60+ PAGES · EVERY RATION, POINT VALUE, CEILING PRICE & WAR WAGE · 1941–1945
Everyone Remembers the Battles. Nobody Kept the Receipts.
For four years, every meal, every gallon of gas and every pair of shoes in America ran on points and stamps — and when it ended, the families who lived it never wrote the system down. This book did.
- Every figure sourced — to the order, the bulletin, the table, the page
- Every dollar converted to today’s money, so the numbers mean something again
- The complete 1943 point tables, reprinted — what a red stamp or blue stamp actually bought
- From the makers of the History Empire channel
7-day money-back guarantee. PDF, 60+ pages, works on any device — no apps, no subscription, no nonsense.
VOLUME I · 60+ PAGES · 2027 EDITION
Three entries from the record — sourced to B.L.S. Bulletin No. 799, the Office of Price Administration, a published military pay chart compiled from War Department tables, and the CPI-U. The first two are the federal documents themselves; the pay chart is a secondary compilation, and the book says so where it prints the figure. Dollar figures use the 1943 multiplier ×19.37 (CPI-U, May 2026 base): $8.83 × 19.37 = $171.04, and $50.00 × 19.37 = $968.50 — do the arithmetic yourself if you like. In the book’s ledger every line is converted and rounded on its own, so the column can differ from the converted total by a few cents — we print that rather than force it to close. The book holds hundreds more figures, with the method beside them and the whole source list published here.
A Note From the Archive
On our channel, we tell the story of the men and machines that decided a war. But behind every one of those stories sits a quieter question: what did a family actually live on while it happened? What did a household do with sixteen red points per person a week — sixty-four to a four-week ration book? Memory can’t answer it — because when the war ended, nobody ever wrote the system down.
So we did. Not a memoir, not a nostalgia reel — a record. We went back to the Office of Price Administration’s own orders, the ration boards’ bulletins, the wage tables published during the war, and transcribed what they say: what a family could buy, what a soldier and a factory worker were paid, and what all of it costs in today’s money. The record is power. Without it, the home front becomes folklore. With it, it becomes fact you can hold.
It’s history, not financial advice. It’s built to be read aloud at the table. And it’s the first volume of the archive we’re building — written down, at last.
History EmpireTHE HOME FRONT ARCHIVE · EST. MMXXVI
Four Years, One Ledger
Each chapter opens with an order from Washington, lays the points beside the paychecks, and does the arithmetic a wartime household did at the kitchen table.
The Last Normal Week
What an American grocery cart held the week before Pearl Harbor — the baseline the whole system would be measured against.
The Machine of Scarcity
How the Office of Price Administration built rationing from nothing — boards, books, and the first ceiling prices.
The Sugar Book
War Ration Book One and the stamp that taught a nation to plan a pantry a coupon at a time.
Sixty-Four Red Points
Meat, butter, and fat — the point system at its most demanding, and the arithmetic behind every dinner.
The Canned-Goods War
Blue points, victory gardens, and the quiet math of keeping a family fed without a single can to spare.
Three Gallons a Week
Gasoline rationing, the mileage rationale behind it, and what an “A” sticker actually allowed.
Shoes, Suits & Silk Stockings
Rationed leather, the L-85 clothing order, and what the war did to the American closet.
What a Week Cost
The $8.83 grocery ledger, line by line, against a wartime paycheck — the household budget rebuilt.
The War Paycheck
Factory floor to front line — what America paid the people who ran the machine and fought the war.
When the Stamps Ran Out
V-E Day, V-J Day, and the system that ended almost as fast as it began — then vanished from memory.
The Point & Conversion Tables
The complete 1943 point-value tables, the CPI conversion method, and the full bibliography.
Open the Book
Real pages from Volume I — set in large, comfortable type on paper made to be printed.
Download a free 8-page sample
— see exactly what you’re getting.
Checked Against the Record
Not memory. Not folklore. Not internet lists.
“Official Table of Consumer Point Values for Meat, Fats, Fish, and Cheese — No. 1, Effective March 29, 1943.” — O.P.A., PRINTED IN FULL IN THE CENTRE DEMOCRAT (BELLEFONTE, PA), MARCH 25, 1943, P. 2
Read the heading again. The government numbered its own table No. 1 and stamped it Effective — because the values kept moving. Round steak cost 8 points on the table effective 29 March 1943, and 13 on the revision reported for that September. That is why every point value in these books is printed with the date it was in force, and why an undated point value is simply a wrong one.
- Every order and price ceiling transcribed from the original federal record — OPA orders, BLS bulletins, NARA holdings — page by page.
- Conversions use the Bureau’s own Consumer Price Index (CPI-U); the 1943 multiplier is ×19.37 on a May 2026 base. The method is printed in the book so you can check any figure.
- The complete bibliography is part of the book — and it is also published in full on the sources page, free to read before you spend a cent. Every order, bulletin and archive record the three volumes rest on, grouped the way the books group them.
- The Cited-Source Guarantee — two promises, not one. If a figure doesn’t trace to the order, bulletin, table and page we cite for it, tell us: we correct the record in the next edition — however long after your purchase you find it — and everyone who already bought gets the corrected file. Every correction is dated and public on the correction log. Separately, and with no bearing on that: if the book doesn’t earn its place on your shelf, write within 7 days of buying and every cent comes back. Both promises, in full.
Fair Questions
The questions a careful buyer ought to ask. We’d ask them too.
What exactly do I get?
Is this financial advice?
I’m not great with computers. Will I be able to open it?
What if it’s not for me?
Why $28 — will the price change?
Why is it called the 2027 Edition?
Did a person actually research this, or is it AI filler?
Own the Record.
- The Ration Book — What America Lived On, 1941–1945 — Volume I, 60+ pages, instant PDF
- Every ration, point value, ceiling price and war wage, converted to today’s dollars
- The complete 1943 point-value tables, reprinted in full
- The full bibliography — check us against the record before you buy
- A 7-day money-back refund — every cent, no questions, no forms
- The Cited-Source Guarantee — corrections with no deadline, logged in public
Questions first? Write us: contact@warrationbook.com — a person answers.
There are three volumes in the Archive — and the third is issued only with the complete set.
SEE THE COMPLETE HOME FRONT ARCHIVE