FAMILY BUDGET 1901

The price of domestic bliss

MACDONALD HASTINGS

Annual Income: £427 is 2d

Estimated Expenditure: £426 19s Od Actual Expenditure: £430 9s 6/d

That was my grandfather's budget seventy years ago. It is salutary to recall in the decimal age that it was based on the golden sovereign; and therefore worth ten times as much as pounds today. But my grandfather was a professional man with a family of eleven children. He had no benefit of welfare state.

The difference between expenditure and in- come was caused by an unexpected item of two shillings and threepence for a broken window and seven pounds for medical at- tention. By cutting down estimated ex- penditure on clothing, coal and three children, he was able to reduce the deficiency to £3 8s 4/d. This sum was found from sav- ings.

The account is probably one of the most remarkable records of domestic finance ever kept. All but one of the books have been lost. The cross-index references throughout the volume give an indication of the complex glory of the whole system. The book in my possession is numbered 9, and covers the last years of my grandfather's life. The period is from 30 December 1900 to 24 Sep- tember 1904.

The pater, as his children called him, did not live to see the fulfilment of his last finan- cial estimate. He was drowned, aged fifty- three, in the summer of 1904 when he was on holiday with his family at Shanklin in the Isle of Wight. His final entry in the .B.00k is of work to be done during the vacation : 1.• Open heading for 'Suggestions for Financial Year 1904-5'.

2. Draw list of children's allowances.

3. Agree 2 with Liz (his wife).

4. Draft clothing estimate (unless done on August Bank Holiday, 1904).

5. Write up chiklren's dicta.

6. Discuss clothing estimate with Liz.

7. Children's journals.

8. Consider journey home.

9. Pack for journey home.

10. Consider education of children, and see note ante 29 as to printing new edition of Estimate Book being a charge on capital.

Yes, the book was printed. At the top of every page there is a quotation from Thomas a Kempis: 'A man must not be over eager in his affairs.' The figures and sidenotes are penned in a copperplate hand. Each section of the book covers a year. The pages are subdivided under the headings: Income, Summary of Income and Estimated Expenditure, with provision for detailed schedules and family memoranda. The balance sheet of actual expenditure is tipped in for comparison. Pages are also devoted to the analysis of specific estimates.

The page for income is pathetically simple. The pater's pittance looks very small on the foolscap sheet. There is a space on the same page for 'gratuities and gifts'. In 1902, he found the sum of five pounds, and ticks it paid.

Estimated expenditure, with all the items

arranged and printed in alphabetical order, fills seven pages. It covers every possible outlet of money : auxiliary, church, clothing, coal, deficiency, furniture, gas, gifts, Hastings (a wife, children and a dependent relative), haircutting, household, income tax, insurance,- lunch, maintenance of pastor, medical attendance, postage, printing, rent, rates, repairing, stationery, travelling, vaca- tion, water company, and miscellaneous (if any). Under other headings are a summary of totals and further details of schedules referred to in the main estimate.

At the beginning of the estimate list, there is a note in bold type: 'It is not intended that all the sums of money below set down should, as a matter of course, be expended. When the question of expending any sum of money arises, such question must be decided on its merits, irrespective of the circum- stance that such expenditure happens to be contemplated in the Estimate.' The pater's balance sheet is sad evidence that his esti- mates were not a penny too much, and sometimes a halfpenny too little.

The main burdens on his income were: Rent £70; household (including wages of nurserymaid and servant) £203 19s lid; a £1,000 life insurance premium £28 12s 7d; vacation, £10 lOs 7fd (not bad, consider- ing the size of his family) and coal £18 2s 6d. He bought eighteen tons at a time. In his estimate for 1902, he adds the note: 'Don't buy until you receive the Times Coal Co.'s fortieth annual list of lowest summer prices published 16 July. Neglect caused on 20 June, 1901, loss of sixteen sixpences : 8s.' He paid income tax, amounting to £11 16s 10d at Is 2d in the pound. Even with the - changing values of money I wonder whether, with his large family, he would today have paid income tax at all.

The smallest items are allowed for in his calculations: Postage 3s Id, Church 3s 9d and stationery, 6s 2d, are typical. Six and twopence for stationery provides for a bottle of ink (61d), nibs, notepaper, envelopes, gum, blotting paper, and one pencil. While 'coun- ting the halfpennies' used to be a term which Implied that one had nothing else to count, the pater budgeted for the expenditure of the halfpennies fifty-two weeks in advance.

Under the heading 'Auxiliary' he specified his gifts to charity for the year. There were Orphanages fd, Hospitals f-d, Little Sisters of the Poor /d. But, on top of that, he allowed one guinea for Maintenance of Pastor, and twelve shillings for the education of poor children in the congregation.

Each year he drew up his personal clothing estimate, heading it with the quota- tion: 'Retrench as much as possible of our convenience and comforts, and conform faithfully to the example of Jesus Christ.'

Follows the tabulated list of his essential re- quirements: article, date for purchase of, page of store catalogue in which article may be found, price and details of cash standing to credit of clothing account. The annual refreshment of his wardrobe provided for one pair of trousers (summer) 17s 6d; one pair of pants (No. 30, 40in natural lamb's wool) 12s 6d; one coat (to last two years) £2 6s Od; one pair of lace boots £1 Is Od; one silk hat, lOs 3d. Deficiency 7s Id.

The pater's wants were simple. Excluding clothes his personal expenditure was is 4d a year for haircutting, and less than sixpence a day for lunch. In 1900-1 the cost of his lunches totalled £5 19s Od. Under the figure in the ledger he adds : 'Hot milk now costs the same as cold milk. This saves 2s lid.' In the following year the cost of lunches rose surprisingly to £8 8s 9d. I fancy that Lizzie insisted that he be better fed.

Lizzie was the pater's wife. Her part is recalled in each yearly schedule under the heading 'Auxiliary'. Allowance is made for Nurse (monthly), Medical Attendance, Travelling, and Christening. When the last estimate was made, Lizzie had borne her last

child; but the item is there, estimating in cold print the cost of the next one, in Schedule 3. Lizzie was no clinging violet, dominated by a stern disciplinarian. She was a

formidable Scot, and the Estimate Book reveals more Bannockburns than Flodden Fields. Her personal expenditure was £20 a year. Household expenditure including servant's wages, was £203 19s lid. The money for children's clothing, each child

provided for according to age, was also -placed in her capable hands. One holiday list detailing the requirements of seven children specifies: Corsets, is 7/d, Gloves Is Id; Muslin for dress 3s 6d; Sandshoes 2s 4d; Hat, is 11d; Safety Pins, 3d; four pairs of Socks, 2s; Straw Hat, is; 'Blue Zephyr' material, 2s 6d.

Lizzie had to agree all the figures in the Estimate Book before they were final. She was called upon to append her signature beside her husband's in the audit. In one year she would not accept the figures. It must have been an almighty husband-and-wife tussle. Finally, the pater made pencilled alterations, noting that 'if by the time the end of the financial year arrives Edward finds that he cannot allow the pencilled figures, Liz undertakes to reconsider same.' She overspent; poor dear, how could she help it. Her husband was relentless; but he had to be.

In a statement in the book, E9-49, he lists the reasons, for and against, why or not two of his younger children should learn music. He has five reasons against—one of them, surprisingly, that 'music is an ac- complishment.' More convincingly he records that he has a deficit on income for the year of £24 7s 61d. The only reason he can advance for encouraging the proposal, in

very spidery writing on the tabulated page, is 'Lizzie wishes it'.

It seems that Lizzie was always ready to take chances. One such produced 'The Shanklin Death Warrant.' She wanted a holi- day. Edward said that he couldn't afford it. She said that it would only cost £10. The out- come was that Edward agreed to the holiday on Lizzie's undertaking to pay back all over £10 by monthly instalments of 5s. The agree- ment is headed 'The Death Warrant' in the book. Lizzie signed it with careless abandon.

The repair of her sewing machine and the buying of her false teeth are also duly recorded. I like Lizzie's fad. 'I undertake,' she puts in the book, `to indemnify Edward against my fad. My fad is to bring Beryl [one of the children] to Malden.' The cost of the trip, characteristically worked out by Edward, was 4s 41d—uncharacteristically, he added, 'say 5s.' Edward lent the 5s, noting that 'Liz said that she would pay the difference between our dinner on September 17 without Beryl and Muriel and our dinner of September 19 with Beryl and Muriel.'

To educate his children, the pater drew on capital. His savings he spent to give them a Catholic school and convent education. There was little enough money left in the bank in 1901. When the pater drowned in 1904, school fees for his large family had eaten the last of his small capital.

'Questions before making up our minds what to do with Claude and Aubrey: I. Whether having power to send Claude and Aubrey to Stonyhurst or to Wimbledon, we ought to exercise that power in favour of Stonyhurst, when the consequence will be that Muriel will not be sent to school until she is sixteen. 2. Whether the exercise of that power, in favour of Wimbledon, coupled as it will be with sending Muriel to Brighton at once, would be a mistake, in that it would imperil the salvation of Claude and Aubrey by reason of their being many hours of the day under no supervision.

3. By borrowing, Muriel might go to school at fifteen.'

At Lizzie's request, the pater worked out an estimate for the boys' schooling—on con- dition: 1. That they use the portmanteaux which were bought for their elder brothers.

2. That they do not go to the seaside'during holidays.

3. That they go to school on the day ap- pointed by the headmaster.

The estimate covers 'pension', college bills, four years' clothing at £4 17s 14c1 (£2 8s 61d each), entrance fees, outfit and travelling. Travelling costs are divided under two headings. 'Personal Items' and 'Common Items.' The personal items are the fares. The common items are tips for porters and the cost of the journey to and from the railway station. Personal items totalled fl I5s Od; common items 14s Ild. The pater added the two together, multiplied the figure by the number of journeys, then by the number of boys, and finally by the number of years. The grand total was £33 16s 14d. The cost of educating two boys at a public school for four years was £525 16s At the time of the last Estimate Book, the two eldest sons were about to make their first ventures in earning a living. The pater insisted that they should make a contribution to the house each month out of their wages. This was his arrangement with my father, his second son : 'I agree to pay Papa £1 for the first month [crossed out] and £1 15s out of each subse- quent month ['subsequent' crossed out] month's wages, commencing April-01.

How did the children, cared for. with such loving anxiety and so little money, grow up? Armed by the teaching of their father in Latin, Greek, Geography and English gram- mar, and of their mother in Arithmetic, they had brilliant school records. The pater's eldest son was as strong-willed as his father. Think of the interview in the pater's study in which the boy was forced to sign this statement: 'I do pledge myself to my father as under: 1. Not to buy on credit.

2. Not apply again to my father for a loan.

3. To repay present loan of £2 5s Od by weekly instalments of 5s, first instalment to be paid on 15 June, 1901.

4. I represent to my father that I want £2 5s Od to repay R. Gray, a liability they have in- curred on my behalf for a suit of clothes.

5. To buy myself a nightshirt.'

Shortly after this incident, the pater's son and heir packed a grip and vanished from home. Written very small in the corner of the ledger is his new address: 'Royal Mail Office, Kimberley.' In the second world war the same son, Major Lewis Hastings Mc. be- came a public figure as the BBC'S military correspondent. The second son, my father Basil Macdonald Hastings was in his day a fashionable playwright and essayist. Another son was killed in action at Loos in the first world war. The girls all got married, and produced nap hands of children, with the ex- ception of the eldest, who died of con- sumption, and one who became a nun.