Financing a VCR and a $3/hr Job
I grew up in the 80’s. I vaguely remember when we got our first VCR. My mom recently told me the story behind that purchase.
My parents financed the VCR. It was $800! It is shocking to me considering what you can get for that these days – and how worthless VCRs are now. The last time we purchased a VCR I think we paid under $50 for it at Walmart. It was just a cheap one for the kids to watch our VHS videos. Now we don’t even have one in the house. To be perfectly honest, I don’t even have a DVD player hooked up to any of my TVs right now. All the movies I watch now are digital… but that’s another story for another day.
My mom described how nice that VCR was. They upgraded to a model that didn’t require a long cord for the remote control! It was a wireless remote!
The funniest part of that story to me, was that in order to get the VCR, my mom made a deal with my dad that she would limit herself to only going to the movie theater twice a month. She said she didn’t even keep her end of the deal more than a month! My mom really liked movies! I guess that is where I get it from. We lived in a very small town and there wasn’t much else to do I guess.
There is a bit more to this story though. My mom ended up working for local movie theater. She sold movie tickets and buzzed the buzzer that opened the door to let people in. I know she often said she never made much. I had no idea it was only $9 per night! Assuming there were two movies each night at each movie was about 90 minutes, that would be $3 per hour! She did it so that she and our family go attend all movies for free. It was a great deal for me. We went to movies all the time! Plus we got free popcorn and drinks.
So, what is the craziest purchase you have ever financed? Have you ever taken a part time job more for the perks than the money? I’d love to hear your stories. Leave a comment and let us know.