My hubby tells stories of him pooling his change with his buddies on Friday and Saturday nights to put a dollar's worth of gas in his friend Johnny's old car, so they could drive around and hang out together. They would go to Sky Castle's and one of them would order a coke while they sat and talked, and when the waitress would be about to shoo them out, another one of them would order something. It was all like a scene out of Happy Days! That was way back in the 50's, before we met and started dating.
I was reminded of his stories when I saw this in the newspaper the other day:
When I was in high school in the 60's, I could fill up my car with $2 worth of gas. Interestingly, I couldn't afford a tank full of gas back then, either.
So, is gas really all that high even now? I'm not so sure. Our first apartment was $52.50 a month. Our first home cost us $101 a month, and it was all we could do to qualify for the payment. My first teaching job paid a whopping $265 a month, after paying for college to get it. When you put the prices of everything else from way back then in perspective with what those things cost today, gasoline probably is right about where it should be. Not that I like paying $4.00 a gallon, mind you. But considering how much money everything else costs, I think our reaction to gas prices may be more emotional than intellectual.
Any thoughts???Labels: 1950's, first home, gasoline prices, High School Memories, home buying, inflation, mortgage, nostalgia, teaching
I'm hosting the BLOG VILLAGE Quarterly Carnival focusing on FAMILY MEMORIES! It certainly seems like an appropriate topic for this blog.
So, how about sharing stories of your childhood, or maybe how you met your spouse. Does your family have special bonding rituals? Do you have some "strange" family members who help to make your family unique? How about sharing lessons you've learned from past generations. Are you into genealogy? Does your family story include adoption, blended families, or divorce? You name it - if it has to do with your family, past or present, we'd love for you to share.
You can click the banner to ENTER. Feel free to copy for your blog!
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DEADLINE April 25 midnight
Will be online here on April 28th.
RULES:1. Blog MUST belong EITHER to a BLOG VILLAGE member OR link directly TO a BLOG VILLAGE Blog.
2. Only 1 entry per blog.
3. Only English language posts will be accepted.
4. No posts with titles, or with pictures, containing profanity, or of a sexual or suggestive nature, will be accepted.
5. Choose MEMBER or GUEST from the Categories, and put the required information in the REMARKS.
GUESTS of Villagers must submit the URL of the BLOG VILLAGE blog they are linked TO for your entry to be eligible for consideration.
VILLAGERS need to enter their MEMBER NUMBER in the REMARKS.
Labels: Blog Carnival, BLOG VILLAGE, childhood memories, extended family, Family Blog Carnival, Grandparents, happily married, mortgage, Yesterday's Memories
My DH and I both retired early to take care of parents, quitting before we were eligible for Social Security. I had a great retirement package as a public school teacher, but my hubby really just quit. Mind you, we're not wealthy people. But I had been working toward retirement for many years, always saving any pay raises I got, and purposefully living below our means, paying off credit cards in full each month and limiting our debt as much as possible. Now, we have DH's SS, and this next year I will be eligible for it, too. I've since inherited my Daddy's estate, part of which we gave to our daughters, so we could enjoy seeing them make good use of it. But there's a good bit in the bank right now, waiting for us to decide how to best invest it for future growth.
Am I bragging? Well, maybe, but really I'm just stating the facts, Ma'am, just the facts.
So, it's been really interesting to listen to the Dave Ramsey show on the radio every morning, as we were living the debt free lifestyle long before we ever heard of his Financial Peace ideas. I can testify that it does pay off.
We both owe our frugal ways to the upbringing of our parents, products of the Great Depression. Fortunately, unlike so many couples, who have succumbed to easily obtained credit cards, payday loans, car title loans, and sub prime mortgages, we always strove to stay out of debt. When we did find it necessary to use credit, we were careful to get the best interest rates and pay everything off just as quickly as possible. We also tithed through almost all our married years, although there were a few times when we didn't - something I'm not the least proud of. That good stewardship of our money left us financially able to quit our jobs and take care of our loved ones. We are both very grateful for that, and wouldn't have had it any other way.
So, if you are one of the many who is carrying a load of credit debt, I would urge you to spend some time listening to the Dave Ramsey show, reading his books, or exploring his website. If you weren't fortunate enough to have had prudent teaching from your parents about how to live within your means, or you just didn't follow their good example, then he may be able to help you live better than you deserve, too.Labels: care giving, careful spending, debt, Estate Planning, family budget, financial freedom, home buying, mortgage, retirement, saving, tithing
Things are finally beginning to fall in place around here as far as handling Daddy's affairs are concerned. We finally did get the Death Certificate last week, so we have an appointment Thursday with our niece, the lawyer. Our DD and SIL have been busy already planting flowers and painting and re-doing the front porch up at Daddy's, and hopefully soon the house will really belong to them. They've already talked to the mortgage people, so it's just a matter of getting the legalities taken care of, and the house will be theirs. It's so much fun watching their excitement, and it brings back great memories of our first house, and when we built this one.
I can still remember that wonderful rush when we signed our first mortgage and moved into our first home. We barely qualified for the mortgage back then for a whopping $101.00 a month! Back then they wouldn't take the wife's income into account, because she would probably be quitting to have children. That $101.00 got us a really nice house, too!! Now, I shudder to think what our children must pay for their mortgages.
Used to be, if I wanted a quick idea of how prices have changed with inflation, I could multiply what we paid for something way back when by 5 to get an idea of how expensive it would be now. For instance, for a long time this worked for gasoline, as we paid 29 cents a gallon when we got married in the 60's. That would put it about $1.50 now, if only inflation were involved. Obviously, gas is more than that, but that's the idea anyway. At the rate things are going, I'm going to have to change my estimation to 10 times to come closer to modern prices. After all, Cokes were 10 cents when our children were little!!
Well, I digress. I guess the day will come when DD and SIL will look back on the mortgage they paid for this first home of theirs and be just as amazed at how little it was per month. But right now, it sounds like a fortune, just the way our $101.00 did.
It's so much fun listening to them planning all the improvements and changes they want to make to the house, knowing full well that most of them will stay in the realm of pipe dreams, once the reality of paying for it all hits home. But let them dream ... it's got to be one of the most exciting times of their adult lives, and I'm glad to be able to share even a little bit of their enthusiasm.Labels: first home, home buying, inflation, mortgage, remodeling
Sheila,
help?
