This article reviews the historical estimates of both prescriptive and descriptive types of family budgets, which have been produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics throughout the 1900s. It also examines the historical family budgets produced at BLS in 1908-09, 1919, 1947, 1966, and 1979. These are compared with budgets for 1984, 1989, 1994, and 1998 that were constructed using the recommendations of the Expert Committee on Family Budget Revisions. The article also presents a general description of family budgets and budget standards, reviews the history of family budgets and describes the latest family budget methodology, presents a descriptive family budget that is constructed using expenditure data, and concludes with a review of the issues associated with adjusting budgets for different family types and locations, and over time.
