(This would be a good point to once again plug Ezzie's Jewish Economic Survey and to encourage everybody to help him out in this endeavor...)
To put a lighter spin on things, I thought it might be amusing to take a peek back into the past, thanks to my father in law's meticulous record keeping, and see what a "typical" bar mitzvah might have cost almost 40 years ago. (I am not including the whole list here, rather only a few items {some from the Shabbos reception and some from the Bar Mitzvah dinner} for interest's sake)
Tefillin - $ 85.00
Tallis and tefillin bags $ 9.00
100 lbs. of cookies $150.00 (I'm not sure what shocks me more - the fact that there were enough guests for the reception after Shul on shabbos morning to warrant ONE HUNDRED POUNDS of cookies or the fact that they cost $1.50 a pound!!!!)
30 Bottles of Wine $ 50.00
Bar Mitzvah Dinner $13.00/pp
Cigars & Cigarrettes $ 40.00 (Finally! Something we are spending less on!)
Flowers $ 35.00
I'd be interested to hear from readers who recently made simchas how their search for $1.66 bottles of wine went ;)
3 comments:
Especially considering I'm speaking this Shabbos at the YI of KGH at 5pm on the subject! :P
Okay, that's just really good timing. ;)
Thanks!
(And fascinating.)
For my brother's bar-mitzvah in the early 1970s my mother xeroxed benchers and tied them up with a pretty bow to be economical.
Benchers are one of the cheapest parts of our upcoming simcha. Sigh.
No wine.
No benchers.
It was still very nice.
:-)
(the caterer provided small, inexpensive, benchers. we used those)
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