[Leofric]

Now that the cold weather is here I sometimes think back (while I sit on the toilet and touch a warm radiator with my knee ) to the house I grew up in that had an outside wc with  an oil lamp lit when it was really cold to stop the cold water pipe freezing . Thermal insulation, central heating and double glazing in the house wasn't available either !
Of course we take these things for granted nowadays.
Just saying.

[Richard230]

Having been born during the mid-1940's I don't have much to complain about when growing up. My dad, on the other hand, grew up during the 1920's on a small farm in the Missouri Ozarks. The had an outhouse and used old Sears Roebuck catalog pages for TP and when that ran out they used corn cobs. Nothing went to waste, apparently. He also said that he walked to school through the snow in his bare feet as they couldn't afford shoes and when he joined the CCC during the 1930's he was one of only two people from his county in that organization that knew how to read and write. At least that was what he described as the good old days when everything was much simpler. 

[GlennF]

We had an outside toilet on the farm when I was a kid. There was an amusing story about one of the farm hands who spotted a snake down the pit toilet and decided to shoot it with a shotgun packed with rat shot.  The results were apparently exactly what you would expect firing a shotgun down into an enclosed space full of shit..

[Richard230]

This being "Black Friday" one amazing advancement in my life that I can appreciate is the credit card. 

[GlennF]

This being "Black Friday" one amazing advancement in my life that I can appreciate is the credit card. 

At one point my total credit card debt across two different cards was more than I earned in an entire year.

I managed to pay that off over several years and no longer have any credit cards. My only debt is my house mortgage.

[Racer57]

At one point my total credit card debt across two different cards was more than I earned in an entire year.

I managed to pay that off over several years and no longer have any credit cards. My only debt is my house mortgage.

I've been lucky. I've had one credit card since 1982 and have always paid the it the day it came. Started at $8,000 max and they just kept bumping it up. Now its at $42,000. Largest single charge has been for home computers.   

[Leofric]

I suppose somebody will come along and say they lived in a cardboard box ( Monty Python sketch ) 

[Richard230]

I suppose somebody will come along and say they lived in a cardboard box ( Monty Python sketch ) 

My cardboard box is paid off, as are my two credit cards each month. I really hate owning anyone money.

[Leofric]

My cardboard box is paid off, as are my two credit cards each month. I really hate owning anyone money.

Me too.
I stopped using a credit card many years ago.

[GlennF]

Not sure about the US but in Australia you can get a Visa DEBIT card which allows you to make online purchases limited by whatever balance you topped up savings the account with.

This allows you to make online purchases with a limit to what can be charged against the account. I have known a few cases where people with credit cards either were hacked and the bank held them liable for some reason or where they had to contest payments where they were overcharged by someone for a service.  Debit cards by their very nature limit what can be run up against them (providing of course you do not attach it to an account with tens of thousands of dollars sitting there) .

[Racer57]

Not sure about the US but in Australia you can get a Visa DEBIT card which allows you to make online purchases limited by whatever balance you topped up savings the account with.

This allows you to make online purchases with a limit to what can be charged against the account. I have known a few cases where people with credit cards either were hacked and the bank held them liable for some reason or where they had to contest payments where they were overcharged by someone for a service.  Debit cards by their very nature limit what can be run up against them (providing of course you do not attach it to an account with tens of thousands of dollars sitting there) .

Same type of debit cards are available in the US.

[Leofric]

VISA debit card linked to a current account and can make online purchases are available in UK. I assumed they were available everywhere. Different thing from a credit card of course.