I'm so old I remember when .... Cost ...?

crazybunnylady4

I remember when London buses took cash, and Adult fare was 60p and Child fare was 40p. 
Also remember Freddos being 10p. 

Kaylataste

cigarettes were £1.55 for 20,not for me but for my future mother in law,around 1992.

General_Grant

I see a cigarette vending machine (no longer functioning of course) which sold cigarettes for 10p and 20p.
This is in England and so that would have been after decimalisation (1971) but before the machines were outlawed (2011).
Any idea of when cigarettes would have cost that and how many in a pack?

Need2bthrifty

In my college days (late 70's) just old enough to go to the pub for a half pint of lager - cost 17p 

Pollie

Late 1960s--large cod and chips (which tasted like fish and chips should, cost 2shillings (10p) at the local chip shop. This was also the time that the cost of chips went up and down depending on whether it was the old or new potato season. Scratchings were free.

pseudodox

Mum used to send me to the chippy to buy Saturday tea.  2 half crowns got 4 meals - chips were 6d & fish was 9d.  All wrapped in now seen as unhygienic/toxic newspaper.  THAT was recycling!

Farway

General_Grant said:

I see a cigarette vending machine (no longer functioning of course) which sold cigarettes for 10p and 20p.
This is in England and so that would have been after decimalisation (1971) but before the machines were outlawed (2011).
Any idea of when cigarettes would have cost that and how many in a pack?

I'm so old, I remember fags twenty Players No 6, for 3/6 [17.5p] 1960s

The machine ciggies were a bit of a fiddle, price was same but less in pack, so maybe 18 not twenty for instance

Nothing new under the sun if you think shrinkflation was a recent innovation

Rosa_Damascena

I remember when Mars Bars cost 15p, me and Adrian Mole both . I probably ate more Mars bars that I should have thanks to Sue Townsend! These days I won't touch them. Apart from the fact that they do not taste nice, now I'm in my 50s I also worry about them pulling teeth.

I was born just on the other side of decimalisation and couldn't tell you what a d is.

newsgroupmonkey_

leecall4a said:

Petrol cost £1 a litre

That was 2008. If you add inflation, that should now be £1.58.
It's actually not that much!
http://www.speedlimit.org.uk/petrolprices.html

What's scarier is what happened to fuel in the 10 years before. In 1998, it hit 50p a litre and in 10 years doubled in price.

If the 1998 prices had stuck with inflation, it would now be 95p.

newsgroupmonkey_

Rodders53 said:

leecall4a said:

Petrol cost £1 a litre

I recall it was 15 shillings and 6 pence a GALLON at the Garage my Mum worked in (National Benzol) some time around the mid 60s.  Proper leaded petrol back then .

I pre-ordered and paid the full price for The Beatles Abbey Road album at 30 shillings and sixpence in 1969.  It was soon available for less in all the shops.

Pint of bitter was half a crown (2s and 6d) in the Lounge bar (2d cheaper in the Public) and that became 12.5 new pence in 1971.

OK, let's put that into perspective then. Firstly, see my point about petrol above. If we'd stuck with 1990s pricing, petrol would be around 95p or £4.32 a gallon. As it is, we're paying £1.43 or £6.50.
If you were paying 15 shillings and 6 pence (I'll let you off the 6 pence, because it's easier to calculate 75p metric) then you were paying the equivalent of £12.32 a gallon or £2.70 a litre! Wow!

You paid nearly £25 equivalent for the Beatles album. It's hard to say what that would be today, because vinyl records are so specialist (and made of much more expensive materials). But the equivalent of an album is now £12.99 on CD (Does anyone still buy CDs?) or in digital format.

Finally, your half a crown pint is the one thing that's beaten inflation.

Half a crown is the equivalent of around £2.05. Whilst there are still some clubs and pubs that aren't that much more (Spoons anyone?) the price has gone up considerably. Many reasons for this. Firstly duty has doubled in the last 20 years. Then of course VAT was introduced in 1973. So there's a 40% increase before we even start.

Then there's the cost of buildings, insurance and the elephant in the room - the people who make it and serve it. Back in the 1965s, a typical bar person would earn around £500 a year, or £10 a week. Or 5 shillings an hour based on 40 hour week. That would be £8,215 a year in today's money (bear in mind, the average wage in 1965 was £750 - £12,300 in today's money)

The minimum wage now is £11.44 an hour. Or £457 in terms of a 40 hour week. Or nearly £24,000 a year (we now pay holidays by law which wasn't the case then). Even if the brewery workers earned the average wage (I bet they didn't - they don't now), that's still doubled. And the bar person is trebled.

I love inflation (as you might have noticed ) The Bank of England inflation calculator is your friend.
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator