Many people had enjoyed luxuries during the prosperous 1920s, with its easy credit and installment (regular payment) plans, but the 1930s were a different story. Families across the nation struggled to make ends meet after the stock market crash of 1929 led to the Great Depression (1929–41), a decade-long economic collapse that affected the entire world. Families budgeted their resources and began making goods that they had once purchased ready-made in stores. Food was one item most people could figure out how to make at home. Cookbooks and radio programs offered recipes, including those for "poor man's cake" (a cake made without flour) and green tomato mincemeat, a kind of relish. Instead of buying canned food, women would take the fresh produce from their own gardens and can, pickle, and preserve it. A family of six could be fed on about five dollars of groceries each...