Bacon was 19¢/lb in 1958. I work in the A&P in the meat dept and took care of the case, marking prices. Liver was a nickle a pound. Whole chicken on sale was 19¢, cut up, 27¢ lb.

That's how much we've devalued the dollar over the years.

A little inflation is good for you, dontcha know? It greases the wheels what grease the wheels. It's sorta like compound interest in reverse--it doesn't look like much at first.

Went to the store, yesterday. Butter is averaging at about $5.00 a box. Back to buying margarine. I now buy my milk by the quart, too. Ground beef in the tubes is the cheapest. You can buy two of them and a third of it drains off in fat.

A little perspective. According to 1940 Census data, average income in America in 1940 (a year later than the year of the prices cited in the post) was $1,368, or $26.31 per week.

That means that a dozen eggs, a pound of bacon, 14 oranges, 10 pounds of potatoes and a loaf of bread (food for a decent breakfast)cost 18+38+25+18+5= $1.04, or 3.9 percent of the average weekly wage.

According to the Social Security Administration's National Average Wage Index, the national average income for 2013 (latest year available) was $44,888 ($863.23 per week), or 32.8 times the 1940 average wage.

For the same spending ratio as 1939/1940, then, the same food items I listed above would today cost $33.67. Even if everything on the list cost $5 each, you'd still come out almost $9 ahead today.

It's cheaper to eat today than it was then. And the food is better quality.

Sorry to bust everyone's bubble of how rotten life is in 2014. (It is, but not for that.)

Oh, "the average unemployment rate in the 1930s was 18.26 percent, up from the average of 5.2 percent in the 1920s."

See:

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2012/spring/1940.html

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/AWI.html

The analysis is not complete. Yes, food is less expensive as a percentage of average wages. But ... there's a whole lotta troops now in the Free S*** Army that hafta be fed. That Army didn't exist in the 30's. Somebody is buying the food and housing and cars (sub-prime auto loans) and phones and wide-screen TV's for the FSA. Ninety million and change getting food stamps. Frick. One fourth of the country is on ration cards. If you're a family of four, you're buying food for a mooching fifth. Now redo the analysis.

Mr. Fleming, for those on the dole, riding that free stuff wagon, things are 'mighty fiiiine'. For us on a fixed income getting 1.7% increase in SS and VA disability benefits it's not so fine. What ever saving are possessed produce virtually no interest.

Local governments are grabbing what ever they can because the Feds have ripped them off via Medicaid and SNAP costs.

This is not going to end well. These politicians better not count on spending their pensions.

People used to keep track of their spending, using small notebooks. I have one from 1921, one from the late 30s and one from 1933. They make interesting reading, as you try and sort out the details of the writer, based on how they spend their money.

I've got some bulk food prices that I wrote down, back in the 70s. I had a seasonal government job that paid $10 an hour. Pretty good, since I'm not making a lot more than that these days.

The folks back in the 20s-50s could raise their own food. They could raise chickens and sell them for meat without the government getting involved. They could stock their pantries without being called a "hoarder" and making some government list. In short, they were a lot freer.

There was inflation the 1920's and deflation in the 1930's. Inflation started again in the 1950's through today.

Jewel,
The butter price is scary. You can, however, buy it for $2.79 per pound at Costco right now, if you don't mind buying four pounds. And, strangely, you can buy one pound for $2.99 at a regional convenience store chain here in Minnesota.

I bake a lot. I don't use margarine. Butter price matters to me.

The reason butter is expensive right now is that there's a shortage. Obama waived the sanctions on Iran and they're buying a lot of it. Also, Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries are buying massive amounts of U.S. butter.