In "Little Women", taking place during the Civil War, the March family had a housekeeper/cook. The father was a minister with the Union army and the mother was volunteering at a hospital.
The four daughters' perspective is that they are of modest means. The oldest babysits. Another is a paid companion to her aunt (and also sells her hair to get money). The youngest wants art lessons and the aunt gifts them to her.
Having the housekeeper is presented as a normal expenditure, not a luxury.
I know this is a work of fiction, but the matter-of-factness of having a servant in spite of the family pinching pennies is not portrayed as an error in their thinking, but just accepted.