Back In The Olden Days

[Sakkarin Profile]

I loved the Monty Python series when it first came out, but then I was only 13 years old at the time. For me it's grown jaded, but for the hell of it I thought I'd watch a bit of the 1971 film "And Now For Something Completely Different" and see how long it was before I switched over.

It was a matter of minutes, however one sketch was filmed in front of a supermarket, and the prices on the window (in £sd) caught my eye, so I took a screenshot. What surprised me was how expensive spirits were. It's intriguing too to try and work out the current money cost of those other items!

The ones I can read:
Weetabix: 2/-
Ideal Milk: 1/3d
Andrex Twin Pack: 1/8d
Johnnie Walker Whisky: 49/11d
Anchor Butter: 1/7d
Nescafe: 5/3d
Chum: 2/3d
Tartan Shortbread: 1/10d
Kit Kat: 1/9d
Plums: 1/5d
Gordon's Gin: 49/9d
Dubonnet: 19/11d
Martini Bianco: 17/11d
Stones Ginger Wine: 11/6d
Rich Tea: 11d

My dad earned £20 a week in 1971 in a proper job (me £14 in a holiday job), so 49/11 was the best part of a day's wages.
Beer must have been cheap though, because I remember buying a round at the pub for a quid back then.

That last poster, can't quite read, may be Winalot, but seems to have too many letters. Spamalot?

[Joanbunting Profile]

And just look at the prams outside. For a start you wouldn't be such things outside a shop these days, or am I being a cynic?

We weren't even living in the UK in 1971. I know when we came back a year, later M was earning just over £1,000 a year as a teacher and we bought a house for £7,500 in a nice, whatever that means, area.

I remember a bottle of whisky being a special occasion treat and such wine as was avaiable was fairly dire. Kids shoes were very expensive,

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Decimal day was February 1971 so it must have been filmed in 1870 or very early 1971
So Andrex were 4p each, today I bought 9 for £3 on offer, 33.3 p each that's up by a factor of 8.3 but if you buy the smaller packs they work out about 42p each, factor of 10.5

But you can currently get a 70cl bottle of Gordon's gin for £13 (or a litre for £16 which is better value), that's a factor of only 5.2 even for the bottle price

Yes, quite a discrepancy between the two

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Wow, that's a blast from the past, Sakks!
1971? I was in my first year at university. My grant was £300 per term, if I remember rightly. I worked in the local laundry on holidays, and earned £13 a week
We only had one bottle of whisky in the house - a Johnny Walker Red Label which I'd won at a summer fair about 4 years earlier. The bottle is probably still there; my dad only liked G & T!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I went to uni in 1972
Full grant, with London uplift, was £480 per year

[DEB Profile]

Hi

A found this website

http://www.calculator.net/inflation-cal ... x=120&y=27

which give $1 in 1971 to same purchasing power as $6.19099 in 2017.