Your personal experiences with inflation

[Algher]

Two for $2 at McDonalds promotions in the early 90s when I was working and my wife was in grad school - many a night with 2 big macs and 2 mcchickens.

Getting a complete combo meal for $3.50 in the late 80s.

25 cent draft beer in the early 80s at the local honkey tonk.

[Kyla]

@Alessan

It’s actually been stable at about 3.7 to the dollar for the past year and a half, after the steep drop from 4.7 that occured when the U.S. markets collapsed.

But anyway - thank the Almighty you weren’t here in the early 1980’s; inflation reached 445% in 1984. I was just a kid at the time, but to this day I don’t like having cash on me; I always feel like it’ll be worthless next week.

I was in Israel when the Russian economy totally collapsed and when I got back, I chatted with a few other people I knew who had also done study abroad. One had been in Russia. He said it was INSANE. Some people he knew had converted their dollars into rubles and were wiped out completely.

For some crazy reason (oh right, ATM fees) my dad wanted me to convert my money into shekels. I’m glad I never got around to it, though. (Opening a bank account proved to be wayyyyy too complicated for me.)

[panache45]

I remember when a gallon of gas cost a quarter, and paperback books were around 35 cents. Candy bars were 5 or 10 cents. Comic books were a dime and magazines were a quarter.

Also: I bought some gold coins back in the 60s, when the price of gold was locked in at $44/ounce. Now, it’s more than 25x that amount.

[Martini_Enfield]

About 10 years ago, a movie ticket was $5. Now it’s closer to $18. And $5 wasn’t worth significantly more then than it is now.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

In the US, around 1990, adult movie tickets for the evening shows were $6.50. Matinees for adults were $3.50. I was a box office cashier from 1988-1990. I THINK, but I’m not certain, that the smallest popcorn + the smallest soda was about $3 for both, so going to a matinee would cost an adult just about a sawbuck.

[Voyager]

@panache45

Also: I bought some gold coins back in the 60s, when the price of gold was locked in at $44/ounce. Now, it’s more than 25x that amount.

Gold was $35 an ounce for a long time. I got my college ring in 1972, and it has a hunk of gold. This was just before the price was set free. It cost maybe $200 - it is a lot more expensive now - and recent ones are a lot smaller.

[Dangerosa]

@Lacunae_Matata

When I started driving (1985,) minimum wage was US 3.35 per hour, and gasoline was about .70 per gallon. I made $3.50 per hour at the time (paid in cash, no deductions,) so I could buy 5 gallons of fuel with one hour’s work.

Last night, gasoline was about $2.80 per gallon, and minimum wage is $7.25 per hour - that’s about 2.6 gallons of fuel per hour.

But, as others have mentioned, the price of technology has dropped drastically: I’m typing this response on my new laptop, which cost less than an AppleII back in the day, and does about a zillion times more. And I can buy a lot of medicines for far less than their relative cost 25 years ago - from ibuprofen to a lot of prescriptions (most places around here offer a month’s supply of generic maintenance medicines like my iron pills or my husband’s blood pressure meds for $4.00 per month/$10-$12 for three months.) Also, with the advent of so many new communication technologies, I can’t remember the last time I worried about the cost of long distance telephone tolls - my $20/month cable-based home phone and my cell phone don’t charge extra for domestic long distance.

Very similar - of course in 1985 I was driving a ten year old Chrysler Le Baron that possibly got as much as 4 miles to the gallon and had options for tank armaments.

[RealityChuck]

Hell, when I was growing up (1960s):

1. Candy was a dime.
2. Readers raised a big stink when comic books raised their price to 12 cents.
3. You could get a lunch – tuna sandwich, fries, and a drink – for under a buck.
4. I was outraged when I found that gas was selling at 43 cents.
5. Paperbacks were 50 cents to a dollar. Hardcovers might be $5.
6. Movies cost $2 – except for matinees, which cost $1. A large popcorn was about 50 cents.
7. A record was about $4.
8. A pack of baseball cards (5 cards plus gum) was a nickel.
9. College tuition was around $7500 a year.
10. A Mcdonald’s hamburger (plain) was 12 cents.
11. A dime in the parking meter gave you an hour of parking. You could use pennies, too (for six minutes).