Definite Income 225 



There can be no doubt that the prosperity of 

 the family depends quite as much on the wise 

 use of the income as upon the size of that in- 

 come. The first essential of good household 

 management is that the housewife should know 

 definitely how much there is to spend. Nothing 

 is more productive of marital discontent than 

 the habit which many husbands have of doling 

 out money to the wife at irregular times and in 

 indefinite amounts. It destroys the wife's self- 

 respect, it places her in a degraded position 

 before her children, and it removes all incentive 

 to thrift. It not infrequently supplies a power- 

 ful motive for deceit. If the wife is inexpe- 

 rienced, unwise, or extravagant in the use of 

 money, so much the more reason why the hus- 

 band should patiently and firmly teach her how 

 to spend, both for her own sake and that of the 

 family welfare. An arrangement by which the 

 wife controls the expenditure of a certain por- 

 tion of the income is very easy whenever the 

 man receives a salary or regular daily wages. 

 A regular income tends to develop thrift and to 

 teach people to avoid debt ; but there is always 

 a tendency to live up to the limit of it, and the 

 margin for saving and for extra pleasures is al- 

 ways small. Salaried people seldom get deeply 

 in debt, but they as seldom become very rich. 



On the other hand, whenever the family in- 



