DOI: 10.3886/icpsr08905
title: Consumer Expenditure Survey, 1985: Diary Survey
title: Archival Version

description: The ongoing Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) provides a 
 continuous, comprehensive flow of data on the buying habits of American 
 consumers. In addition, these data are employed to maintain and to 
 review the Consumer Price Index. The Diary, or recordkeeping, component 
 of the CES contains expenditure data for items purchased on a daily or 
 weekly basis. Participants from consumer units, which are roughly 
 equivalent to households, are asked to maintain expense records, or 
 diaries, of all purchases made each day for two consecutive one-week 
 periods. Diaries are designed to record information on small, 
 frequently purchased items such as food, beverages, food consumed away 
 from home, gasoline, housekeeping supplies, nonprescription drugs and 
 medical supplies, and personal care products and services. Information 
 is also elicited at the end of the two-week period on work experience, 
 occupation, industry, retirement status, member earnings from wages and 
 salaries, net income from business or profession, net income from one's 
own farm, and income from other sources.
description: This survey is based on a national probability sample of 
 households. The sampling frame (i.e., the list from which housing units 
 were chosen) for this survey was generated from the 1970 Census 100 
 percent detail file. Each selected sample unit is requested to keep two 
 one-week diaries of expenditures over consecutive weeks. The earliest 
 possible day for placing a diary with a household is predesignated so 
 that each day of the week has an equal chance to start the reference 
 week and the diaries are evenly spaced throughout the year. During the 
 last six weeks of the year, the diary sample is supplemented to twice 
 its normal size to increase the reportings of types of expenditures 
unique to the holiday season.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: 1985 First Quarter: Consumer Unit Characteristics and Income
DS2: 1985 First Quarter: Member Characteristics
DS3: 1985 First Quarter: Detailed Expenditures
DS4: 1985 Second Quarter: Consumer Unit Characteristics and Income
DS5: 1985 Second Quarter: Member Characteristics
DS6: 1985 Second Quarter: Detailed Expenditures
DS7: 1985 Third Quarter: Consumer Unit Characteristics and Income
DS8: 1985 Third Quarter: Member Characteristics
DS9: 1985 Third Quarter: Detailed Expenditures
DS10: 1985 Fourth Quarter: Consumer Unit Characteristics and Income
DS11: 1985 Fourth Quarter: Member Characteristics
DS12: 1985 Fourth Quarter: Detailed Expenditures
DS13: 1985 Universal Classification Codes and Their Titles
description: Total United States civilian noninstitutionalized 
population.
description: The codebook for this data collection is 
 machine-readable only. The Consumer Unit Characteristics and Income 
 (FMLY) files supply information on consumer unit characteristics, 
 consumer unit income, characteristics and earnings of the reference 
 person and his or her spouse. Member Characteristics (MEMB) files 
 contain selected characteristics for each consumer unit member, 
 including reference person and spouse, and the Detailed Expenditures 
(EXPN) files present weekly data at the universal code (UCC) level.