What can you buy in Toronto for 5 dollars in 2010?

If you are not in a frugal mood and hungry to the bargain, you can just go to Tim Horton’s and buy yourself some meal deal like a cream-cheese bagel and a cup of coffee, and spend it all.

5 dollars is not much nowadays. Minimum wage is $10.25 an hour now (in Canada), though some people work for less and when you deduct taxes, you are left with much less. If you are a smoker, it is definitely not enough.

Travel by bus and you need at least 6 dollars both ways, travel North of Steeles and you’ll need even more.

Okay, if you do not have a lot of money, you have to stretch your dollar as much as possible that means you have to be creative.

If you need clothes, you can go to Value Village in Toronto and for $ 2.99, you can buy a t-shirt or a blouse (for women) there, some cheap slippers like flip-flops for $1.99+, some accessories, plates and cups, pots and pans (small), bigger ones usually are more expensive. If you need something to put into your pot, you drop any ideas about a steak or salmon, but you can buy a bag (10lb) of potatoes under 5 dollars , 2% milk 4 liters a package usually under $5 dollars too.

Ground pork in some Eastern supermarkets (cheaper) in Toronto costs around $1.29 or even sometimes 99 c a pound. You always can buy a piece of dough fresh or frozen, or even ready made like tortijas and stuff it with some leftovers - meat or vegetables with some nice hot sause.

Same goes for a pound of chicken legs, oatmeal in bulk is rather cheap too, just do not buy fancy cereals, nothing but total and pathetic waste of money. They are loaded with sugar and that over processed stuff is not good for anybody. You’ll eat it and in an hour you’ll feel hungry again.

You can say that it sounds too boring, and you do not like the oatmeal, and not happy about the idea of eating chicken legs, but then you have to find a way to make more money, so you can buy some chicken breast and nice file-o-fish. And may be a bottle of wine to flash it down nicely, how about that? Like it better? Just wanted to convince you that if you have nothing but 5 bucks in your pocket, you still can eat nicely.

If by any miracle you could get back into the past 100 years ago in the year 1910, what do you think you could afford then for 5 bucks?

Cost of beef was 10c a pound! Pork, veal –8,9 c a 1lb, hens – 7c a pound (by weight, you are supposed to buy it alive, kill and pluck yourself, or your kitchen help could do that, if you have one), a cup of coffee 5c, loaf of bread – 3c.

Average worker had a salary of 15 dollars a week. In 1914 Henry Ford announced, that he was going to pay minimum wage 5 dollars a day (8 hours), at that time it was an average $2.38 a day. He was condemned as socialist and mad man, but Ford said: ”If you pay men you can talk to them”. And he was right. He stopped turnover at his factories and doubled the profits very fast.

People did not have big supermarkets like Wall-Mart or Zellers or Sears and women in a family usually sew all clothes as needed.

Tailors were expensive and practiced in men’s business attire mainly. Millinery was a big business, as everybody was wearing hats. In 1910 you could buy a straw hat for $3.50(men’s). But the range of prices for women’s bonnets and hats were as considerable as their variety.

Only people who made them were very poor, they not always could eat, never mind wear decent clothing. Lots of interesting information can be obtained from following websites if you are curious about our past, with pictures and plethora of content.

www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq5.html or

www.fashion-era.com/the_seamstress.htm