What One Dollar Could Buy 1945 -1954
By Susan
@HazySue (39269)
Gouverneur, New York
August 18, 2016 8:15am CST
In todays time when a one dollar bill doesn't buy much it makes me wonder just what a dollar bill could buy way back when. Actually what made me wonder was an article on MSN about what one dollar could buy on the year you were born.
So, being the curious person that I am, I put together this post using information from that article and from what I learned by perusing the internet. Ok, here goes:
1945 - Four paperback copies of Dale Carnegie's 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' or 10 gallons of gas for just over a dollar.
1946 - A men's flannel shirt or a woman's manicure.
1947 - Eight cans of Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup or a man's sweat shirt.
1948 - Five boxes of Kellogg’s corn flakes or twenty-four grapefruit.
1949 - Seven loaves of bread or 6 dozen donuts.
1950 - Four pounds of frozen green beans or 2 pounds of American Cheese.
1951 - One package of 25 thrift Christmas cards or two bottles of aspirin.
1952 - A little under three pounds of coffee or Hunts Fruit Cocktail.
1953 - 24 pounds of potatoes or Pork and Beans.
1954 - One pound of T-bone steak, two dozen eggs or four pounds Sunnyfield sliced bacon.
Once I started researching and writing this it began to become a longer post so, I decided to keep it to wo years. If you would like me to do more years let me know in the comments.
I found it fascinating the difference between how much a dollar could buy then and how much it buys now. Don't you find it amazing?
13 people like this
15 responses
@OneOfMany (12150)
• United States
18 Aug 16
Certainly the value of a dollar has fallen as more and more people have come around. I would love to make the value go up by slowly eliminating the various need for money. That's the only way to do it with populations increasing.
Back in the 80s $1 could buy 20 little candy suckers or 100 pieces of penny candy. A penny still had value in my youth. Today it's just something that's there. I would love to see it have value again.
1 person likes this
@HazySue (39269)
• Gouverneur, New York
19 Aug 16
@OneOfMany I would love to see the dollar hold the same value that it used to.
1 person likes this
@OneOfMany (12150)
• United States
19 Aug 16
@HazySue We'd have to reduce the world's dependency on money, which is possible but very difficult to achieve. It probably wouldn't come about for 5 generations unless something big happened to force it along.
1 person likes this
@HazySue (39269)
• Gouverneur, New York
20 Aug 16
@OneOfMany too little too late for us. We would also have to reduce the dependency on material things.
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@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
18 Aug 16
Yes, they could buy more for that buck, but they also had to work harder to get it.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Aug 16
@HazySue It's all relative - back then they only made a little money and things were cheap. When we lived in Hawaii my husband made $80 a week, but, as an example, cigs were 25 cents a pack. I
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@HazySue (39269)
• Gouverneur, New York
19 Aug 16
@AbbyGreenhill I don't know, I feel like some work hard today.
@crazyhorseladycx (39517)
• United States
18 Aug 16
'tis amazin', but then one needs to look 't the wages back then :)
1 person likes this
@crazyhorseladycx (39517)
• United States
19 Aug 16
@HazySue i reckon that depends'n the thingie? groceries 're ridiculous, but most're imported fer whate'er reason. that "supply 'n demand" 'tis what keeps the prices 'f all jacked so high. if'n folks quit buyin'n large 'nough sectors, such nonsense'd stop. alas, they'll not do such.
1 person likes this
@HazySue (39269)
• Gouverneur, New York
19 Aug 16
@crazyhorseladycx true, still the cost of things has gone up much quicker than wages.
1 person likes this
@teresatrotter (4073)
• Jacksonville, Florida
18 Aug 16
I was not born quite yet. But yeah... There is not much left to the value of a dollar.
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@HazySue (39269)
• Gouverneur, New York
19 Aug 16
@teresatrotter The value of a dollar certainly has gone down.
@HazySue (39269)
• Gouverneur, New York
19 Aug 16
@teresatrotter that's ok. My mind sometimes automatically puts in the word think should be there.
@teresatrotter (4073)
• Jacksonville, Florida
19 Aug 16
@HazySue - I meant to say "not" born yet...and forgot the world "not." LOL Anyway... I added it so my sentence now makes sense.
1 person likes this
@CinnamonGrl (7083)
• Santa Fe, New Mexico
18 Aug 16
I was 3 in 1954 so I don't remember this. But I remember not long after that, my sister and I would each be given a dollar at the store, I'd usually end up with paper dolls, a coloring book and a candy bar.
1 person likes this
@HazySue (39269)
• Gouverneur, New York
19 Aug 16
@CinnamonGrl a dollar did go further back when we were kids.
@Marilynda1225 (79232)
• United States
18 Aug 16
If I remember correctly my mom used to spend about $30 for our family for groceries for the week and it was a cart load of food. Now i'm happy if I can get a bag of potato chips at the dollar store for that buck
1 person likes this
@HazySue (39269)
• Gouverneur, New York
19 Aug 16
@Marilynda1225 I can't find potato chips for a dollar.
@JohnRoberts (109865)
• Los Angeles, California
18 Aug 16
And a postage stamp was a couple cents and a quarter got you into a movie. You did indeed get more bang for your buck but to put things into perspective income and wages were far less than today though today nowhere keeps up with inflation and corporate greed.
1 person likes this
@HazySue (39269)
• Gouverneur, New York
19 Aug 16
@JohnRoberts what you say is true but the cost of things seem to go higher and higher while wages seem to creep up.
@HazySue (39269)
• Gouverneur, New York
19 Aug 16
@rina110383 I'm glad to hear you say that. I'll keep on writing them then.
1 person likes this