The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-28
$40 A WEEK BETWEEN TWO.
ADVICE OF A WOMAN WHO MAR
RIED ON A SMALL INCOME.


gances to He Ayoided-The Matter
of Rent and the Table.
From the New York sun.
ut is rather amusing to read the let
tiers that people write TO newspapers
questioning the possibility of two persons
living on so a week" said an old-fash-
toned housekeeper. Sometimes I wonder
If they really mean and believe what
they write or If they are only posing to
themselves with pen and ink.
Twenty dollars a week for two people
means $40 a week for each one. Any one
who has ever been confronted with the
embarrassing possibility of having, moth
ing a week to live on knows how COM
fortably one can exist on $40 after such
a. contingency has passed. When two
people are married the question of living
becomes much simpler 1t is often said
that two people can live as cheaply as
one. This is quite. true in the case Of
housekeeping.
But extravaganza has got to be the
fashion. People boast nowadays of their
expenditures, not of their economy. Only
the other day 1 was talking with a young
woman whose income had suddenly
ceased. She had been lucky enough to
have an offer of a place at a salary of
$25 week, the place having been prac-
ticaly made for her by a friend of her
fathers. It's only SIS a week, she said
grandly, but / suppos L can live on it!
when l was married twenty-five years
ago. people were not ashamed to admit
that they had a sensible appreciation of
what 500 a week meant. They didn't
question whether it wes possible to live
on it, They made up their minds to live
on 1t and got married and got along very
comfortably and some of them are rich
to-day; but they will tell you that the
wenty-dollar-a-week days were the hap
piest.
MANY men prominent in finance and
politics and the professions will tell you
that they married on $40 week, some
times less. Plenty of those who married
then under the most promising pecuniary
circumstances are to-day wretched, UNI
happy, having gone through divorce courts
and other trials that made them realize
that mere money is not everything in life.
81 notice in these letters that the gen.
eral opinion expressed is that it all de-
ponds on the girl. but this is false de-
duction. Ii Is question of equal re-
sponsibility, equal self denial and striV-
ing to make the new life as nearly per-
feet as possible. Later on when the care
of family becomes part of the woman's
duties her share of responsibility in
creases. The woman with a family to
look after and the care of home, cook
ing etc, to perform without aid is little
short of a slave. But we are talking
now Of the start in life of these young
people who write to say that they are
afraid to marry on $40 a week.
Now, l have always been opposed to
these Scheduled fists showing in domestic
expenditure that so much goes for rent,
so much for coal and SO much for gas so
much for arfiusements and - much for
charity. The last item is never omitted,
especially when the writer is explaining
hiw family of six can live in the coun-
try for 800 a year. These schedules are
vastly amusing. Frequently some absolute
necessary is quite omitted.
when I married my husband We did so
largely on the strength of one of these
schedules. We neither of us know much
about what it coststo run home and
had. had somewhat ,extravagant, court
ship. After we married we sat down one
night to adapt the schedule to our own
particular needs We found that on the
closest calculation, we had nothing left
to buy clothing, In. CONSERVATION we
referred to the original schedule. There
was no allowance for clothes, although
there was for theaters and charity Here
was a horrible predicament
I'VE went over it again and again,
clipping, out as much as we could, but
It was no use. The subject OF clothes
getting was appalling, We almost quar-
relied. I said he should have thought of
it before he married me and he said it was
In nv department Then I wept.
FINALLY we went over our wardrobes
carefully writing down our different pos
sessions for this schedule habit grows on
one and we concluded that we had
clothes enough to last us at least year.
BY that time the prospects might be
changed. 81. The wearingbof clothes might
go out of style. We left it with Fate.
THAT is the way the twenty-dollar-a-
week couples must go into their contract
You cannot arrange this living matter. on
a schedule any more than you can get
the best results from a servant by haV-
ing strict rules about housework There
must be prudence, forethought and good
management but when you try to ascer-
tain the span of life with tape measure
something will snap.
by going Haremward In Manhattan
and i'm the suburbs of Brooklyn any num-
Der of four and five room apartments are
to be had for SIS and $16 a month. And
these fats offer such conveniences as
team heat and gas ranges which at once
does away with the coal bill. Then there
are donveniences which makes the work
of a home mere play to any young woman.
But 1t is a question II AZ young couple
with $50 a month to live on should spend
as much as this for rent.
Even in Manhattan upper floors in pri-
vate houses are often obtainable for 81
or SO a month This will not be in
fashionable part OF town., rather the con-
trary but never in an undesirable neigh
horhood. Here the couple can fit up
pleasant little home Boarding house at
rnosphere is always demoraHzing TO a
woman. In the case of newly married
girl IT is pernicious. The first duty OF
the pair is 40 create the home atmosphere
that will mean so much more to them
as life progresses.
"Now. the chief part that the girl has
to play in the twenty doIlar-a-week para
disc is to manage the funds. The mans
chief work is to earn them and II possible
increase them These two matters attend
ed to and the problem of living on the
amount named Is largely solved.
1.-THE item OF the table being carefully
considered and mastered the great diff
Guilty in the twenty -dollar-a- week prob
lem Is passed This Is the rock upon which
so many homes are broken up. The books
at the bakers and the grocer's and the
butchers gradually become records OF ex-
travagance that eats up all the careless
housekeeper's funds. / do not mean to
say that housekeeping with credit sys-
tenn Is not desirable, but In the first