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  • a weeks' worth of groceries in 1947

    From JAB@21:1/5 to All on Tue Aug 20 19:27:44 2024
    Housewife poses with a weeks' worth of groceries in 1947. She spent a
    total of $12.50 a week (not including milk) to buy her groceries. On
    this budget, she is able to feed herself, her husband, her
    four-year-old twins and her cat

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVcjKKHXQAAxfYp.jpg

    @tradingMaxiSL

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  • From Retrograde@21:1/5 to JAB on Wed Aug 21 02:19:31 2024
    On 2024-08-21, JAB <here@is.invalid> wrote:
    Housewife poses with a weeks' worth of groceries in 1947. She spent a
    total of $12.50 a week (not including milk) to buy her groceries. On
    this budget, she is able to feed herself, her husband, her
    four-year-old twins and her cat

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVcjKKHXQAAxfYp.jpg

    @tradingMaxiSL

    Before everyone gets their panties in a twist about nominal inflation,
    I'm trying to figure out what she bought here. I see some packages -
    probably meat, ground beef? Muellers is probably pasta. Only two bunches
    of celery, no other vegetables? No, there are some beets and looks like
    one onion.

    A lot of butter. Two big boxes of salt, hmmm. Three cartons of eggs.
    A one pound bag of sugar. Three loaves of what looks like sliced bread.

    Instant Ralston, is that some kind of potted meat? Nope, just looked it
    up - looks like a breakfast cereal/porridge.

    It's an interesting menu. It's also the tail end of WWII, so maybe
    shelves aren't exactly bustling.

    Fun picture. Call me when the hot bowl of Ralston is ready.

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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to All on Tue Aug 20 22:02:33 2024
    On 21 Aug 2024 02:19:31 GMT, Retrograde <fungus@amongus.com.invalid>
    wrote:

    It's an interesting menu. It's also the tail end of WWII, so maybe
    shelves aren't exactly bustling.

    Atlanta Journal originally published her story, then Life Magazine
    made a notice of it

    LIFE Nov 10, 1947: Scroll down page https://books.google.com/books?id=p1EEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA31

    This is How One Family Eats on $12.50 a Week

    If all American housewives had the spunk and ingenuity of the woman on
    this page - Mrs. Hamilton Williams of Atlanta, Ga. -- inflation would
    be less of a swear word. Mrs. Williams, wife of a high-school teacher,
    allows herself $12.50 a week to buy all her groceries except milk. On
    this she manages to feed herself, her husband, her 4-year-old twins
    and even the family cat (oposite page). The job takes considerable
    doing. Mrs. Williams is an avid student of grocery ads and shop
    windows (above). She limits herself to one shopping expedition a week,
    at which she weighs every penny against the family's full-week
    appetite. She serves no meat at lunch and limits her evening entrees
    to such items as meat loaf, hamburgers and chili. yet she manages to
    provide two desserts daily and such frills as cookies for a party
    (below). When she described her budget in the Atlanta Journal
    recently, less enterprising housewives sent in letters of disbelief,
    and the city's C.I.O. got to work on an official denial that any
    family could eat so cheaply. But Mrs. Williams, the 1947 heroine of
    the Battle of the Budget, carried merrily on.
    ==================

    I don't know if nutritional information was available, or known back
    then

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  • From Danart@21:1/5 to All on Wed Aug 21 10:50:08 2024
    JAB wrote:
    Housewife poses with a weeks' worth of groceries in 1947. She spent
    a
    total of $12.50 a week (not including milk) to buy her groceries.
    On
    this budget, she is able to feed herself, her husband, her
    four-year-old twins and her cat

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GVcjKKHXQAAxfYp.jpg

    @tradingMaxiSL

    Your more intelligent then that.

    The value of money drops when it is printed. AKA Inflation. A similar
    even occurs with goods and services. Just like the "1982 Oil
    Crisis",
    "Mad Max", "The Outtage due to Sandy, leaving oil
    tankers unable to dock and deliver oil to big cities" ( if you
    can remember that scene
    at the gas pump ). It is the reason why farmers are told to grow less,
    and the government literally kills crops with spray planes, rather
    then
    having the farmers cut losses and donate there extra crops to starving
    people, around the globe.

    It is also part of the reason why USA does not built "American
    Dream factory towns" for immigrants, with houses for married
    couples with children, and dorms for singles. Because the USA have
    vast amount of wasteland that could be worked and tons of broken
    prison systems
    and former abandoned 1950's towns that could be transformed.

    Why?

    Because manufacturing in China would cease and nobody wants to see
    that correct? :wink:


    This is a response to the post seen at: http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=672354330#672354330

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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to All on Wed Aug 21 11:51:32 2024
    Nutrition on the Home Front in World War II

    his article is part of the series, The American Home Front and World
    War II. It explores life on the home front by looking at the things
    people invented, created, and used and the ways that everyday life
    changed. They include the effects of war mobilization and of conflict
    and incarceration on the home front, especially as it relates to
    civilians.

    https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/nutrition-on-the-home-front-in-world-war-ii.htm

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