MANY BRITISH FAMILIES LIVING BEYOND MEANS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 October 1948, Page 6

MANY BRITISH FAMILIES LIVING BEYOND MEANS

LONDON,. October 11

After an. investigation -into -.the budgets of. 2000 families and boarders in Britain, the organisation known as Mass .Observation has come to the conclusion that- one middleclass family in three is. living beyond its means.

All those interviewed .were members of the organisation, and the families had. an average income of £ll 10s a week after paying income tax. The boarders, who were sons . or daughters paying for their keep, had £5 10s a week. Weekly outgoings’left the families with £2 19s, and the boarders with 17s for miscellaneous expenses. , ... . .. While these people find it easy enough to live from week to week' with normal expenditure, says Mass Observation, things become more difficult .-when..bills, including school fees. and. insurance premiums, have to be. paid, money has to be put by, for holidays,, and children are given ( pocket money. ... , | „ Budgets are balanced, says, the report, by. drawing upon savings, and gratuities or. getting spare-time jobs. The report adds that the. people interviewed -are “generally aboYe aver- j age intelligence and education.’’ . . I It was. found that .food prices heavily, oppress-housewives and that, .some find, shopping., “alinost an-- ordeal.” Most of the people who make largescale purchases.for the,household,are non-smokers and non-drinkers.. This, says the report,., seems to confirm what.has sometimes been that abstainers do not . necessarily spend less-money, but spend it on different things Housewives, -it is clear, are prepared to make considerable sacrifices to keep father in tobacco. • ■ v ■