What would it have cost today?

[joe-90]

Here's a calculator. Put the year and the amount and it will tell you what it would cost today.

How much was your first car? Video recorder? You'll be amazed at how much you spent in today's terms.


http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/historic-inflation-calculator

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I remember a bag of chips being two pence, according to the calculator the value now, would be eighteen pence!
Now then where can I find that chippy?

 

[cumbriahandyman]

I remember a bag of chips being two pence, according to the calculator the value now, would be eighteen pence!
Now then where can I find that chippy?

Was that two pence or tuppence?

 

[Inky Pete]

Pint of beer.

Used to be around 64p in 1987 - should now be £1.38.

Wouldn't that be nice!

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I remember a bag of chips being two pence, according to the calculator the value now, would be eighteen pence!
Now then where can I find that chippy?

Was that two pence or tuppence?

Two of the new ones, don't remember much about the old stuff!

I lent a pal £10 after going to see the 1996 challenge cup final, never got it back. So he owes me £14.10

 

[Donkmeister]

Vending machine can of coke: 40p in 1991, 67p now. That's fairly accurate I guess.

I went on Zoopla and found historic prices for the houses on my street and popped them into the inflation calculator there... it would seem I should be able to buy a 4-bed semi for approx £107K... and a 3-bed terrace for £55K.

Presumably such houses are only available to those who can find the 18 pence bag of chips.

 

[Space cat]

I remember a bag of chips being two pence

Crumbs, that was a good price in the post-decimal age!

I remember that in 1968, fish and chips could be got for 1/6d (7.5p in new money) and never more than 2s (10p). According to the calculator, I should now be able to buy fish and chips for precisely £1. OK, don't all laugh at once. Although the price of food has mostly come down, fish and chips is a curious exception.

If you look more closely into how prices have changed, you find that things made in factories have come right down. My parents paid about £50 for their first TV. That was six weeks' wages and it wasn't even colour. The first colour ones were about £300 - or nearly £4000 in today's money!

So, with all this cheap stuff in the shops, what do we spend the rest of our money on? All the money we collectively earn must be spent on something (I asked an economist) so something had to go up to use up the surplus - and some things have gone up a hell of a lot! There was a thread on this forum a while back on this subject. I proposed fairground rides and cinema tickets as candidates but both were easily beaten by football tickets. But maybe you know different ---

 

[sooey]

So, with all this cheap stuff in the shops, what do we spend the rest of our money on? All the money we collectively earn must be spent on something (I asked an economist) so something had to go up to use up the surplus - and some things have gone up a hell of a lot!

There are a million things available to buy now that weren't back then, whatever you used to type that nonsense out on for example.

 

[Mickymoody]

It doesn't add up for me...

Buy a TV in the 50s, 60's, it breaks down, you got it fixed. If your TV breaks today, you throw it away.

A pair of socks has a hole in the sole, in the 50's, you darn them, today, you throw them away.

You buy fish and chips in the 50's, today it's dearer, because the fish chip shops use are on the point of extinction.

 

[sooey]

I take it you and your "economist" friend have nothing further to add then spacecat.

 

[Space cat]

I take it you and your "economist" friend have nothing further to add then spacecat.

Just in case there's any confusion around here, I'm Space cat. Spacecat is someone else.

 

[sooey]

Bluddy 'ell, my head's just exploded. I take it you're the Space cat who's dead good on sciency stuff, and that other fella's just a copy cat rather than a Space cat.

 

[Space cat]

that other fella's just a copy cat rather than a Space cat

Don't worry about it. You aren't the first one to get us mixed up and you probably won't be the last. Is Spacecat a deliberate copy cat or an accident? I don't know; it's just one of those things that happens.