To wonder if it was as bad as people say in the 70s?

[juicee2]

I am quite curious about it.

What caused the poverty? I thought the 80s were a poor decade - am I wrong?

bread and sugar weren't rationed but for some reason there were shortages, and consequent panic buying, also potatoes, I seem to remember, which forced my DM into experimenting with exotica such as rice and pasta
I remember the water shortages and the bin strike but this just seemed a challenge to our ingenuity more than a real problem.
Agree with everyone about the greater freedom we had.
However.......crimpelene

In response to the PP who said that bread and sugar were not rationed in the 70s,I think the OP was probably referring to shops rationing them,as opposed to the government (as in war time). I don't personally remember anything about bread being rationed,but I do remember a lot of shops restricting the number of bags of sugar that customers could buy at one time. This was because of a shortage of sugar imports from the Caribbean.

I had a fab pair of maroon crimplene flares when I was 6. I was so proud of them as my mum made them for me for my birthday

I do remember having very long and very short dresses. If that makes sense playing out and School frocks were minis and then I had 2 long dresses for parties. Mom
Made our clothes on a singer sewing machine abd knitted out jumpers.

I can’t knit or sew

I loved the fashions! Perhaps I'm just looking at it all through rose coloured specs. I had purple crushed velvet loons, an embroidered afghan coat (it stunk of goat) and a bell round my neck as I was pretending to be a hippy

"I was 10 in 1974, it was truly wonderful as a kid. We played our all day on our chopper bikes and just came home for meals.
Long summer days playing out, we lived near fields too and everyone played out."

Even in the London suburbs you could find places to make camps and dens - go out on your bikes and not come home till dinner. Even though the war had ended 25 years ago by 1970, there were still areas of "debris" and abandoned military sites where you could explore. We had a freedom unknown to today's children, and that freedom built resilience.

I was an adult (single parent with a young child) in the 70s but it remains my favourite decade. I watch 'life on mars' (The series) to feel the nostalgia. The music was excellent too.
And how lovely it was to be able to have 'freedom of speech'

Vandalism seemed rife along with racism. And now we know that the military were actually ready to roll out when the place was falling apart due to strikes... But as a child otherwise it wouldn’t have seemed bad. We were referred to as the sick man of Europe

agree charlton my DM honestly sent us out with a piece of cheese and an apple and told us not to come back till it was dark. There was a great pack of us roaming fields and hills.

What caused the poverty? Odd question.
I was born in the 60s. The seventies were beige , nylon and full of political strife.

I can remember the price of potatoes rocketing! My DM was scandalised because the greengrocer was charging 10 pence a pound now. They had been 3 pence a pound the week before! Think this was because of a potato crop failure (could have been after that very long,hot summer in 1976 when most of the country was affected by severe drought).

We were better off than a lot of families, but we didn't have central heating in a home until the early 80s and I remember ice on the inside of the windows and the toilet freezing. I remember the power cuts and the scary feeling that money was tight. We got a (rented) colour TV in 1979, but DGM wouldn't watch it, as she felt it was unnatural. She kept her black and white TV until she died in 1982. I remember the rubbish strike and the rats on the streets. That was grim.

The fashion was awful, but at least people weren't living in black clothes all the time as they seem to be now. We went out to play in the morning and only came home to be fed. We ranged all over the place and our parents never knew exactly where we were.

Like a lot of things, it was both good and bad. It was completely shite in some ways, but I was a child and some things didn't disturb me because I only learned about them when I was older.

Roussette were you in my class? That's exactly how we all dressed . Black or deep red nail varnish on one nail, smoky eyes, loads of silver chains and velvet chokers. Musk and patchouli. Those were the days.

I can’t speak for others but my family was poor in the 70s
1 because my manual labourer parents wages were unable to keep up with inflation
2 we were quite isolated no mains gas or sewage - all our heating and cooking were solid fuel and the price rises due to inflation and industrial action meant that over 50% of income was needed to pay the coal merchant

Meals tended to be home made.
Unfortunately my mum bought in to the early processed food, lots of beef burgers tinned veg, ‘smash’ and birds custard. It was fairly rank.

I remember stressed out parents - looking back I don't blame them as interest rates were high and lots of people were being made redundant. Does anyone else remember a comedy sketch with a newsreader - lots of factories closing and job cuts announced and then in the "jobs created" section "Mrs Smith in Tunbridge Wells has taken on a cleaner"? It really was like that, the news would have a whole section on that week's job losses.

Also rampant sexism - friend of my Mum's was not allowed to buy common goods without her husband's approval even though she was the main breadwinner.

Schools were awful - some lovely teachers but some were frankly sadistic and no support at all for SEN. Heaven help you if you were dislexic/autistic etc.

OTOH power cuts are great fun if you're a child. :)

I was born in 1970. Money was tight but we were fine. I thought that the power cuts were exciting. We sat with candles. My parents could afford a nice 3 bed semi with big gardens on very moderate wages. I also remember endless sunny days, perhaps because the heatwave summer was slap bang on the middle of my childhood.

I grew up on a (now notorious) council estate in the 70's with a single mum.
We never went hungry, we just ate less and our bodies adapted (by this I mean no snacks etc). Treats were weekly, a glass of Corona and bag of crisps every Friday.
We bathed twice a week and played out ALL the time.
It was flippin ace.

We always had a phone (a blue and grey 'Trimphone' ) but for some years the line was shared with the family over the road. You had to press a button at the bottom of the phone to establish whether the line was clear before you dialled.

I was newly married in 1970 and by 79 I had 2 kids at school and a mortgage. Couldn't afford a car, couldn't afford central heating, money was really tight but we were young and kids didn't expect expensive things like they do now. If they had a bike they would be off playing for the day. I hated the power cuts.

OMH Alberta yes to patchouli, I had oil of that and put loads on to take away the smell of goat afghan coat. And then there was Miners lipstick, I treasured mine because I had little money.
In those days even though I started working in early seventies, I was struggling with my wage... my first salary was £468 per year, will never forget that.

alonghardwinter yes- local news where we were had a competiton running to see who could peel a potato with the least wastage