Feminine Reflections

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 1 October 1927, Page 11

Feminine Reflections

(By

Olive).

WHERE THE MONEY GOES

The Weekly House Allowance

“Thank goodness the Victorian era is past when whiskered hubbies kept a tight hold on the purse strings and the meek little wires had to ask for evary emiy and were expected to skimp and save to keep expenses down."

It seems to be a generally understood thing, especially in the realms of men, that “women and monev are easily parted,” and that they cannot keep proper household accounts. Of course if they don’t keep an account of every penny spent it is hard to account for the amazing way in which the money flies. There are so very many little sundries which lend it wings—afternoon teas, haircuts, tram-fares (in the cities) .perhaps a new pair of gloves, rides on the merry-go-round for the kiddies, and a pound is gone. Yet in an ordinary day’s outing, does a woman spend much more in sundries than her husband, with his smokes and matches, and “shouts”?

Most women certainly don’t like keeping accounts very much—thev would rather jot down on the kitchen calender the number of loaves received each dav than enter them in a formidable little ruled book.

Thank goodness the Victorian era is past, when the whiskered hubbies kept a tight hold on the pursestrings, and the meek little wives had to psk for every penny, and were expected to skimp and save to keep expenses down, Edith Shackleton writes of a Victorian old lady whose husband, on their homecoming after their honeymoon laid a certain sum on the dining-room mantlepiece. Neither of them mentioned tire incident, and he proceeded to leave

the same sum at weekly intervals for nearly thirtv years. During all that time she never had a clear idea of how much monev he had. She inst muddled through If she wanted to give him a birthday present she had to save on the butter money or cut down the kitchen tea. Such a state of affairs seems fantastic to us to-day, when all sensible newly-weds discuss the amount of salary, ways and means, and then an adequate sum is allotted to the “better half” for housekeeping and pocket-money. Under such conditions she is quite willing to “pull-in” if need be and practice thrift if times are father hard, because .she knows just what her husband is up against; but if he persists in keeping his affairs to himself. and her housekeeping to herself, things will not pull evenly, and such a feeling of companionship cannot exist

American husbands are supposed to be models in the way in which they provide their wives with every laboursaving device in the home. (By the way, a model is defined as a small imitation of the real thing but I suppose that is not what is meant about the Americans?) Certainly every wife should have her home as efficient a s possible but it may still be economy to make things do for a time at home while spending all the available cash on organising and refitting a business. But however creditably a housewife is “making things do." there need be no muddling about it. and 1 think there seldom would be if she always had her own personal allowance, however small.