What things used to cost

[malc d]

I've come across an old camping log book of mine from 1961 and it's interesting to see what things used to cost;

 

6 galls petrol : 1 pound 7 shillings ( I make that 27 ltrs for £1.35 )

 

Sliced loaf bread: 1 shilling and 1 penny ( = 5p )

 

8 eggs: 2 shillings and 2 pence ( approx 11p)

 

We also bought a roof rack for £1.75

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:-S

[Guest pelmetman]

But what was the average weekly wage then (?) Just to put it in context :D

 

In 74 when I joined the navy I got £15 a fortnight (lol)

[malc d]

pelmetman - 2010-11-12 9:03 PM

 

But what was the average weekly wage then (?) Just to put it in context :D

 

In 74 when I joined the navy I got £15 a fortnight (lol)

 

 

I should think the average was around £7 or £8 a week.

 

 

[Bulletguy]

pelmetman - 2010-11-12 9:03 PM

 

But what was the average weekly wage then (?) Just to put it in context :D

 

In 74 when I joined the navy I got £15 a fortnight (lol)

 

My first wage as a 15 year old in '65 was two quid a week working in Hotels. Most I ever earned was six quid....all for a minimum 60hr week.

 

Four years later I got out of Hotels but remained in the same trade, and found a 40hr week job which paid more than triple. Didn't even bother to work my weeks notice! Never experienced such a dramatic life changing wage increase since!

 

And now we meekly accept one and two percent pay rises. *-)

 

 

[PJay]

pelmetman - 2010-11-12 9:03 PM

 

But what was the average weekly wage then (?) Just to put it in context :D

 

In 74 when I joined the navy I got £15 a fortnight (lol)

Surley that was pocket money? You would have got your board and food paid for?

We bought our first house in 1959 for the the sum of £2400.00, a three bed semi in north london. At the time my husbands wages were £14.00 a week, and our mortgae was £14 per month. We had one son and another baby on the way. At that time no Family allowance for first child!!

PJay

[Porky]

pelmetman - 2010-11-12 9:03 PM

 

 

And now we meekly accept one and two percent pay rises. *-)

 

 

And it has been these increases (mostly much higher) which is why things cost more now. Why is it that there is this expectation that there will be an increase every year?*-) I know the old answer is to keep pace with inflation, but if we had shown restraint in the past maybe things would be different, if not cheaper, and our costs lower.(lol)

 

Roy Fuller

[Guest pelmetman]

PJay - 2010-11-13 12:50 AM

 

pelmetman - 2010-11-12 9:03 PM

 

But what was the average weekly wage then (?) Just to put it in context :D

 

In 74 when I joined the navy I got £15 a fortnight (lol)

Surley that was pocket money? You would have got your board and food paid for?

We bought our first house in 1959 for the the sum of £2400.00, a three bed semi in north london. At the time my husbands wages were £14.00 a week, and our mortgae was £14 per month. We had one son and another baby on the way. At that time no Family allowance for first child!!

PJay

 

True everything was provided, and it was just pocket money to spend in the NAAFI :D

Although as a dutiful son I used to have £5 sent home to my parents :D

[Bulletguy]

Porky - 2010-11-13 9:46 AM

 

pelmetman - 2010-11-12 9:03 PM

 

 

And now we meekly accept one and two percent pay rises. *-)

 

 

And it has been these increases (mostly much higher) which is why things cost more now. Why is it that there is this expectation that there will be an increase every year?*-) I know the old answer is to keep pace with inflation, but if we had shown restraint in the past maybe things would be different, if not cheaper, and our costs lower.(lol)

 

Roy Fuller

 

You need to address that point of debate to Utility companies who don't mess about with one and two percent increases.

 

They proudly boast about their annual profits which have increased by X million from the previous year, then tell you they are so overjoyed at the companies booming profits they are going to celebrate by putting up charges in double percentage. Naturally you would say thats because of all those horrible greedy workers who dared to ask for a few extra crumbs being given a one percent increase.

 

Maybe you never quite figured this Roy, but one percent of not very much is not very much! *-)

 

(BTW....when you quote you should make sure who the quote is from and not just hazzard a guess and use someone who didn't make that quote.)

 

 

[oldlowie]

pelmetman - 2010-11-12 9:03 PM

 

In 74 when I joined the navy I got £15 a fortnight (lol)

 

Don't forget all the RN cigarettes you could smoke (51p for 300 if I remember rightly) :->

[Guest pelmetman]

oldlowie - 2010-11-13 3:32 PM

 

pelmetman - 2010-11-12 9:03 PM

 

In 74 when I joined the navy I got £15 a fortnight (lol)

 

Don't forget all the RN cigarettes you could smoke (51p for 300 if I remember rightly) :->

 

Not a lot of use to me as a non smoker (lol)

[Guest JudgeMental]

Now where is my favorite monty python sketch when I need it........

[Bulletguy]

pelmetman - 2010-11-13 3:42 PM

 

oldlowie - 2010-11-13 3:32 PM

 

pelmetman - 2010-11-12 9:03 PM

 

In 74 when I joined the navy I got £15 a fortnight (lol)

 

Don't forget all the RN cigarettes you could smoke (51p for 300 if I remember rightly) :->

 

Not a lot of use to me as a non smoker (lol)

Blimey........don't tell me you never 'traded' back then?

 

 

 

[Guest pelmetman]

Bulletguy - 2010-11-13 3:55 PM

 

Blimey........don't tell me you never 'traded' back then?

 

 

 

If my mates wanted my quota then fine, and even though my parents both smoked like troopers we had a tobacconists at the front of our hairdressers at home :D and they were not to keen on the naval strength fags (lol)

[Station Master]

I started my apprenticeship in 1963 on 2 pounds 18 shillings and 4 pence a week. Plus 4 pounds 7shillings and 6pence for subsistence. But all the landladies knew what we got so the cheapest digs were 5 guineas! Oh happy days , totties and mince 5 days out of 7, and corned beef and chips for sunday lunch!!

[mendipman]

8-) ...Engineering Apprentice ,1956, ,,29/6 p. a week.......Cider was 8 pence a pint (!)

[Bulletguy]

I will never forget my first pay rise. 10 shillings a week. A massive 25% increase.....yes twenty five percent!!!

 

Imagine that happening now? The only people getting those kind of increases today are Bankers and CEO's!

 

But a few years later I more than tripled my wage and actually worked 20hrs a week less! It helped buy me my first car. A 1950's Moggie Minor for £80.

 

 

[Porky]

Bulletguy - 2010-11-13 12:26 PM

 

Porky - 2010-11-13 9:46 AM

 

pelmetman - 2010-11-12 9:03 PM

 

 

And now we meekly accept one and two percent pay rises. *-)

 

 

And it has been these increases (mostly much higher) which is why things cost more now. Why is it that there is this expectation that there will be an increase every year?*-) I know the old answer is to keep pace with inflation, but if we had shown restraint in the past maybe things would be different, if not cheaper, and our costs lower.(lol)

 

Roy Fuller

 

 

 

Maybe you never quite figured this Roy, but one percent of not very much is not very much! *-)

 

 

 

Ah but that is the very heart of the matter. 1% for everyone is a big figure. If you do the maths with compound interest that is the problem.

Ok if there are increases by utilities, petrol companies etc I accept it means a reduction in take home pay, however, if the cycle continues it becomes self fueling and unstoppable until there is a financial crisis. I would also add that our trade union cousins have been the power house behind this constant demand for improvement year on year. I still remember when we first heard the word inflation. Up until then wages, and therefore costs were pretty much static.

[Bulletguy]

Bulletguy - 2010-11-13 12:26 PM

 

Maybe you never quite figured this Roy, but one percent of not very much is not very much! *-)

Porky - 2010-11-13 7:12 PM

 

1% for everyone is a big figure.

If you were a low income earner or on the minimum wage somehow I doubt you'd see 1% as a 'big figure'.

 

 

Porky - 2010-11-13 7:12 PM

 

Ok if there are increases by utilities, petrol companies etc I accept it means a reduction in take home pay, however, if the cycle continues it becomes self fueling and unstoppable.......

Very appropriate choice of words there Roy......"cycle continues", "self fueling", and "unstoppable". With fuel prices spiralling upward despite crude being at it's lowest price per barrel in years, gas set to increase by 7%.....that's seven percent Roy (after all it IS winter so what better time to swell those profits and stuff the consumers), this is becoming very repetitive, or to use your own words....continuous cycle and unstoppable. Well......why stop when the going is good?

 

You also got it right about a reduction in take home pay, but forgot to mention there won't be any such thing for the CEO's of these companies who will see their bonuses go stratospheric, not to mention their five and six figure pay increases.

 

 

Porky - 2010-11-13 7:12 PM

 

I would also add that our trade union cousins have been the power house behind this constant demand for improvement year on year.

And a damn good thing too otherwise you and people of your ilk would still have the shopfloor worker chained to the bench on fifteen hour shifts with a bowl of gruel and slice of dry bread.

 

Come to Porky Pies factory for real cradle to grave employment where labour is expected and dying on the job an inconvenience. But hey ho no problem, we have our own Crematoria where you not only get to finish your labouring for good.....you go out in a blaze of glory and a puff of smoke.

 

Thankfully your fondness to recreate days of dark satanic mills met with the crushing ball and real Trade Unionism long ago.

 

 

 

 

[donna miller]

Bulletguy - 2010-11-13 11:27 PM

 

 

 

 

And a damn good thing too otherwise you and people of your ilk would still have the shopfloor worker chained to the bench on fifteen hour shifts with a bowl of gruel and slice of dry bread.

 

 

Thankfully your fondness to recreate days of dark satanic mills met with the crushing ball and real Trade Unionism long ago.

 

 

 

 

Jeez, you are like a stuck record. "you and people of your ilk" sounds to me like the typical comment of someone who has always resented the people good enough to employ them, and someone who has neither the intellegence, bottle or drive to become an employer and change conditions from the front.

 

And as for the " thankfully meeting the crushing ball of trade unionism" comment, you have obviously never stood beside the 1000s who have had their jobs and industries destroyed by the greed of the very unions created to protect them.

 

You should also be reminded that it was people of your generation that created your scenarios, the rest of us however, live in the 21 century and don't thrive on raking up the past to score brownie points on an online discussion forum.

 

 

[Porky]

Bulletguy - 2010-11-13 11:27 PM

 

Bulletguy - 2010-11-13 12:26 PM

 

Maybe you never quite figured this Roy, but one percent of not very much is not very much! *-)

Porky - 2010-11-13 7:12 PM

 

1% for everyone is a big figure.

If you were a low income earner or on the minimum wage somehow I doubt you'd see 1% as a 'big figure'.

 

 

 

And a damn good thing too otherwise you and people of your ilk would still have the shopfloor worker chained to the bench on fifteen hour shifts with a bowl of gruel and slice of dry bread.

 

Come to Porky Pies factory for real cradle to grave employment where labour is expected and dying on the job an inconvenience. But hey ho no problem, we have our own Crematoria where you not only get to finish your labouring for good.....you go out in a blaze of glory and a puff of smoke.

 

Thankfully your fondness to recreate days of dark satanic mills met with the crushing ball and real Trade Unionism long ago.

 

 

 

 

Goodness me you really are up your own orifice arn't you BG. That chip on your shoulder has to have come from somewhere and I feel very sorry for you. Getting personal is not necessary and shows you up very badly.

Just for the record I was born and brought up in a nissen hut just after the war. Then on to a council estate for ex servicemen. I struggled through grammar school left at 16 and obtained a professional qualification after 5 years of 3 nights per week tech college. Eventually I ran a business which employed 400 people. When I retired I ran a small business employing 6 people.

So please don't lecture me or make remarks like "people of your ilk"

 

Roy Fuller

[Guest pelmetman]

You lived in a Nissen Hut 8-) ....................Luxury (lol).....I'll wait for Judge to find the Monty Python Link :D

 

I do think BG that you have let that chip turn into a whole butties worth! we are all different and we have all had good luck and bad, if some people have made a mint good luck to em B-)

 

Me, I could earn more, but my teachers got one thing right about me I am lazy (lol)

We all make our decisions in life and have to accept the results, there is not much point in getting annoyed at peoples views on the forum, I prefer to save that for the politicians *-)

 

Personally I like to hear other peoples views, and I would like to think I am not so set in my ways that I can not change my opinion :D