how realistic is keeping up appearances in 2026?

Posted by Pretty-Ad-5188@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 33 comments

How much money would they need in the 90s and how much would they need in 2026

For a couple like hyacinth and Richard how much would they earn annually

Like what kind of neighbourhood is that

What about Violet the wealthier sister

what financial bracket would she be in

in my country people like hyacinth would be making maybe 20 to 30k usd annually

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Chimpy20@reddit

Hyacinth & Richard wouldn't be on mega money - they had an average house in an average area, and honestly the car was very basic. That's part of the irony of the show - Hyacinth liked to believe they were classy and wealthy, but in reality the money Richard would have brought in would have been comfortable but not extravagant, as much as Hyacinth would have liked!

In today term's, assuming Richard was some kind of middle manager as we saw on the show, I expect he'd be on about £50-60k salary. I don't know what that would equate to in the 90s.

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Skylon77@reddit

He got early retirement payoff with a public sector pension, so they would have been comfortable.

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PootMcGroot@reddit

And likely final salary and indexed linked.

I know multiple people in their 80s/90s now on such schemes, from similar middle manager type public sector jobs starting in the pre-privatisation water and energy industries - comfortably in the 70k-90k pension region.

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Kaiisim@reddit

Yup, what they say immigrants are doing in this country, it's really pensioners. So many on full final salary pensions and have retired for 30 years, making more money doing jack shit than working young people.

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Chimpy20@reddit

Indeed. Assuming fictionally they bought that house new in, say, the late 60s or early 70s, it would have been a time when property was very affordable, easily achievable with just one person working a modest job.

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frankchester@reddit

Literally same as my grandparents. My grandpa was a civil servant who retired in the mid 90a. My grandma carries on working as a secretary until retirement age. Bought their house for £3,500 in the mid 60s.

They were never what I would call wealthy. Frugal to the end but not lavish. Had a nice lil Toyota, maybe went on an abroad holiday (as far as France) once a year and a trip to the seaside on their anniversary. Enough money to treat us all to the occasional slap up Chinese meal. I imagine they were pretty similar to what keeping up appearances was going for!

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PootMcGroot@reddit

If we presume in the show they bought it new and had been there 25 years or so... they could have eaisily spent under £10k.

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EyeAware3519@reddit

"I don't know what that would equate to in the 90s."

Probably 50-60k

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Chimpy20@reddit

A UK inflation calculator told me that £55k today would roughly £23k in 1990.

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EyeAware3519@reddit

I know. It was a joke because UK salaries haven't kept up with inflation, especially in middle management public sector jobs.

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AmbitiousAd543@reddit

A lot of the people of that time just did and made do,nothing like now.Hyacinth would still be using the crockery that she got for a wedding present,bedding sets they would of bought from a nice department store and done till they were nearly threadbare.Nothing would of been bought like these days,people changing the handles on their kitchen cupboards because they’ve gone and spent £100 on a new air fryer cos they want grey and not cream anymore.No B&M or TikTok stuff constantly in your face wanting you to part with cash.

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Ok-Information4938@reddit

Aren't they retired?

So it would be about being mortgage free and pension/investment pot size.

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Chimpy20@reddit

I don't believe Richard was retired as we saw episodes where Hyacinth phone him at work - unless he retired in later series?

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here-but-not-present@reddit

He did indeed. There was an episode about it I'm sure where he kept on daydreaming and saying "early retirement" and thinking about being stuck with Hyacinth all day. Poor bugger.

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Alternative-Emu2000@reddit

He practically begged his boss to let him keep on working, which got misinterpreted as him trying to negotiate for a larger retirement bonus, and an even earlier leaving date!

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here-but-not-present@reddit

Sorry I didn't see your other comment about him retiring. What a predicament for poor Richard to be caught in, eh? 😁

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Alternative-Emu2000@reddit

At the start of the series, Richard works for the local council. His exact job isn't stated, but a few episodes show him attending what look like reasonably high-level meetings. He takes (reluctantly) retires at the start of series 3 and is described as receiving a "substantial pension".

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LittleoneandPercy@reddit

We call our compost bucket Hyacinth

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elf_n_safety@reddit

It’s pronounced Bouqet!

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Alternative-Emu2000@reddit

"It was always 'Bucket' until I met you." - Richard Bucket

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peppermint_aero@reddit

Depends if it's London or not

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Chimpy20@reddit

It was filmed near Coventry and around Leamington Spa, so I assume that's where it's fictionally set as well.

Leamington is a very much a place of two halves. It has a beautiful town centre and some lovely Georgian streets, but some pretty bad run down housing estates and flats as well.

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erinydwi@reddit

I’m pretty sure that they live in the north of England, so the prices are going to be a lot cheaper.

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Martipar@reddit

It was filmed in the Midlands, the houses for the Buckets were in Coventry, most of the other scenes were in Leamington but her sister with "room for a pony" lived in Leamington along Newbold Terrace.

I was born in Leamington and lived there for many years so I recognised a lot of the locations.

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girlsunderpressure@reddit

It's probably not London; Hyacinth has a faintly northern (but affected posh) accent and Daisy and Onslow have very strong accents.

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erinydwi@reddit

Back in the 90s around the area they lived, you could have average professional jobs, like nursing or teaching, and live a similar kind of lifestyle to them. By the 90s you’d need both partners working though.

For Violet’s lifestyle, you could achieve that by having a higher level professional job like a doctor or solicitor, but again, you’d need both partners to be working those kind of jobs.

I’m talking about young adults starting out in the 90s here, not people of Hyacinth and Richard’s generation. It’s possible that they could have achieved their state of living by only having the men go out to work, with the women either being life long housewives, or having a small part time job for ‘pocket money’.

These days, to achieve Violet’s lifestyle, you’d probably have to have generational wealth to give you a leg up.

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EyeAware3519@reddit

Their house is worth about £400k, it's a semi in the midlands.

The car he has was a Rover 216 and nothing special, wasn't even brand new so maybe an equivalent would be worth £20k.

The whole point of the show was that they weren't actually rich

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