I lay stress on this because one difficulty in the way of obtaining accounts is a fear of incurring the disapprobation of the censors who think that to devote half one’s time to managing to dress well on £30 a year earned by some one else is less extravagant than to earn £300 a year and spend £50 of it on dress. I asked a journalist, one of the very few working women of my acquaintance always suitably and prettily dressed, if she would let me have her accounts. She owned she had not the courage to confess what a large proportion of her income had to go for clothes. Later on, after reading the journalistic comments on the expenditure tables submitted to the British Association, she told me how thankful she was she had withheld hers—“They call £40 a lavish expenditure!” And yet I have little doubt that few people could under the same circumstances produce so good a result at the same expense; while at the same time from a business point of view such an outlay in my friend’s branch of journalism repays itself with high interest.
Table VI.
Accounts of Expenditure on Dress of No. 8, living at Home, and receiving an Allowance.
Average Amount spent during the Three Years.
| 1883-85. | 1889-91. | 1894-96. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ s. d. | £ s. d. | £ s. d. | |
| Dresses | 13 9 8 | 17 15 6 | 22 1 0 |
| Coats, cloaks, umbrellas | 3 16 11 | 6 5 0 | 5 12 9 |
| Millinery | 2 14 4 | 3 3 6 | 4 10 3 |
| Underclothing, handkerchiefs | 3 0 8 | 3 7 6 | 5 13 10 |
| Boots and Shoes | 3 13 5 | 2 19 2 | 3 9 2 |
| Gloves | 2 2 8 | 1 18 1 | 1 16 11 |
| Ties, collars, &c. | 0 13 1 | 0 17 8 | 0 18 4 |
| Miscellaneous | 0 8 6 | 0 9 0 | 0 19 9 |
| Total | 29 19 3 | 36 15 5 | 45 2 0 |
| Personal allowance | £30 | £40 | £50-£60 |
My last set of tables, as I have already said, are not those of a wage-earner. The average expenditure is here given for three sets of three years, the personal allowance being £30, £40 and £50 for the successive periods (rising to £60 during the last year of the third period). Books and subscriptions and presents are the other items of expenditure not given here.
No. 8 writes:—
“In addition to the allowance I had various presents of money. While receiving £30 I had evening dresses given me. My mending and altering are done by a maid at home. Up to 1888 I occasionally had dressmaking done at home, but now put it all out. Being so busy a person and not caring for dressmaking or millinery, I have done none myself for the last seven years or more. The average yearly glove expenditure of the three periods is less now than in 1885. This is probably accounted for by the fact that I don’t require so many white evening gloves as when I had many dances.”
The accounts I have presented here have no claim to be regarded as typical. They are merely samples of the kind of material needed to enable us to discover the type.