THE TIME PRICE MACHINE
Discover the real purchasing power of your money across different eras
💰 Purchasing Power Comparison
📊 Top Price Changes (Sorted by % Increase)
📢 Share This Comparison
🛒 What Your Money Buys
How many items you could buy with your money
| Item | Price Then (2025) | Price Now (2025) | You Could Buy (Then) | You Could Buy (Now) | % Change |
|---|
📊 Data Sources & Methodology
💡 Calculations based on U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) data
📜 1774-1912: Historical estimates from economic research
📈 1913-2025: Official Bureau of Labor Statistics data (CPI-U Annual Averages, 1982-84=100)
⚠️ Note: Wage data approximated from historical records. Pre-1913 data represents best available estimates from historians and economists.
✨ Created with ❤️ by davidforday.com ✨
🎂 When Were You Born?
See what money was worth the year you were born!
💡 Add Your Own Item
Calculate inflation for anything you remember!
📊 Results
🧮 How Does This Work?
We use official government data to calculate the real purchasing power of money across time!
CPI = Consumer Price Index (measures inflation)
We know what items cost in 1774 (like bread = $0.02, a horse = $35.00)
Historical estimates (1774-1912) + official U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data (1913-2025) tracks how prices change using the Consumer Price Index
We adjust the 1774 price using the CPI ratio to find what it cost in any other year
💡 Real Example: Loaf of Bread
Calculation: ($0.02 ÷ 3.8) × 19.7 = $0.10
Calculation: ($0.02 ÷ 3.8) × 320.0 = $1.68
We divide your dollar amount by the item price to show how many you could buy!
📊 Data Sources: Historical CPI estimates (1774-1912) from economic research. Official CPI-U data (1913-2025) from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.