When I was growing up, the custom here in Ireland, at least in working class households , was the husband would hand his unopened pay packet to his wife on Friday evening. She controlled the household budget and would give him back a small amount of beer money for the week. Many had huge families due to the Catholic Church's ban on contraception. My father however would get little brown envelopes in the post from England, so our family stayed small. Just as well considering my mother was an alcoholic.