Poll--Did previous generations live on one income?

[Word Nerd]

My paternal grandparents farmed. It could be considered a single-income family, but everyone worked, even the kids, and they all contributed to the farm's income.

 

Both of my maternal grandparents worked outside the home, but my grandma didn't when the kids were young.

 

My mom went back to work after my youngest sister started school. My dad worked full time as a teacher and also farmed, and he still hasn't retired from the latter.

 

I stayed home and homeschooled for a few years but had to return to the workforce because we couldn't make it on one income.

[MistyMountain]

My parents and both sets of grandparents did. My parents did not go to college and my dad just had a factory job. My dh has a degree and has moved up positions in his field yet we would not be able to afford the house I grew up in. The cost of living is very different from the 70s and 80s when my parents raised their kids. It was easier to live on one income then and you didn't even need a degree to do so.

[TheReader]

My parents always both worked.

 

My paternal grandparents own their own business + my grandfather has always worked outside the home as well (until he retired). I'm not sure how much of the income from the business goes to their living expenses & how much goes into the business; ie, not sure if the business is b/c it is fun for my grandma or b/c they needed it as financial support. I suspect a bit of both, though.

 

My maternal grandmother was twice widowed and has been alone & living on pension, social security, etc. all the years I've known her. I have no idea the extent of any life insurances, but she does not live in a comfortable manner at all. Her needs are met, but that's all.

 

As for great-grandparents, I'm not sure.

 

DH & I have mostly always lived on just his income, and at this point are quite comfortable.

[Jane in NC]

I'm asking this honestly -- was yarn really that much cheaper on a relative basis several decades ago? Or was it always a luxury, which is why people carefully repaired their socks and sweaters? or "harvested" the re-usable yarn (or re-usable fabric of wovens, plus buttons, hooks-and-eyes, and later zippers) to make other items when the first was too small or worn or unfashionable.

 

I think that yarn and fabric were cheaper than "store bought" finished items which came at a higher percentage of income decades back. Labor is now completely devalued which drives down prices and leads people to ask "Why should I bother to sew or knit?" I think the table has turned on home gardening and cooking which were out of fashion for a while. Home grown tomatoes may cost the same or more as Walmart tomatoes, but can you really compare them? I feel the same way about socks!

 

Just musing, since my mother and sister are both sock knitters, and I've had to sit through many a discussion of sock yarn and mending and spinning and....yawn. :tongue_smilie:

 

I think it's both. I can only go by what I saw when I was growing up (small rural blue-collar community with many immigrants), and I think that people were more careful because they had to be and because they had time to mend. And we are dealing with the influx of cheap goods made elsewhere. Now it is more cost-effective to buy a Costco pack of socks and throw them away than it is to mend nicer socks or make your own. Good yarn is expensive. My mother learned to knit from her grandmother, who knitted family socks because they were expensive to buy from the store.

 

Same with clothing: My mother used to make dresses for my sister and I because it was cheaper than buying them. Same when she was growing up; she made many of her own clothes because it was less expensive. Now it is more expensive for me to buy fabric and notions at the fabric store than it is to buy a dress at Wal-mart or Target or even mall stores like Gymboree or Gap Kids. Clothing quality makes it less feasible to mend, too. You don't want to put an expensive zipper in a dress that's going to wear out, or spend $5 for a zipper if the dress only costs $15 to replace altogether.

 

Cat

 

Agreeing with the above.

 

My SIL is quite the seamstress, a lawyer by day, fashion designer by night. She bemoans the cost of fabric these days. This is a woman who doesn't blink at spending several hundred dollars for an evening dress. But, she used to be able to spend one hundred dollars and make the equivalent of a 500$ dress. Now, she says she can't save any $$ by making her own. The sad part is that she says a 500$ store dress has the same quality as a 50$ store dress. She says the days of beautiful linings and quality notions in expensive clothing is gone.

 

 

A homemade garment from an expert sewist can fit! My goal (maybe my dream) is to make trousers and shorts that fit. Frankly they would be worth the cost!

 

By the way I do agree with your SIL which is why I try to pick up notions like buttons at thrift shops. I find it interesting that there is a resurgence in things like underwear making--again for fit and quality.

 

Some of us are interested in owning less but better items. If we put our money into the hands of small entrepreneurs, perhaps we will see more choices become available. At least I hope...

[GailV]

I think that yarn and fabric were cheaper than "store bought" finished items which came at a higher percentage of income decades back. Labor is now completely devalued which drives down prices and leads people to ask "Why should I bother to sew or knit?" I think the table has turned on home gardening and cooking which were out of fashion for a while. Home grown tomatoes may cost the same or more as Walmart tomatoes, but can you really compare them? I feel the same way about socks!

 

 

 

Agreeing with the above.

 

 

 

A homemade garment from an expert sewist can fit! My goal (maybe my dream) is to make trousers and shorts that fit. Frankly they would be worth the cost!

 

By the way I do agree with your SIL which is why I try to pick up notions like buttons at thrift shops. I find it interesting that there is a resurgence in things like underwear making--again for fit and quality.

 

Some of us are interested in owning less but better items. If we put our money into the hands of small entrepreneurs, perhaps we will see more choices become available. At least I hope...

 

We need to be neighbors. Really. I said that same thing about socks (except I compared them to homemade yeast rolls vs store bought) a few Thanksgivings ago when a relative asked why I didn't just go to Walmart and buy a package instead of sitting there knitting.

 

I can show you my trousers that fit, you can show me what thrift stores have buttons. We can discuss what fabric to use for underwear.

 

By the way, past generations of my family were very strong in the "buy once, buy quality" theory of consumption. So maybe I've been brainwashed from birth. (The anti-handmade-sock relative is related by marriage.)

[Jane in NC]

We need to be neighbors. Really. I said that same thing about socks (except I compared them to homemade yeast rolls vs store bought) a few Thanksgivings ago when a relative asked why I didn't just go to Walmart and buy a package instead of sitting there knitting.

 

I can show you my trousers that fit, you can show me what thrift stores have buttons. We can discuss what fabric to use for underwear.

 

By the way, past generations of my family were very strong in the "buy once, buy quality" theory of consumption. So maybe I've been brainwashed from birth. (The anti-handmade-sock relative is related by marriage.)

 

Yes, we have had the trouser discussion before, haven't we? And I am not making much progress on that one. Sigh... Did you ever try that Collette pattern? (Talk about derailing a thread!)

 

We recently discovered a retired shoe repairman from another state who has a backyard business going. My husband dropped off two pairs of work shoes for resoling--not cheap but less than the original price of this particular American made shoe. They are not in the landfill and will live to see more use!

 

Wouldn't it be fun to be neighbors! We could save ourselves those small trips to the store for a small notion or the right colored thread.

[gardenmom5]

no other.

 

Dh's parents could have lived comfortably on fil's income - if his mother hadn't a) been a complete and total spendthrift. (she's a compulsive shopper - even her millionaire last husband didn't have enough money for her and he had far less money when he died.) and b) she couldn't stand being home with her kids and ran off to work because "my kids didn't need me" (or so she told me last thanksgiving. sil was eight months.) so they did have a two-income family when most were one-income.

 

His paternal grandmother was a sahm and they had a very comfortable standard of living.

[GailV]

Yes, we have had the trouser discussion before, haven't we? And I am not making much progress on that one. Sigh... Did you ever try that Collette pattern? (Talk about derailing a thread!)

 

 

I thought that was you, but couldn't remember the actual subject of THAT thread (which we also derailed) to go look it up. Nope, still don't have it -- in the middle of some other projects, so no time right now.

 

We go to the shoe repairman too, by the way. Dh has had the same briefcase for years and years -- it's been re-sewn and re-furbished more than once.

[TGHEALTHYMOM]

I voted "my parents did" and "both sets of grandparents did" but it's not exactly the case.

 

My mom had a very part-time job as a reporter for the town newspaper, and my maternal grandma was an author. However, the money they earned was only a small fraction of what their husbands made and it was not used to support the household's basic needs. Basically it was just "gravy" and mostly a way to provide a bit of intellectual stimulation while raising 3 or 4 children.

 

Thanks for sharing this ;)

[Lady Florida.]

Also, the boys were expected to go to work and contribute to the family by the time they were 12 or 13,

 

Neither of my maternal grandparents completed high school. My mother was the oldest of three girls, and had to quit school at 14 to go to work and help the family. My middle aunt also quit, but the youngest had the privilege of completing high school.