I remember my parents once paying 99 cents for a gallon of gas during the '90s.

How about going to the bank, getting your entire paycheck cashed, and keeping all that cash in those little white envelopes that you then carried around everywhere you went?

Sadly, my brother-in-law pretty much still works like that.

And actually going to a store/restaurant/etc that didn't take credit cards and not thinking that was strange.

1. Although my check is direct-deposited, and I usually use an ATM for other transactions, on occasion I still do the drive-through, and my kids are still rewarded with suckers.

2. You're right, I never do this.

3. Right again. Billpay through my bank is great!

4. We budget our shopping carefully and don't spend more than $100 per week on groceries, and we have two small children. It can be done, you just have to be careful.

5. Yes, I miss those, too.

1. Check cashing at the grocery store -- I realize they still do it, but I remember this being the only way you'd have any access to your money from Friday afternoon until Monday morning.

2. My family owned gas stations when I was a kid, so I vaguely remember sub-40¢ gasoline.

3. Speaking of which, remember when "regular" meant "leaded" gasoline?

Christmas Club savings accounts. If I recall the interest rates were below that of conventional savings.

How about trading stamps? Blue Chip Stamps were a big deal when I was a sprout. We'd spend all day pasting sheets of those damn things into books then drive to the redemption store to exchange them for crap.

Oh and there were Gas Wars and gas was 25 cents a gallon when the stations were warring. They also gave you crap like coffee mugs or drinking glasses, and the guy would not only pump your gas but also clean the windshield and check your oil and smiled and chatted while doing it.

Oh and passbook savings accounts. How quaint. You couldn't do a damn thing without that stupid book.

Overall, 2007 money stuff is a lot less trouble than 1967 money stuff, or even 1992.

I remember my savings pass book. Every deposit I made and bit of interest I earned was logged into this little treasure everytime I visited the bank to deposit my paper route earnings...ah, the good old days :)

oooh, yes i had a savings book too! i was sooo happy when i got to fill in the ledger at the bank :) lovely blog.
sarah @ Somewhere Over the Debt