Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-01-31
COST OF LIVING.
A New York Woman Furnishes Food
For Five For $500 a Week.

pearance on a SlnaiI income WHICH
supports herself, her husband and
three children told a friend something
of hor methods the other day.
Rent and food said she, are the
two necessities which can't very we'll
be tempered with without loss OF
self-respect and of health. | might
live in a poorer tenement at a third
less rent, but my husband and | would
take very little pleasure in living and
trying to bring up our children.
SO we continue to pay pretty
stiff rent tor what We get. ninchinS
rather IN other WAYS.
ITO pinch on the quality OF food
the nutritious quality | mean, was.
knew. not to be considered for a mo-
ment. but being a college graduate
had learned enough about food values
t. understand that one can he well
nourishcd without buying for every
day consumption high priced edibles.
Il decided that 50 a week must be
the limit of our food bills. If | kept
a servant this could not be done even
by adding "A sixth to this amount De-
cause servants are up in arms imme-
diatelv if confronted with what they
call queer notions about eating.
a servant who can't have eggs or
meat lar breakfast thinks she is
starved ana tells the neighbors so.
''TwiCc = Week | have work Wo-
man come in by the daV and | give her
a hearty hut plain luncheon and that
is all.
breakfast? Now. don't be Mortified
when | tell you that all the children
and myself eat Is oatmeal cooked to
"A jelly served with milk or rye mush
and mill. with bread and butter and
seine cooked fruit. prunes or baked
apple. / have a cup OF coffee in addi-
ton, ana my husband takes coffee and
a meat or fish dish made from the left
over Of the previous nights dinner
or bacon
'"rhc children drink neither tea nor
cotfe" Al any meal and cat meat only
once = day. hut | take care that they
shall have vegetable proteid to take
tie place of meat, like. for instance,
tilat contained in peas and beans. =
"rhe children come home from school
for luncheon ready for n hearty meal.
which consists of baked beans or r.
vegetable stew made OF potatoes and
canned peas or dried lima beams
sometimes all three; bread ana butter.
milk. plain cake. gingerbread in the
Lad, and steWed dried fruit. OCCASION
ally StcWed fresh fruit Fresh fruit is
"a costly item and We have it only oc-
caSionally.
The dinner is always hearty. but
il never includes pOrterhouse steak
which - do
not miss, however. as the cheaper cuts
cooked in French style. that is with
brown sauce. and in fashion to make
them very tender are as appetiZing
and equally if not more nutritious.
The meat course >is always pre-
coded by good soup. not canned soup,
which is more expensive than the
home made variety; and we have al
ways one vegetable besides potatoes
and for dessert pudding of some sort
Fresh green vegetables, with the eXA
cepticn of lettuce, l am obliged to
shut my eyes to when T go to market.
but twice a week for dinner we have
plenty OF lettuce with a good French
dressing, to take the place of the usual
vegetables, onions and peas or beans
and carrots. say.
"Once week we have fish din
ner. cod or halibut and no soup. and
occasionally on Sunday q chicken din
ner, a potpie with dumplings. Some
times instead OF puddings we have
grapes when they are plentiful or
dates and bananas when they are in
season. buying the dates by the twelve,
pound box, as | was advised to do by
a physician who likes and recommends
them.
top price. ] cannot afford to use them
at ALL and / must say we seem to get
on very well without them. And one
soon gets used Ia a samcness in menu,
for after all there is a good deal of
sameness about any class OF menu.
An Instructor at Teachers College
told me of d German woman who for
years had managed to feed her family
OF nine on 81 a day. fed them so that
they looked we'll and kept we'll
Not every one | know approves of
my menus. am not recommending
th1m either, rs they are not taken
from any official dietary. But l find
that they suit my family very we'll.
that the children are strong, hearty
and growing fast, that my own and
my husbands health is excellent. and
until our income is increased l intend
to stick to them. N. Y. Sun.