Bought our first house in 1989 at the peak, with a mortgage rate of 8.5% variable because 1% reduction for first time buyer for one year.
We never paid 8.5%. The rate went up before we completed. Eventually after about a year or so it was 15.5%
My take-home was £680 a month, my wife's varied between £550 and £650 depending on her shift pattern as a nurse, and the mortgage plus endowment was £750. When you added petrol to get to work, and household bills, we had £250 for food and repairs and clothes and going out and holidays and presents.
My mother recently said "You never really did anything to that house did you?"
She seemed surprised that we had so little money, that I built a garage out of reclaimed shite, I picked up off work colleagues, like a garage door, which one bloke was going to chuck when he converted his garage to a room, or the beam above the door, which had been another blokes, mantel piece.(It was a nice solid 8 foot long bit of timber. )
Or the stained glass window someone was replacing with upvc from thier toilet room.