General Chat

I worked in an office and my first wage packet ( £5 ) was spent, in my head.

I thought I was all grown up and ready to move away from home.....found lodgings in a house and the weekly rent was £4-10s. The prospective landlady asked me how I was going to manage on the remaining 10s.....I thought I had convinced her until just before pay day the personnel officer where I worked, called me into her office. The landlady had phoned her...( cheek)!....anyway.....by the time the PO had finished explaining to me the stupidity of it.....my dream went out the window......just as well lol.....I hadn't thought about clothes, shoes and food etc......ahh! the naivety of youth.


Susan
x

late 1951 or early 52, age almost 12, Saturday job at the rather high class dress shop (ladies & children) where my mother worked. Put to work in the alteration/dressmaking room ............. was given 10/6d wrapped in a piece of paper. The ladies who worked there taught me basic tailoring techniques. Later was promoted to actually serving on the shop floor, which meant I could earn bonuses on top of the 10/6d.

I was told I could keep the money but had to put it in the bank. Didn't have time most weeks to go to the bank so hoarded it in a drawer in the sideboard until I could get to the Yorkshire Penny Bank.

More times than not, when I went to get the money out of the drawer to take it to the bank ........ most of it had gone.

My mum used to raid my drawer whenever she was a bit short.


I worked on Saturdays and holidays in that dress shop, Woolworths, other shops, and Christmas Post until I left school at 19 and never earned more than £3 a week.

My first fulltime job was as a teacher in January 1965 ..................... I started at about £85 a month, by the time I left in July 1967 I was making £100 a month.

My first salary in the US in September 1967 was $400 (or about £200 at the then rate of exchange). I felt soooooooooo wealthy!

Aged 13 getting up at 4.30AM 6 days a week
to do a morning paper round.
I was paid $3.50 a week and thought I was sooo rich!
With my first pay packet I bought my mother
a bamboo fruit bowl!

xxx mick

Do you think we were satisfied more easily then, didn't want so much as young people today!
Lizx

My first job working in an office in 1962. I was paid 3 pound 16.

My mum had 3 pound but gave me bus fares and I kept the rest. I thought I was so well off.

I went to C&A and bought a blouse for 16 shillings

FULL TIME AGE 15
WOOLLIES £4. 38
AFTER 5 X 1\6d A WEEK
FOR LUNCH
BY THEN WORKED 4YRS
WEEKENDS SO CANT REALLY REMEMBER

I started work in an office in 1963 but can't remember how much I earned, I think around £3 a week, cycled to work, took sandwiches which Mum made up for me, remember buying a skirt one time and told dad it was only £1.10.0, 30 bob, only said Dad sarcastically! I had to pay Mum board money of about half my wages, I think.

One thing comes across from most of these posts is that we all paid a fairish proportion of our wages to our parents for board and lodgings. Nowadays most youngsters seem to expect to stay home for peanuts or nothing, and spend far more proportionately than we ever did on clothes and entertainment etc.
They don't know they are born nowadays lol
Lizx

My pay was £3 2s 6d and I gave Mum £2 of that and still had enough for canteen lunches, rolls at break time, cigarettes, bus fares, tights etc......can you imagine trying to do the same today.....

As a Saturday girl in Freeman Hardy & Willis. I only worked 4 hours evry Sat, 98p an hour, and paid monthly!

So only got around £16 but actually bought a pair of shoes in the shop with my discount. I had my eye on them for 4 weeks- they were black patent high heels. I thought I was the bees knees

My first pay packet in 1958 was £4.7s.6d. My dad asked me to give it to my mum which I did. She gave me back 10s. for myself and my bus fare to get to work.

1st wages where £1 per hour working as a chamber maid it was 1979.

blew it on clothes and records

1st full weeks wages where YTS job as office junior £25 week in 1982.

gave mum £10 of it spent the rest of it , yes you've guessed it , on clothes and records

My first wage packet was for 2 days & was £20 tax free (Id only started earning) I bought a pair a jeans and some records...it was 1982 and I was 16

My first full weeks wage was £60..it was like a fortune lol !

1961 - I was a Saturday girl in Woolworths and my very first pay packet contained the princely sum of 19s 9d - I had to pay 3d NI or something - but what I could do with that amount then would amaze any teenager nowadays - I can't begin to work out how much they would need to do the same.

First wage in '62 was £3-10s,Mum got £3 and i had all of 10 shillings every week.So if I needed anything I had to save for it.

My first job was as apprentice hairdresser after I left school in 1972. I earned £5 per week. I paid 48p NI and had the princely amount of £4.52p per week.
£2.50 went to my Mum for keep and the rest went on bus fares,scissors,combs,brushes, toiletries, make up, clothes, etc...
I also used to get tips for shampooing clients.

1966 i got £2 two shillings, had to give my mum £1 for board, thought i was hard done by LOL

My wages were £2 a week
back in 1956 when i was 14yrs old
i gave my mum £1 a week , the clothes shop i worked in took 10s for insurance, so that left me 10s
of which i used to pay back to my boss 5s a week
for a dress that i wanted at £3. it was a white v neck dress with big red flowers on lol
Hazelx

Dizi you reminded me I had a job in the 70's following the milkman on my bike in the close and collecting the empties. I used to get 5p and if I recall I would go straight to the sweet shop. 2 black jacks for ha'penny and and two fruit salads bought it up to a penny - Id also get a qtr of tom thumb drops or winter mixture and a sherbert dip dab and a licorish wheel. I think the lot came to 5p.

1974 and i earned £11 , only employee in a record shop...gave it all to my mum .

Rose xx

ROSIE
I WAS 12 AND WORKED FOR A MARKE TGARDNER
I CUT FLOWER BUNCHED THEM
PUT INTO WHICKER BASKETS THEN WADED OUT TO A SMALL STREAM WITH BASKETS
AND ANCORED DOWN IN ALL WEATHER
ALL FOR A POUND A WEEK