Let’s Prepare Thanksgiving Dinner From 1929

Sure, putting on a Thanksgiving dinner isn’t cheap or easy today, but what about mere weeks after the Stock Market Crash of 1929? A few years ago, I found a sample holiday menu plan in a newspaper article from 74 years ago, and wondered: what would this feast for four people for $7.89 cost today?

At the time, I was working in the news library at the Albany Times Union. It was Thanksgiving 2008, the global economy was collapsing all around us, and the editorial page editor had sent me looking to see what his predecessors had to say during the previous collapse, 79 years earlier. I found it, but on the way to that page in the microfilm reader, I also found this handy sample menu complete with detailed price information.

I took the shopping list from the 1929 menu with me to my local grocery store in order to find out what this spread would cost today. Then I took the prices given in the article from 1929 and adjusted them for inflation. (I did a less detailed version of this post in 2008.)

There were a few things missing from the shopping list that would have been commonplace in 1929. I couldn’t find lard at the grocery store in my upscale suburb, for example. We’re more likely to use vegetable shortening to make a pie crust today, Mincemeat was also nowhere to be found. It would probably fascinate a home economist or the average homemaker from 1929 to learn that ready-made pies were all around and cost only $4.

Turkey (1929): 8-pound turkey at $6.69 per pound ($.49) = $53.52

Turkey (2013): 8-pound turkey $.49 per pound frozen; $.99 per pound fresh = $4.92 or $7.92

Box of Gelatin (1929): $2.73 ($.20)

Box of Gelatin (2013): $1.33

2 pounds onions (1929): $2.73 ($.20)

2 pounds onions (2013): $1.20

1 loaf bread (1929): $1.37 ($.10)

1 loaf bread (2008): $1.39

1 pint light cream (1929): $5.46 ($.40)

1 pint light cream (2013): $2.49

1 quart milk (1929): $1.91 ($.14)

1 quart milk (2013): $1.39

1 pound mixed nuts (1929): $6.15 ($.45)

10 ounces mixed nuts (2013): $4.99

1 head lettuce (1929): $1.78 ($.13)

1 head lettuce (2013): $1.99

1 pound butter (1929): $7.51 ($.55)

1 pound butter (2013): $2.48

2 grapefruit (1929): $3.41 ($.25)

2 grapefruit (2013): $2

2 oranges (1929): $1.37 ($.10)

2 oranges (2013): $1.58

1 apple (1929) $.68 ($.05)

1 apple (2013): $.60

1 banana (1929): $.55 ($.05)

1 banana (2013): $.30

1 pound grapes (1929): $1.39 ($.10)

1 pound grapes (2013): $1.58

5 pounds potatoes (2013): $2.50

1 quart potatoes (1929): $2.05 ($.15)

1 dozen rolls (2013): $2

1 dozen rolls (1929): $2.80 ($.18)

1 pint cranberries (2013) $1.58 ($.10)

12 oz. cranberries (2013) $2.50

Flour (1929): $.68 per pound ($.05)

Flour (2013): $2.50 for 5 pounds ($.50 per pound)

Sugar (2013): $1.09 per pound ($.08)

Sugar (2013): $2.99 for 4 pounds ($.75 cents per pound)

1 loaf cheap bread (1929): $1.58 ($.10)

1 loaf cheap bread (2013): $1.49

1/2 pound cheese (1929): $2.73 ($.20)

1/2 pound cheese (2013): $1.50

We made the price conversions using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator. Food prices are from the Price Chopper store in Slingerlands, N.Y. and include some Thanksgiving-themed sale items.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist