In 1978, 10 dinars could buy a copy of Politikin Zabavnik and leave four dinars in change. On the cover of issue 1362, dated 3 February 1978, a red circle beside the yellow masthead carries the price of 6 dinars. The Yugoslav weekly announces a complete comic strip on its cover, while a line beneath the title tells readers it comes out on Fridays.
The other prices below are annual national retail averages for 1978 from the Statistical Yearbook of Yugoslavia 1980. Its methodology describes price collection in 53 towns and cities across the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The shopping totals use those averages, so they are budget calculations rather than receipts from a particular shop.
A school notebook and a pencil for less than six dinars
The yearbook lists the average price of a school notebook in 1978 as 4.68 dinars and a pencil as 1.28 dinars. Together, they add up to 5.96 dinars, leaving 4.04 from a ten-dinar budget. Two notebooks would come to 9.36 dinars, leaving 0.64.
What 10 dinars could cover at the grocery shop
| Product | Quantity | Price in dinars |
|---|---|---|
| Bread made from type 600 wheat flour | 1 kg | 6.13 |
| Milk | 1 litre | 6.05 |
| Hen's egg | 1 egg | 2.11 |
| Granulated sugar | 1 kg | 13.02 |
A kilogram of the listed bread or a litre of milk would each fit within ten dinars at these prices. Buying both would require 12.18 dinars. A kilogram of sugar, at 13.02 dinars, would already exceed the budget.
Why packet sizes matter for sweets and snacks
Chocolate is listed at an average of 89 dinars per kilogram. The entry gives no brand or bar size, so it cannot tell us what an individual chocolate bar cost.
A cinema ticket needed a larger budget
The average cinema ticket in 1978 cost 13.28 dinars, more than twice the cover price of that February issue of Politikin Zabavnik. With ten dinars to spend, you would need another 3.28 dinars to reach that price.
A higher milk price in 1979
The yearbook records an average milk price of 7.20 dinars per litre in 1979, up from 6.05 dinars in 1978. Ten dinars still covered a litre at that average price, but left less change for anything else.
Sources
- Statistical Yearbook of Yugoslavia 1980, Federal Statistical Office: table 112-9, printed pages 212–213, for the 1978 average retail prices and the 1979 milk price; methodology on pages 39–40.
- Photograph of the cover of Politikin Zabavnik, issue 1362, dated 3 February 1978, showing a printed price of 6 dinars. The historical price comes from the cover of the copy photographed for a collector's listing.