We show a purchase day book (or purchase register) of a family from Tiszafüred from the midwar time, 1939-1942. It was issued by a grocery shop in Tiszafüred (the owner of the shop was Kovács József who had held a shop in the main street of the town).

In the purchase book all transactions were recorded relating to credit purchases of goods. At the end of every month purchase day book was totalled. The total amount showed the total goods purchased on credit. The consumer had to pay the total amount at the beginning of the following month.

We can see the list of goods bought month by month. The poducts were as follows: sugar, flour, salt, lemon, rice, pepper, black pepper, marjoram, dried currant, curative (bitter) mineral wather, rum, „pálinka”, leaven for baking homemade bread, petroleum for cerosene or paraffin lamp, soap, wood-coal for clothes iron, shoe-cream, etc.

This purchase register belonged to a railway employee’s family. By the purchase day book we can get an insight of the social condition of this family.

By Vadász István