Groceries, Jobs, and a Give Away!

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As everyone knows, the cost of groceries has gone up. The cost of eating out has gone up too. So while researching a few things for an upcoming book, I ran across some interesting tidbits of information about what things cost back in the day. My book takes place in 1903 and the charts I found are from the same. All I can say is, my how things have changed!

Victorians did love their food. And they ate some weird stuff to boot. How would you like some spinach ice cream? Or maybe you’d prefer some jellied eels or cayenne pepper ice cream? No? Well, then lets go grocery shopping and see what we can find.

My book takes place in Denver, Colorado. As my heroine owns a bakery, she’s going to need some eggs and can get herself a dozen for .23 cents. Next she’ll need flour. She can pick that up for .55 cents for a half barrel bag. Yep. Barrel.

How about some sugar? She’ll need that for all those cookies, cakes and pastries. She can get a pound for .49 cents. If she was in the restaurant business and needed some Irish potatoes, she could get a hundred pounds for twenty five dollars. Otherwise, a pound of Irish potatoes was .25 cents. A woman with a bakery needs some molasses. How about a gallon for .25 cents? The rest of her list might look like this:

A quart of milk .62 cents. If she got 16 quarts at a time, she could get it delivered for a dollar. One pound bacon was .25 cents. Leg of lamb .20 cents a pound. Pork chops               .12 cents a pound. Lard, (for a 3lb. can) was a $1.00. 1 lb. Rice .83 cents. English Breakfast tea  .60 cents a pound. Chuck Roast .88 cents a pound. Bread 1 lb. loaf .50 cents. Butter 1 lb. .31 cents. Big difference compared to today.

And we can’t forget about coffee, which ran from .17 – .35 cents per pound depending on what kind it was. I could go on but you get the idea. Fruit and vegetables were a different ball game and it also depended on what part of the country you were in. Needless to say, they were a lot cheaper than today. Still, back then wages were different too. If you worked for my bakery owner, you could make a whopping .21 cents an hour. A blacksmith out west made .32 cents an hour. Someone who laid bricks could make as much as .69 cents an hour in the west. If you were on the east coast, you’d make .54 cents an hour. Makes you wonder how many brick layers headed west. A furniture maker could make .43 cents an hour. If you were an unskilled laborer, you made about a dollar a day. This was the average wage for an unskilled worker from around 1700 to World War I. Thus the saying, “another day, another dollar.”

So, if you lived at the turn of the century, what would your job be? Would you want to be a baker, a blacksmith, a sheriff or a deputy?What about a mill worker or ship builder? I’m giving away one free e-copy of my upcoming book, A Match for the Spinster, to one lucky commenter.

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USA Today bestselling author Kit Morgan is the author of over 180 books of historical and contemporary western romance! Her stories are fun, sweet stories full of love, laughter, and just a little bit of mayhem! Kit creates her stories in her little log cabin in the woods in the Pacific Northwest. An avid reader and knitter, when not writing, she can be found with either a book or a pair of knitting needles in her hands! Oh, and the occasional smidge of chocolate!

38 thoughts on “Groceries, Jobs, and a Give Away!”

  2. Perhaps I would have been a school teacher since female ranch hands weren’t often given a position.

    • Oh, me too, Debra! I automatically think of Little House on the Prairie and Nellie. I know a guy who played the postmaster on the show a few times. He said Nellie played a bad girl but in reality, she was the nicest person on set.

  4. a rancher’s wife to be able to be outside with the animals and still take care of the house!

    • Oh, gosh yes, Paula. I remember a book I read (can’t remember the title or author) about a school teach who rented an attic bedroom and the only heat she had was from the kitchen stove pipe. After reading that book I decided I wouldn’t want to be a teacher back in the 19th century.

  7. welcome today. yes times really have changed, and continue to. I would have loved to be a seamstress. I would prefer to live in the country somewhere. And I can see myself baking on the side., Many men (women too) would buy something baked if good and they had the money.

  9. I would choose a teacher. Before retiring I was a teacher and I love being around children.

  10. I’d have been a seamstress, or a librarian, or maybe baker, though I’d probably have wanted to be a sheriff!

    • Look out, it’s Sheriff Trudy! Someone else commented on being a librarian. I’ll have to do some research on that job in the nineteenth century.

  12. I have always wanted my own bookstore and was so serious about it I looked at a space with a friend of mine where, not only would I sell books, but they could get a cup of coffee (at my coffee bar) and sit in my lounging area to read. Unfortunatley, nothing came of this dream.

    • Cowgirl! Someone else commented that they’d like to be a rancher’s wife so they could have the horses to ride, the house to take care of and the other animals and play with them.

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