Next, $300 for clothes. In a year when things have lasted over, we may be able to get the $2 a month for the rent from this department. If, on the contrary, there is a new overcoat, or a new street dress to buy, or a new member of the family to clothe, then it cannot be spared.
The next division is $500 for holidays, recreations, books, charity, savings, doctors' bills and all unclassified expenses. This is the division which is most difficult to manage. If we think we cannot spare that $24 from the clothes department, we shall need to consider very carefully whether we take it from this, or from the food department. We shall have to consider the price of food in the neighbourhood; the health of the family; how much they need a holiday; whether there is any special purpose for which we must save; whether there is some piece of furniture much needed; whether there is a present which we greatly desire to give. And these are only samples of the things which will need to be considered. A choice must be made, though, however difficult, for when one item of expenditure in the family life is exceptionally large, there is but one thing to do, that is, to decide, reasonably and carefully, in what other department of living the expenditure can be lessened.
In this case of a high rent which has just been described, see in the table below what has happened.
+-----------------+------+------+----------+---------+---------------+ | |_Food_|_Rent_|_Running |_Clothes_|_Miscellaneous | | | | | Expenses_| | Expenses_ | |-----------------+------+------+----------+---------+---------------+ | Mrs. Richards's | 500 | 400 | 300 | 300 | 500 | | Division | | | | | | +-----------------+------+------+----------+---------+---------------+ | Division | 500 | 480 | 240 | 300 | 480 | | for high rent | | | | | | +-----------------+------+------+----------+---------+---------------+ 80 60 20
The high rent is balanced by a saving in running expenses and in some item of miscellaneous expense.
This is merely a suggestion of the way in which a housekeeping plan is worked out. Every family has its own needs and wants, and its income must be proportioned to suit them as far as possible. If your income is larger than the one used as an example, you will find that the department of miscellaneous expenses will grow and need to be subdivided many times--you will have more concerts than cabbages--if, on the contrary, your income is less than the example, you will find that the food and rent departments will begin to swallow up the other departments.