23 NOVEMBER 1907, Page 18

MIDDLE-CLASS EXPENDITURE.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:9 SIE,-"I seem to remember that some years ago (I forget how many, having read your paper for over thirty years) you published some figures showing how a middle-class man's income ought to be spent. I wish you would republish the suggestions revised up to date. I do not keep a carriage nor a motor-car, nor even a governess-cart. My wife is not extravagant, but my children (three) cost in education and clothes about £4.50 a year. My rent is £120 per annum, and repairs average £50. There are four maid-servants and one gardener. I keep very little company, yet, to my disgust and despair, I find I cannot make both ends meet on £2,000 per annum. The worst of it is that any one item of expenditure, taken by itself, seems not only reasonable bnt inevitable.—