I've spoken to my mom on this, and the personal experiences certainly help to get a picture, but are there any books that might show what life was like? From education, to work, to how it got sorted out. What you could buy with the income, and what was available, what was wait listed, etc.
I too am on a phone at the moment, though I'd definitely recommend Al Szymanski's book Human Rights in the Soviet Union; in contrast to its name, it is a defense of the Soviet Union against criticism using mostly western works to make its point, and it analyzes in-depth such things as leisure activities, employment opportunities and rights of workers, income and quality of living, government programs, etc. You may find it useful, it's available here as a free PDF.
Damn, that should have been "preceding"...was typing this out on a phone, and just realized.