Things You Could Have Bought for a Dollar in 1920 (2024)

Millenials and Gen Z have all heard the frequent Baby Boomer complaint: if you didn’t spend your money on lattes and avocado toast, you could buy a house. But what did houses cost 50, 75, 100 years ago? And how much could you buy back then for let’s say…one dollar?

1920: Picture it. A pandemic is winding down and people who have been locked down for over a year are starting to pretend it never happened, go out, drink and party like there’s no tomorrow. That wasn’t hard, was it?

A US citizen collects their paycheck and starts figuring out their budget for the rest of the week. If you’re a man, congratulations, you have earned an average of $27 a week! If you’re a woman, we’re sorry to inform you your salary is closer to $12 a week. But hey, on the upside, in August 1920 you’re getting the right to vote.

Hang in there, equality is coming right along in the next thousand years or so. A dollar in 1920 was equivalent to about $13.58 in 2021. A man’s cotton shirt cost on average around $1.31. However, depending on the brand, they could run as low as 75 cents or as high as $1.50 — that’s pretty affordable. The bad news is, it’s 1920, so men also required about 200% more clothing to be adequately covered for the era. A woman could…