LOWER INCOMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 156, 4 July 1931, Page 4 (Supplement)

LOWER INCOMES.

MAKING ENDS MEE'Ej ; THE HOUSEKEEPER'S PROBLEM. (By NONA. CUBtLE.) Cecil came home to-night, glum... of •■ face and grumpy of voice, and informed me that his wages had been cut another ten shillings. That's the second time within a month, and there may be more to come! I'm not a pessimist, biifc-r----well, I'm faced with the problem that thousands of other women are faced with to-day: making a few shillings go, wherever possible, as far as a pound would have gone 12 months since. It all resolves itself into a matter of readjustment; anil in the process we will surely .become wiser, and possibly better, housekeepers. We had been so used to a high standard of living, so accustomed to spending half-a-crown where a shilling >vould have sufficed, that we had evolved a false conception of life. We placed a Wrong value on happiness, which is based on honest thrift and the ability we possess ,to help others. We based our happiness largely on our ability to spend pounds, shilling and pence, mostly pounds. All that has suddenly come to an end, and most of the Dominion's housekeepers find themselves in the position of haying to "make things do." It isn't altogether pleasant, but it cannot be avoided.

Enforced Economy. Lovely things in the shop windows may often be only looked at: just now new clothes are an impossibility. Old shoes are being retrieved from the "cast-off" box; carefully repaired, they are cheaper than new ones, which we formerly bought every two or three months. Household goods, as well as personal, are under the shadow of the times. New rugs, new carpets, new chair-covers, must stay where they are for the present. Wo have to make the old things do. We hate it all, but perhaps it is good discipline for our souls! »

Hubby and children, also, are watched carefully these days. Nothing they wear or use can be discarded' till the' last shadow of usefulness has been extracted from it. The stitch in time is being put in now more often than ever in our lives before. We are learning the rigours of housekeeping.

Every day the problem seems to loom bigger as newer aspects of the case open oiit to us.. The first and foremost consideration to every housekeeper whose income is from a wage-earning basis, is that the 10 per cent cut—or as in my Cecil's case, 15 per cent—is not met by the reduced cost of commodities. It is in some lines only. If you doubt this, try and work out from your weekly purchases, say, a genuine eash saving of 12/6 a week, to balance the wage cut of 12/6! : It won't.work,:will it? Your cash retrenchments might amount to 5/ or 7/6. In order to make up tho-balance of the, 12/6 you just have to go on "making things do!" . ' Shillings Into Pounds. " Stretching shillings into pounds! It is a difficult business, isn't it, my sisters? And how long is it to go on? Perhaps that is the hardest part of our problem. We find that by scrimping and saving and going without, we can meet the situation" as it faces us to-day,' . But what of to-morrow, and allthe;; tomorrows after that? No matter how courageously we face our housekeeping troubles, that thought of tho future appals us. - Men who should know say that in 'a year's time, or perhaps dess, the present slump will be forgotten. But We women, though, the men deny it, are more prac-tical-minded. We want to know how and when it really is coming- about. While we are making things do,, and scratching along on shrinking incomes, rent (or, in many cases, interest), insurance rates, etc., remain the same as when incomes ' were 'higher. . Hubby's income, and, of , course, the housekeeping allowance, -to meet these expenses, is mucli lower now. - Let .the men who preach great-sounding stuff,'about being '.'round the' corner,"'or about having "touched the bottom of the depression," Show us a genuine money reduction in these things, -and we'll be ready to believe there is something in what they 6ay. „ , . In the meantime, most of us are facing the facte, and accepting the position as well as we can. When it is all over and we have perhaps passed through this era- of enforced thrift,' we may find that we are happier and' wiser women. Who; knows ? .