The working-class household economy

This chapter focuses on budgeting and consumption habits within the working class. It examines how salaries are utilised in the domestic sphere. The aim is to explore the practices and strategies that workers and their families employ to manage their precarious finances. This chapter begins by confirming that sustained economic growth has indeed resulted in an increase in workers’ incomes. It proceeds with an analysis of family budgets, highlighting that consumption behaviour is constrained by the extent of living expenses, primarily food, housing, and childcare. A third section considers how families make ends meet through non-monetary resources and debt. This chapter concludes by analysing households’ ability to move beyond day-to-day accounting and develop strategies that enable them to plan for the future.