The Washington herald., 1915-01-14
HOUSE,
WIVES
DAILY
ECONOMY
CALENDAR
ARE YOU A SPENDER?

There is a type of woman to whom the
spending Of money is one Of the sweet
est pleasures that life contains. These
women love to start on a shopping trip
with their purses well lined with money
and simply spend as the fancy strikes
them. Especially do they like TO buy
when they see what they think to be a
great bargain. A woman who doesn't
keep house perhaps passes a china shop
where a sale of tea cups is in progress.
The woman cOnvinces herself that these
tea cups would cost twice as much At
any other store; the salesman tells ker
that there are only two dozen left. and
they will be sold within ten minutes II
she does not take them. The only thing
for this woman to do Is to buy the tea
cups. The bargain is irresistible.
Another day this same woman may see
a quantity Of embroidered blouse lengths
selling at a quarter their original price.
To be sure, they are not suitable to make
blOuses Of the present mode. They are
several years out OF date, but bargain
is a bargain, wherever and whenever
found, so she buys the blouse lengths
Then there Is the housewife whose
fancy is taken by every new sort of food
in a new and attractive package. Dried
and dessicated and predigested and pre-
cooked foods of all sorts stand tempting
ly before her on the grocer's shelves and
she is forever sampling them. They
prove usually to be not exactly what she
wants and seldom what her family likes,
but there is still pleasure in buying them.
From the point of view of economy and
scientific household Management, there Is
nothing so fatal as this spending habit.
OF course, the housewife should spend
her money, just as much of II as she
can in order to make life more worth
living for herself and her fellows, but
she should never spend simply because
the object she wishes to buy appeals to
her. There should always be a good rea-
son behind her buying impulse.
To break herself of this buying habit
nothing Is better than strict discipline.
For a week, perhaps for a mouth, try
going shopping without your purse, and
never buy anything except after you have
carefully decided that you need 1t. and
have actually written it down on a list
Of required purchases.
Another way to curb your neslre for
spending money is to make a careful d.
vision of all the money you nave to spend
by a system of envelopes, or. II you pay
by check, to make a schedule showing
the proportionate amount to be spent on
the various articles. For instance, II the
envelope system Is followed, have one en-
veIope for the food money Of you: house
hold, another for the household bills
gas, water, milk, etc.-and others for
the various items in your expense ac-
count. Then when you have any pur-
chases to make you can sea just how
much money you have to spend on the
given sort OF articles.
But one thing remember-that is, that
the woman who gives in to her desire
for spending money is never the woman
who has an attractive house. she Is never
the woman who is well dressed. and she
Is seldom the woman who sets really
good table. For the woman who uc-
ceeds in these things is usually the wom-
an who spends with the utmost care and
precision.
CCtou,rigbt Iot5