The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-07-14
How Women Keep ''Expense Books. -

1t is a touching sight to see woman
begin to make up her expenses. having
resolved to put down every cent she
spends, so as to find out how to econ
omize, and where all the money goes.
Procuring small book she makes a
due entry, and the Monday after the
first Saturday in which her husband
brings home his pay. she carefully tears
the margin off newspaper and, with a
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 | had is. forty
nine dollars and ninety-three cents, and
one dollar and nine cents lent Mrs.
Dixon is fifty dollars and ninety-three
cents-but, hold on, ought not to en-
ter that. because when she returns it
it'll go down. That was forty-nine dol
lars and ninety-three cents, and what
have done with that?''
Then she puts down the figures, leav-
ing out the items to save time-a
process which enables her to leave out
most of the items to where 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 a bad FIVE
cent piece / got in exchange; and
eighty-one cents l 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 or
sixteen dollars and fifty cents, and L
don't remember which they were, but I
guess it must have been fifteen dollars
and sixty cents, for the grocer said if
I'd give him dime he could give me
hall a dollar, which would make even
change, and l couldn't, because the
smallest l had was quarter; and two
dollars and seventy-fve cents for mend
ing Katie's shoes, which is the last
money that shoemaker ever gets from
me; and ten cents for celery-no J 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 an
gel hints that there may be possible mis-
take in the addition. Acting upon the
suggestion, she foots up the column and
finds that the total is forty -four dollars
and twenty-eight cents, and that &C
cording to the principles of arithmetic
she ought to have five dollars and sixty
five cents. Then she counts her cash
several times, the result varying from
one dollar and forty cents up to one dol
lar and ninety-seven cents, but then she
happily discovers that she has been
installing a two-dollar-and-a-half gold
piece for a cent, and remembers that
she gave the baby trade dollar to cut
its gums with. On the whole she has
come within eighty-six cents of bal
ancesand that, she says, is close enough,
and she enters in one line of the account
book "Dr.-By household expenses
SO much, and is very happy till she re-
members, just after going to bed, that
she has omitted two dollars and seven
ty-five cents for her husbands hat
Chicago Herald.