The daughter was told by her mistress where she was in daily service that she must come in better boots. The average amount left for food was 11s. 3d. for the whole family of man, wife, and the five children fed at home, which means 1s. 7½d. per head a week all round the family. Taking the usual 3s. 6d. for the man’s food, there is left 7s. 9d. for the mother and children, which means 1s. 3½d. each per week, or 2¼d. per day. The food allowance being already as low as seemed safe to go, rent being payable to a personal friend who was in difficulties herself, the pawnshop was chosen as the way out.
The statement of income given above was altered as follows:
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Mr. R. | 21 | 0 |
| S. | 4 | 0 |
| Made a parcel own boots | 2 | 0 |
| Tommy’s boots | 2 | 6 |
| 29 | 6 |
While expenses other than food ran:
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 7 | 0 |
| Gas | 1 | 6 |
| Coal | 2 | 1½ |
| Soap, soda | 0 | 2 |
| Boots for S. | 6 | 6 |
| 17 | 3½ |
Which leaves for food all round the family, 12s. 2½d., or an average of nearly 1s. 9d. per head a week. The average for mother and children is almost 1s. 5½d., or 2½d. a day. The sum of 4s. 6d. which was received for the boots appears later as “4s. 8d. for boots out of pawn” in the expenditure of maternity benefit.
The sum of 3s. 6d. which is deducted for the bread-winner’s food before calculating the average for mother and children is in many instances well below the actual sum spent on the man’s food. This amount has been chosen as the very least the women feel themselves justified in spending. The cases where men take 3s. or 3s. 3d. for week-day dinners are those in point. The sum of 4s. 6d. or 5s. would be nearer the mark by the end of the week, when the man has had his share of the Sunday joint, and his share, with or without “relishes,” of the teas and breakfasts. In no single instance did the man seem to be having more than enough or even enough. It was evident, however, that in order to keep one person almost sufficiently fed all the rest in nearly every case had to live permanently on less than 3d. a day.
It must be remembered by those who are convinced that the working man can live well and easily on 3d. a day, because middle-class people have tried the experiment and found it possible, that the well-to-do man who may spend no more than 1s. 9d. a week on food for a month or more has not also all his other expenses cut down to their very lowest limit. The well-to-do man sleeps in a quiet, airy room, with sufficient and sanitary bedding. He has every facility for luxurious bathing and personal cleanliness. He has light and hygienic clothing; he has warmth in the winter and change of air in the summer. He can rest when he is in; he has good cooking at his command, with a sufficiency of storage, utensils, and fuel. Above all he can always stop living on 3d. a day if it does not suit him, or if his family get anxious. When his daughter needs a pair of 6s. 6d. boots he does not have to arrange an overdraft with his banker in order to meet the crisis, as the poor man does with his pawnbroker. He does not feel that all his family, well or ill, warm or cold, overworked or not, are also bound to live on 3d. a day, and are only too thankful if it does not drop to 2½d. or 2d., or even less, should under-employment or no employment come his way. It is impossible to compare the living on 3d. a day of a person all of whose other requirements are amply and sufficiently satisfied, with the living of people whose every need is thwarted and starved. Food is only half the problem. Air, light, warmth, freedom from damp, sufficient space—these, for adults—go to make up the other half, and these for young children are even of greater importance than sufficient diet.
In the households of well-to-do people two kinds of diet can be used—one for adults, the other for children. In the household which spends 10s. or even less on food, only one kind of diet is possible, and that is the man’s diet. The children have what is left over. There must be a Sunday joint, or, if that be not possible, at least a Sunday dish of meat, in order to satisfy the father’s desire for the kind of food he relishes, and most naturally therefore intends to have. With that will go potatoes and greens. The children share the meat, if old enough, or have potatoes and gravy. For those children too young for cold meat there may be suet pudding; but probably there is only bread and dripping, and so on and so on, not only through the week, but through the months and years. Nursery food is unknown for the children of the poor, who get only the remains of adult food.
It was reckoned by a young mother of the writer’s acquaintance that the cost of special food used for two children in her nursery was 10s. a week—mostly spent on milk, cream, and fruit, items of diet hardly ever seen by children of the poor.