The whole amount of the household allowance was supposed to be 22s. The amount left for food therefore would be 8s. 7d. in a week when no irregular and therefore extra expense, such as a doctor’s visit or a new teapot, is incurred. This reasoned calculation of expenses other than food has been built up from the actual personal knowledge of the visitors in the investigation—from the study of rent-books and of insurance-books, from the sellers of coal, from the amount taken by the gasman from the meter, from the amount paid in clothing clubs and boot clubs, down to the price of soap and soda and wood at the local shop. It does not depend upon the budget or bona fides of any one woman. It is therefore given in order to show how closely it bears out budget after budget of woman after woman now to be given.
Mr. P., printer’s labourer. Average wage 24s. Allows 20s. to 22s. Six children.
November 23, 1910, allowed 20s.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 8 | 0 |
| Burial insurance (2d. each child, 3d. wife, 5d. husband; unusually heavy) | 1 | 8 |
| Boot club | 1 | 0 |
| Soap, soda, blue | 0 | 4½ |
| Wood | 0 | 3 |
| Gas | 0 | 8 |
| Coal | 1 | 0 |
| 12 | 11½ |
Left for food 7s. 0½d.
November 30, allowed 20s.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 8 | 0 |
| Burial insurance | 1 | 8 |
| Boot club | 1 | 0 |
| Soap, soda, blue, starch | 0 | 5 |
| Gas | 0 | 8 |
| Coal | 1 | 0 |
| 12 | 9 |
Left for food 7s. 3d.