The estimations are for a no-frills budget; they cover only what a family needs to get by and exclude savings, splurges or minor luxuries like eating out.
Obviously it's no use going hog wild, either; once you get past the mid-range, like other components, you'll get diminishing returns and pay bundles for minor luxuries like high-quality braiding or a small drop in noise levels.
They sent the troops "comforts parcels", which contained balaclavas, mittens and scarves that they had knitted, as well as newspapers, soap, food (including cakes and sweets), and minor luxuries.
The Women's National Service League, which thousands of women joined before the war even started, revived the role white Rhodesian women had played in World War I, sending the colony's servicemen overseas parcels containing warm clothes, newspapers, razor blades, soap, food and minor luxuries such as sweets, tobacco and novels.
There might even be something left over, for housing or schools or other minor municipal luxuries.
I'm not telling you that you have to partake to enjoy it, but watching Mulder and Scully fumble around in the dark with some flashlights whilst chonged on a bobo is one of the last minor American luxuries that everyone can enjoy.
This new right to express yourself in the street is not minor or a luxury.
Thatcher and Blair may have been synonymous with landslide wins and long spells in office, but the Conservatives' poll numbers point to the end of such luxuries, as minor parties nibble at Westminster's tired duopoly, and the massed switch-off from politics increases the sense of flux.
