Household budget

“ When the home is first started the husband and wife should discuss frankly the problems322 of division and should agree on the methods of expenditure. This common understanding between members of a family forms a bond of union, and each feels a greater pleasure and pride in doing his part. The fact that there is a budget and a system brings orderliness in methods of work and freedom from worry and anxiety as well as a saving of money. And this saving of money and strength is the same as an increase in income. ”

“ APPORTIONMENT OF INCOME.--When the housewife thoroughly understands the qualities of foods as well as their comparative food values and is familiar with the factors that govern food prices, she is well equipped to do economical buying for her family. Then it remains for her to purchase the right kind of food and at the same time keep within her means. A good plan is to apportion the household expenses according to a budget ”

“ Investigators of small household budgets lay it down as a rule that as the income increases the percentage spent for clothing increases more rapidly than for any other item. It is true in the professional classes, and especially burdensome there; for the income is usually small, but the social demand great. ”

“ Her personality will make the home atmosphere; that is the woman’s gift and privilege, and she will be able to do it with a free hand. I suppose that for the husband’s cost in the household the present custom of cultivated people of independent means will continue, and he will pay over to his wife his share of the household expenses....
After the revenue in the domestic budget under Socialism one must consider the expenditure. I have already given an idea how the rent and rates, lighting and water are to be dealt with under Socialist conditions. ”

“ By the less scientific plan of merely recording what one has spent, when the spending is over, it is more than likely that some departments of home expenditure will gain at the expense of others. If we can afford only $150 for rent, and we pay $200, it is evident that we must go without some portion of the food or clothing or advancement that we need. If we dress extravagantly, we must pay for our extravagance by sacrificing efficient living in some other direction. The budget is not entirely or even in large measure for the sake of saving, but rather for the sake of spending wisely. ”

“ Thus, while the final estimate of the money cost of maintaining a definite standard of living is not based on actual family expenditures, but rather is a hypothetical budget designed to maintain a hypothetical family at a specified standard, it should closely approximate the true conditions. ”

“ In these days when both sexes work, there are often more than one wage-earner in the family. Also, a family may enjoy additional income from savings, from investment in securities or real estate, from inheritance, or from the custom of taking boarders into the home. Clearly, the discrepancy between family income and the wages may be great, and may vary greatly as between families in the same wage group. For this reason it is family budget, not the wage, which is the true index in housing finance. ”

“ What is the member's definition of a high income family? The member heard the minister specifically say that the budget was trying to deal with the problem of people trying to survive in complex urban societies who need money to live. ”

“ What do you propose to do then, pray?
LYSISTRATA. You ask me that! Why, we propose to administer the treasury ourselves.
MAGISTRATE. You do?
LYSISTRATA. What is there in that to surprise you? Do we not administer the budget of household expenses?
MAGISTRATE. But that is not the same thing.
LYSISTRATA How so—not the same thing?
MAGISTRATE. It is the treasury supplies the expenses of the War.
LYSISTRATA. That's our first principle—no War! ”

“ The contribution of the book to present needs lies in these statistics of food use and food needs.”—Springf’d Republican
“An accurate laboratory contribution to family budget literature, of use to every student of social conditions. Further, it demonstrates the practicability of using the family budget as a lever to raise the living standards both of dependent and of independent families, and will, therefore, be of service to every social worker.” ”

“ The object of thrift in spending is both to get the greatest value for our money now and to insure savings that will provide for the future. Every budget should make as definite provision for savings as for rent or clothing. The purpose of a budget and of accounts is to assure a surplus rather than a deficit. Successful men and women make it a practice always to spend less than they earn, no matter how little they earn, and they cannot be sure of this without planning ahead and keeping accounts. ”

“ The proportions of these major items of expenditure can be varied within narrow limits, but no reasonable arrangement would cause a wide change in the increase in the total cost of living as given above. For instance, if, instead of this average distribution of the budget, food be allocated as much as 45 per cent., rent and clothing 15 per cent. each, fuel and light 5 per cent., and sundries 20 per cent., the indicated increase in the total cost of living, using the Board's percentages of increase for the respective items, would be 54 per cent. ”

“ But the poor man, having no expenditure other than food which can be cut down, is obliged, in order to pay one-third of his income in rent, to cut down food.
The chief item in every poor budget is rent, and on the whole and roughly speaking it is safe to say that a family with three or more children is likely to be spending between 7s. and 8s. a week on rent alone. Why do they spend so much when, as we see, it must mean cutting down such a primary necessary as food? ”

“ And that is we change the desired funding level that we do so through paying for it, just as each and every family does in this country. They had "pay as you go" for quite some time and the economy grew, jobs were created and the budget deficit shrank. ”

“ It says to Congress, you have to pay as you go. You can’t spend a dollar unless you cut a dollar elsewhere. This is how a responsible family or business manages a budget. And this is how a responsible government manages a budget, as well. ”

“ The best way seems to be, for some people, at least, the division of the family treasury into three distinct parts. The first, and alas, in most families the much larger share, to be dedicated to common household expenses. The excellent work of specialists in family budgets shows us how this fund should be distributed in details of rent or dwelling, cost of food, clothing, reading, church, recreation, etc. Any one can now make up with prudence and wisdom such an estimate in proportion to the known income and the ascertained cost of living in any given locality. ”

“ For the purpose of this study, the cost of living was estimated with reference to the needs of a man, his wife and three children under fourteen years of age. No attempt was made to secure family budgets from representative wage-earners. Instead, the amount of food, clothing, fuel, heat, light and other items needed to meet the requirements of a decent standard of living was carefully estimated on the basis of several budget studies made by other authorities, and prices of these various items were obtained. ”

“ This is one of the critical steps to be taken to bring an end to planned inflation. Our purpose is to manage the Government's finances so as to help and not hinder each family in balancing its own budget. ”

“ And most important, no family can be so negligent in running its finances. Why can't we expect the United States Congress to do what millions of American families do every month: set a budget, stick to it, and balance their checkbooks? ”

“ We can get them done, but only in the context of a realistic, responsible, balanced budget, one that maintains our fiscal discipline and makes the most of this great moment of prosperity. Now, that's a budget that makes sense, one that works for working Americans. ”

“ It carried the principle of graduation to a further point, both in income tax and in death duties, and it imposed for the first time a tax upon the natural monopoly of land. To those who understand the meaning of Social Reform, the necessity of the Budget is clear. Money must be found for the purpose of relieving poverty. ”

“ My budget will reduce our deficits not with aimless, reckless spending cuts that hurt students and seniors and middle-class families – but through the balanced approach that the American people prefer, and the investments that a growing economy demands. ”

“ As you know, I have spent the last week in intense discussion with congressional leaders over how to balance the budget in 7 years. It's important to balance the budget to lift the burden of debt from future generations.
In the last 3 years, we've cut our deficit in half, and we need to finish the job. But we have to balance the budget in a way that reflects our most fundamental values: increasing opportunity; asking everyone to assume responsibility; strengthening our families and the economy ”

“ Most people think of living costs as the immediate outlay for food, clothing, and shelter, disregarding the important item of depreciation.
The average housewife understands depreciation as it applies to food in a refrigerator, but gives very little thought to the same process as it applies to furniture, appliances, motorcar, clothing, and the house she lives in—if she and her husband own it. When replacement or repair of these more durable goods becomes necessary, there often is no fund available for the purpose. If replacement or repair is made, the budget is thrown out of [Pg 71] balance. ”

“ Welfare, medical, nutrition, and housing assistance for our most needy citizens, plus compensation for the unemployed, is almost one-fourth, 24 percent higher in the fiscal 1984 budget than it was in 1981. ”

“ It is reasonable, and it is responsible. It meets our obligations, and funds our growing needs. We increase spending next year for Social Security and Medicare, and other entitlement programs, by $81 billion. We've increased spending for discretionary programs by a very responsible 4 percent, above the rate of inflation. My plan pays down an unprecedented amount of our national debt. And then, when money is still left over, my plan returns it to the people who earned it in the first place. (Applause.)
A budget's impact is counted in dollars, but measured in lives. ”

“ It is safe to assume that a man with a wife and six children and a wage of 24s. a week will allow 22s. for all outgoings other than his own clothes and pocket-money, and that his wife will pay for three, or perhaps four, rooms the sum of 8s. a week.
The budget may begin thus:
The other regular items in such a woman’s budget, apart from food, would be heating and lighting, comprising coal, wood, matches, gas or oil, and candles. ”

“ Those have been the values that shaped this budget as well. What are they? Well, one is that government shouldn't tax away a man or woman's incentives to work, save, and invest, and that taxes should begin only after a family has earned enough to live on. ”

“ The centerpiece is something aimed at one of our toughest domestic challenges-deficit spending. It's about time we constitutionally mandate the Federal Government to do what every American family must do, and that is balance its budget. ”

“ The difficulty with the whole question of the place of housing expenditure in the family budget of a wage-earner is, that it deals with a complicated and endlessly varying set of factors, which are apt to defy generalization. Consequently, in a specific case, the practice of drawing conclusions as to wages, and as to the proportion of wages to be spent for rentals, is apt to lead to exaggeration or to error. ”

“ The expenses already recited total nearly seventy-five thousand dollars, or as much as my maximum income. And this annual budget contains no allowance for insurance, books, losses at cards, transportation, sundries, the purchase of new furniture, horses, automobiles, or for any of that class of expenditure usually referred to as "principal" or "plant." I inevitably am obliged to purchase a new motor every two or three years—usually for about six thousand dollars; and, as I have said, the furnishing of our city house is never completed. ”

“ But getting the deficit under control is just a means to an end. The main purpose of this budget, and of our four year strategy, is the creation of jobs for our people. Jobs are central to this budget because work plays such a central role in our lives. Work provides focus; work gives us independence; work gives our families hope and confidence. ”

“ The second choice in this election concerns your family budget. As a candidate, I pledged to lower taxes for families, and I have kept my word. We doubled the child tax credit, reduced the marriage penalty, and dropped the lowest tax bracket to 10 percent. Now working families keep more of their paychecks, and America's economy is growing faster than any other among major industrialized nations. ”

“ So narrow is the margin in the best of times that an illness, a shut down, disturbs the budget so that only the combined exertion of all the members of the family can save it. The mothers go into the factory, and the homes gradually go to pieces. ”

“ Itemized Accounting of Expenditures and Percentage Apportionment of Income.
Estimated for Family of Five on $300 a Month. Percentages of Expenditures for Food, Operating and Contingency vary according to income.
The accompanying is a family budget outline that is easily adjustable to entirely satisfactory use in your home. If the home manager, by means of her ingenuity or by doing work herself, saves on the regular scheduled expenditures, that money should go to her personal account. Preparedness is a big factor in the growth of the Home Manager’s credit column. ”

“ Reform of the budget process — including the line-item veto and balanced budget amendment — will, together with real restraint on government spending, prevent the federal budget from ever again ravaging the family budget. ”