First Major Purchase

Ina

Well-known Member
What was the first major memorable purchase you were able to buy with your own money? How did it make feel? How long did that feeling last?:love_heart:
 

After I had been working for about a year I bought a dinette table and chair set and kept them
stored in my parents home for a couple of years until I got married. It was the start of buying for my hope chest. :)
 

I don't know if you would call it a purchase exactly, but when I plunked down $3,000 for first, last and security on my Greenwich Village loft - my first "home-away-from-home" - I was both elated and terrified.

The elation lasted until I saw my first utility bills, then I was terrified on a monthly basis for the next several years.
 
Bubble gum after returning some soda bottles to the drug store. And, yes, it was a major purchase as it was my first...
 
I had been working and saving for a year to buy my first car and pay for my share of the insurance on my parent's policy. A 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 that I paid $90.00 for and if restored today would probably sell for tens of thousands. It had four bald tires on it and I cut a deal with the gas station owner up the street from where we lived to let me have four pretty good used tires that he had and in return, I washed cars for him on Saturdays. I took the bus to my job after school at a warehouse from 4:00-8:00 p.m. five days a week. When I got my car and had the tires put on, I drove. It was really nice. Today, my kids buy their kids cars to drive back and forth to school.
 
I remember buying our first computer with dial-up in the early 1990's.
it cost about ÂŁ1000, with printer.
when my then husband came home; my son ran down the garden to avoid the row, and my husband turned grey!
when I left, in Q1998; my husband cancelled the Internet; I went and bought my own computer then...and never looked back!
 
I think I was about 14 when I spent several weeks helping plant Christmas trees for a gentleman. I made 50 cents an hour and then I worked throwing hay bales for a farm up the road.

The day came when I had finally saved enough to go into our local Montgomery Store and buy my own Srereo portable record player. It looked like a small suitcase and I could open the top and it was hinged so that I could separate the top and have two speakers with long wires so I could have a stereo effect.

it had a handle, like a suitcase, and four speeds. 16, 45, 331/3 and 78 rpms. I was so darn pround of that because I had bought it on my own. Shortly after, the purchases started getting larger. CAR CRAZY.
 
I think I was about 14 when I spent several weeks helping plant Christmas trees for a gentleman. I made 50 cents an hour and then I worked throwing hay bales for a farm up the road.

The day came when I had finally saved enough to go into our local Montgomery Store and buy my own Srereo portable record player. It looked like a small suitcase and I could open the top and it was hinged so that I could separate the top and have two speakers with long wires so I could have a stereo effect.

it had a handle, like a suitcase, and four speeds. 16, 45, 331/3 and 78 rpms. I was so darn pround of that because I had bought it on my own. Shortly after, the purchases started getting larger. CAR CRAZY.


Nothing wrong with being car crazy. I still am even today. My Brother-In-Law and I are building a 1964 Chevy Impala SS. We bought an old rat rod that for years was sitting behind a guy's shed here in PA off of eBay and we are doing a frame off restoration. This requires many trips to car shows with vendors to buy some parts and then we were also able to get some stuff from GM. The quarter panels were the hardest to find without having to pay a mint. We are going to put a Borg Warner T-10, 4-speed in it and are debating whether to rebuild the '327 that is in it now or buy a big block crate motor like maybe a '396 or a '427. If we do a big block, it will also get fuel injectors. Not sure about the rear end end, but 4.11 is what we are considering. We want the thing to turn some rpms It will not get a super charger (or blower). When completed, it won't be original, that's for sure.
 
Three or four years ago, I was visiting my grandson, and he showed me a black, rusted pile of junk, he said he was going to rebuild. I was down again this summer and this is what the finished product looks like. Don't know much about Chevys, but when he started it, the whole barn shook.

i never rebuilt any auto but I did some customizing. Dual exhaust, fender skirts, suicide knobs, seat covers, etc.

Anyway, good luck with your project, oldman, and post pics as you can.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    99.9 KB · Views: 25
Three or four years ago, I was visiting my grandson, and he showed me a black, rusted pile of junk, he said he was going to rebuild. I was down again this summer and this is what the finished product looks like. Don't know much about Chevys, but when he started it, the whole barn shook.

i never rebuilt any auto but I did some customizing. Dual exhaust, fender skirts, suicide knobs, seat covers, etc.

Anyway, good luck with your project, oldman, and post pics as you can.
I can see it isn't quite finished yet.
 
We bought a bungalow when we were first married in 1969, I was 19 and my husband 22. He had just left university when we married, and we purchased the property with the help of a mortgage, just as he was starting his first teaching post. We have bought and sold many properties since then of course
 
About 2 months after starting my first job upon graduating from college, I bought a new car. Pretty crazy considering I had a decent hand me down from my brother. But........I did enjoy the car.
 
Three or four years ago, I was visiting my grandson, and he showed me a black, rusted pile of junk, he said he was going to rebuild. I was down again this summer and this is what the finished product looks like. Don't know much about Chevys, but when he started it, the whole barn shook.

i never rebuilt any auto but I did some customizing. Dual exhaust, fender skirts, suicide knobs, seat covers, etc.

Anyway, good luck with your project, oldman, and post pics as you can.


Even with the two of us working on the car, we figure it will take about 3 years. Getting the stuff together and finding what's needed has become a chore of its own. Right now, that's exactly what we are doing; collecting parts. The frame is out right now being checked for straightness. We have decided that if there needs to be any straightening at all, we will get another one. When I get home from Florida where we are now, I will post some pictures, which are on my desktop computer's hard drive.

Your Grandson did a nice job. Is he planning on dragging the car?
 
I bought a Kodak Brownie Box Camera with money from my first Paper Route

WOW! That brings back memories.

mQzwUL4rETleNXvA3hmNByw.jpg
 
I have worked most of my life trying to help my family get out of poverty, but after I got my first job as an accountant, I secretly put away $100. a month until I had save up $5000., and I paid cash for a red 1963 Ford stepside pickup truck for my hubby. That was the years he got out of the Marines. He still has it. :wave:
 
One of my most memorable purchases was a beautiful bedroom set (real wood!)
To pay for this I worked nights at the cannery which still existed then in San Jose, Calif. (1950?).
Husband got fed up with my working nights and made me quit! :rolleyes:
 


Back
Top