Weasley Family Budget; very long, I'm sorry

[tiggersong]

No: HPFGUIDX 72650

I've been curious about this issue since CoS. The Weasleys are 
poor. Fine, I can accept that. I'm poor, and have been so all my 
life. What I don't understand is how much money they must have to 
become "comfortable".

I have to buy things which the Weasleys don't seem to need to 
purchase, such as food, housing, and transportation. I'm assuming 
that the basic monetary outflow is as follows: food, housing, 
clothing, transportation, education, entertainment and servicing any 
debt.

They don't seem to need to purchase food (I think it's in GoF that 
Molly is seen pouring a creamy sauce out of her wand.) And, where 
ever would Molly go to purchase the bangers and other foodstuffs? 
Does she grow food in her garden? How much land do they own?

They pay no rent (as they own The Burrow), but might pay property 
taxes. (As far as I know, The Burrow has been in Arthur's family for 
a while...) Property taxes can be high, but I'm not sure what the 
English property taxation rate is. And, whether or not the WW would 
follow the MW format for taxation rates.

Transportation is either by Floo, (for which they do have to 
purchase 
supplies), broomstick (again, it's a purchase. However, it's like 
buying a car - you buy it once and amortize the cost over several 
[one hopes at least 8 - 10] years of use. And, it appears that they 
don't break down in the way cars do...), or Apparation. 

I'd guess that as the kids age, the Floo costs drop sharply. They 
don't need to Floo for 10 months of the year when the kids are in 
school. Again, broomstick costs get factored over several years' 
budgets. And, after passing the test, Apparation is free. 

Now, I'll give them an astronomical clothing cost. Clothing that 
many growing bodies, many of which are prone to creating 
catastrophe, 
must be a real menace to the pocketbook. I just wonder why Molly, a 
strong knitter and true master at housekeeping skills and spells, 
hasn't learned a few simple sewing spells. She can clean with 
spells, knit with spells, wash clothes with spells. She takes one of 
the magazines (Witch Weekly? It's in GoF again, I think.) for the 
recipes. There aren't any sewing spells?? 

Education is another place that clearly eats their money up. My 
daughter is in private school and it's Not Cheap. But... every 
private school offers a good discount for sibling attendance. And, 
those school books are the same from one child to the next. Standard 
Books of Spells, Grades One, Two, Three... Why couldn't Ron use one 
of GredandForge's books from earlier years? Why did they need to 
keep purchasing full booklists? (Well, except for Lockhart's books. 
That ninny just wanted the money! I think I'd have made my kids 
share them out, though. Four full sets of those books? Why not get 
one set and have the kids use them as needed? They all have class at 
different times of the day/week.)

Entertainment is one that can be shared out, I think. Molly's yarn 
costs them money, but if the little Weasleys wear the sweaters that 
cost gets subtracted from the clothing budget. And, as a knitter, I 
can tell you that the knitting is entertainment. The WW doesn't 
watch movies, but seem bookish. Is there a library system? 
Allowances for the kids probably falls in here.

And, servicing any debt. (My husband thought of that one. He's the 
money minder in our household. I'm the frugal one.) We have no 
canonical evidence for the types of debt in the WW that exist in the 
MW. We never see credit being extended or "plastic money" being 
used. I can't address this one much as there's no evidence either 
way that the Weasleys have debt.

So. How much money *are* they spending in any given year? Now that 
all of the children are either in school for 10 months a year or are 
out of the house as adults, how much do Molly and Arthur need? And, 
how much is Arthur being paid? 

I've tried to come up with some basic numbers for these expenses and 
I can't quite work it out. It seems like a couple of the MW "basic 
expenses" are 'free' in the WW. 

Here are some basic numbers I worked out assuming that 1 Galleon is 
approximately US$5.

Education: 2,000G per student per year (based on US$10,000 per year 
cost. This is actually a low figure.) So that's a total of 10,000G 
in PoA. 

Transportation: 96G for transportation (based on US$40 per month for 
gas on a used, currently owned car.)

Food: 480G (based on US$200 per month for my family of 3. Keep in 
mind that for most of the year the children eat at school.)

Clothing: 200G total, not per child. (based on US$200 to clothe my 
growing daughter per year. Again, this is probably low.)

Entertainment: 40G (based on a minimum of US$100 for yarn and an 
additional US$100 for other forms of entertainment.)

This comes to a bare minimum of 10,816G that Arthur must make to 
just 
cover expenses. That translates to about US$54,080 per year as a 
salary. Does this seem right? 

What kind of salary does his post at the Ministry pay? I just feel 
like there's some money being "lost" here... (and yes, I'm a penny 
pincher. But that's a good thing; pennies get very plump unless one 
pinches them often!)

I'd welcome anybody's thoughts on this. I'm feeling a little like I 
should take Molly aside and show her some basic things.

Stasia