Here’s another little find that tells you a bit about post-WWII Hawaii. It’s a household budget prepared by my mother, Helen Lind, reflecting our family’s average monthly expenditures in 1946. It was before my time (I wasn’t born until 1947), so includes my parents and sister, Bonnie.

The family’s total expenditures in the average month of 1946 were $363.07. My dad’s income as manager of a San Francisco-based hotel and restaurant supply company was $369.75, leaving a surplus (carefully noted by my mother) of $6.68 per month.

The big expenses were food ($65.42, including $10.42 for milk), mortgage on their Kahala home ($50 per month), income tax ($40), insurance ($34.54)

In addition to the mortgage payment, other housing expenses included property tax ($9.01 monthly), the Bishop Estate lease ($15), and termite treatments ($5), along with electricity ($9.42 per month), water ($3.11), gas ($1.90) and telephone ($5.31).

There’s a $19.52 charge for “gifts,” with a handwritten note on the back: “Large because includes Bonnie’s pictures this year, and sugar which took a lot of postage.”

I suppose that means sugar was still in short supply here in Hawaii, so my mom had someone (perhaps her sister) buy sugar on the mainland and mail it back to Hawaii.

All in all, it describes a pretty spartan lifestyle. Not a lot in the budget for eating out, travel, entertaining, etc.

But they did get a newspaper ($2.25 per month). When I was growing up, they had daily delivery of both the Advertiser and the Star-Bulletin.

In any case, click for a larger version, in including the notes on the back of the page.