Now, what do you need? Better grab the essentials first, some fruit and veg. Ah, bananas and oranges are cheap. A bag of each should do it.

Dinners, dinners, what's for dinner this week? Pork chops and a chicken. Sorted. Don't forget the forgettables. Tomato sauce ... tick. Toilet paper ... tick. Baked beans ... tick.

Patrick's having some mates over this afternoon, better grabs some cans of soft drink. Dog food for Cooper and we're done and dusted.

There's no line at the checkout (thank God for small mercies). Beep, beep, beep. "Thank you, that comes to ..."

How much? How much does that cost you these days? $50? More? Try handing over a $5 note and waiting for your change.

Welcome to 1970.

The above gallery of ads from the Central Western Daily from November, 1970 shows exactly how times, and prices, have changed.

Here's the dollars and cents: the above items - ten bananas (30 cents), a bag of oranges (45 cents), pork chops ($1.67), a chicken (95 cents), a bottle of tomato sauce (16 cents), toilet paper (11 cents), a couple of cans of baked beans (22 cents), a six-pack of coke cans (54 cents) and two tins of dog food (32 cents) - cost just $4.72 about 45 years ago.

In 2018 you'd be lucky to get some shrapnel back from a $50 note.

Almost five decades of economic factors are at play, most notably inflation, so it's not realistic to think of these items costing so little in modern times. But it's nice to daydream.

"Horizontal fly sports briefs" for just a dollar? Sounds like heaven on earth.