On Jun 8, 1:25*am, John Williamson
wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article
,
* *jgharston wrote:
And I've always wondered how valid this "men never went
in the kitchen" thing was. Most of my ancestors on my
mother's side were fishermen, and if you couldn't cook
you starved.

My father - born around 1900 - washed and dried the lunchtime dishes every
single day. He also gave his unopened pay packet to mother every Friday..

My mother never went out to work, but looked after the home and kids. But
had full control over the family income and outgoings - father simply got
some pocket money.

I think they balanced out running the home pretty well between them -
mother certainly never complained. Of course these days when so often both
parents go to work (or both not) it's a different matter.

In the 60s Dad's salary, which was roughly the national average income,
paid the mortgage on a nice semi in a pleasant area with a reasonably
comfortable lifestyle for us (2 cars, washing machine and a TV.). Just
the mortgage payments on that house now would be a bit more than the
national average income, assuming the same percentage deposit.

Nowadays, in most areas, two incomes are needed just to keep up with the
bills, especially if there are children. I noticed a two bedroom flat in
Oxford being advertised at the weekend at a rent of about £15,000 per
year. £300(ish) per week sounds *so* much less...

Over the last few decades, wages haven't kept up with property prices.

Investing in building projects is always the first to go when the
economy hits a downturn. Your cash is seriously drained for a 1 or 2
year period depending how quickly you can sell the finished product.

In the meantime you would have been earning interest on the capital on
some other investment.

It was an eye opener to me when the work dried up no that long after
they started importing east Europeans at 2/3 the going rate and about
6 months before the actual crashes happened like dominoes.