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. 😬

our phone was cut off,
i didnt think anything of it but a friend asked why she couldnt get through to me and then said umm as if we were naughty for having the phone cut off!

Strikes, threat of unemployment, we had to move house, candles during the electricity cuts, I was always freezing, ice on the inside of the windows, chilblains.

It's left me obsessed with not being cold - we have a million electric blankets and throws

From what I remember it was the news that was alarming in colder months as they used to report on deaths oaps. I lived with my elderly grandparents. They never mentioned anything though other than cashing in on various policies they had.

The housing crash in the mid 80’s and again in the 90’s I remember it destroyed a lot of families some who still haven’t recovered.

I think expectations were different.

There was no money for holidays, other than camping, no takeaways, no alcohol, no nights out, cinemas were for birthday treats. We had enough clothes to be clean and warm, but no more. One pair of shoes plus wellies, which were hand me downs. Dad always did Saturday overtime. Mum cooked from scratch and eeked it out. No central heating and we always had to turn off lights as we left the room.

But this was normal for all of us. It wasn't that they were hard up I don't think, in fact I think we were better off than some of my friends

I remember hiding behind the sofa to pretend we weren't home in the late 70s when the bill collector came. No idea who he was or what bills we had to pay but money featured heavily in all discussions between my parents from what I remember. We never had enough but always had food and clothes.

i asked dm why the friends from the council houses round the corner and more clothes than me, her answer, she spent more on food
she must have been great at white lies

Late 70s here and I remember it through the 1980s - both my parents worked 2 jobs and we still never had a lot but we were fed and clothed (although my Nan bought our school uniforms).

We never had holidays nor much 'stuff' and didn't turn the heating on unless absolutely necessary and it was very much about cutting your cloth accordingly and only spending what you could afford - definitely no credit (other than Radio Rentals for the TV, if that counts).

These days everyone expects to have everything that everyone else has and holidays etc are seen as a 'right'. Things are much more materialistic nowadays sadly!

What's interesting here is lots of posters who had mums who weren't working and then did get a job. Nowadays, the mums already have jobs so there isn't any extra to be done.

Same, they didn't argue about money but it was talked about and we overheard.
We didn't ask for "things" because we knew money was tight but everyone was in the same boat, friends etc.
We didn't have fashionable clothes, we had hand me downs.
We didn't ask for sweets or pocket money although my DPS would treat us.
We would wash cars, babysit to earn a bit of cash.
Being careful with money has stayed with me my whole life.

My dad had 3 jobs, a full time sakes job a Friday night job and another one on a Saturday. My mum worked in a school kitchen so they didn’t need childcare. Everything was a struggle but we never felt it and I never heard my parents talk about it.

Yes. I was born in the mid 70s. My parents used to argue and I used to find my mum crying. We were on benefits and saddled with debt.
I was sad for my mum and anxious about the upset and arguing, but I didn’t feel the lack of money myself. I suppose it was what I was used to but I never felt like I was missing out, although our clothes were mostly second hand, holidays were staying with friends or camping, no central heating etc. I never felt we were in hardship.

*sales

Yep. Always cold in the winter, no food ‘treats’, secondhand/hand me down/homemade clothes, , only received new, fashionable clothes as Christmas/birthday presents. Minimal gifts on those occasions. I started work at 13 and from then on I was responsible for all my own purchases, clothes, cosmetic products, even sanitary protection. It was grim and cold and sometimes very miserable. This was throughout the ‘70s and 80s, through to when I left home in the early 90s.

My Dad still has the mentality fostered by the 70's we were strikers too so it went on for a while.

All the time! My parents got their first mortgage after renting council houses for 10 years after they got married. There was always a lot of tension around money. We wanted for nothing but there wasn’t money for luxuries, foreign holidays etc. My dad drove second hand cars until he was in his sixties and could afford a new one.

I could never go on school trips abroad. I struggled with money at university because they couldn’t afford the “parental contribution” element of my student grant. I worked part time and my studies suffered.

Yes, Mum and dad bought their forever home, it was only a 3 bed semi but they had both been brought up in poverty so was a huge step up for them. but as interest rates rose, they simply couldn't afford it any more. We moved out into a 2 bed renovation project in a much less desirable area and i remember Mum in tears. Dad never really got over it.

Yes we was poor and money tight. No car, no holiday, hardly ever had new clothes but everyone locally was like that.

Quite different in the days before socail media. There wasn't the same pressure to keep up I don't think.

However because we had so little growing up and dad was a war baby, I have grown up to be quite the hoarder. My kids have too much and I find it hard to get rid of

Yes, we were always careful with money. We had enough but not a lot.

My mum worked as well as dad which I think was perhaps a bit unusual for the time. It's just as well though because dad got MS and had to give up working when I was about 11 years old.

Holidays were UK camping. A caravan or a B&B were regarded as a luxury.

Takeaways were a rare event - perhaps on a birthday. Eating out even more so.

Things like take away coffee didn't even exist let alone being a daily purchase.

We had 1 car.

We got lovely gifts for Christmas and Birthdays but weren't inundated with presents.

On Sundays, after Sunday school, I got something like 20p to spend on sweets. That was my weekly sugar treat and it would buy a small handful of little sweets or a dmall chocolate bar.

Easter was a gift if 1 chocolate egg (my friend used to get about 5 and seeing all his eggs one year was about the only time I remember feeling hard done by).

It was tougher but I remember a mostly happy, carefree childhood. The home cooked food certainly meant people were healthier. I was certainly thinner and ate less rubbish then.

Yes. And my dad was a fighter pilot, we lived in quarters. So relatively well paid, secure accommodation, mum was a cook from scratch, knew how to make cheap food items lovely and filling. After school activities were charging around unsupervised with all the other kids so free.

But I remember catching mum crying on the phone to gran and money was the topic, I think it was about school shoes. But I also remember clothes and shoes price labels being way higher than they are today, and they had several of us. There were arguments about money. My maternal working class employed family in the North needed help. My paternal working class shop keeper family in the midlands went from being what I remember as fairly affluent to not.

The details aren’t all that clear, but that’s what I remember. The memories of building forts with sheets, washing lines and pegs, or getting stuck at the top of the big willow tree are far more detail filled. Like I had a video camera install in my eyeballs and just recorded it like a mini human go-pro.

The 80s recession is much clearer for me. I was cold, hungry, often homeless (like on a pavement homeless), squatting out of necessity, bad with money, tattered on the ste of the sex trade and lived off cheap biscuits. I didn’t worry about money. Having it at all was a good day. I just didn’t want to live. And the recession was not helping me keep that as an idea rather than moving towards a plan.

I hoard tins. I remember mum’s magic tin cupboard. The day I accidentally found one of the hidden food banks and they gave me two bags of tins if I promised not to return to the brothel the job centre sent me to (job center did not actually advertise Prostitute Needed, just didn’t do due diligence). Tins are my “feel economically safe” fairy dust. I know they run out now, and also I’m buying them so I know they don’t just appear. But I find them reassuring.

I remember money being very tight, but also that people had lower expectations and didn't live in a throwaway society, and I remember that green credit card type thing called 'my flexible friend' and was taught that even though you can buy things without handing over cash, you are still paying for it. I remember my parents budgeting each month and recording each spend to tally up their 'in' and 'out'. I also remember when getting a new carpet was a huge big deal, ie. they'd saved ages for it, and really valued it.

We moved from a council house to a lovely Victorian house in the seventies. My dad was doing well and mum worked part time. Things were tough I think but at that time I wasn’t aware.
It was tough however very late 80s when my dad lost his business. Then I was very, very aware of money.

in the 70s I remember the tally man used to come round on a Saturday morning, sometimes mum would just give him money and other times he’d come with stuff to sell, all sorts of stuff.

Meals were fine but never any snacks or treats in the house, one weekend day we used to go to the sweet shop and get what felt like a massive treat of cream soda and chocolate.

I didn’t realise money was tight until around 14 when I wanted to be fashionable like a few of my friends were and then I have a hazy memory of going on some kind of evening shopping event at a shop using Provident ?? vouchers for us to get clothes.

I wonder what happened to make a credit card once seen as a terrible thing to have to some years later being the norm.

Yes, I was a latch key kid from about 8yrs old.

My mum always worked f/t because my dad was an alcoholic who spent all his money on fags and booze every single day. God knows why she stayed with him although I suspect pressure from her parents played a part. She always had to pay off his debts as well as keep a roof over our heads. She did her absolute best though and died too soon.😢

We never had a holiday as such but I’d get sent to my grandparents for the summer holidays and at Christmas as mum didn’t get that much holiday entitlement. I wasn’t keen on my grandma, she was quite nasty and she obviously didn’t want me there. Luckily, grandad was quite kind.

My first holiday abroad was in my early twenties when I went to Tenerife with a boyfriend. I got heatstroke on my first day. 🤣

I remember this during the early eighties - compounded by worries about redundancy when 3 million were unemployed. We didn't get food shopping in until the fridge and cupboards were totally empty. The evening meal was often toast or a sandwich. And the house was always cold. Childhood was not easy and it bothers me massively that, in one of the richest countries in the world, huge numbers of people are experiencing that again.

Yes. Same experiences as others on the thread. I knew we were poor, I knew that was the reason why we couldn't have things we needed. I agree that most other families around us were poor too, but sadly we were poorer and we felt the difference. I always swore I wouldn't bring up my kids in poverty as it had such a debilitating effect on my family.

I am very thankful that both my husband and I have full-time jobs and can afford to feed and clothe our children. It's amazing actually when I think about the huge improvement in living standards over the last 40 years. Although it looks as though things will be going backwards.