A COUPLE who live like they’re back in the 1930s say everyone is now buying vintage clothing and second-hand stuff - driving up prices.

Lisa and Neil Fletcher have transformed their home in Watchet, Somerset into a pre-war era dwelling.

They live their lives forgoing the trappings of modern life, watch black and white TV, and have a 1930s fridge, lawnmower, vacuum cleaner and car.

They refuse to use cards to pay for anything, use a landline not mobile phones, and wear exclusively second-hand clothes befitting of the era.

Lisa, a housewife, does the washing by hand using an old-fashioned mangle while engineer husband Neil brings home the bacon.

However, the couple say their once quirky lifestyle now seems more normal, thanks to hipsters and thrifty bargain hunters plundering charity and antique shops.

It means the bargain unwanted retro clothes they used to buy are now far more expensive.

“Everybody wants vintage and second hand now and it is pushing prices up,” Lisa, 58, said.

“I used to go to the charity shop and it would just be me and one old lady.

“Now everyone goes.

“The car boot sales too are rammed. It never used to be like this.”

The couple, like millions of families up and down the country, have also been feeling the pinch of the cost-of-living crisis.

“Our rooms are quite big so we have to watch the pennies," she said.

“In the winter we’re having to sit the cat on our knees to keep warm."

The summer months however are easier to get by on, especially when trying to keep to a traditional way of living.

“We have picnics with our gramophone," she said.

“It’s the full works, with lots of vintage picnic hampers.

“Everything is homemade - there are no packets or processed food.

But she added: “We're just like everybody else.

"Even if I pay £1 for a dress, we still have huge gas bills and spend a lot on petrol.

“We have whacking great radiators - they really push our bills up.

“We try to live the 1930s lifestyle as much as we can, but we don’t go round on penny farthings or anything like that.”

The Fletchers have no plans to ditch their lifestyle and are continuing to spruce up their house.

“We’re decorating all the time and tidying things up," she said.

“We recently redecorated another room done, but we’re not done yet.”