Happy Families or How not to make ends meet.

Fred Le Patourel had a big family but fortunately had a good job too so he could afford all of their various outgoings for clothes, hobbies, etc.
 
With 10 children it was difficult to micro manage all of their expenditure so he gave them all a budget and every so ofter they’d gather around the kitchen table and he and his missus would set out some general guidelines on how they expected their children to behave. It seemed to work well and everybody was happy.
 
But hard times hit Fred and the company he worked for left the Island leaving Fred having to find a new job. It was difficult and there weren’t too many decent jobs about but he managed to find something even though it paid quite a bit less.
 
It was time to get around the table again and explain the situation to the family.
 
Fred had given it quite a bit of thought and he’d decided that everyone needed to pull their horns in. Being sensible children they all agreed with their Dad in principle but each had what they regarded as essential expenditure and the sums didn’t add up, or rather they added up to rather more than was in the kitty.
 
It was time for executive action. Fred announced that the time had come to make some savings. Everybody needed to cut back and budgets needed to be trimmed.
 
This made perfect sense and everybody agreed to do their best and work to these new budgets.
 
Like all families, Fred’s kid’s were all different and some coped with this limit on their funding better than others. However it soon became clear that certain people were overspending. Their argument was that they really needed to keep spending the same amount because their outgoings were vital to their future success. 

They had tried to save something but it just wasn’t possible.
 
Some of this made sense to Fred but the trouble was that nearly every child could make an argument for their particlar outgoings.
 
It was time for more executive action. Fred announced that the time had come to change the system again. It made far more sense if he examined every family outgoing and ranked them in order of importance so that his limited funds could be spent on the right things.
 
Unfortunately his kids didn’t agree. They’d got used to running their own finances and didn’t see why Dad had to interfere. After all, it was their money; well their budget anyway, and they knew they could sensibly spend their own money, even if events had proved otherwise.
 
So they refused to agree this new idea. After all, argued some of the older children, why should the younger one’s be allowed to spend on less important stuff when there wasn’t the money to go around and their grown up demands were much more reasonable and much more important.
 
It obviously made much more sense if they kept their financial power and decision making and maybe got together occasionally to agree in general terms what should be spent where.
 
Fred knew his children and knew this wouldn’t work. They’d already been given more than enough time to work something out for themselves and it hadn’t happened.
 
But I guess that’s kids for you.