Everyone was using Lsd in 1914. Seriously, the signs were everywhere. Alright, keep calm, I’m not suggesting our grannies and great grannies were into casual drugs.

I’m just pointing out that in the run-up to the First World War, Britain ran on pounds, shillings and pence, written as Lsd or £sd.

Pennies are completely useless these days – let’s face it, they won’t even get you into a public toilet – but you could do a lot with them back then.

In 1914, it cost one penny to post a letter.

For the same amount, you could buy a pint of milk or a loaf of bread, though most people were still baking their own.

Or you could buy a copy of The Oxford Times newspaper.

A quarter of loose tea would set you back tuppence and a pint of beer was yours for two pence-ha’penny.

In fact, in 1914, you could fill your basket with a large loaf, a pint of milk, a pound of sirloin beef, a quarter of a pound of tea, six eggs and a pound of sugar and still have enough change from half a crown (12 1/2 new pence) for the penny tram ride home.

A Morris-Oxford Bullnose two-seater car would cost £175 (no, not per month, I mean entirely) and to rent a five bedroom house in Iffley Road, Oxford, would be £40 per annum.

Apart from a halfpenny, or ha'pence, you’d have been feeling good if you had a threepence or th’rupenny bit, sixpence (a tanner) or shilling (a bob) in your pocket.

If you were a bit flush, you’d have a florin (two shillings), a half crown (two shillings and sixpence), crown (five shillings), ten shilling or pound note.

It seems weird now everything works in an easy decimal system of tens, that in those days, poor shopkeepers and bar staff had to cope with there being 240 pennies or 20 shillings in a pound and 12 pennies in a shilling. Keep up, please.

And let’s not even get started on the whole imperial weights and measures thing.

Just to confuse everybody, some prices were quoted in guineas (21 shillings) even though there was no such thing as a guinea any more. Who came up with that brilliant idea?

Yep, back then, things might sound like they were mega-cheap but before you head for the Tardis, there was a catch.

Wages were rubbish, on average just under 20 shillings, or £1 a week.

Compared to today’s weekly average of £450... well, you work it out.

Though it’s often referred to as the Edwardian period, George V had been on the throne since 1910 and things were reasonably good.

The poor did struggle, but the middle classes could afford meat, decent food and clothes.

When Selfridges department store flung open its doors in 1909, shopping for fun started to catch on, and in Oxford stores like Elliston & Cavell in Magdalen Street catered for fashionable folk.

But it was all shattered when the war started.

It changed everything forever, sending food prices soaring and the rest, as they say, is history.

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