20 Things That Were WAY Cheaper in The 1980s!

20 Things That Were WAY Cheaper in The 1980s!
Travel back in time to the 1980s and discover "20 Things That Were WAY Cheaper in The 1980s!" This video explores items that were significantly more affordable back then compared to today, adjusted for inflation. From everyday essentials to luxury goods, you'll be surprised at how prices have changed over the decades. If you're curious about the cost of living and economic shifts, this video is a fascinating watch!
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[@marylamb6063]

I rented a three-bedroom house during the 80s and it cost $220 a month. It cost us 15% of our monthly income. Today young people are paying 50% of their income on rent. It's just criminal. Also, my car loan was $150 a month. We made less money in the 80s but the dollar went a lot further than it does today.

[@masudashizue777]

I remember paying 99 cents for a Whopper back then. Now it's more than $8.

[@chiarac3833]

If you knew what was in it, you wouldn't eat it. Trust me.

[@3Storms]

One thing that was more expensive back then was TVs. A 32" TV in the 80s costed around $1,600, which is around $4,000 in today's inflated money. I do miss used cars being cheaper, and anyone could buy something running for $500 to $1,000.

[@rongendron8705]

You're right about both!

[@marniebaker-winnick2296]

My parents bought a nice 3 bedroom 2 bathroom, 2000 sq. ft. home in Santa Barbara CA in 1980 for $108,000. They sold it for $330,000 in 1986. That exact house is now worth $1.2 million. And no, it has never been renovated. *sigh*

[@20alphabet]

That's nothing... our parents bought a 11 year old 1,250 sq. ft. 3 bdrm 2 bath house in Ontario for $12,500. It's value today is nearly $700K. The sad part is the house is worth far less than when they bought it, but the dollar is almost without value.

[@marniebaker-winnick2296]

@@20alphabet I just looked up my grandparents old house in Santa Barbara on Zillow. It is a 1750sq ft 3 bed 2 bath on 1/2 an acre. They paid $10,000 for it in 1955! Its now worth $2.1 million! crazy!

[@musicnerd72]

Ontario is on a roller coaster for demolishing old properties. Even nice older houses that could just use a renovation. Developers only see the money of the land instead of the potential value of the structure itself. It's sad to see that trend. ​@@20alphabet

[@juliejackman2649]

That's what houses cost here now too. In 1970 my Parents bought a 3 bed 2 bath house for 15,000...that same house would cost 750,000 now. A lot of other houses in my city are in the millions. You could buy a house for 100,000 range back in the 90s (Utah)

[@marniebaker-winnick2296]

@@the_watcher_ LMAO! What year was that? Must have been in the 1800's I assume. Coincidentally, the college I went to had their campus at the corner of State and De La Guerra. It has since moved to Goleta, I think.

[@lisab7977]

I went to a Big Ten college. Room and board with three meals a day was 4K a year. Wish my kids’ costs were that cheap!

[@user-hb6vn9ym6e]

80s best decade ever

[@deegee-zi5xm]

Right.

[@purplesprigs]

My first new car was a 1984 Ford Escort diesel. It stickered for $4,000 ($11,000 today). That little car got 40 mpg city, 50+ mpg highway. Beat that today.

[@chiarac3833]

I knew a dude with one of those. Northern NJ.

[@rongendron8705]

This goes to show you that car's prices have doubled, even considering inflation! A car like that, would cost $20k plus today!

[@davinp]

While the Corolla is still made, the Ford Taurus is not. Unlike the Japanese, the American Automakers give up and cancel the model when it is no longer popular. The Japanese don't, instead, they redesign and improve the car. Ford, GM & Chrsyler have given up on small cars and sedans and only make SUVs and trucks which is a mistake.

[@chiarac3833]

Japanese also pay that Toyota CEO far less than the Americans are paid. That and he runs Lexus as well and is doing a damned good job. The govt should have let the US automakers fail, just like any other mismanaged business.

[@davinp]

Fast Food (McDonald's) has gotten allot more expensive in the past decade than it was in the 1980s.

[@3Storms]

Don't forget that airlines back then didn't over-stuff planes with too many people crowded into small seats with no leg room. They didn't charge you for every last thing either. CD players were prone to skipping, and didn't take off until the early 90s when skip protection was added.

[@marylamb6063]

I used to smoke on a plane. There was a vacuum right above that sucked the smoke away from the atmosphere. And you're right, the leg room was incredible!

[@Lanie_5D]

I remember paying $.74 a gallon for gas way below the price you said and that was in 1983. I was still only paying $.95 a gallon in 1990

[@jchow5966]

Rxcellent video. You could do another one on things that were way more expensive then. Hope you do it.

[@Angie-GoneSoon]

Who wants to go to a theater, with the high price of the movie, plus the astronomical price of food, when you can lay on your bed or couch and watch a movie on your phone! And my back wouldn't hold out that long anyway! LoL

[@ASMR-Arboretum]

That's the main reason it's so expensive now. With so many fewer people going to the movies, they have to charge three times as much to pay the same bills they had with more customers.

[@ladylove4087]

Lol a lot of people don't want to do that it hard to find people that want to sit down and watch tv they will rather go out some where .

[@velociraptorcodeblue5398]

I pay 6$ on Tuesday's at Cinemark , watched Ghostbusters and Godzilla X Kong yesterday 👍

[@geraldgwynn9383]

Price of concert tickets are out of control. The Stones are playing Broncos stadium this year. Almost $300 for nose bleed seats $2000 for a decent seat. Even Red Rocks tickets are over $100 for 1 ticket. No way.

[@chiarac3833]

Ya, imagine paying all that $ and some disaster happens at the show. I won't go to large gatherings like that anymore.

[@terryt199]

I used to pay $8 for concert tickets to see bands like van Halen, kiss, Hank, and such,

[@hugostiglitz8465]

Screw that, not worth it.!

[@Niclouyat]

Wow really that's effing crazy....

[@chiarac3833]

@@terryt199 yes, back in the 80s you could actually afford to see a band you liked. Now not so much...

[@nancyedwards1920]

Capitalism was ALWAYS CAPITALISM, yes things were way cheaper because you made WAY LESS MONEY . I googled that minimum wage was like $3 hr in the 1980's

[@cyclenut]

In 73 when I was 10, my parents negated me and I would pick up soda bottles from the side of the road. I was able to feed myself and other poor families. The bottles had 4 cent deposit and my pull wagon would hold about 30 bottles. In 89 I bought I new Ford full size optioned out pickup truck, it cost $10,500. Also, air fare round trip I could get for as low a $50. I remember in the 80s several times gas cost around $1 to $1.15 The day of 9/11 gas was around 70 cents. The next day it was over $1. Most fast food restaurants had $1 menus. Cell phones in the 80s was a per minute fee and the phone were big and heavy.

[@invisigoth777]

I remember a kiddy set of real tools, that i got for christmas, a real saw, a real hammer...

[@martybee6701]

You can't even buy a knife in Poundland UK now. Kitchen knife, bread knife, pen knife, any typa knife cos of health and safety and rise in knife crime.

[@kevinluschak5241]

Gas was only like 99 cents! God that was so very awesome! 10 dollars filled my tank!

[@davidliddle9033]

In 1980 I saw my first microwave at my parents house after I had moved out, I asked my brother "what that thing was", he said it was a microwave I was like 'what does it do'? My brother tried to cook a raw egg in it, 'nuff said.

[@hugostiglitz8465]

Where in the hell are you getting cable for $50? I got basic+ and pay $150

[@stevenbarnett-ui4ql]

THAT DECADE HOLDS A LOT FOR ME:AND,I MEAN A LOT🌹🌹🌹🙏🙏🙏.

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

that is why a lot of doctors and nurses the good ones are leaving healthcare systems to unionize to make it cheaper for patients and have a sliding fee scale so they do not have to use insurance

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

Used to have big tube tvs with a case made out of real wood kitchen and dining room tables and chair same bedroom sets were bedroom sets

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

nationwide today how many towns are bought up by companies building warehouses and whole towns abandoned

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

In the 1980s Saved by the Bell had kids walking around with Mobile phones in the 1990s the new Bandit movies Bandit had a portable landline at home and a car phone and a CB in his car

[@DTD110865]

That little 1980's brunette in the toy commercial at 17:08 had an almost 1960's hairdo. And what was that Jaj Yaps video with the video game console?

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

we had my little pony charms in out happy meals and sometimes the happy meal had a special promo where it was a plastic container in the shape of a boar and on Halloween the shape of a pumpkin

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

our movie theater has small bottles of wine nachos soda popcorn hot dogs and candy

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

in the 1990s the stadium across the river from Illinois in Missouri in St Louis you wait till the last minute you could get lawn seats and be closer to the stage than the ones that paid more than you did 2 tickets lawn seats 50 dollars

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

Did not have light rail between Illinois and Missouri until the early 1990s it did not extend to the east side of town where I live until the early 2000s

[@chiarac3833]

My clothes cost way more than this video says. Then again I shopped at Scribbles and Bloomie's.

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

in the late 1970s my mom had a white Chrysler and my siblings would put bumper stickers on it such as if you squeeze this car you get lemonade or the White elephant Twinkie power the electrical system in it was not so good a county deputy had to call someone to haul it to my moms house

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

If you look at houses today and trailers they are not built as good as the ones in older neighborhoods a lot of prefab stuff put into housing today

[@Niclouyat]

I say pirate bay for free movies,,charity shops ,,Netflix and aldi for food...

[@TyroneEpps]

So true❤❤❤❤

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

in the 1980s girls got lip balm lip stick and eye shadow from their moms when they started Jr High and trapper Keepers too

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

with department stores and Kmart and Walmart and McDonalds you did not have gift cards they were a book of certificates good for only the place to redeem them at

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

in the 2000s the change machines were taken out of the post offices as well as the stamp machines with envelopes post cards and stamps talk about government greed

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

I actually miss records and CDS and burning songs onto CDS and I miss the tapes and the 45s and the 8 tracks but then the generations after gen x and baby boomers cancelled all of that and the corks in the wine bottles as well

[@Thenogomogo-zo3un]

May have been cheaper but we werent paid that much. Well I certainly wasnt

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

in the 1960s and 1970s the lab fees for college were for the science labs today are for computer labs printer paper science labs and online math labs for blackboard and online open book test and submitting term papers online and they had typewriters back then so in the 1980s word processors and mainframe computers like in Pretty in Pink

[@matthewcrow4530]

God I hope so things got so expensive today

[@martybee6701]

A grand new McDonalds opened in Manchester UK in 1981. Everybody went to munch on American exotica, they even had two doormen in tailcoats and top hats to welcome customers in. Its still there but in recent years Ive seen it near deserted. Novelties do wear off.

[@martybee6701]

In UK it was the era of the mail order record store. The nearest we had to eBay or Amazon . There was a sort of exotica to the postage stamp as a gateway to the unknown be it mail order records or pen pals ( handwritten letters) .

[@gregwilkinson388]

9;50 T0 9;52 is Foreveryoung Records on Interstate 360 in Arlington, Texas.

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

If you wanted to play the big arcade games you had to go to the mall a town or two over and buy tokens and go to the first floor of the mall near famous cookies we had Rax burgers with a full salad bar and a gator cup of soda and fries

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

Apple 2 E computers and Commodore 64s were around Microsoft did not come into fashion until the 1990s and Samsung in the 2000s

[@vscollector]

I paid $20 for my Bon Jovi concert ticket in 1989.

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

we even had district wide school picnics in the 1980s and 1990s game booths old fashion carnival type we had a diner inside of a drug store downtown fresh burgers tomatoes onion and lettuce fries soda even had a fast food place that served the best chicken a pie restaurant a Hallmark store two antique stores more thrift stores than you could imagine the mall was better back then what happened the government started catering to gen Y2K and Z

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

now there are toasters made for 4 slices of bread or four waffles

[@deegee-zi5xm]

A dozen Dunkin Donuts about $3 back in the 1980s. Today a dozen Dunkin Donuts is about $15. A 5x increase in price!

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

MC Hammer was in the 1990s New Kids on the block were the 1980s and 1990s Dino as well Cover Girls Sweet sensation Expose and Tiffany and Debbie Gibson but MC Hammer did not come along until 1990 or 1001

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

then you had Woolworth's downtown St Louis Mo a Walgreens down there too you had a Famous and Barr bargain basement

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

and HOAs rule the roost in fancy neighborhoods

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

in the new Bandit movies John Schneider From Dukes of Hazzard played the Sheriff Brian Bloom was Bandit and Brian Krause that had to be very confusing but Brian Krause played a Jerry Reed truck driver character nicknamed Poorboy Gary Hart played Brian Krause's dad and governor of the state Bandit lived in. No Brian Krause did not have a dog the car was not a ta it was a Dodge Stelth But it was black

[@maxiscoozuba4338]

Things were a lot cheaper in 2020

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

the only place to get get Sega or Nintendo or Atari is a thrift store yard sale ebay or PCBWAY

[@MarioMania05]

Stop with the streatching of 4:3 Context

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

Today Samsung is cheaper than Microsoft why you do not have to keep upgrading software all the time or buying codes

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

Dominos Avoid the Noid

[@invisigoth777]

actually, this is 2024, and since 2015, at least, movies are not worth the price of tickets people want to be entertained, not preached to

[@Niclouyat]

True ❤

[@invisigoth777]

IDK about cassettes, singles, if it were not buying the album, i would not love the Headless Cross by the then lineup of Black Sabbath, let alone, many more.. Pat Benatar - Le Bel Age, i would not have known if i didn't buy the whole cassette i have to admit, as a tech geek, i was able to steal cable later on, in the 90's we had a betamax, then a vhs vcr, in the 70's, i had pong, in the 80's i had Atari, computer wise i had a tandy trs80, or as we called it a trash 80, eventually i was able to build an apple2 clone

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

utilities have risen too price of food survival food soda snacks chips desserts think of benefits in the 1980s went further than they do today and also a bag of books at a book sale were cheaper a whole bag for a dollar a bag now probably 5 dollars for a used bag of books for your home library. Instruments for Jazz and Marching bands in schools were cheaper in the 1980s school lunches soda even the off brand soda and snacks

[@gogoyubari366]

And pretty girls too!

[@kevinluschak5241]

That s a fact!

[@ellenbradley1880]

Pay Check was a lot less in the 1980's so 4000 was a lot of money even then. just like it is now. There was a lot of high paying jobs then. But you had to know someone to get through the Door. buddy system. which was not right.

[@marniebaker-winnick2296]

Absolutely! When I was 15 in 1986, I got paid minimum wage which was $3.35 an hour!

[@b-genspinster7895]

Still that way.

[@marniebaker-winnick2296]

@@b-genspinster7895 Ironically, the city I live in has the nation's highest minimum wage...$19.03. But its STILL not a living wage if you choose to work AND live here. The rent is astronomical. You have to live at least 10 miles away to find anything even remotely affordable.

[@chiarac3833]

​@@marniebaker-winnick2296try living in Ft Lauderdale, just getting by on $100k a year.

[@b-genspinster7895]

@@marniebaker-winnick2296 I was thinking about having to know someone to get a good job as stated by the original poster but in regards to your comment about wages versus rent and the cost of living in general and the rate in which the country’s population is exploding, there will be even more robust competition for you in both employment and housing as it moves to overpopulation critical mass and automation complemented with artificial intelligence.

[@josebro352]

College is a waste of money I'm sorry. Educate yourself.

[@Niclouyat]

Would anyone want to do a time machine and and hop in and go back on the wages we are getting now to go back,!,we be rich

[@marcelobravo4270]

Not stonks ...

[@heatherhopfinger3942]

Saturday afternoons we had syndicated Sitcoms and teen dramas out of this world My secret identity Superboy the New Lassie the New Gidget the new Monkees The new leave it to Beaver Punky Brewster but in the mornings before school Girl Talk on the weekends Saturday laugh until your sides hurt Looney Tunes until some young parents said it was too violent

[@user-tg4we4mz3v]

Wow. Things in the past cost less $. Ty for sharing that obvious fucking info.

[@jamesschaefer6824]

They will be back soon. With President Donald j Trump in the white house for years 😊😊😊😊😊

[@marshaharris4268]

I agree

[@MyFavoriteColorIsBLUE]

Trump sucks!