30 years ago i was just shy of 45 and in high school. i recall that a "nice" date (movie, popcorn/drinks/candy and dinner at the local pizzaria) would cost less than 20.00. if you bought lunch at school, $1 dollar per day was plenty for lunch plus a decent snack. clothes at our local department store could be regularly found on the clearance rack with tops at 3.99/1.99-but girl's pants were the pricy item (but it was the day of designer jeans and "dittos"
). 3 years later when i went to college my entire tuition/fees for a semester was less than 300.00 (always paid more for books than the actual classes).
i started my first "real" job at about 16, and i think minimum wage in california was around 2.60 per hour (we were elated when it was mandated to be raised in 3 increments ending at 3.35 per hour a year or so later).
i KNOW grocery prices were much more in standing with the average wage (my mom although she does'nt cook anymore still reads the ads, and i regularly hear "oh my god, do you know how much per pound i used to pay for that when you were in highschool?!"
). and you might be interested to know that public assistance payments (afdc "welfare") are purportunatly lower now than they were back then (i went to work for social services in the late 80's and the amount that would be received for a 3 person family is now less than we issued for 2 people in 1988-the feds re-calculated the amount per person several times in the 90's and it has never caught back up).
i recall in high school economics they taught us that we should never pay more than one weeks take home pay for housing (which is why most of my friends who lived on their own after graduation had 1 or 2 roommates).
i think beyond the fact that an average household budget includes items my parents would never have thought to have (even if they were available-paying for tv? if my dad had'nt passed away before the advent of cable i know the concept would have killed him), there was a different mind set financialy. while some bought a home and then moved into another, the majority of my friends lived in the same house the had been born in (or if they had moved due the dad's new job, it was comparably priced to the one they owned before)-and their parents stayed in that house for decades (still), so while housing prices went up-you were paying a mortgage that was maybe 20 years old and a much lower percentage of your income. as far as credit cards went, there were still people who abused them but you could write off all of the interest on your taxes each year (so in some cases it put you financialy ahead to use them, i mean-if you were earning interest on your savings account why take money out if you could put it on the credit card and end up not paying anything for the use?). large ticket items were in allot of cases much more expensive back then (electronics, washers/dryers and the like) but they were built to last much longer so the investment in one would stretch out for years (i don't know of many people who have the same tv, fridge, washer/dryer they had 15 years ago-but that was the norm and the expectation back then). and cars-while there was always one neighbor who bought new/ traded in every couple of years, in most cases buying a NEW car was a major accomplishment that might happen once or twice in 20 years. the cars were kept forever by their original owners (and then passed on to the kids, the grandkids (my first car was a 65 mustang we bought from a family friend who was the original owner, my second a 71 v.w aquired the same way).
no way now do average wages keep up with the cost of living increases each year (back then i recall that in government/union negotiations it was strongly tied to contracts, now it's whatever the market will bear).
kissy Cam 
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