Victorian Shopping Game

VICTORIAN SHOPPING GAME

SAVE THE PENNIES AND THE POUNDS WILL TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES?

Here is a chart showing the cost of everyday items in 1851.

ITEM COST ESSENTIAL? Bacon per lb 5p Beer per gallon 5p Bread 4lb loaf 3 ½ p Butter per lb 5 ½ p Cheese per lb 4p Coffee per lb 5p Eggs per dozen 5p Meat - Beef 3p Mutton/Lamb 3 ½ p Pork 4p Milk per pint ½ p Potatoes 14lb 2p Sugar per lb 1 ½ p Tea per lb 16 ½ p Tobacco per oz 1p

Overcoat £1.75 Suit £1.12 ½ p Stockings (tights) 10p Double bed with £2.50 mattress Rent per week 27p

Labourer’s wage 75p per week

You have 75p to pay the rent and buy the weekly shop for the family. What will you buy?

Resource provided by www.mylearning.org (c) Huddersfield Local Studies Library TRY THIS:

Use the internet to find recipes from the Victorian era and plan a menu to feed a family of four for a day. Use the chart above to see how much it would cost to buy the ingredients you need.

Would you have enough to feed the family for a whole week?

If not, do you think you would want your children to work?

Would you have finished up in the workhouse?

Remember, there was no benefit system at this time so if you didn’t work, or weren’t able to, you didn’t eat, so many people took the desperate step of going into the workhouse. Conditions were very poor and, as you can see from these tables, the diet extremely basic. Some of the children working in the factories lived in the workhouse and had to work for long hours on this meagre food.

Resource provided by www.mylearning.org (c) Huddersfield Local Studies Library CAN YOU SEE IT ON THE SHELVES?

Here is a sample of a typical diet of a young person today. Take a look at the items on the 1851 price list above.

Can you get all the items on your list? If not, what’s the closest thing you can find? Now look at the price list. How much would it cost for all of your shopping?

MEAL 21st Century 19th Century Cost BREAKFAST Chocolate rice pops Toast Tea BREAK Fruit winder LUNCH Chicken wrap Crisps Orange DINNER Ham & Pineapple pizza Chocolate fudge cake & ice-cream Diet Coke Total

Which of the foods from the 21st Century would you not have found in the 19th Century? Have you any ideas why?

Who has the healthiest diet do you think? The young person of the 19th or the 21st Century?

What is the biggest food group in each of the two food lists?

Protein? Carbohydrate? Dairy?

Resource provided by www.mylearning.org (c) Huddersfield Local Studies Library