"Family budgets" Surveys investigate over 10 000 households every 5 years. They aim to reconstruct the total household balance-sheet (spending, consumption and resources). Collected data are mostly monetary, but from 2001 on, quantities consumed are also recorded. These surveys are an extension of previous investigations conducted in the late 19th century to bring into light the plight of some urban populations. In the first part of the 20th century, budget surveys can help weigh price indices. After 1950, the survey program includes specialized surveys on specific budget items (transportation, clothing, vacations, savings, housing etc.) organized around a central core of permanent surveys including the “Food survey” and the “Family budgets” survey (from 1965 to 1974). In 1973 and 1974, a single investigation capping both "Food" and "Family Budget" surveys was achieved, but except for the results concerning food, the reliability of those results looked uncertain; therefore they remained unpublished. In 1978-1979, the new "Family Budget" survey was started. Several changes, Interviewers' training, an award given to sample members, combined with methodological innovations, have considerably improved data quality and the discrepancies with the National Accounts figures were substantially reduced. In the following years, (1984-85, 1989, 1994-95) the questioning content remained fairly similar. From 1994 on, the survey was also conducted in the overseas French departments.