Mayberry Money

Yeah, you know things were much cheaper back then, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Wages were lower, too, but that still doesn't tell the whole story. It's the proportionality of income vs. prices. That said, Andy Taylor was pretty well off compared to his neighbors. You know the sheriff made more than minimum wage, and he didn't have six kids to feed like more intact households of the time. And I understand that the grocery list was constructed from the available signs, but my family would never have bought that much meat. My guess is that most of Mayberry's residents were eating beans and cornbread.