Housekeeping accounts kept by a Hobart housewife for the period September 1941 to May 1945

Housekeeping accounts kept by a Hobart housewife for the period May 1945 to June 1949

Housekeeping accounts kept by a Hobart housewife for the period August 1956 to November 1963 entered in old 1950 desk diary

Housekeeping accounts kept by a Hobart housewife for the period April 1970 to June 1974 entered in a 1970 desk diary

Housekeeping accounts kept by a Hobart housewife for the period June 1939 to September 1941

Housekeeping accounts kept by a Hobart housewife with a husband and four daughters . The mother had attended the Zerco Business School in Hobart after leaving school and, no doubt because of her training, kept careful, detailed accounts of all minor cash payments for housekeeping expenses. These accounts were entered in octavo cash books or diaries and include details of each purchase or expense, totalled at the end of each page. Cash payments included groceries, meat, vegetables, fruit, bread, milk and also occasional minor expenses
such as "shirts", "clinic", gas, cleaner, shoes, shoe repair, sweets, tram fares and later petrol, creche, nappies. There were occasional treats such as cake, pictures
[movies], theatre, ices, "solo losses", tennis, and incidentals such as raffle tickets, church magazine, Sunday School magazine, chiropodist. The accounts only record small cash payments, possibly from a housekeeping allowance, and not major expenses such as house rates, rent or repairs, insurance, clothing or household furnishing, school or medical expenses. They are, however, a useful record of the cost of basic foods.