Debate: Cost of living, 1955

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Can anyone point me in the right direction as to the cost of living around 1955, eg price of bread, milk houses etc.

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Cost of living 1955ish

Archive Comments

20 Dec 200519:15

Hi
Can anyone point me in the right direction as to the cost of living around 1955, eg price of bread, milk houses etc.
Thanks

Re: Cost of living 1955ish

Archive Comments

15 Aug 200610:39

> Hi
> Can anyone point me in the right direction as to the
> cost of living around 1955, eg price of bread, milk
> houses etc.
> Thanks

I started Engineering training at RAE Farnborough in 1952. First weeks pay was £3/3/3d. Of this, £1.19.6d was taken away for hostel fees !! I think after five years, pay had risen to £6 odd/week.
In 1954 , bought BSA B31 350cc M/C for £85. Petrol (Cleveland with Alcohol)was 4/6 a gallon. In 1955 bought first car for £75 - 1932 MG Magna 4-seater softtop. Circa 1957, bought 1947 VW Beetle for £175.
Cannot help with price of food etc. because I never really had to buy any !!
Regards.

Re: Cost of living 1955ish

Archive Comments

30 May 200623:29

I had pocket money of 6d per week aged about 8 in 1956. With this I could buy sherbet lemons etc at 1d each - some sweets were a halfpenny.

In 1960 entrance to "The Dell" terraces (Southampton FC) for boys was 1 shilling : my dad had to pay 2 bob! This remained unchanged for several years.

I remember queuing as a student to fill my petrol tank in the late sixties before the budget increase put petrol up to 3 shillings a gallon (1.4p/litre !!)

My parents sold their three bedroom detached house with a very large garden in Sussex 1960 for £3300. They had purchased the house in 1954 for £2950. House prices in the village were quite high as there were direct rail services to London Victoria (though my father did not commute).

A good site for general inflation figures is the ONS.

Re: Cost of living 1955ish

Archive Comments

24 May 200618:34

I remember seeing my father's wage packet around 57/8.

He was a railway waggon repairer at the time, and brought in £35 to feed and house a family of five.

He was relatively well-paid for his class.

Re: Cost of living 1955ish

Archive Comments

12 May 200606:19

I'm looking for the same facts about 1956. Were you able to access a website???

Re: Cost of living 1955ish

Archive Comments

02 Feb 200618:56

Hi, I bought my first house in July 1957 in Southampton.
It cost £1,700.00. my weekly wage as a Fitter/Welder was
£9-17-00d (approx £9.75p) a week.A new bungalow was £2050.00 which I could not afford.

Re: Cost of living 1955ish

Archive Comments

13 Apr 200619:02

I got 3d a week pocket money in the mid '50's and it seemed to buy a lot of sweets.

Re: Cost of living 1955ish

Archive Comments

02 Feb 200613:27

Here are a few price pointers ! In 1950 and until say 1956, the grocer used to deliver a weeks goods and I checked the order each week. Although only 3 - 9 years old, I recall the bill for three of us was usually £3.75 to £4 per week for tea, flour, tinned goods, washing soda etc...only milk, bread, meat and daily vegetables were seperate. Milk ..one pint was 10d, bread straight from the oven one shilling a loaf, meat was no more than 10 -15 /- (50 -75p) weekly. In 1956 our 1947 Volkswagen cost £255 but a new Ford Popular was £410. Petrol was 4/1d per gallon for BP Regular which was truly awful so Dad bought National Benzole at 4/10d which equates to 24p for 4.52 litres. Dad's wages as a Sales Representative for the South Western Electricity Board were approx £18 weekly. We bought our terraced Victorian villa in Bristol for £900 in 1950 and it was worth about £1200 by 1957 rising to £2700 when sold in 1965 (Now worth £175,000). May 1956, our brand new Sprite 4 berth 16 foot caravan was £360 and we would rent it to you for 2 guineas (£2.10) per week including gas!!Our two man Enterprise sailing dinghy cost £120 complete and in August 1959, our 1955 Jaguar Mark 7M (MTR 179 where are you?)cost a staggering £575! So....if you correct wages to prices and transfer them to current figures, motoring was more expensive and eating cheaper or maybe much the same depending on what you bought! I hope this "broad brush" helps but it is very easy to look at period car magazines, newspapers, old brochures etc. for detailed accurate information. Happy hunting!

Re: Cost of living 1955ish

Archive Comments

04 Feb 200621:39

Hi Richard,
Just noticed that you purchased a 47 beetle in 1955.Can you remember who you bought it from and where.Just a long shot as i am trying to trace the history of a 47 beetle that came to the country after the war bought new by my grandfather.Any help would be greatfuly received via e-mail or on here.
Thanks,
Andy

Re: Cost of living 1955ish

Archive Comments

21 Dec 200513:42

Frank,
I would try your local newspaper to see if they hold old copies that they might let you look at or try the library in your home town I hope this helps.
Bill

Re: Cost of living 1955ish

Archive Comments

21 Dec 200512:13

OAP weekly Pension £10...

Re: Cost of living 1955ish

Archive Comments

01 Feb 200600:43

I came to UK 1951 from Australia, as a new dental graduate intent on enjoying the NHS, since i wanted to treat people according to need and not according to their pocket size. I earned about 25 pounds a week as an assistant dentist. When i bought my first house in 1959 it cost Three thousand pounds for a three bedroom semidetached newly built property in Tylers Green bucks My hobby was gliding, which cost about fifteen shillings an hour for club members. Apples cost about a shilling a pound. Attending the dentist was freethough it did not take long before charges were imposed by the governemt. Air-turbine drills did not appear till about 1057. That was a major improvement in dental techniques.
Rationing ws still happeeing. I think a meal at the Regent place Lyons cost about three shillings, and was mostly potato and onion and perhps fish. A small filling or an extraction cost sensn shillings and sixpence. My Morris Minor 1953 cost about 450 pounds plus purchase tax. Petrol cost abput three shillings a gallon..ie four litres!!!!
Tis is just reminiscence, but certainly the difference in ccosts is remarkable!

Re: Cost of living 1955ish

Jennifer Sterling

03 Feb 201115:36

£25 a week in 1951 was really good money I should think.
The prices are all really interesting. I'll have to put them into percentage of average income, to get a realistic figure of what's changed between then and now in terms of costs.

Pension £10 a week must have been worth more, I should think. If average wages have gone up by x 10 or more, the pension has gone down in value. I seem to recall petrol at 5/- a gall. But that would be in the sixties.

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Originally published: Tuesday, 20th December 2005
Last updated on: Tuesday, 20th December 2005

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