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People Are Sharing Prices From The 20th Century To Show Just How Out Of Hand Prices Are Now (30 Pics)
Interview
Over the last few years, between the energy market going nuts, COVID-19, and inflation, people have become significantly more aware of just how much the cost of living is spiraling out of control. It’s a pretty common refrain, that many younger people can’t afford housing, but this has started to expand to cars and even groceries.
So we’ve gathered some examples of what things used to cost in the US, from “cost of living” lists, to old menus and ads. From the cost of tuition at Harvard in the 1850s to McDonald's items, back when they just cost a few cents. We also got in touch with Daniella Flores from iliketodabble.com to learn more about managing money.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
1916 Sears Catalog Home
They shipped the entire house to you by railroad car. Sears was like Ikea before Ikea. Friends and family would come from all around to help the owner build it.
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#2
My Grandmama Just Passed Away And We Found The Hospital Bill Of When She Had My Aunt In 1957. Insurance Paid $100 So They Ended Up Paying $2.95 For Having A Baby
Tempest 1 year ago
It still baffles me how expensive medical care is in the US. Having to pay to have a baby?! 😭 And even to just get an ambulance from what I’ve heard. Where I’m from it’s all free (public healthcare). There are also private hospitals where you have to pay but it’s still affordable to the general public for simple appointments and procedures (but can be expensive for surgeries, admissions, etc - still cheaper than the US!). I hope that the US can someday may this basic human necessity free or, in the least, more affordable to its people.
#3
Mcdonald’s Menu From 1959
Firstname Lastname 1 year ago
It's not the prices that get me, it's all the adjectives that they're using.
Bored Panda got in touch with Daniella Flores, the Founder & CEO of iliketodabble.com, a site and blog dedicated to helping people manage their money. First and foremost, we were curious to hear what she thought is the biggest misconception most people have about managing money.
“That you have to use a strict budget and restrict your life, you can manage your money and still live your life too. Instead of cutting on the things you love, review your spending and look for the purchases that you don't remember or notice that you spent that money on something that didn't matter much to you - that is what you should cut. Spend money on the things that matter to you and cut what doesn't.”
#4
Cost Of Living In 1938
Loverboy 1 year ago
You would think that college couldn't get any more expensive than that (accounting for inflation) but here we are. Imagine being able to buy a house with two years worth of money from an average salary.
Nikki Sevven 1 year ago
I bought my house in 1997. It had been on the market for more than a year, and it was decidedly a buyer's market. The price on which we agreed was 3 times my salary at that time. Currently, its market value is 9 times what my salary was in 1997, yet salaries for the exact same job have not tripled. The struggle is real. (My parents' first house, bought in 1967, was priced at about twice my dad's salary. The house they had custom built in 1974 cost 1.5 times his salary.)
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LokisLilButterknife 1 year ago
Tuition at Harvard will cost you a literal arm and a leg now if you don’t get a scholarship. I think that’s why more and more students from the U.S. are choosing to study abroad as it is cheaper and they get to have an amazing experience learning about another country and culture.
Tommy DePaul 1 year ago
But you would have to make a lot of money to pay full tuition and fees. At Stanford, parents making under $160k/year qualify for financial aid.
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General Anaesthesia 1 year ago
The great depression, 1929 - 1939. And at any time, take "average" with a grain of salt.
Outstanding Scarecrow 1 year ago
The postage stamp looks like a ripoff compared to other things on this list
Jay Cee 2 weeks ago
Near to where my brother ran a toy shop in the outskirts of London there was a faded advert on an end wall. In the late 1930s you could buy a solid 3 bed, 2 reception, 1 bath detatched house for £435 (about $1700) or rent it at 10/6d a week ($4.20). London grew and overtook the area and those same houses sell at £2,500,000.
ispeak catanese 1 year ago
When I was 9 in 1978 the stamps were 15 cents which wasn't much of an increase for a span of 40 years.
#5
Vintage Travel Ad - Hotel Las Brisas, Acapulco, Mexico - 1965
#6
Housing Ad From 1955
Perfumista Perfumista 1 year ago
I wonder if 70 years from now people will look at the $230,000 I paid for a co-op junior 4 and think "wow what a steal"?
In general, many people get uncomfortable around the idea of managing their money and making a detailed plan for the future, so we were curious to hear her take on what pushes people away. “Money is emotional with beliefs that get ingrained in us from childhood. It is difficult to face that head-on, review your spending, and actually create a plan to manage your money. That's why it's great to work with a financial coach who can talk you through that process in a non-judgmental way.”
#8
McDonald's Extra Value Menu 1993
#9
Hospital Bill From When My Grandpa Blew Up A Stump With Homemade Tnt And Lost His Eye
“Your beliefs about money might lead you to think you're "bad with money", but that isn't true. The game is rigged but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't educate yourself about financial wellness. Learn how to navigate the financial system in a way that works best for you, and who knows - maybe you can help change it one day.”
#10
A Woolworth’s Menu From The 1960s When They Served Food
Full of Giggles 1 year ago
It should be noted that these prices were for the American Woolworth’s.
#11
The Westerner Motor Hotel
#12
The Taco Bell Five! (1968)
Daniella left us some suggestions of where to start if someone was dealing with a lot of financial insecurity or was just looking at a beginner's guide to investing. You can also find more on the iliketodabble X and Instagram page. Because looking at these prices might seem sad, but it’s always better to think about the future.
#13
The Original Burger King Whopper In 1963
#14
1947 Hospital Bill Found Out My Parents’ Attic. Not Sure Who It’s For
#15
The Bill For A Semester At Harvard, 1869: $170.42
While many people have accepted that things are terrible, some economists argue that, to some degree, the discourse around the economy is dominated by bad vibes and not facts. Kyla Scanlon, financial analyst, writer, and content creator coined the term “vibecession” to describe the strange disconnect of the US avoiding a recession while many people in it vehemently believe the sky is falling.
#16
Danish Modern Furniture Ad 1962
#17
"Vacation Specials" - Steve Aloi Ford Ad [c.1970]
!["Vacation Specials" - Steve Aloi Ford Ad [c.1970]](https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cost-of-living-prices-past-65b0c37dc0199__700.jpg "\"Vacation Specials\" - Steve Aloi Ford Ad [c.1970]")
#18
Sears Men's Fashion 1960's
Despite all the doom and gloom, economic indicators show that wages are growing alongside the economy. While our current prices are, obviously, higher, due to inflation, some people seem to be working from the misguided position that prices would go down or that there would be deflation, ignoring the fact that this would actually be an indicator of inflation.
#19
Cost Of Living 1989
#20
St. Luke Hospital - 1950s
Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago
The baby care charge from the 1947 bill in an earlier post was only $1 a day. Looks like the price gouging was well and truly starting in the 1950s
#21
Kentucky Fried Chicken
#22
Cat's Meow Restaurant, Fort Lauderdale Florida, 1950s Menu
#23
1943 Cost Of Living
#24
Vintage New Home Advertisement, Toronto With $500 Bonus!
#25
1960's Cocktail Menu From The 'Cannibal Room' At Ren Clark's Polynesian Village In Ft. Worth, Tx
#26
Retro Fast Food Nostalgia
#27
1959 Cost Of Living
#28
McDonald's Menu From 1925
#29
Ad For Space Shoes 1962
#30
1924 Cost Of Living
#31
The Price Of A PC In The Mid-90's
Full of Giggles 1 year ago
The real shocker is the ram and hard drive size. Nowadays, you can’t even start up a cellphone with 16 Mb.
#33
My Great Grandma's Medical Bill From 1950
Chelsea McKee 1 year ago
My EKG was free with my marketplace insurance. Regular price would have been $16, thanks to activism and interest in having more affordable healthcare.
#34
Who Wants To Get Mexican Spaghetti At The Chinese Place Tonight? China Inn, Tulsa Ok, 1950s
#37
Modern Home Floor Plan, Sears 1934 Catalog
#38
The Famous Cotton Club: The Aristocrat Of Harlem Menu. New York: (C. April 1932)
#39
Lunch Menu From R.h. Macy & Co, New York, 1917. All Prices Are In Cents
#40
Disneyland Menu, 1955
LokisLilButterknife 1 year ago
Nowadays: That will be $5 USD for the chocolate milk, $20 USD for the Mickey Mouse waffle, and $10 USD for a side of fries.
#41
Mayfair Department Store Ad San Jose 1956
Ad that appeared in a San Jose Mercury News insert called "COOK BOOK" - Sunday, September 2, 1956
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
Nowadays you can't find a dress for that price even at a thrift store!
#42
Book Price List From 1956
#43
Plane Ticket Price In 1946
Donkeywheel 1 year ago (edited)
We’re still able in 2024 to take a 2h flight for 15 eur/usd. Edit: maybe the worst airline in Europe but they offer this level of prices all year long https://www.ryanair.com/flights/gb/en
#44
The Prices Of Floor Model Tvs From 1976
#46
Toll Booth Quarter Gun (1962)
#47
Chris' Hot Dogs, Montgomery, Al Circa 1941-1945
#49
Kmart Prices
#50
“Colonial” Living Room Furniture From The Sears Catalog, 1975
#51
Mcdonalds Circa 1965
#52
Kmart Grill- July 1971
#53
Prices Of Houses In Pine Hills Back In The Day
#55
Ad For A 4-Bedroom Home In 1958
#56
Who Needed A Food Court When Woolworth's Lunchonette Counter Was Serving Up 35-Cent Hamburgers
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago (edited)
Parakeets (budgerigars) for 98 cents, a bird cage for under $3 - stuck in there with other merchandise, as if they were just merchandise
#58
The Hot Dog Show 450 S. La Cienega 3694 Crenshaw Boulevard Los Angeles 1949
#59
Old Popeye Menu
#63
1970 Cost Of Living
Pa Pa Panda 1 year ago
I must have been ripped off by my first employer because I was bussing tables in 1973 at $1.11 per hour.
#65
1999 Cost Of Living
#66
Chicken Hut Menu
Menu from the Chicken Hut restaurant, which opened in 1944 at 427 11th Street NW, in space previously occupied by Schneider's Restaurant. Chicken Hut was an early fast food chain. Later the Alla Scala Italian restaurant was located here. The façade of the building survives and now houses a FedEx office
#67
Vintage Ad TV Trays 1952
#68
Prices In 1923 Found In My Great Grandma’s Memoir
Ralph Reinhold 1 year ago
I wonder what the 54.1 year life expectancy was by state then. Today, AL 73.2, MN 79.1. This was before TVA and New Deal when the South was like a Third World country.
#69
In-N-Out Burger(1970s)
Full of Giggles 1 year ago
In-N-Out is still a helluva lot cheaper than the other major burger chains in the US. A single cheeseburger combo meal (drinks and fries) is $3.95. The hamburger alone cost that much at McDonald’s.
#71
Unknown Drive-In In Southern Us Circa 1950
#72
My Great Grandfather's Pizza Shop Menu From The 1970's
#73
Vintage Nintendo Ad From 1989
Chelsea McKee 1 year ago
This is expensive to me in 2024. I work full-time for $8/hr plus shared tips.
#74
Bayou Menu
Vintage menu from the Dixieland days of the Bayou, the famed supper club at 3135 K St NW under the Whitehurst Freeway in Georgetown. The Bayou opened as a Dixieland club in 1953 and continued that format until the mid 1960s, when it switched to rock 'n roll and became famous
#75
Bayou Menu
Vintage menu from the Dixieland days of the Bayou, the famed supper club at 3135 K St NW under the Whitehurst Freeway in Georgetown. The Bayou opened as a Dixieland club in 1953 and continued that format until the mid 1960s, when it switched to rock 'n roll and became famous
#76
Hawaiian Bikini Ad 1960s
#77
The Stable Menu 60 S. Bellevue, Memphis, Tenn. Known The World Over For "Florida Fried Shrimp"
#78
Hot Soda Menu Northwestern Druggist 1913
#79
Opening Sale
#80
Chicken Hut Menu
Menu from the Chicken Hut restaurant, which opened in 1944 at 427 11th Street NW, in space previously occupied by Schneider's Restaurant. Chicken Hut was an early fast food chain. Later the Alla Scala Italian restaurant was located here. The façade of the building survives and now houses a FedEx office
#83
1950's Woolworth's Special Menu Signs That Were On The Walls At The Luncheonettes And Lunch Counters!
#84
1954 Snack Bar Menu, Connie Mack Stadium, Philadelphia (Pa)
#90
The Moskowitz & Lupowitz Restaurant Menu, New York City (1940)
#91
Coffee Shop Menu For The Woman's Club Of Tallahassee's Christmas Bazaar, Ca. 1940
#92
Vintage Ad From Kaybee Toys Featuring Some Nintendo Nostalgia
#93
Champ's Menu 02-27-1962
#94
Caesars Palace, Pool Service Menu, Circa 1960s
Lisa Catlin 1 year ago
The header font (American Uncial) looks more fitting for an Irish menu.
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Hańka 1 year ago
For such lists to make any sense, they should be compared with a list of average earnings.
George Costanza 1 year ago
Agreed. This is idiotic. Former prices only matter in relation to former wages.
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Donkeywheel 1 year ago
The list was chronologically sorted at the beginning, the only good way for this article. Now everything is moving around based on a useless popularity system, it sucks big time.
Dane 1 year ago
A large part of what this illustrates is the income inequality in the US, and the impact it has on "average" and "median" incomes. When many of these comparisons were done, the average and median incomes were very similar, as they should be. But now, the "average" US salary is near $60k per year. The "median" salary is closer to $33k. The average is skewed by the impact of the"1%" and others with huge salaries. These prices have (with notable exceptions for medical costs, real estate values, and tuition), have increased normally. Unfortunately, salaries, since around 1980, have flat-lined, and have not increased proportionally. There has been some gains recently, but they have still not caught up, nor are they keeping up.
Jay Cee 2 weeks ago
It's older folk remembering these prices - a burger for 45c! - that makes them pine for the America they think they had. Glossing over Civil Rights, the Cold War, Vietnam, Watergate. It was the good old days. As somebody once said "The past is a foreign country, they didn't have the internet then".
v 1 year ago
I've yet to see or hear any definition of inflation that convinces me that inflation isn't a wholly made up thing to justify higher cost for goods and services. Theoretically, prices should have stayed the same through time since technology has, by and large, made it more cost effective to produce the raw materials as well as value added products. The truth is that it's all artificially manipulated to reap the biggest benefit for the fewest.
Roberta Surprenant 1 year ago
match these prices with wages of the time. when I began working, gas and cigarettes both cost less than 50 cents, at same time, I was making less than $1.75 an hour.
Ruth Collins 1 year ago
My first teaching job paid 4800 for the year. I could not afford day care so I stayed home... and that was the best decision I ever made !!!
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cherry~ 1 year ago
This article doesn't make any sense. It doesn't adjust things to inflation and wages today. Not to mention, there's also the fact that maybe former prices were because certain things were more abundant, or that certain chemicals or materials were allowed back then that are now banned today. If it did adjust, we would be able to see whether these "former prices" really were cheaper.
AwesomeLeoWife 1 year ago
That’s literally the point of the article… to show the inflation.
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Mint Sauce 1 year ago
Would have been a better article if all the prices were also shown adjusted for inflation, otherwise they're e a bit meaningless unless you can see how much they would have been in todays' prices.
Hańka 1 year ago
For such lists to make any sense, they should be compared with a list of average earnings.
George Costanza 1 year ago
Agreed. This is idiotic. Former prices only matter in relation to former wages.
Load More Replies... Donkeywheel 1 year ago
The list was chronologically sorted at the beginning, the only good way for this article. Now everything is moving around based on a useless popularity system, it sucks big time.
Dane 1 year ago
A large part of what this illustrates is the income inequality in the US, and the impact it has on "average" and "median" incomes. When many of these comparisons were done, the average and median incomes were very similar, as they should be. But now, the "average" US salary is near $60k per year. The "median" salary is closer to $33k. The average is skewed by the impact of the"1%" and others with huge salaries. These prices have (with notable exceptions for medical costs, real estate values, and tuition), have increased normally. Unfortunately, salaries, since around 1980, have flat-lined, and have not increased proportionally. There has been some gains recently, but they have still not caught up, nor are they keeping up.
Jay Cee 2 weeks ago
It's older folk remembering these prices - a burger for 45c! - that makes them pine for the America they think they had. Glossing over Civil Rights, the Cold War, Vietnam, Watergate. It was the good old days. As somebody once said "The past is a foreign country, they didn't have the internet then".
v 1 year ago
I've yet to see or hear any definition of inflation that convinces me that inflation isn't a wholly made up thing to justify higher cost for goods and services. Theoretically, prices should have stayed the same through time since technology has, by and large, made it more cost effective to produce the raw materials as well as value added products. The truth is that it's all artificially manipulated to reap the biggest benefit for the fewest.
Roberta Surprenant 1 year ago
match these prices with wages of the time. when I began working, gas and cigarettes both cost less than 50 cents, at same time, I was making less than $1.75 an hour.
Ruth Collins 1 year ago
My first teaching job paid 4800 for the year. I could not afford day care so I stayed home... and that was the best decision I ever made !!!
Load More Replies... cherry~ 1 year ago
This article doesn't make any sense. It doesn't adjust things to inflation and wages today. Not to mention, there's also the fact that maybe former prices were because certain things were more abundant, or that certain chemicals or materials were allowed back then that are now banned today. If it did adjust, we would be able to see whether these "former prices" really were cheaper.
AwesomeLeoWife 1 year ago
That’s literally the point of the article… to show the inflation.
Load More Replies... Mint Sauce 1 year ago
Would have been a better article if all the prices were also shown adjusted for inflation, otherwise they're e a bit meaningless unless you can see how much they would have been in todays' prices.
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