Saturday 9th November

I was ten years old and it was tea-time on a Friday night, beans on toast – or maybe pilchards.  My dad came in and as usual handed his pay packet over to my mum.  She counted the notes (all of fourteen pounds) and passed back to him a ten-bob note.  That is 50p in today’s devalued money.  This was his beer money; Dad would go out with his mates on Friday evening and Sunday lunchtime and this was his pocket money.

Mum would then tuck away the rent money and enough to cover the electricity meter, the rest was her housekeeping.  Remarkably she was always saving, for school clothes, for Christmas and for holidays.  And that was it, nothing else to worry about – moneywise anyway.

Life was simpler then.  No bank accounts, no phone, no rates, no water rates, no insurance, no car.   No bills whatsoever.  Now the list is endless, and even if it doesn’t feel like it money is leaching out of us every minute of every day.  How many things do you have to remember?  Mortgage, Rates, Water Rates, Gas, Electricity, Property Insurance, Phone Bill, Mobile Phone Bill, Car Tax, Car Insurance, HP payments on the car, Credit Card Bill, Sky TV Bill, Store card Bills….the list goes on and on.  It is impossible to exist nowadays without a Bank Account, a Mobile Phone, A Computer; and all these things have to be controlled, money made available to pay for these and new bills that crop up all the time.

In some ways our lives are better, but far more complicated too.  My Dad cycled to work and was home at 5.15 and a hot meal was served at 5.20.  By six we had washed up and the evening was ours.  Most days now I don’t even get in until half-six or seven, then a meal has to be prepared (no wonder we all eat convenience shit) it is nearer nine before (e-mails checked) we can begin to relax.  Which was a better life?  You tell me.