Fish and Chips - not a cheap meal anymore

I had fish and chips plus a drink in Wetherspoons and it came to just over £11 .
But it was such a small portion of chips that I was hungry afterwards .
Perhaps , it's designed to make you want a pudding !

Our local chippy offers fish and chips for OAPs for £6.90 .

The cheapest lunch is offered by our greasy spoon . I can't fault it .

Glad someone does Dickens. Rock n roll had begun ( which I did like) but I still liked DW, probably because mum did. Always was a bit behind the musical times,

silverlining48

Oooo David Whitfield, who else remembers him? Cara Mia mine ? Fancy him
having a chip shop.

Oh yes, I remember him - and Mantovani!

Oooo David Whitfield, who else remembers him? Cara Mia mine ? Fancy him
having a chip shop.

Locally for me just over £7 at the nearest F & C .
Do my own in a air fryer with Frozen Fish Cod or Haddock and then McCain Chips .
Mick

In the 1950s/early 1960s I used to buy a sit down meal of cod, chips, buttered bread and tea for 2s 3d in David Whitfield's 'Gainsboro' fish restaurant in Hull. Halibut was 3s 6d. Las time I bought fish and chips from a chippie was in Godalming a few years ago: about £11!

😲

Oh, don't!!

Hard to believe it was 60 years this year.

silverlining48

I am 100% positive Callistemon. It was actually £4/10s and 2 old pence.
So £4.51 today’s money. I got one Day off a week for college too and 2 bob luncheon vouchers,
I worked in central London so had to pay fir travel (£1.50) and my mumTook another £1.50.
It went up to £5 ..eventually

And I thought they paid London Weighting. I was in the provinces too.

I only had to pay for the bus!

You did well callistemon ;)

I am 100% positive Callistemon. It was actually £4/10s and 2 old pence.
So £4.51 today’s money. I got one Day off a week for college too and 2 bob luncheon vouchers,
I worked in central London so had to pay fir travel (£1.50) and my mumTook another £1.50.
It went up to £5 ..eventually

silverlining48

My wage in the civil service in 1963 was £4.10s pw before tax.

🤔
Are you sure that was 1963?
My starting salary was £7 pw in 1963 with one day off for college, I remember it because it was £1 for every day of the year!

M0nica

Mogsmaw, do you live in Britain? What Elaine1 has written means to any native English speaker, regardless of ethnicity. 'we went to a fish and chip shop this evening and bought a large portion of fish and chips, took it home where we divided it into 2 portions and each of us ate half.'

Or as Elaine1 says 'Paid £9 for large fish and chips tonight which did both of us.' which means exactly the same thing but is more succinct.

It is something lots of us do, especially us oldies as a large prtion of fish and chips is more than enough for two and cheaper than 2 small portions,

Thank you , sorry you failed to understand my reply to silverlineings at 08:07. I am British, my specialisms is in linguistics and etymology.

My wage in the civil service in 1963 was £4.10s pw before tax.

I seem to remember that in my university days in Newcastle, 1961-64, a portion of fish and chips cost 1/6d.

It is not how much or how little things cost that counts but what the income was that it was being paid out of.

In 1962, the average manual worker's wage was £14.00 a week and most would have had one income only coming into the household.

Fish and chips seemingly have gone the same way as oysters, once upon a time a food of the poor and workers on low wages way back in Charles Dickens day.
Now almost on a par with caviar!
How did that happen?

Fish and chips is certainly not cheap now, but then it never was.

I remember as a teenager in Norfolk in the 60s buying a '6 of chips' which was a large portion. A 'bag of chips' was 4d.

I'm in Grimsby now and can get a medium portion of haddock & chips for £4.50 which is big enough for me. A large portion costs £6.50.

Haven't tried this chippy www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-67006309

I buy XL Birdseye battered fillets and McCains Home chips, then cook them in the air-fryer. Our local chippy is not only expensive but also not very good and I prefer a less greasy, more crunchy batter. My chips are also much better.

JenniferEccles

This reminds me of the tale often told by the older generation when I was a child that in their day, 2/6d would pay for a trip to the pictures, fish and chips after and enough change for the bus home!

I used to put a 10-shilling note in the back pocket of my jeans on a Saturday night which paid the return fare from North London to Leicester Square; the entrance fee to my favourite jazz club - and a bottle of 'Fanta' Orange. And I think there were some pennies left over. 1962!

Fish and Chips were an occasional Friday night 'takeaway' - considered something of a luxury, like eating-out which occasions I could count on the fingers of one hand per year.

I do remember that at one time, you had to ask the staff in a fish and chip shop if you could "just have a bag of chips" - before it became commonplace to buy them without the fish.

In the late 40s as a 6/7 year old I was given a precise amount of silver and copper wrapped in a piece of paper on which was written my family's order for their fish-and-chip Friday 'tea'. They sent me on the errand because of the long queue (the fish and chip shop was only 2 doors away on a residential street, with no other commercial properties). I cannot remember the price - but I do remember that I was never given paper money, just a small fistful of a mixture of half-crowns, and shilling and sixpences to cover, usually, a family of 6 or 7. And the shop owner always gave me an extra small portion of chips for free to eat while I was waiting for the order!

Oh yes... we used to call them scriggles

Anyone remember the little batter scraps you could get for almost nothing ?

I occasionally have the fish without the chips, trying to be healthy. It's not cheap around here.

A baby at 88?! HA!

At our local chippie, fish and chips for myself and hubby would be around £16.00 but we don't mind as the food is lovely, well cooked, hot etc., the chips are fat and tasty and so on. The cold drinks are nice and cool. The ladies are friendly and hard working and there's always a long queue!

But I totally get what you're saying, the prices in a lot of chippies are certainly going up!