I keep hearing how the baby boomers had it so much easier than now. It is just not true. We had a very high period of inflation that lasted into the 1980’s. Inflation peaked in 1980 at 14.6% and mortgages were at 16%. We had a neighbor who moved in that we became very good friends with. When she told me their home interest rate was at 16%, I was shocked. Ours at the time was 8 and 1/2% because we had had our home built in 1978 and that was high enough. The mortgage rates just kept rising. Inflation reared it’s ugly head during the Carter administration because of high unemployment, rising oil prices, and government spending. It lasted just over 10 years from the 1970’s through 1980. Sound familiar?
Our salary in 1970 was around $11,500. We were a one income family. I was a stay at home mom to two sons who were born in the early 1970’s. It was cheaper to stay at home rather than pay a babysitter. My mom worked and Hubby’s mom was older so there was no one to help. You were on your own. Hubby was offered a different job in 1971 which he took that paid a bit more.
But we survived. It was not any easier than it is now. After taxes, social security, health insurance, etc., it was a small amount that you had to live on each month.
When we were a couple, I had $25. a week to buy food when we were first married. I squeezed every penny. When the boys were born, we upped that to $ 80. every two weeks. It stayed at that amount for years until they were teenagers. I shopped once every payday which was every other week. That included food, diapers, personal care, and household products. We had one of the first “warehouse clubs” called GEX at that time. I would go there and buy the needed items that were on sale. Then I would fill in with fresh produce in season at the farmer market stands. When produce wasn’t in season, I would meticulouly research what was cheaper: fresh, frozen, or canned. Meat was purchased on loss leader at the grocery store when we could afford it. I remember trying TVP(textured vegetable protein) plant based that mimicked ground beef because we could not afford regular ground beef. It was the worst tasting food ever. I only used a 1/4 to a 1/2 lb. at that time in a casserole. To finish up the lb. I had to doctor it up with sauces to make it edible. We never purchased it again. I have never purchased plant based meat today and never will.
I portion controlled all of our food and we never wasted a scrap. I would look over the food ads for the sales and cut any coupons that I could use. I shopped with a list and didn’t buy anthing that wasn’t on it. We would have a sweet dessert about once a month and we rarely purchased junk food. We ate a lot of spaghetti back then because it was cheap. I would sprinkle some ground beef into the sauce. Many meals were meatless. Peanut butter and jelly or eggs for lunch along with some fresh fruit. We ate lots of homemade soup, stews, and chili for dinners. You could stretch the meat in those things.
We had a small garden with strawberries and vegetables when we lived in our first home. Then we planted and enjoyed blueberries in our next one.
I washed cloth diapers for two babies and hung them to dry on our outdoor clothes line.The only Pampers I would use was when we would go out visiting at someone’s home. I got a box at GEX for $.99 for 12 and they would last us a few months. I used my washer to clean all of our clothes but I hung them to dry outside. I did not use the dryer. We were an all electric house until they lifted the ban on installing natural gas. Our electric bills back then in the winter in the late 1970’s were $600 or over for 2 months.
Gasoline was very expensive and we had shortages for a very long time. Hubby and a friend carpooled to work to save on it. They would alternate weeks. Work was 30 minutes away. On the week that our car stayed home, I would only go out to get needed groceries, take a child to the doctor, and sit in line to fill up the car. Many, many times I would sit in line for an hour and they would run out of gas before it was my turn. Then you would have to keep trying to find a station that had some gas again. I did this with the babies with me. It was so much worse than it is today. We did not go anywhere else with the car until they were old enough for nursery school and we carpooled that with 5 other families.
We cut down on Christmas gifts when they were babies. Only necessities were purchased and perhaps a stuffed animal or small rattle or toy. Many of those years we did not exchange gifts with anyone outside of our own little family.
We bought absolutely nothing that wasn’t a necessity back then. When the boys were born, baby showers gave us many items. I was offered many hand me downs and I took full advantage of those. Then I passed all of their clothes down to my cousin when she had a boy. I had a sewing machine at that time and made some of their clothes too.
Necessities were not wants. They were you can’t go without these items.
The difference I see today is all the tech stuff that costs a lot of money. Many children when they grow up want everything their parents had and more right away. They aren’t willing to save for it and then buy it. They charge these items and then get into a cycle of debt that many never get out of. We, baby boomers, always saved for the things we needed. Then we bought them.
The other difference I see from the 1970’s to now is that we always made savings a priority. Each and every paycheck had a portion set aside for emergencies. The savings rate today is abysmal.
Perhaps the way to survive everything going up today is to go back and live the way we did from the 1970’s through the early 1980’s. It’s your choice.
An example: We need some furniture. We have the money to buy it but I refuse to pay the prices today. Will it come down in price? Eventually, it will but not to the prices it was in 2020. Experience has shown me that.
I will say that we did have one advantage. We had TV’s but they weren’t on all day. There were commercials but not many and there were only a few shows a day. Every night, the TV stations signed off at midnight. Today, you are bombarded with commericials on TV, on You Tube, on Facebook. They are everywhere. I hate them so I ignore them. We DVR our shows so that we can fast forward through them.
6 replies on “Back To The 1970’s”
Hi Precious, great post! Every generation has hardships. We became adults in the early 1980s, in the inflationary times you are mentioning. We had student loans like the young people today. It took us 5 years to pay them off. Our first mortgage, in 1985, was at 12%, and that was a first time homebuyer program. For the first 10 years of our marriage, we had 1 car. We lived in a high cost of living area for the first 12 years of our marriage and never made the median income for our county. I stayed home with our kids, like you did, for the same reason: it was cheaper. My husband worked for a large corporation and a couple of years after he started, they switched from a pension to a 401k. It would have been great, if we knew what to do with it. They also took away the retiree health care at the same time for the young people like us.
We were able to move to a lower cost of living area in the mid 1990s and finally got some traction. As the years went on we continued our frugal ways and we were able to play catch up. It took awhile. I learned more about the different accounts that were available to us like how the 401k worked, Roth IRAs, Health Savings Accounts, etc. I became online friends with you and you were my biggest cheerleader. We got our kids through college, got our house paid off, and retired 2.5 years ago.
I guess what I am trying to say is to the young people: don’t get discouraged. We all go through these times and things will work out in the end. Our first house was only 900 sq ft, but we managed. We shared the car. We didn’t have a lot of material things, but we had enough. We made a lot of financial mistakes, but none of them were fatal and we were able to overcome them. We are in inflationary times again, but we will all get through them.
Hi Chris,
I so agree with everything you said. This too will pass. You should be applauded because you have done great.
I am a little younger than y’all so I remember it all but as a teenager. My father died in ’82 and the mortgage on the family house paid off so my Mom was able to raise us (2 left at home) with her full time job. I was married in ’87 and we bought a house but I don’t recall the interest rate. By ’89 I was making really good money, spending it all and I even ran up a lot of debt. I was never taught about money and my dad was a “keeping ahead of the Jones and always had to have and give us the newest of everything”. I am kind of glad to have left that life behind and learn many, many lessons the past 15 years (since filing BK in 2011).
Thanks for all the daily lessons!
Hi Patti,
Thanks for aharing. You and I were in the same boat growing up. I was never taught about money either. Money was never discussed in our home. But I was a curious kid and I noticed things. My sister and I shared a bedroom where my mother kept her large dresser. I looked in there one day and saw my mother’s credit card bills. I noticed how much interest she was paying because she never paid it off in full. That started my journey about money by going to the library and taking out books about debt. My journey continued when I went to college and studied accounting and finance. It was eye opening for me. I never wanted to keep up with the Jones and never did nor do I now. That little peek in that drawer that day changed everything for me. I became frugal and Hubby was all aboard. I am happy that you have learned! Better late than never.
I love your stories! Thank you!
YVW!