The family?

The Beardsleys, of California, as featured in the Lucille Ball movie "Yours,
Mine, and Ours."

Before the movie, their story was written by the mother as "Who Gets the
Drumstick?" (Helen was a widow with 8 kids, he was a widower with 10. They
had two more.)

In that book (chapter 12), a researcher comes to the house a month after
the wedding in the fall of 1961, to do the math on how they manage. He
concludes that they spend 66 cents a day for food, per person. According to
one inflation calculator, that's $5.15 in 2014 - and another says $5.16 in
2015. (I assume they were strict about not wasting food!)

What's interesting, though, is that I DO waste food, unfortunately, but
MY food budget, last December, was $120 a month - or about $4 a day!

Also, there was clearly a mistake in the book - the mother said they spent
$450 a month on food, so unless she meant $400, that would be just under
74 cents per person per day (using 365.25 days a year, I mean), not 66 cents!

Thoughts? Granted, I'm sure there are all sorts of reasons food might be
cheaper now - someone also once said that in the 19th century, too, food
was pricey but servants were cheap, which was why Louisa May Alcott, in
"Little Women" could get away with calling her family "poor" even though
they had a servant, Hannah.


Lenona.