mam to pay my tab.
Cost her a fortune!
  

Bobblehat

As under 10's in the 50's when our weekly pocket money had run out (usually just a day or two after being paid!), my brother and I used to go "farthing" hunting! This consisted of checking around bus stops for loose change that people had dropped while checking their pockets before getting on a bus. There were some adults who would be too dignified to bend down for anything less than a thrupenny bit, so the pickings were often quite good! Also, outside the Dog Track was a good source of similar funds!

Once the equivalent of a whole penny was found, a visit to the local sweet shop was made to exchange the 1d for 4 Mojo's (or similar). The sweet shop owner would only sell you them in fours, so 3 farthings was not good enough!

Old habits die hard .... guess that's why I'm a great fan of MSE ... still happy to pick up as much small change as possible via the banks 

TheBanker

Bob2000 said:

I'm a relatively young 'un being born in the 70s so can't remember the  co-op  stamps.
But do remember  going into the local corner shop and getting sweets and pop on the "book", it really was a notepad which the shop owner wrote in. 
For my lovely  mam to pay my tab.
Cost her a fortune!
  

I was a child of the 80s and I remember the co-op stamps.