The Shrinking Pound

[emmie]

does anyone remember buying a pint for 14p?

http://money.aol.co.uk/2014/03/07/the-shrinking-value-of-your-pound-remember-when-a-pint-cost-14p/

[sunny-dave]

It's all relative ...

In 1970 the basic state pension was £5 which would have bought about 40 pints of beer at 2s 6d a pint.

The basic state pension is now about £110 which will buy about .... 40 pints of beer at £2.75 a pint.


Articles which quote historical prices without reference to historical incomes are utterly meaningless.

[sunny-dave]

Or petrol - which everyone endlessly moans about :

7s a gallon in 1970 - 14 gallons for your £5

£5.90 a gallon in 2014 - 18 gallons for your £110

It's cheaper now in real terms !!

[jno]

true, though of course it's more complicated for those of us who don't spend their entire pension on beer. But part of the point of the article seems to be that beer has risen the fastest - even more than the price of housing, and that is a surprise. But I suppose soaring taxes are the explanation.

[sunny-dave]

I agree jno - my examples were deliberately picked from contentious items.

This RPI calculator shows the value of £1 from any past year in today's money.

So, for example, £1 of goods in in 1970 costs £14 today - but basic state pensions have increased by a factor of 21, so pensioners are 50% better off (across the RPI basket) than in 1970.

http://www.hl.co.uk/news/calculators/inflation-calculator

[Quizmonster]

Lager really did begin to raise its ugly head - if you'll excuse the pun - in the mid-fifties. It was what you bought your girlfriend whilst you yourself had a pint of proper beer, if she didn't fancy a Babycham.
At that time it really was true that you could go out on a Saturday night with a ten-bob note, get trolleyed, but a fish supper and still have enough for the bus home!

[heathfield]

Gosh! All you youngsters. I remember a pint of beer when it was a shilling (5p!), the same price as fish and chips. And a packet of ciggies cost one shilling and sixpence, (7½p). Mind you, my wage as an apprentice was then £2:20 a week!

[EdmundD]

I remember when a pint of bitter was 1s 10d (mild was a penny cheaper). If you drank in the lounge rather than the taproom you paid a penny extra.

I also remember that if you were in company and on your round someone wanted a short, the polite thing for them to do was to chip in the difference (in the 60's a single scotch was more expensive than a pint). people used to say a pint would never get to two bob......

[Graham-W]

The older I get, the stronger I seem to get.
I used to struggle to carry £30 worth of shopping.
Although I'm now 25 years older, I find I can carry £30 worth of shopping quite easily.