Abstract:
The structure of expenses depended on the amount of money the husband brought
into the family. This money was not always enough – something which was true not only of
the 19th century. Women always worked side by side with their husbands and contributed
to the family income. They also generally managed the housekeeping money. In the 19th
century the basic expenses were on rent, money for food, fuel for heating, school fees, and
essential outlay on medical treatment, clothing, and clothing maintenance. They had to
think about old age, sudden death, or misfortunes that could occur with their property: this
was when insurance first originated.
We can get an insight into the structure of expenses of individual families primarily
from sources of a personal nature, such as wills, memoirs, personal diaries and private
correspondence, although especially from household money diaries, which most women
kept. Only a few of these have been preserved, although enough to allow us to say that
consumption was not only determined by social status and the financial resources of the
family, but also by where they lived. The consumption habits of urban families differed
from those of rural families; much less food was bought in villages. Buying habits were
influenced by the season of the year, with autumn in particular costing more. People
shopped differently on weekdays, differently on Fridays and other fasting days, and
differently on Sundays: people shopped on a daily basis, and foods, with the exception of
long-lasting goods, were not stocked up on: milk, meat, bread and vegetables needed to be
bought every day. Expenses on fancy goods, such as southern fruit, luxury smoked meats or
chocolate, were rare.
From the end of the 19th century women began to become involved on the labour
market.
