What Things Cost Back Then

To understand how wild prices have become take a look at some prices from 1974, 1969 and 1960 and compare with what things cost today.

With inflation at 11.5%, the average American earned $13,000 dollars a year and a new house, nice large size cost around $34,000 in 1974.

It was possible because of other prices and taxes,etc to actually save up and pay for a house outright. Certainly a large down payment was not impossible and house payments on a good sized home would average about $200 a month.
You might pay about $150.00 monthly for a large 2 bedroom apartment
A brand new Mercury Capri cost $3,395.00 and a Ford Mustang cost $3800.
Paint was about $2.99 a gallon compared with almost 25 today.
Blue Jeans were $5.00
Chicken was 49 cents a pound for a fryer
Eggs were 59 cents a dozen
Maxwell House was 1.59 for a real pound..not the 10 oz cans you get today for $6.99 but full 16 ounce cans.
Coca Cola was .88 cents for 6 cans
You could buy 100 bags of delicious TenderLeaf Tea for 88 cents .

Bumblebee tuna was 49 cents a can.



Prices had climbed since 1969 though.
A few years before in 1969 a phone bill ran as little as 4.00 a month while electric bills were around 6.00 per month in summer!
You would have earned an average of $8,550.00 a year and paid $14,000 for a new 3 bedroom home.
You could buy a car for $1,950.00 and put gas in it for .35 cents a gallon.
Beef was .49 cents a pound and chicken 29 cents a pound.
Apples 49 cents per lb.
You would pay .28 cents for a box of Cheerios!
Canned foods ran about .29 cents a can
Watermelon was .03 cents a pound and you could still get lettuce for 15 cents a head and bread for 25 cents a loaf.

By today's standards $100.US dollars from 1960 would be worth $679.00 today.So what you need 679 to buy today, would have cost you $100 back in 1960. Inflation in 1960 was 1.4 %

The population of the country was only 180,671,158 people too! Tons of room to roam.

One gallon of gas in 1960 was .25cents... by 1969 it had gone up to .35 cents. Highway robbery!


But compared to 1940.. things had gotten more expensive because look at these prices for 1940:

Car: $800

Gasoline: 18 cents/gal

House: $6,550

Bread: 8 cents/loaf

Milk: 34 cents/gal

Postage Stamp: 3 cents

Stock Market: 131

Average Annual Salary: $1,900

Minimum Wage: 30 cents per hour

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