News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-07-13
How Women Keep Expense Books" !"
Her Terrible Struggle with Trial
Balance Sheet Described.

1t is touching sight to see woman
begin to make up her expenses, having
firmly resolved to put down every cent
she spends, so as to find out how to
economic, and where all the money
gees. Procuring a small book, she
makes due entry, and on the Monday
after the first Saturday in which her
husband brings home his pay, she care
fully tears the margin off newspaper
and, with blunt pencil, strikes trial
balance something in this way:
John brought me home forty-eight
dollars and forty cents, and one dollar
and forty three cents Ihadis forty-nine
dollars and ninety-three cents, and one
dollar and nine cents left Mrs. Dixon
is fifty dollars and ninety three cents
but, hold on, ought not to enter that,
because when she returns it it'll go
down. That was forty-nine dollars and
ninety three cents, and what have I
done with that?
Then she puts down the figures, leav-
ing out the items to save time-a pro-
cess which enables her to leave out
most of the items to where a round
sum is involved, on the supposition that
they have already been put down. As
thus:
Six dollars and fourteen cents for
meat and ten cents for celery; and ten
cents on the street cars and bad five
cent piece I got in exchange; and two
dollars and eighty-fve cents I paid the
milkman, who owes me nineteen cents
that's three dollars; and fifteen cents
at church; and the groceries-they were
either fifteen dollars and sixty cents >lUr
sixteen dollars and fifty cents, and l
don't remember which they were, but 1
guess it must have been fifteen dollars
and sixty cents, for the grocer said if
I'd give him dime he could give me a
half dollar, which would make even
change, and 1 couldn't, because the
smallest had was a quarter; and two
dollars and seventy-five cents for mend
ing Katie's shoes, which is the last
money that shoemaker ever gets from
me; and ten cents for calery-no, put
that down.
Finally she sums up her trial-balance
sheet, and finds that it foots up sixty
four dollars and twenty-eight cents,
which is about fifteen dollars more than
she had originally. She goes over the
list several times and checks it carefully,
but all the items are correct, and she is
just about in despair when her good
angel hints that there may be possible
mistake in the addition. Acting upon
the suggestion, she foots up the column
and finds that the total is forty -foul
dollars and twenty-eight cents, and &C
cording to the principles of arithmetic
she ought to have five dollars and sixty
five cents.
Then she counts her cash sewers
times, the result varying from dolla
and forty cents up to one dollar an
ninety-seven cents, but then she happil..
discovers that she has been mistaking
two dollar and a half gold piece for
cent. and remembers that she gave thu
3 baby trade dollar to cut its gums with
3 On the whole, she has come within
l eiehty-six cents of balance, and that,
5 she saws. is close enough, and she enters
in one line of the account book, "Df,
, By household expenses" SO much; aud
{ is very happy till she remembers, just
after going to bed, that she has omlttei
t two dollars and seventy-fve cents for
i her husbands hat.