Jump to content

1945-50 cost of living - any help please?

Recommended Posts

Hi, I've just read Fred Pass's Weerz me dad again,(great read) and its got me thinking about the cost of living around the late forties.

 

Just out of interest, i wonder if anyone in here, (or an older family member) might know some costs for me to compare with todays prices and costs, so i can understand more, how hard up working class people really were..

 

I've got a few from my Dad, but he's unsure of them how accurate they are..

 

all prices are in old money,

Bus fare (kids) 1/2d

Chips 1d

Fish 3d

Ford Popular £80 (3 year waiting list)

Fairly good semi house £750

 

(as you can see, not got many)

 

Some others i want to know, 20 ciggys, cinema ticket, pint of beer, gallon of fuel, coal, bread etc etc, anything else would be a bonus

 

I particularly want to know how much people earned, (otherwise, all the costs are pointless)

 

And finally, how much would rent be on a 'slum' property?

 

Hope i get some response, (i'd never seen this section of SF before)

 

Edit: following many posts, this is what I have so far...

 

I thought I'd complete this thread as I have a few days off work.

 

This is to compare what you could buy with your weekly wage in 1950 and 2007.

 

*All the sources are at the bottom.

 

  • In 1950 it would take 164 weeks to buy a house (just over 3 years).....In 2007 it will take 495 weeks (over 9 and a half years)
  • In 1950 it would take 96 weeks to buy a car.....In 2007 it will take 37 weeks
  • In 1950 you could buy 43 packs of ciggys.....In 2007 you can buy 48 packs
  • In 1950 you could buy 40 gallons of petrol.....In 2007 you can buy 61 gallons of unleaded
  • In 1950 you could buy 31 cinema tickets.....In 2007 you can visit 49 times
  • In 1950 you could buy 122 Mars Bars.....In 2007 you can buy 747 bars
  • In 1950 you could use the tram 305 times.....In 2007 you can use the Supertram 153 times
  • In 1950 you could buy 76 pints of beer.....In 2007 you can buy 107 pints

 

:)

 

Anyone who has taken part in the thread, or any new ones can let me know and I can add some more/ or correct any mistakes.

 

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

*SOURCESThe average wage was calculated by comparing Policeman/Factory Worker/Tram Driver in 1950 and Policeman/Call Centre Telephonist/Tram Driver in 2007.

The house price was an average of a 3 bed semi/2 bed terr in 1950, and same for 2007.

Car was Ford Anglia vs Ford Fiesta.

Online sources:

http://www.whatprice.co.uk/financial/housing-market/house-prices.html

http://www.moneysorter.co.uk/calculator_inflation.html

http://www.tesco.com/todayattesco/pricecheck.shtml

http://www.brandnewford.co.uk/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/uk_house_prices/html/cg.stm

http://www.supertram.net/ticketinformation.html

And of course the posts in here!

EDIT:typos

Edited by *_ash_*

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

From an old un, your dad’s right about the tram fare but a good semi-detached could be had for £350. When I visit Sheffield I always make a point of going past the semi we could have had for £350 and believe me, it’s worth a hell of a lot more today.

Average wage is hard to say. My father earned around £20 a week as a steel melter but that was way above average. I was earning anything between £5 a week and £7 a week but again, it was above average for my age. I think the norm was around a fiver in the steel industry, and seem to recall — could be wrong — that policemen and tram drivers were on £3.10s.

Joke here: Don’t know the rent of a slum dwelling because we were never lucky enough to get one!

My mother during that period earned £1.10s s a housekeeper-cum-caretaker, but again this was above average because she got a house, electricity, coal, rates and other incidentals thrown in.

Cigarettes at that time had been hit by a hike in tax and Woodbines, Park Drive, Players Weights etc were either a shilling for 20 or 1s.3d., can’t really remember exactly.

Cinema — Greystones to be exact — 2d front stalls, 3d back stalls and 9d circle. City Centre, average 1s.9d. downstairs and 2s.6d upstairs. Empire theatre, 6d in the ‘Gods’, half-a-crown in the fauteils (front stalls which to my embarrassment my dad always pronounced “fart oyls”).

Bus ride from Bridge Street to Shiregreen, 3d. Tram ride from Hickmott Road to Greystones Cinema, adult 1d. Lift from The Wicker up to the railway station was ther shortest penny ride in Sheffield.

Tizer, 3d. but a penny back on the bottle. More if or when I think of them.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Petrol was around one shilling a gallon and all petrol stations gave motorists FREE air. A Ford Popular was anything between £80 and £90 but I don’t recall a waiting list, other than for a Rolls Royce!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

thanks for those figures peter, i suppose if policemen/tram drivers were on £3 a week, the poorest paid at the bottom of the ladder of steel workers would have been paid less? i would guess

 

can you remember how much a pint?

 

one figure that stands out peter, is the house prices, me dad said houses prices are the only thing now that are completely out of line with wages..

 

by these figures..

then.....£5 a week , £350 house... 70 weeks

now......£300 a week , £110,000 ...360 weeks!

even his figure of £750 would be over 150 weeks.

 

ash

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I left school in 1943 and was paid 1 pound (20 shillings) for 48 hours,in 1950 for 48 hours I got around 6 and a half quid. I can remember a Ford Anglia in a dealers window on London Road priced at 470 pounds,I may be wrong on that. A terraced house on Fentonville St. Sharrow was going for 400 pounds. My father sold our house on Millmount Road in 1941 for 800 pounds,it was detached with four bay windows and walled garden.

 

I bought my first car,a 1947 Standard 8 in 1956 for 65 quid.

 

Tram fare was 1-3 old pence in the late 40s.

 

Pictures on Saturday morning was 2d in the stalls and 1d in the balcony.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Here are a few prices I can remember

A loaf of bread 4.1/2d, rent- council house 7s 6d cheese 1s a pound? rabbits 2 for 1/6d. beer a jug 6d (I think)

Junior office wage @ 15yrs 27s 6d. tram fare 1/2d.

All I can remember- but I'll think on.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi,

 

My Uncle Ed.ordered a Ford a Popular from a well known Sheffield dealer in September 1946 and took delivery in May 1951. By the time it was delivered, it was called an Anglia. Can't remember the price of the Anglia but a Ford Prefect was closer to 200 pounds by the late 40s- early 50s.

 

Remember, once you had your new car at that time, there were restrictions on the sale: You couldn't sell it for, I think, two years. This was intened to stop profiterings. I remember a friend of my Father's died a few months after taking delivery of his new car. His widow couldn't drive so she had to get permission from a Ministry (Fuel and Power I think) to sell it. I car that new would sell for far more on the second hand market than it cost to buy.

 

Regarding tram fares, these were farely stable in the years after the war. By 1950 -51 I could ride from the Wicker to work at Darnall for 3d. Sometimes I would take the train home from Darnall station to Victoria, but this was 4d.

 

Of course, they did not pay apprentices much in those day. After deductions, my first take home pay was one pound, six shillings and six pence a week. I kept that first pay stub for years just for a laugh ( Do you remember the stubs used to be in a long strip that were folded before being inserted in the pay pack). When I reached 4 pounds a week, I thought I was really rolling in it.

 

Can't remember much about food prices but remember rationing went on, and on and on after the war. Remember sweets didn't finally come of ration until 1952. They had taken them off first in the late 40s but demand was so great that they had to re-impose rationing

 

Falls

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I left school in 1943 and was paid 1 pound (20 shillings) for 48 hours,in 1950 for 48 hours I got around 6 and a half quid. I can remember a Ford Anglia in a dealers window on London Road priced at 470 pounds,I may be wrong on that. A terraced house on Fentonville St. Sharrow was going for 400 pounds. My father sold our house on Millmount Road in 1941 for 800 pounds,it was detached with four bay windows and walled garden.

 

I bought my first car,a 1947 Standard 8 in 1956 for 65 quid.

 

Tram fare was 1-3 old pence in the late 40s.

 

Pictures on Saturday morning was 2d in the stalls and 1d in the balcony.

 

 

So that Ford Anglia was as much as a house!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

When I left school in '48 my first job was around a £1 a week as a shop lad.

Shortly after I moved on up the road to a small builder as, what was laughingly called, an apprentice. (Handrag was a more apt term). The wage was £2-5s a week, raised to £2-10s after a year. I left there and started on the Railway as a cleaner at about £4-£5 a week. This was up to 1951.

Coming out of the Army in '53 I seem to remember beer was about 10d a pint.

About '55 it was a shilling a pint in the Lion, back of the City Hall.

Never could afford no car.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Fantastic figures, thanks chaps/esses, its given me a much better picture, i've already worked out that ciggys and beer were much cheaper then than now, wage wise, and also it seems the trend for 20 cigs and a gallon of fuel have pretty much much stayed constant from then till now. (around a shilling then, to around a fiver now).

 

One thing FALLS mentioned, is something me dad remembered today, that sweets/spice, came off rationing in about 1950 (i think he said, he told me the exact date but ive forgotten already (only 5 hours ago he told me)) , and he said the next day, there wasnt a sweet available anywhere, all shops were empty! so rationing started almost the next day!!

 

im well pleased with so many responses so soon, looking forward to more.

 

ash

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

im well pleased with so many responses so soon, looking forward to more.

ash

 

Hi,

 

Re: House prices in your time span (1945-1950).

 

I recall that a semi on Retford Road at Handsworth was sold for 1400 pounds early in 1949. This was a house on the left hand side on the high bank. No chance of ever having a driveway. At the time, the price was considered to be on the high side for property without vehicle access.

 

Even that soon after the war, most people didn't have cars but seemed to be look to the day when they might afford one. Therefore houses with a drive way and space for a garage were fetching high prices than those without garage space.

 

Falls

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I can't remember if it was 6d or 1/- (5p)to stand & watch united in 1968

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.