Making Ends Meet : HI
By a PARISH PRIEST
MY wife and I sat and puzzled over the household bills. Those in authority said the cost of living had risen only a few points, surely not more than ten. They ought to know, yet as we looked at the grocery bill, the fuel costs and withdrawals for clothing, it didn't appear to apply to us. Everything seemed to be creeping up, or else we were eating more, wearing more and burning more. That was about a year or so ago. Then came the admission that the cost of living was going up. and quite naturally the request followed for increases in wages. Now that the admission had been made, there was no longer a creeping-up, but a leaping-up. It was not a case of halfpennies and pennies everywhere, but the need for an extra octagonal threepenny or even a sixpence. Our salary remained static, and is likely to do so. The benefice income is £500 per annum. It was the same in 1914. When we first arrived, three years ago, living was hardly lavish, but we managed quite well. Now there is a difference, and to pick out where the shoe pinches most, and to try to make ends meet, we find difficult. The shoe pinches all round. In addition to the £500, I receive about £15 in fees, and the Easter Offering varies from £5 to £10. The diocese has made us a grant of £40 (taxable) for our children. This has proved a very great assistance in clothing our two daughters (aged five and three), and last year helped a little with their mother's requirements. I can still manage simple arithmetic. and calculate that, with the weekly children's allowance of 5s., all being well, we can expect to receive up to £578 per annum. As an assistant living on £200 per annum, in 1940. I should have found this a stipend in the realms of dreamland. As the salary of the incumbent here before the last war, and before the 1914-18 war, it meant that much more could be done. Today it is not easy, and means a very strict watch on what we spend.
" But surely you ought to manage very well ; after. all, you live rent free—that should make a good saving." Sounds good, yet the house is one of the things that makes the shoe pinch. It is large ; the rooms in it are large, too, and prove very useful for any meetings and parish functions we hold. It is great fun for our children to have space in which to move with- out bumping into him and her and this and that. There may be no rent, but the rates, though low for the size of the house, amount to £46 10s. per year. The Borough Council is unlikely to listen to my desire to effect economy by omitting to pay them. Repairs are essential to keep the house in some sort of order, and amount to £35 per annum. These do not, however, cover interior decorations, and the cost of that has increased. The drawing-room and dining-room have just been decorated, and, though the papers used were among the cheaper ones, the bill was £35. Of course, there is also Schedule " A " tax, for as the incumbent I am considered to be a freehold householder. No ; " rent-free " is hardly a correct description. for with rates, dilapidation and tax we pay more now than we paid for the large six-roomed flat we had in North London. The large rooms are useful, but heating and lighting are expen- sive, and when we had used all our-coal allowance last winter we had to continue with paraffin-oil lamps. During the very cold weather it was necessary to have both coal-fire and paraffin- stove burning in the same room. We cannot afford more domestic help than half-a-day a week, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for 8s. Previous incumbents have been able to keep one or even two domestics.
The food costs are among those that make us look again, for week after week there appears to have been something extra on one article or another. Since 1948 our grocery-book has risen 25 per cent., in spite of the fact that now we order less. Three meals a day, is the menu for the rectory, with maybe an odd cup of tea when the children have theirs and a milk drink before going to bed. The little extras arc gradually disappear- ing. Our tea-cum-supper meal for my wife and myself Used generally to include that " cooked-something " on most days. This is now reduced. There is no question of dinner at 7 or 8. Lunch is the main meal of the day, and my wife finds she is unable to afford the same as some of our artisan parishioners at the greengrocer's. The cheaper milk for children has been a great help ; we notice the difference now that one daughter has had her fifth birthday. General housekeeping under these items reaches £3 10s. per week. We are not complaining, but it means we don't buy new potatoes until we have to do so, salad cannot Include as many tomatoes as before, the lettuce-leaves that used to go to the rabbits often go to us.
Clothing—well in many ways we are fortunate. Both our children are girls, and a number of articles can be passed down with a certain amount of alteration, and we also arrange some swopping with a cousin. Common sense and advice from the local children's clinic have meant paying extra for footwear. Apparently we ought to have been born in America, for it is not vanity but necessity which makes my wife ask for " American fittings." I have managed some simple repairs like fixing new rubber soles myself, but main repairs are another expensive item. For some clothing we have been among the customers at our own jumble sales, especially for " something to work in." The problem will increase as the children grow, and there is unlikely to be any hopes of reduced bills in this direction. Study expenses have shown increases, too, for paper and printing are now dearer, books and newspapers have increased in price, together with a number of " odds and ends " which mount up over the year. Already we have had to cancel one or two of the weekly and monthly magazines. The telephone can hardly be called a luxury, for it is used in the main for parish work. Space is insufficient to mention much about the laundry. holidays, any visits to the cinema and theatre. My wife saves on the laundry-bill by doing the major part of the washing her- self, just sending sheets, &c.. once a fortnight. Our windows are cleaned only once in two months, but that costs us £1 7s. 6d. for outsides only ; we do the insides ourselves. Holidays arc possible because we stay with friends, which usually means just the cost of housekeeping and a few extras. It is ten months since I took my wife to the theatre, and then it was the cheapest seats. Bathing- and washing-day have to be on the same day. At first we used to light the boiler for week-ends and have the luxury of hot water ready in the bath-room. Now it is just hot water one day ; at all other times an electric kettle-full does the trick. My wife is a " pressure cooker" enthusiast, and admittedly the gas-bill is slightly less. School fees are out of the question for our children, but for her own sake the older one attends an ordinary primary school out of the district. This means fares, which have increased. We save a little by sharing the " taking and fetching " with a friend. For meetings a fair way off 1 cycle, saving fares. All these ways may sound very small. They are, but we can find no major item that can be cut down. Neither of us smokes.
I said at the beginning that the shoe pinches all round, and we have tried in many small ways to counteract this. My work- day is a long one ; each day is full, and I cannot discover any means of earning a little extra ; there wouldn't be time if I did. The problem of " replacements " is beginning to loom before us ; the local soot and grit is rather hard on household effects. There is no opportunity for my wife to add to the family budget either, for our two infants, the house and a husband, combined with occasional help with parish organisations, makes hers fre- quently a seventeen-hour day. We would have liked our family to be a little bigger, too, but would need more domestic help than four hours a week as well as more cash for that. As I say, we are not complaining. Our life is a full one, and though there are some worries and heartaches, we have a great deal of fun and happiness. How some of my brethren with under £400 a year manage I cannot imagine.
The next article in this series is by a Civil Servant.
Previous page
