The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-31
One Way of Reducing the High Cost of Living

e "I know that lot of it went into silk remnants this spring when you
 got that sewing bee in your bonnet reminded Mrs. Titter
 Be that as it may, a woman must nave some diversions" spoke Mrs. Giggle manfully. Anyway, as I was aoout to say, 1t all began with that
 wasteful Venus, when I saw her throw
 ing away the backed beans. After her came three other dusky females equally
 as extravagant, equally as wasteful, so
 discharged them, one by one. and de- cided to be my own cook. 1 did my
 onth marketing and saw where every penny went and the very first day Of this great reform movement l bought onesea of corn, and If you could see the numerous dishes that evolved from
 that one dear, darling ear you would easily understand why the high cost of living is racking the brains of the busi- ness men and the poor misguided wom- en of this country. Think of it. The average housekeeper buys dozen ears of corn at a time. I bought one ear
 and it was enough for three peoplev' .'I don't believe it." Mrs. litter said dramatically. T hate corn, myself, con sequently I won't ask you what combi- nations you made of it and whether they were palatable or not"
 Mrs. Giggle paid no attention to the passing remark and said glibly: Corn is
 40 cents a dozen.' and it is really won derful what combinations you can make of it in the extra line. It's really beau tiful when ou see economizing done so easily. l turned my attention at the same time to the matter of light. Instead of every electric light in the house burn ing at the same time, l trippled about gayly and turned them out in each room where they were not needed and left
 only one dim little burner in the places
 that lights were needed. No matter who
 wanted lights my foot went down on
 such extravaganc Then I began shut
 ting out the dust and the smoke which were spelling my beautiful rpgs. Why
 you have no idea how many different
 ways there are of economizing If you only go about it systematically. I could see
 Mir. Giggle millionaire in less than years time at that rate. I spent whole days alarming dish towel It didn't last an hour after lit was used. but the prin- ciple was theres that's the point: the principle of economizing Women, espe- cially housekeepers, nuts have principles and lots of em. You, can't get along with just few You've got to have them of all kinds and all sizes and in convenient place where you can put your hand on them any minute-even in the dark"
 what IS the main pr1nc1ple Tn dO- nestle economy" asked Mrs litter in terestedly.
 TO make the family eat things they don't like" Mrs. Giggle replied quickly It's no saving to eat what you really like. You are only economizing when you are eating things that you are dying to give to the dog. Why I've got my fam fly so now that they'll eat anything ex- cept bird seed and hay and dog biscuit If they don't eat up the scraps in the ice box l spank the children and fuss with MT Giggle. so there you are. The children hate to be spanked and MT Gig gle loathes being fused with or at or whatever you say. Just to give you an example, one day my 12-year-old Anne wanted to go winning She loves to swim better than anything in the world. told her she couldn't go until she'd eaten every bite of her lunch, which con sisted of a forlorn and friendless looking fried egg and a dried beef sandwich that had kept on drying merely because 1t didn't know when it was dry enough Anne looked at the lunch and she looked at me: love to swim said she but the task before me is too bitter I can't