Budget Parable: The Tale of the Thrifty Wife BILL JANIS RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH Thursday, April 1, 2004 A husband and wife sat down on a Saturday afternoon for their monthly meeting to discuss the family finances. The wife, the bookkeeper of the family, was thrifty, prudent, and frugal. She began to outline, in brief and business-like fashion, the family's balance sheet - noting her husband's salary, the interest earned on their savings, the dividends from their modest family investments, and her fees collected for helping prepare tax returns for friends and neighbors. As she began to outline, as was her custom,...