[Margaret Pilkington]

I think many miss the point that while we did buy our own homes, we did not get them given to us....that wages were low, mortgage rates were high and to be able to afford our own homes we made sacrifices.

We made do with second hand furniture, carpets, (not wall to wall carpets, more like big rugs)nothing matched.(this was certainly so in my case). We bought stuff at Jumble sales, took stuff from family and friends.

We did not have holidays abroad....we did not have many nights out.
I can remember during the early years of my marriage having to choose between a newish wardrobe and a weeks holiday in a guest house in Southport...the wardrobe won.

I can also remember having too much week at the end of the money....making clothes for my daughter from my own dresses...cut up and hand sewn.
I can remember paying our electric bill with money that was sent to me for my 21st birthday present.
So anyone who thinks we had it easy, can have another think.

It was 1980 before I got to see foreign shores....I was thirty three years old and had worked from being 15 with just a year off when I had my daughter.
I had studied and qualified as a registered nurse...this also meant making sacrifices.

Today, it appears that those young folk who think we had it made want nights out, mobile phones which cost nearly as much as my house, foreign holidays....they don't save, they don't see the point.

We did this so that we could secure a roof over our heads