Education & Work comparing your first pay to costs

... was going to post this in the "first pay" thread - but thought it might get lost, or off track.

I am definitely not having a "go" at people complaining about how they "can't afford a home" nowadays ... but thought it might be interesting to look back at income versus costs.

I lived at home, so can't really remember what things cost - I earned $100/wk and used to pay $20/wk board. My only other expenses were a bus ticket - and if I bought a sandwich, or hot chips, for lunch every day, there was no money left at the end of the week (lunch was expensive).

The thing that really sticks in my mind was a few years earlier. I started work at 16 - but remember at around 10 really, really, really wanting a Barbie Doll. I used to stand in the shop and just stare at them. I remember trying to save up for one, but never made it as they cost $30.

When you think of it - that doll would've cost me 1/3rd of an entire weeks take home pay. Now you can buy them for $6 in the supermarket.

I also remember my dad taking the hairdryer in to be repaired - hairdryers were expensive in the early 1980's

 

Labour was alot cheaper and we have converted to a disposable society. High volumes of cheap, imported consumer goods aren't worth repairing as the service technician will cost almost as much as a new widget.

 

I got my first job as soon as I turned 14 and 9 months - it was at a bakery. Three after school shifts and every Saturday. Pay was about $45p/w and had to pay 50% of my income as board which was my only real expense. Can't remember what I frittered the rest on but my board was my only commitment at the time.

 

When I got my first real job it was 500+kms from my folks.
I rented a cr&py little 2 bed appartment for $150/wk. I ended up getting one of my mates in to take the other room so halved the cost to $75.
Initially I only had my bike, and that got me throught the first 4months or so. I had enough coin to buy a 1980 (I was born in 82) Ford Laser for $2200. The thing was something else - an engine, 4 wheels, am radio, and a steering wheel. Other optional extras included hand winding windows and brakes.
I remember my sister helping me move and mum gave her authority to do an initial "house stock" of food. It was $400 or so to get me started which got me all the long lasting stuff (sauces etc) then I was on my own.
When I was at uni I shared a house with 5others. When we left I took everything no one else wanted so had a good stock of general 'stuff' (pots, pans etc). I made a coffee table using milk crates and a peice of board. My desk was an old door (also on milk crates). Couches I had found on the side of the road one day.

Total monthly costs were about $1500.

Blacky

 

My first pay vs Cost....Paycheck to paycheck
Earn about $750pw before tax as contractor in my first job, renting $370pw - due to time constraint + the only unit we could rent due to no rental history previously, run like this about 3-4 months until hubby start his job, then I moved to better paying one the year after.

 

How do you remember what you earned? My first job was casual computer programming/word processor operator at 15 years old. No idea what I earned. My first full time job was junior factory hand. Again, no idea what I earned. I would have to look up pay slips if I kept them.

 

I was tracking my income/expenditures since before I even had income or expenditures.

 

At 15 my base pay rate was $5.82/hour in 1992 at Big W but add around 20% loading for being casual.
Costs: Nothing significant, living at home but IIRC petrol was 70c a litre.

I think takeaway food hasn't increased a whole lot in price much since then and also same with all electronic devices.

Bus fare has gone from ~$2.50 to $4.50 I think.

Value of Realestate in my area? Gone up multiple times.

 

First job out of school was $178 a week. Was paying $20 a week board and lodging. Left me with $158 out of that first pay packet. Got my first road bike for $150, dinner at Maccas and a tank of fuel. An old Yamaha A100 from memory. Good times.

 

My first FT job paid $750/week after tax and HECS. Rent for the one bedroom apartment we lived in was $380/week. This was 2011.

 

Well my "first" job I was 12 and I worked as a glass collector in the local rugby clubs bar in the north of England. It paid me 4 pound per night, 1 night per week.

My first job in AU was at Maccas in 1990 I was 15 and I earned $4.185 (yes and a half cent!!!!).

My first full time job was 1993 when I was 17 turning 18, I earned 9,600 a year.

My expenses were board which I can't remember the exact amount but was more than just a "token" board and my loan that I took to buy a computer. I didn't have much left after that, I didn't go on overseas holidays or eat smashed avo on toast .

I had a number of friends and girlfriends over the years who didn't pay board and they just couldn't pay their bills when they moved out, I was always bad with money, would spend what I had but bills ALWAYS came first.

I don't think we will end up having a child but if I did, I would make them pay board, not because we need the money but to teach them to take responsibility and pay your bills, it's one of the most valuable lessons my parents taught me.

 

Hahaha mine was 2 empty McDonald fries boxes with a plank of wood over

 

At 21 (mid 90's) I was a single parent, fulltime uni and fulltime job at woolies. After rent and childcare I had $80 a week left for everything else. Struggling was an understatement.

The only reason I got on my feet was because I quit uni and got a better paying job. Bought my first house earning $32k a year and rented rooms out for the first 5 years or so

 

I find it amazing reading the stories of sacrifice and struggle to get to where we all are yet you never hear about that in the media, we are all "lucky" to be where we are and we ruined it for the smashed avo generation.

I know I have expressed my opinion on this many times so I will not go into it again but just once, it would be nice if we had an article that was "from struggle street to the best street in the suburb" and it was a story of how someone started, they struggled, they sacrificed, they gave things up and eventually, it worked out for them. This to me would be inspiring to the younger none home owning generation instead of the media just feeding their desire to blame everyone else.

When exactly did the media stop reporting and start writing fiction?

 

'cause it was a nice round figure ... my first part time job, while at school, was strawberry picking (now that's was hard on the back and knees) but can't remember what the "per punnet" rate was.

I do remember my first dining table was a card table and two directors chairs ... used to iron my clothes on a towel on the floor before I was given an ironing board for my 21st

 

When I was a kid working in the menswear store, I was living at home. The only prices I remember from early childhood (say late '60s) were many lollies being purchasable for five for a cent. I remember bread being 20 cents a loaf at some point too. When we were a bit older, we used to get 20 cents a week in pocket money. And I was in the cubs and then boy scouts, where they used to have bob-a-job fund-raising (10 cents for doing some job, like mowing lawns - for those young'uns here, a "bob" was a shilling, the rough equivalent of 10 cents before decimal currency).

At university in Christchurch NZ I rented shared accommodation after the first few years, and from the second or third year was working part-time in a fitting and turning workshop (quite a large one). Can't remember the pay there, but my first rent was $10 a week (sharing an old house with two others), and my last rent before moving to Sydney in 1983 was $22 a week (I think sharing with two others then as well). On arrival in Sydney, I shared a place in Crows Nest (again with two others, and a farting dog - an old duplex) for about $45 a week - a huge jump in rent! Food was typically about $15-$20 a week per person, placed into a weekly kitty, but we used to shop off the supermarket specials lists.

Another engineering holiday job I had the first year at university (1977) paid $50 a week, and over summer for two or three years around then I worked casually for a truck company in my rural home town picking up hay. Hard, hot, and dusty work at times, with long days and often nights as well, followed by time spent digging out thistles from my hands and nursing blisters, but once the calluses hardened, great fun being out in the trucks with the lads! Never mind all the sunburn and living on allergy tablets. Can't remember the pay there either, but it was pretty good (though casual, so only for actual hours worked, but after the start I worked a lot). $20 or so an hour rings a bell, but that may be wrong - seems like a lot for that time.

For the first few years at university, I lived in a halls of residence with about 300 others. The cost of that, including food, was completely covered by government bursaries, but with little left over (and no HECS crap either!). I remember at times surviving for a month or more on just $10 while waiting for the next bursary instalment (most of which had to go to the halls of residence). I used to cycle everywhere there, so didn't need money for transport, and the university was just across the road.

The best comparison of pay vs rent in Sydney back then for me would be the $45 a week rent (sharing a 3-bedroom duplex in Falcon St, Crows Nest) while earning about $22k a year (about $420 a week). That was in 1983/1984.

 

For me a lot of my 'struggle' was self imposed. I could have 'afforded' a much better place of residence, a better car, a new hoowzmidad. I chose not to. But if things went to pot I knew I could always get out of my pickle - and at a very worst case call on the bank of mum and dad. Theyre not super wealthy but I always had a safety net.

I remember at one stage breaking up with my girlfriend. I was living in her house and things got a bit messy. So I moved out. Initially couch surfing at friends places until I overstayed my welcome. As I was planning on leaving town (I ended up staying longer, but I was intending on moving on) I didnt want to commit to a lease. I could have moved into a back packer, or cheap hotel but I chose to go camping instead. I call it camping - my friends called it homeless.
I set up my car (by now a Holden Rodeo) with boxes for clothes storage. An esky for food. There was a public shower by the boat ramp. Clothes washing was done at the laundry mat accross from the office (washing during work hours). I would get to work early, and iron my clothes before anyone else was in the office.
I cant remember how long I did it for, but it was several months.

I would set up down the beach, light a fire, cook dinner, do a bit of fishing and play with the dog.
I actually really enjoyed it. It was good fun. Friends thought it was wierd and my boss wasnt super impressed when he discovered it but by that stage I had been doing it so long and he couldnt tell, so why would anyone else care?

Blacky

 

@Daisycutter4