Grubby money

Part of the fascination of the documents in the tubs is that my children are at that exact same life stage - at university, partly supported by parents and partly from their own endeavours. We talk about the oppressive cost of living at the moment but actually, compared to earnings, it is almost identical to 30-something years ago. Except for house prices of course, and that didn't get even close to my radar at age 20, and same for my kids.

The summer of 1990-91 I was delighted to be a filing clerk for National Mutual Bank for the princely rate of $10.00 an hour. I spent a couple of happy weeks literally in the basement filing room, filing away, then they realised I was fairly literate and could be trusted with basic documentation so I spent the rest of the summer at a desk next to a window compiling car finance applications. This was a fantastic job - clean, regular, proper lunch breaks and infinitely better than the bar and restaurant work I'd been doing up to then. Although from memory I also did Friday and Saturday nights working the bar, then I'd go out partying afterwards! Good god. 

This was my university fee invoice for 1991. A total of $1517 for the year, that I paid in two instalments. So about 150 times my hourly wage. My kids earn about $30 in hospo/retail, and their uni fees average about $7000 a year - so 233 times their hourly wage. A bit more, but not insane. I can however confirm that my conversations with my kids about this deeply channel my  mother's conversations with me ... I dropped the following letter from Mum to me in our group chat to give the children a chuckle ...

I find myself using that exact combination of 'don't expect anything because we're not rich' with 'I can't help myself here's some money' and 'well done for being independent and working hard' and 'get a good education' and 'what is your rent again? are you budgeting' ... and then ending it with 'enough of grubby money' :) That is something I actually say to them, in those words, because life is more than money. 

Filing was just a summer job, I didn't do much in 1991 then I started work at the public library which was Best Job Ever because BOOKS. All the books.

And a pay rise of 20 cents an hour! My rent for a room in a share house was $80 a week, about ten times my hourly pay - my kids' is about $200, so a bit less. A decent but not fancy pair of leather shoes from a chain store in 1990 was $100 - and it's still that now. A pair of Levis was $70 - it's now $120. A main meal in a cheap and cheerful restaurant was $12, it's now $25. The cheapest bottle of wine was $5 and it still is! My tastes have moved on but prices haven't. So I don't think my kids have it too tough, comparatively.