It can be expensive to feed a family – both a hundred years ago and now. This 1920 advertisement suggests one way to save money.
1920 Jell-O Advertisement
It can be expensive to feed a family – both a hundred years ago and now. This 1920 advertisement suggests one way to save money.
A Hundred Years Ago 
I can’t imagine chocolate Jello; I’ve never come across it, or at least haven’t seen it in the stores. Jello chocolate pudding? Sure. But not the Jello. I see there are recipes online for it even today, so it must be a thing!
It’s even funnier that chocolate is listed as a fruit flavor 🙂
They just lumped “chocolate” in the middle of the list between “orange” and “cherry.” Strange. . .
Wow, It’s amazing that there are recipes online that call for chocolate Jell-o. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen it in a store, and had assumed that the company quit making the chocolate variety many, many years ago.
I want that 1920 Jell-O Book! Such a charming ad.
It would be so much fun to find the 1920 Jell-O Book. . . hmmm. . . maybe I should check out Ebay.
I’ve thought of Jell-O as many things, but never as a money saver. This is from the days when a dessert was a required course at every meal. Our family these days only eats dessert on special occasions, and then it’s never Jell-O!
I had no idea there was a time when dessert was expected at every meal. That’s fascinating. Do you know when this happened and/or why it changed?
I grew up in a family that only had dessert for birthdays and holidays and occasional bowls of ice cream in the summer.
In my family in the 1960s and 1970s, we had a dessert planned for every meal. My mother would still do that. I stopped when I started to live on my own in the 1980s.
We also rarely eat desserts – and it’s never Jell-O (except when I make a hundred-year-old dessert recipes). 🙂
I developed a bit of an aversion to it after a hospital stay when I was a teenager. I was put on a diet of clear liquids for a while. So much Jell-O!
I also have questions about chocolate jell-o. I googled chocolate and the FDA says it is a vegetable. I feel so much better now. I believe I have mentioned before that there is a Jello-O museum in Le Roy, NY. I was near there and didn’t have time to stop, but it is on my list.
Really? Chocolate is a vegetable? Thank goodness my kids did not know this when I used to tell them to eat their vegetables. 🙂
I think it is all the sugar and milk we add to it that makes it bad, but taste so good.
What is it about Jello that makes one want to float things in it?
hmm. . . Maybe floating things in Jell-O provides an opportunity for creativity. I’ve definitely seen some hundred-year-old gelatin recipes that were VERY creative and called for things like hard-boiled eggs and asparagus.
Chocolate Jello? Never heard of it! I’m trying to imagine the taste and texture combo in my mouth…
Chocolate Jell-O just sounds strange. I can see why that flavor is no longer around.
Fun to see the photo and the old fashioned (poorly edited) verbal content, but oh how boring Jello could be. By the way, I enjoy all your entries. Too wrapped up now in finishing two books. This period of sequestration because of COVID-19 has been good for me — time to work at approaching the finish line. But I want you to know I appreciate your blog.
Thanks for the kind words. It’s wonderful to hear that you are approaching the finish line with your books.
Chocolate Jell-O. While it doesn’t sound appetizing, I could be wrong. I’d try it should they bring it back. And I’d do so knowing I’d keep to my budget!
I’d try it, too. 🙂
Love the artwork, here! As others, I’m certainly puzzling about the chocolate Jello!
I liked the artwork, too. The young homemaker looks so serious. She is trying so hard to balance her budget.
Yes:)
I love old adverts like this! 🙂
I like them, too.
I must have at least 4 packages of Jell-o in my pantry! I grew up with Jell-o as a standard dessert. But I’m not so old that I remember the option of chocolate. When I was a poor college student there were times that a box of Jell-o and some mulberries picked from a tree along the way provided a meal! (Back then you could get a box for 15 cents!) Jell-o was a life saver!
I probably also have several packages of Jell-O in the back of my cupboard. I hope they haven’t expired. 🙂
We only had dessert on special occasions. Sometimes it was jello.
When I was a child I remember that we often had Jell-O at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other holiday gatherings. I think that it was considered a salad at those meals.
Hailing from the Uk..we didn’t have Jello we did have a pudding every day though, high tea on a Sunday and that was after a Sunday lunch and a cooked breakfast…How things have changed a pudding ..yep I still call it a pudding unless I am feeling posh and then its a dessert…giggle…is a treat now and definitely not every day…Loved the advert…
Calling it “pudding” turns it into a comfort food – which must be a least a little bit healthy. I’m glad you like the advertisement.
Oh it was certainly that, Sheryl… Apple Pies, Rhubarb crumble, sponge pudding with golden syrup the list is endless…now I am hungry for a pudding…sigh 🙂
I’ve know people who wouldn’t consider a meal complete if it wasn’t served with Jell-O and bread with butter.
It doesn’t work for me, but who knows, maybe my meals would be better if I regularly included Jell-O and bread and butter. 🙂
I’m on board with the bread and butter.
I can almost taste chocolate hello. But maybe it’s a false memory.
Good old jello,still a favorite around this household. I make finger jello with extra added unflavored gelatin to cut down on the sugar,doing so really doesn’t make it a cheap dessert . It sure is wonderful to the grandchildren on a hot day. It also is easy on a upset stomach when cut into small cubes
I can honestly say that I’ve never used jello! Chocolate flavour sounds odd!xxx
Jello was (for me) such an atomic-age dessert. I loved the colors that were never seen in *real* food 🙂 but I pretty much disliked it—texture, taste—like I was eating polyester pudding. Which didn’t stop me from collecting “Joys of Jello” cook book pamphlets!
We did eat a lot of jelly as children.. I never buy it now.. 😉