I remember in 5th and 6th grade, every so often we could go to the pizza place and with a quarter get a slice and a coke.

I remember when my daughter was a toddler (she's 32) there was some weird gas glut. I lived in state with very few taxes and gas was around 75 cents per gallon.

6 cent Coke with real sugar in a glass bottle. Gas wars where stations kept lowering the prices. Chicken wings that the grocery just about gave away. Big striped watermelons for a quarter. Whoppers the size of a luncheon dinner plate, Burger King would cut them in half for you.

Babysitters for 50 cents an hour.

My group health insurance at work premium was $12.50/month. (Then HMOs were invented.)

Gas wars in Texas in 1968 -- 19/20 cents a gallon. Hamburger cheap enough to feed a family of seven without having to sell your firstborn child. Hershey bars at five cents (or was it 10?). Ordinary sandwich bread at 25 cents/loaf. Stewing hens were practically given away (made superior soup and I do so wish they were available now). The iconic red child's metal wagon was under a dollar. Prom dresses were under 30 dollars. Brand new small sedan = $2000. 1964-1968 my small women's college was under $2000/year, until senior year when it increased to $3000, and I was afraid that my father could not afford to let me finish. Family home bought in 1949 was $10,000 -- 12 room 1820 house with 10 acres (only one bathroom which my dad installed).

Ah, the good old days, lol!

I'm ancient. I remember when candy bars were a nickel. You could get a perfect party dress at Jos. Magnin for $20. Cigarettes were 25 cents a pack from a machine, $2 for a carton. Gas wars could drop the price of gas to 30 cents a gallon. That was early-mid 60s.

We got Suzy Qs at the pool snack bar for 12 cents. Keyboards don’t even have the cents sign anymore.

My first California condo $137k

My primary income $32k

everything is relative

If I had a quarter, I hada lot of money! A comic book, an ice cream cone and change. 1950s

I remember when you could get brisket on sale for 79 cents a pound. I really miss that!!

It is all relative. My parents bought their first house for $18k and it was a huge stretch for their wallet. Mortgage interest rates were in the high teens!

Oh, Lucille, you are so young. I remember when candy bars were 5 cents each and they were twice the size of the ones now. They were also made with real chocolate (with cocoa butter). When I started driving, my dad would give me a dollar for gas or $5 if he wanted the tank filled.

Babysitting for 35 cents an hour. First house in 1973 was $19,000! Last (current) house was $88k in 1983, about what I paid for my new car in 2025!

I think you should try the inflation calculator to be able to compare prices. Some things were actually relatively more expensive.

McDonald's hamburgers were about 35 cents when I was in high school.

OTOH, phone calls are much less expensive now. Remember long-distance calling? I practically worked my weekends during college just to pay the phone bills from calling my boyfriend at the time, who lived in the next small town over. I don't remember exactly how much a minute...20 cents a minute at times but then 45 cents and more at peak hours? Anyway, it added up quick! Of course, we have to buy our expensive phones now, but still...I paid more for the minutes back then.

McDonald's 19-cent burger.

McDonald's chocolate shake best ever made $.25. 40 years later they are not as good, not worth the price.

You are correct @palimpsest.

My grad school tuition was $4/credit hour. Yes. Mind you, it was the least expensive university in the least expensive state system, but still. and it was a good program for what I was studying. They did start increasing the tuition, though. By the time I finished two or three years later, it was $16/credit hour.

I remember working for minimum wage and only 20/hours a week throughout high school and college and still being able to buy a reasonably nice used car, pay for insurance and gas and still have money leftover for clothing and entertainment. I think, but I haven't fact-checked, that you wouldn't be able to do that today.

In the mid to 60’s I could take my two dollar per week allowance and take the city bus—alone, at age 11 to 12– to a shopping center with a Ben Franklin ”dime store” and buy two Nancy Drew books. Life was good.

Loved Nancy Drew!

I'm still annoyed that my mother sold my collection of Nancy Drew books! Loved Nancy and the Hardy Boys. Had a bad case of the mumps when I was 10 or 11. Our neighbor brought over a huge box of ND books from the 1930's/1940's. I was so sick, but simultaneously full of joy.

Gas was .35/gal pre oil embargo and when that hit Missouri, (college days) quickly lowered the speed limit to 55 and gas went to .75/gal. Going home to IL meant odd/even rationing at the pumps. My 8 cyl Javelin was not exactly good on gas. In high school when I worked at Baskin Robbins a single scoop was .27 and an entire Black bottom Pie was $3.50ish - graham cracker crust, layer of chocolate ice cream, thin layer of fudge then top layer of coffee ice cream, chopped roasted almonds and fudge spiral border on top. I was the 'party girl' making all the cakes and pies and writing the messages on top - for $1.60/hour

We used to get 50 cents for our allowance in the 1960s - you could do a lot of damage at the candy store with that amount back then - a piece of Bazooka bubble gum was a penny and you got a mini comic too. Comic books were around 15 cents 🙂

I use the CPI Inflation Calculator a lot - it's interesting to see how much costs have or haven't risen over the decades.

https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

I think it's the percentage of income used for purchasing food, etc. that's a more useful measure. People used to spend a larger portion of their income on food. Many things that seem more expensive are virtually unchanged when adjusted for inflation. And wages have been stagnant for decades now, so prices have risen, but pay hasn't kept up. Costs are likely to keep rising too.

I remember when chicken wings were one of the the cheapest options in the meatcase - not any more.

Google News Archive is fun to browse - here's an ad from a 1970 local paper...

FYI, the $13.88 floor fan would be $118.13 in today's dollars.