OT Theatre/ballet prices

ARW · 2021-09-09T18:42:29+00:00

1. Standard £50.00 - that's me.2. Disabled £47.50 - they sit a seat just the same as mine and they get a better parking spot than me that they do not pay for.3. Senior Citizen £47.50- probably got more income and less expenditure than me and they have free public transport.4. Students £47.50. Try asking for a discount at the bar you wankers:-)5. Under 16 £47.50. A complete rip off if you wish to encourage a child to broaden his/her experiences whilst growing up.6. Unemployed £47.50 - well there is no need for that is there? Did they mean unemployable?

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Andrew 5 years ago

Away from th South East it wasn't too difficult to get a decent property (or even a doer-upper) at 3x main earner plus half of the spouses income. Is there anywhere in the UK where someone on average income can buy a house for that now ?.

Yes !. I started work in 1971 earning £980/year. After getting an HNC and a promotion I was on £1800/year in 1974. Then followed 4 years of relentless pay rises and back pay almost every few months but because I was sharing a flat in Maida Vale with two mad females and their cats and paying only £26/month rent I didn't really notice inflation.

Anyone who took out a mortgage even in 1971 (after house prices had doubled in the previous 18 months) saw their actual repayments half in just 4 years because in those days the unions were very effective at getting pay rises that matched inflation.

Not my experience of the NHS in the 1970's. The dead wood ended up at the top because those who were any good left for promotion elsewhere. 'Buggins turn' was routinely used to promote people and not because they were any good. They might have been excellent at their job, but that doesn't mean they are good at managing.

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Another John 5 years ago

I agree absolutely. I and an old friend (a retired teacher) were discussing this exact problem. Also, the teacher said, the way that people who were a liability, for one reason or another, were (are!) never sacked, or given a good talking to, or told to shape up or ship out, but were moved sideways, at best, or - at worst: made head techers somewhere else.

Pff! You know when you're old: the world's become a different planet!

John

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Owain Lastname 5 years ago

If you take minimum wage £8.91 * 35 * 52 weeks = £16k, 3 * 16 = £48k.

You can buy a 2 bedroom flat in Cumbernauld or Airdrie for that sort of money. If you've got a partner's income too, or or anything above minimum wage, there's more choice.

Owain

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Alex 5 years ago

Why do you ever do that anymore ? I get mine paid off in full completely automatically every month.

And even when that?s not possible, much more convenient to do it on the phone or PC,

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The Natural Philosopher 5 years ago

a £billion or 10

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nightjar 5 years ago

On 10/09/2021 11:46, Another John wrote: ...

If you got that, you must have got in just before mortgage rates went through the roof. The recommended rates for new mortgages were 8.5% in Jan 1978, 9.75% in June 1978, 11.75% In Nov 1978, 12.5% in Jan 1980 and

15% in Nov 1979, which was when the bank rate peaked at 17%.

....

If you don't, you end up leaving it all in your will, for somebody else to spend.

...

Not even a credit card?

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ARW 5 years ago

The one that asked "when do they start singing"

I have forgotten her mane.

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Richard 5 years ago

Just horsing around, or lion?

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Owain Lastname 5 years ago

No way; I like to see my bill before my money leaves my account.

I do that know but pre-covid the monthly trip to the bank was routine to get everything done.

Owain

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Alex 5 years ago

You are free to do that without going into the bank anymore.

Mad.

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tim... 5 years ago

It was later than that

in 87 I needed a mortgage of 3.5 times (at 60% LTV) and was repeatedly told "no - go away and find a cheaper house!"

And the latter was a genuine option. No-one needed to buy a house at 5 times salary, at that time. It was purely aspirational, houses at 3 times income were almost always available by making a reasonable compromise.

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Max Demian 5 years ago

They give you about two weeks' warning.

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Another John 5 years ago

Well: we must have known what we were doing (ha ha), because it must have been well after Jan 78 when we got the house. The Building Societies (remember them, anyone?!) were keen to give mortgages, looked at our prospects, and offered a mortgage OK. I think (as Tim... has said it was 3 x combined salary (or was it just my salary, my wife being a mere typist (universal attitude then, not mine)). I do remember squeaking rather a lot when the rates increased (useful details you provided there), but our way of life (looking after pennies) made sure we weathered the storm. [1]

Actually, these days I have a very nasty suspicion that it will all go to some bloody care home or other [2]. I'm hoping that -- still riding the tide of good fortune that people born just after the war have been riding all their lives -- "That Pill" will have become legal, and I can slip away just as my sons are debating when to have me carted off.

Yeah well I don't count that: we carefully pay those off, on the dot. (We must be really popular with the CC companies.)

John

[1] I used to keep a 'proper' log of outgoings and incomes, and balance the book *every month*, sweating over accounting for every penny.

Over the years following paying the mortgage off [c.25+ years later ... suddenly: you're rich!], my book balancing became more lax.

I still keep a daily log -- I really don't know why: it seems to be a compulsion. (As does typing ad nauseam in usenet). The log just records what I should be doing each day, and what I *have* done each day. When I have finished all these odd jobs, and projects, I will become a major artist and/or musician.

[2] I was talking to an old friend about the almost criminal scandal that is "care of the elderly" -- where human beings who have become vegetables are carefully kept so. I suddenly began to suspect .... that it actually pays the care home to keep them alive (especially at the alleged costs nowadays). If you have a stable population in your care home, you can manage it; if you have a more rapid turnover, it must be even more hellish than it is. I apologise for this terrible, sacrilegious thought.

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JNugent 5 years ago

Yes - rates were around the greater of those two in the late seventies - I bought my first house in late 1977. The estate agent almost bit my arm off when I said I wanted to buy, such was the shortage of buyers.

Asking price: £7,200. Negotiated the odd £200 off. Deposit: £700. Repayments: £42.96 pcm. Sold the house in late 1982 to move south. Got £15,750 for it.

Well said.

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JNugent 5 years ago

I was self-employed when I bought my first house at £7,000. My obliging accountant calculated what my application form needed to say in order to borrow £6,300 - and made it say it.

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