HOME BUDGETS

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 December 1937, Page 3

HOME BUDGETS

WHERE THE MONEY GOES. •The British Ministry of Labour is going right into the homes of 30,000 ordinary families to find out what they really spend their money on. By the beginning of 1939 it hopes to produce a report which will be one oi tne most remarkable historical social documents of the century. » It will show, on the authority of the people themselves, how the poor live. Future cost of living figures will be based on the findings in this report. • This is how the inquiry will work. Minutely detailed forms will be taken

to 30,000 householders whose income is less than £250 a year. The .-10,000 will be representative of all kinds of workers —manual, non-manual, and temporarily unemployed. Except for this degree of selection they will be chosen entirely at random. During the week October 17 to 23 each of these householders will be asked to fill in on the. forms details of every farthing he or she spends. All the ordinary food items are listed, and a precise description of each,

the quantity of it and the price are asked for. “Cakes, buns, etc..” might be filled in: “Two Eccles cakes, Mb. Dundee cake, 3 jam tarts, weight 130z5.. cost 1/-.” Bacon might be: "Danish back rashers, lib., 1/B.’’ Meat is listed as beef, home, imported: mutton or lamb, home, imported: pork; other meat, and the houseyvite will till in the weight, which cut she bought,

and what she paid. Meals away from home, ami milk or j meals for the children at school, are' provided for. A space headed “Other food and drink (give details')” makes mire that every item is recorded, One section of the budget asks for full details of rent, rates ,otc. Other sections ask. for every detail of the amount and cost of gas and electricity and of ths eggs, vegetables, fruit oi ether produce of the garden, allotment, 1 etc,

Then comes the page of household expenditure- on everything from coal to floorcloths, clothing, boots and shoes, repairs, cleaning and dyeing, nire-pui--chase instalments tobacco- and cigarettes. A pennyworth of ant-eggs for the goldfish or meat for the cat must be entered. Underclothing, each separate garment, materials for sewing or knitting, payments for making-up, are to be written down. The “incidentals” page reveals how genuinely the Ministry or, Labo.ui wants to know the whole truth. It includes fares full details), newspapers, becks,. stationery, cinemas, theatres, music-halls, concerts, hair-dressing, payments -to clothing clubs, doctoi, dentist, payments to hospital funds, fade union friendly society, huiial chib, etc., payments to pension funds,

and insurance premiums, licenses, laundry domestic, help and. holidays. Some husbands and wives and < irldren. the Ministry fully realises do net like each, other to know how they spend their pocket money. So it has provided separate forms which they can Uli in privately and post direct to the Ministry, merely giving the refer-, ence number of the parent form. No householder’s name or address will be in any form. All information is strictly confidential. Because a good deal of expenditure-, particularly on food and clothing, varies according to the season, each householder who consents to fill in the forms in October will bo. asked to Till in similar forms in January, April and July. For each set of forms filled in the Ministry will pay half a crown, and to induce people to fill in all four a. bonus of 2/6 will be added for those who do, making 12/G in all.