With the other spends such as various food ingredients like vegetables and meat, coal, firewood, savings for clothes, etc, the total weekly spends would be around five to six braks. The rest of the money would go into savings, which these people used for special occasions.
Then came the group that was paid well, and this group got a lot of respect from the people. This was the group that made 9 braks to two zen per week. Usually, a regular family would have both parents working to feed themselves and their kids.
While most of these families with well paid members still continued the tradition, it did not change the fact that just one person would be able to support an entire family on their own. Even if things went south and they had just their jobs left, they could keep their family well fed.
