What did you save money for as a child?

My first pair of trousers. My mother didn’t think it was ladylike to wear trousers, and even when I had saved up for them, and bought them, I wasn’t allowed to wear them on Sundays, even though my parents weren’t religious.

watermeadow

I had a friend whose family belonged to a strict religious sect. She wasn’t allowed to go to parties or celebrate Christmas or birthdays and, when she wanted a doll’s cot, she had to earn the money to buy it herself. She was only seven and it took her a long time.
So cruel!

But I bet she loved that cot more than any other child who was just given one.

Didnt have pocket money, but our parents provided everything we needed. When I was 13 I got a paper round and was paid 7/6d for seven mornings, including collecting the money on Saturdays. Riches!

I used to go shopping for a lady in our street and would buy clothes from a neighbours catalogue and pay weekly

I used to buy PO savings stamps from a lady who called on a Friday night. They were 6p each and I got 5 every week. I’d save to buy my Mum and Gran slippers for Christmas. I also joined a ‘club’ at the local paper shop/tobacconist to pay for chocolates for Christmas and birthdays.

I had a friend whose family belonged to a strict religious sect. She wasn’t allowed to go to parties or celebrate Christmas or birthdays and, when she wanted a doll’s cot, she had to earn the money to buy it herself. She was only seven and it took her a long time.
So cruel!

bonfirebirthday

I saved my pocket money for the pick and mix in Woolworth's and my weekly magazine, 'Jack and Jill' and then 'Jackie'.

I didn’t know anyone who paid for ‘pick & mix’ everyone I knew pinched them ?

We used to buy those Price Charles/ Princess Anne savings stamps at school on a Monday. They were stuck in a post office saving book to buy Christmas presents for family, if I remember right.

Did anyone else have a Dr Barnardos saving box in the shape of a house? It was to collect for the charity. There was another one which was a blue egg which other children had.

Saving was a big part of our lives.

Every winter the local meadow flooded and froze giving lots of opportunities for skating. I saved birthday money and bought a pair of white booted skates. They soon became too small but I crammed my feet into them for as long as I could. One year I skated from my village into Oxford City centre on the canal. Winters are definitely warmer these days, although it is hard to believe with today's short blizzard!

From an early age I was given clothing and pocket money. I kept them in Elastoplast tins. I would go away on holiday and come back with more than I went with. Saving was drilled into me and it wasn't until I got married that I learned to spend.

I remember savings stamps; I bought one a week and it had a picture of a red squirrel which I thought was beautiful.

My son wanted a television for his bedroom and we said no, so he saved every penny he had, pocket money, birthday and Christmas presents and later paper round earnings, until he had enough to buy one when he was was about fifteen.

When I was 4 or 5 I got 3 old pence a week pocket money. In those days you could buy 12 aniseed balls for a penny but a packet of crisps cost 4d. I saved my pocket money for 2 weeks so I could buy crisps - big treat!

I didn't have any pocket money but we all were given 7 shillings when we could swim. My dad's idea as we lived by the sea and he was worried one of us would drown. I swam when I was about 7 and bought a troll horse toy which went everywhere with me. It made up for drinking half the sea learning to swim !!

Enid Blyton books and then later records

I would save up for holiday spending money, I did quite well and pleaded to be allowed to buy a cuckoo clock, which was refused, probably because the noise would have driven everyone mad!

When I turned 16 I was given an allowance instead, on condition that I bought all my own clothes. I took out a credit agreement on a sewing machine, paying off £1 a month for 16 months. Then I could make all my own clothes and get more for my money!

Oh i am reminded that I used to try and dodge bus and train fares too. ( but I only got 6 old pence a week, sob).

I used to try and dodge paying mybus fare home from school, avoiding the bus conductor's eye and gazing out of the window. If it worked I would buy the Bunty or sweets.

When I was junior school age, from about aged 7 onwards, I got 2/6 (half a crown) on Saturdays. It was spent at Saturday morning cinema, sweets and maybe a comic.

I got a Saturday job when I was at senior school it was quite easy to work from early teens. Mine was in a grocery shop up my road. I did save money then, I coveted a very expensive pair of boots that seemed way beyond my reach, but I did get there in the end, even if it took quite a while. A lot of my Saturday earnings went on Mary Quant make up, magazines such as Rave , Petticoat and NME and going out with my friends if I remember rightly.

From an earaly age I had to buy the Prince Charles and Princess Anne savings stamps at school. When I was in my teens I used to save up all my sixpences until I had enough to buy an LP - usually Duane Eddy or The Everly Brothers who I adored.
Actually got to see both acts on one night at the Royal Albert Hall, they were fantastic, thought it was going to rock off it's foundations!

It is really odd - my parents wouldn’t buy us comics, but I always longed for School Friend. I never bought it with my pocket money, though. I suppose I felt the disapproval too strongly.

We had a shop on the corner of our street, a sort of haberdashery type shop. She had a 'club'. She would give you a card and you could pay her a penny or whatever when you wanted to. She would mark it on your card. We would save to buy our mum something for Mother's Day, usually an ornament which, looking back, were usually awful!

mainly for books and to spend at the seaside on holidays but once....for a penknife! My mum didn't want me to have one so she said I had to save up for it myself and could buy one on our holiday to Littlehampton where there was a tobacco and pipe shop that also sold loads of knives... I pestered Dad to take me and Mum was fairly cross when she found out because she thought I would have forgotten or spent the money on something else....all Dad said is "you should have seen the one she wanted to buy"

Story of my life---working for nothing ! Muggins.

I always knew I was short changed puzzler and grandma70s. You was proper spoiled!

I saved my pocket money for the pick and mix in Woolworth's and my weekly magazine, 'Jack and Jill' and then 'Jackie'.