If you were a child in the 1970s do you remember your parents worrying about money?

[gordonsntonic]

I do. They used to argue about it at night, and I remember asking my mum what "in the red" meant. Then I remember my mum getting a part time job, so I had to go to friends houses or my Nan's after school. I just thought my dad was bad with money, but with hindsight, this would have been around the time that the UK had huge interest rates. We got through it, but there was one key difference to now - back then, mortgage affordability was calculated on the basis of one income, not two, so my mum going out to work would have helped to bridge the gap. Things are obviously different now. 😬

Yes. My father was made redundant when I was about ten and was out of work for over a year.

Things were tight then

That thing about always living in fear of it being taken away is so true. My dad grew up poor. He worked really hard and when he died he was very well off. When clearing out his cupboards I came across lots of clothes bought in sales stockpiled. Never worn. He was afraid of not having enough all his life. When he died he was obsessed with the fear that my mother would be left destitute. In fact she had been left very wealthy.

@Elleherd

Unbelievable that people had to live like that just 50 years ago. Have you written a book about it?

I wasn’t born until the 80s, but the 80s and 90s when I grew up we were always poor. My father worked but low wage, my mother couldn’t run house for life of her. From about 8 years I sorted all the money and paid the bills needed as neither know how to do it. No central heating, no shower, toilet water froze in winter, food was dire.

I remember somehow getting to grammar school, as my school must have signed me up, and thinking everyone was from a different world. My art teacher thought I was ‘creative’ painting with coffee, and salvaged materials , but it’s because we couldn’t afford paint or canvas at home. I also use to often walk or hitchhike to school from 11 years (8 miles) as no bus money. Until school found out and I received a free bus pass.

My parents are still terrible with money. If they have any money for some reason left at the end of the money they have to spend it down to the last pennies. I don’t think they have ever had savings.

No, but I wasn't born until '73 - I know my mum did some tutoring (she used to be a primary school teacher before I was born) when I was little and I guess not working at all until at least your youngest was at school was the norm back then, so maybe it was out of necessity but I was too young to realise. She died in '78 but then my dad had no mortgage, so I wasn't aware of any hardship at all then.

Unfortunately, things didn't work out so well in the late eighties for my dad - he and my step mum (also widowed and had a mortgage-free house when she met my dad), decided to buy a business, took on a large mortgage as well as selling the house...basically lost the lot. They definitely shielded me from that immense financial pressure they must've been under.

Yes, my mum worked various evening jobs like cleaning, in the local chip shop, on a twilight shift at a local engineering firm until my auntie got her an office job that she stayed in until she retired. My dad would walk in from work & my mum would walk out, we never had a meal all together during the week for years.

It was normal not to work until your youngest child started school as there were very few nurseries and they were very expensive - no childcare tax credits. There were charity nurseries for mums really struggling. And I knew women who worked full time with babies whose family looked after the child for free. But for many there was no childcare for under fives. Childcare tax credits/vouchers really changed all of this.

I hate to say this, but one of the places we lost, was owned by a university and they discovered that they could charge students more than locals, so out we all went, and up went the rent!

@antelopevalley - in the 50s, DH much older cousin worked in a nursery, which I think was a workplace free/subsidised nursery - I know these were really common in WW2 and I think this one must have continued.

No, no book. Not really something to celebrate, and I really don't think most people would believe what was entirely normal to us. Most of us learned to break the law for survival. I put the pics up because I was uncomfortable that anyone might think it untrue. It is easier to accuse people of lying than to recognize and accept unpalatable truths. I've started talking about it because I see this terrible generational divide where young folks are being fed so much rubbish in order to create a divided conquered society, where another group will become a modern version, and because I'm trying to tackle my hoarding tendencies, especially food and cleaning products.

It was like that in many places, Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, London, and loads more.
Quite a lot of houses still had a gutter out front, to pour away all household water. No sinks in many houses because no drains to them. 'Modernization' was a cold tap put (often into the coal store or near the privy) in the communal back yard. Water was free. It was the only thing that was, though we knew not to drink it unboiled. Old and disabled people relied on friends or relatives, or patch working by paying local kids to haul clean and dirty water. Come two days in a row and no spills, and you make (an old) hapenny. Equivalent to a 1/4 of a penny now. It was often how to eat as a child, and two days and no spills, could earn 'a hapence worth of scrap.' Basically the bits of batter of chips and anything else that had been fried. It was weighed and you learnt quickly who was mean enough to cheat you by adding excess oil! It just soaked into the newspaper and you'd end up chewing paper balls to get your money's worth! When we went decimal it was still a 'a hapence worth of scrap' but you didn't get twice as much, more like one and a half old hapence worth. It was the same with broken biscuits. Tuppence worth of broken biscuits was the smallest amount, and was always out of our league, but a hapence worth of crumbs wasn't. Again you could get cheated with stale crust chucked in to bulk up. It's fair to say food waste was an anathema to shopkeepers and poorer people then.

I remember watching in fascinated horror, a cat trying to drag a freshly dead seagull through some railings, backwards. Before it could get it's dinner to safety, one of the lads from our street grabbed the bird of it and proudly took it home dangling by one wing for his mum to cook!

Those old boys who'd silently share out some of their chips, knew we were living off thin air. They could see. They'd probably been us at some time.They're long gone now, but I remember them with gratitude.

I can imagine that in the 50's, but I don't know of any running in the 70's. still. There might have been a few.

No, but they did protect us from their money worries (as I think parents should if their children are primary age - good to have discussions with older children though). But, the main difference between then and now is we didn't have much anyway so there was no cancelling overseas holidays and trips to theme parks, takeaways and clubs because we didn't have them. It was either jam or butter on breakfast toast, not both, tea on toast a couple of times a week (beans on toast, poached eggs on toast), we walked to and from school rather than get the bus, clothes from second hand shops, jumble sales etc - lots of little things which obviously, looking back, were due to cost cutting.

DH realises his DP were financially strapped but he didn't realise it at the time - the Saturday tea of a bowl of porridge with 100s and 1000s was bigged up as a special treat rather than a cheap meal because the money had run out, and the second hand Christmas and birthday presents were gifted (and received) with as much excitement as if they were brand new, top of the range toys. I think, especially with younger children, it is possible for parents to manage expectations. Much harder with teens.

@Elleherd

You're right, not something to celebrate at all but it would be an interesting and grim read.

@Elleherd I think you should write an account of your experiences, and your observations. You write really well.

There have been some exhibitions in the last few years of Nick Hedges' photos and the work of a few other photographers, and interest in the later lives of the children depicted.
www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/27/housing-crisis-nick-hedges-photography-slums

I think a memoir of yours might be a very appropriate contribution to discourse at this point in time.

I remember Family Allowance from the Post Office. Sometimes a small sweet was bought. I recall one bag of crisps between 4 kids. Jumble sale clothes and the nights being so cold that I would wake up cold.
Clothes came from a catalogue. Empire Stores.
When I left school and started work, I had my school skirt and one non uniform skirt.
Years of shared bath water. Never had a take away apart from rare chips. To this day I still revel in a deep hot bath and savour a take away.

Constantly. My mum had no close friends to confide in and told me as eldest all her worries. House paid for, business failing, low income.

It definitely affected me, it’s always been very important to me to be financially independent and secure inside and outside marriage.

Late 80s / 90s not 70s but yes, my Mum was always stressed. Money was always a “thing”. She was very sad all the time about it and I dont know really how their marriage survived. It completely shaped my life and how I viewed my future - I worked very, very hard to get into a good career, didn’t settle down and have children until later. I didn’t want to be trapped like my parents seemed to be in a life they just fell into.

Real poverty is not so long ago. It’s quite scary. I went to an exhibition of photographs from the 60s. Kids still barefoot in the street, in rags. Houses with no bathroom and only a shared outside toilet. Etc.

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/14/this-photo-of-children-living-in-poverty-caused-shock-waves-in-1992-where-are-they-now

There's a lot of real poverty these days too.

It doesn't have the same visuals as it used to, but don't let that fool you.

I lived as a child in a tiny flat with no bathroom or running hot water. We had an outside toilet shared with 3 other families. There was a kitchen sink with a cold water tap and an immersion heater. When we moved to a council house in the mid-seventies I thought we had become rich.

Yep. A roast with streaky bacon was a treat.

@Wishyfishy this is exactly me!

No, but we were a frugal family. Not much money, no fancy holidays, one family van that dad used for work and we sat in the back of, home cooked meals with cheap cuts of meat and eggs and potatoes. Dad did all the DIY at home we didn’t eat out and didn’t have expensive hobbies. No central heating and no internet or
mobile phones and hand me downs.

living seemed much cheaper.

and @Paperthinspiders, thank you both for your kind comments about writing or it being interesting. I wouldn't want to be identified tbh. The shame of ingrained dirt, damp and squalor never actually ends. I always liked to believe if you won the lottery you could buy yourself clean, but you can't. It's like Rock, it's written through you no matter what. It isn't like I 'did good' out of it all. I had my first children underage in '74 and the price of so many basics and lots of stuff is etched deep, as I swiftly transitioned from failed to become the one responsible for potentially failing the next lot. I don't want my children held back by what I came from, only in adulthood are they clocking on to a few things.

I'm Daily Fail bait in many eyes, but I'm actually a lot more. I've fought back when my kids got denied an education, and SS was brought in to silence me. I semi educated myself and took them all to court on my own, and won. My children and grandchildren will get different because we're not depending on help or being treated fairly. My only benefits are PIP, and I've never had a credit card. Until Lockdown stripped all I'd built, the future was ok, if a little lacking in extra's.

Many here have talked about how being poor helped them get educated and have well paid jobs, but from what I can see, no one from those photo's ended up with good lives or un-scarred, though one lady seems to have a fairly low key normal one at least. (she was actually rehoused young because her brother's hole in the heart meant their housing was killing him.) The media and polititians will always use us and crap on us.
Most of us got spat out by life, and many are back to holding on with their fingertips, about to lose council homes etc, and I understand why, and I don't mean to be a snob, because I'm only half a step ahead of where they all are, but I just haven't accepted myself as failed or finished yet, and that this is it. I'm still hungry for another go!

What I would like to do, though it's very over ambitious, is write a play.

It's the conversations we never had, because as kids then we all understood our places, and who could reasonably expect to approach each other or not.
I'd like to criss cross that with an inter generational conversation with 'our kids' and today's social media savvy equivalents, and a sharpened pointy finger.

If I could do it, hopefully it would actually be be more humorous than it sounds.

@elleherd Just another random on here who thinks your stories are both historically and heartbreakingly interesting and should be recorded. I'm sorry you had those experiences.

A play is a great idea! If not, you really ought to journal your memories/experience for your family.

"Angela's Ashes" springs to mind as what could / should be shared.