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Income: twenty pounds. Expenses: twenty pounds, one shilling. Result: Misery.

Income: twenty pounds Expenses: nineteen pounds, nineteen shillings. Result: Happiness.

If he can find a way to live on ramen, he may be happy.

Surely, ninety-nine shillings?

Nope, shillings were pre decimalisation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shilling

That was informative, thank you.

And we're using shillings because...?

It's a quote from Dickens.

Well, apart from the ramen bit. :)