Things We Used To Save Up For As Teens

There was a time when wanting something and actually getting it were two very different things.

If you were a teenager in the 80s or 90s, there was no clicking a button on your phone and having something arrive at the front door the following day. If you wanted something that cost more than your pocket money, you had to save for it.

And that could take a while.

You might have had a paper round, a Saturday job, pocket money from your parents or a collection of coins gradually disappearing into a money box. Every pound, five-pound note and handful of loose change brought you slightly closer to whatever it was you had decided was absolutely essential.

Looking back, some of those things seem fairly ordinary. At the time, however, they could feel like the most important purchase you were ever going to make.

Your first proper pair of trainers

Trainers were never just trainers.

There were the ones you wore for school, the ones you wore for messing around outside and then there were the trainers you actually wanted.

A particular brand or style could suddenly become the thing everyone was talking about. You might have seen them in a shop window, spotted someone wearing them at school or noticed them in a magazine.

The problem was that they cost considerably more than the shoes your parents were prepared to buy.

So you saved.

And when you finally walked out of the shop wearing them, there was a genuine feeling of achievement. You had not simply been given them. You had worked towards them.

A stereo or portable music system

Music was a major reason to save.

A decent stereo system could be a serious purchase for a teenager, particularly if you wanted something with a proper cassette deck, radio and speakers.

Having your own music system meant you could listen to your tapes in your bedroom, record songs from the radio and create compilations for yourself and your friends.

Later, portable CD players became desirable, particularly once CDs started replacing cassettes as the format everyone wanted.

Of course, a portable CD player was only truly portable when you were prepared to accept that one sudden movement could make it skip.

Still, having one felt incredibly modern.

The latest computer or games console

Technology was another major temptation.

The arrival of a new games console could suddenly make every other possession in your bedroom seem slightly less interesting.

Depending on when you grew up, you might have been saving for a Commodore 64, Amiga, Sega Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, PlayStation or one of the many other machines that competed for your attention.

The console itself was expensive enough, but then came the games.

And games were not cheap.

That meant choosing carefully. You couldn’t simply buy every new release because there were three more you wanted waiting around the corner.

Computer games

For those who had home computers, games were often something you had to save up for individually.

A new game could represent a significant chunk of your available money.

There was therefore a strange amount of pressure on your purchase.

You had read the review in a magazine, looked at the screenshots and probably heard your friends talking about it. You had finally saved enough money and bought it.

Then came the moment of truth.

Was it actually any good?

Sometimes the answer was yes.

Sometimes you spent weeks trying to convince yourself that it was.

Concert tickets

Going to a concert could be a huge deal as a teenager.

It wasn’t simply the ticket price. You might also need money for transport, food and, depending on the event, merchandise.

But seeing your favourite band or singer live could be worth every penny.

You would save up, get the ticket and then spend weeks or months looking forward to the date.

There was also something special about having an actual ticket in your hand. It was physical proof that you were going.

Long before digital tickets appeared on phones, you could keep the ticket afterwards as a souvenir.

A decent pair of headphones

Headphones were another item that could suddenly become important.

Cheap headphones were everywhere, but if you wanted something that sounded genuinely good, you had to spend more.

For a teenager who spent hours listening to music, that could seem like a perfectly reasonable investment.

There was also something satisfying about shutting out the rest of the world and disappearing into an album.

Your bedroom, your headphones and your favourite music could provide an entire evening’s entertainment.

The latest trainers you didn’t actually need

Of course, saving for trainers deserves another mention because sometimes one pair simply wasn’t enough.

You might already have perfectly good trainers, but that wasn’t the point.

A new style had appeared.

Everyone was talking about them.

Someone at school had them.

Suddenly your existing footwear was completely unacceptable.

The justification was often surprisingly detailed. You needed them for sport. You needed them because the old ones were getting worn. You needed them because they were better quality.

You probably just wanted them.

And that was enough.

A leather jacket, denim jacket or other serious piece of clothing

Certain clothes were purchases rather than simply items of clothing.

A decent leather jacket, denim jacket, coat or pair of jeans could cost a lot of money for a teenager.

But these were the things that could change how you felt when you walked out of the house.

You had probably seen them on musicians, actors or older teenagers and decided that owning one would somehow make you look considerably cooler.

Sometimes it worked.

Sometimes it really didn’t.

But either way, you had saved for it.

A bike

For many teenagers, a bike was still one of the ultimate purchases.

It represented freedom.

A decent bike could take you to your friends’ houses, the park, the shops or anywhere else you were allowed to go.

You could spend ages looking at bikes in catalogues or shops and imagining where you would go on yours.

Once you finally owned it, the world suddenly became considerably larger.

You didn’t need someone to drive you everywhere.

You could just get on your bike and go.

A holiday with your friends

As you got older, saving became less about possessions and more about experiences.

Going away with friends could become a major ambition.

Perhaps it was a camping trip, a weekend away or eventually a holiday abroad. Suddenly the money you had been saving was no longer buying something that would sit in your bedroom.

It was buying memories.

For a teenager, that could be incredibly exciting.

You had to work out how much you needed, save what you could and resist spending it on all the smaller things that seemed tempting along the way.

Your first mobile phone

For those who grew up in the later part of the 90s, the mobile phone became the next big target.

Early mobiles were expensive and the choice was nothing like it is today.

There were no enormous app stores, social media feeds or high-resolution cameras.

You wanted a phone because it was a phone.

Being able to call or text your friends without needing to find a payphone felt incredibly liberating.

Then came the competition over who had the latest model.

The phone that had seemed amazing six months earlier suddenly looked ancient.

CDs and albums

Music itself could swallow a surprisingly large amount of pocket money.

If you loved a particular artist, buying an album was a genuine commitment.

You might have heard a single on the radio, seen the video on television and then spent weeks deciding whether the album was worth buying.

There was always the temptation to buy a single instead, particularly if you only really liked one song.

But owning the album felt different.

You had the artwork, the booklet and the songs arranged in the order the artist intended.

And because you had spent your money on it, you were probably going to listen to it repeatedly.

Magazines

Magazines were another regular drain on teenage finances.

Music magazines, football magazines, computer magazines, car magazines and the many specialist publications aimed at teenagers all competed for your money.

They were full of posters, interviews, reviews, competitions and information that you could not simply look up online.

Buying a magazine was an event in itself.

You would read it from cover to cover and then probably leave it somewhere in your bedroom where it gradually became part of the furniture.

Going out with friends

Sometimes the thing you were saving for wasn’t a physical object at all.

It was a night out.

A trip into town, bowling, the cinema, a meal, a gig or simply enough money to spend the evening with your friends could require careful budgeting.

You had to decide how much you could afford to spend and how much needed to be kept for the journey home.

That was an important lesson in itself.

If you spent everything at the beginning of the evening, you could end up with a very long walk home.

The satisfaction of finally having enough

Perhaps the best part of saving up was the moment when you finally reached your target.

You counted the money.

Then counted it again.

Maybe you were still a few pounds short.

You waited another week.

Eventually, you had enough.

There was something deeply satisfying about handing over money you had earned or saved yourself. The thing you bought mattered, but so did the journey towards getting it.

When you had spent weeks or months saving for something, you tended to look after it.

You didn’t want to lose it, break it or accidentally leave it somewhere.

It had cost you something.

We probably valued things differently

Today, teenagers still save for things they really want, of course. But the world of buying has changed dramatically.

There are instant purchases, online shopping, subscriptions, digital downloads and next-day delivery. There are more choices and more opportunities to buy things than most of us could have imagined when we were teenagers.

Back then, saving was often unavoidable.

If you wanted something expensive, you waited.

And waiting had an unexpected benefit. It gave you time to decide whether you really wanted it.

Sometimes, after three months of saving, you discovered that the thing you had been desperate for wasn’t quite as important anymore.

Other times, you finally got what you wanted and it felt fantastic.

That feeling of achievement is probably the thing many of us remember most.

The trainers, the stereo, the games console, the concert ticket or that jacket you had spent months thinking about were more than just purchases.

They were little milestones.

And when you finally got them, you knew exactly how much they had cost you.

What was the one thing you desperately wanted as a teenager that you had to save up for?