The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-08-13
CASH OR CREDIT COUNTS?

your cash and the faithful statement you should have set down of all your ex- penditures since you began running on cash basis. and see if you are not better off financially than you would have been on the other plan. This does not take into consideration the cessation of the labor of comparing the purchase slips and the final bill and of adding up the figures of the grocer or the meat n1er- chant That cost you time and trouble. but did not make a pull upon your pocketbook
 Unless I am much mistaken, you will find that you have kept house for less in the month when you paid cash than you had heretofore done. do not under stand what the psychological reason is that makes it so much more difficult to pay out " hard cash " for any article than it does to have it charged and pay it with equal certainty at the end of the month but the situation exists When you have to open your purss and take out a bill and receive back for it a disap- pointingly small amount of change, it is easier to say no " to a temptation than when you do not have to part with the actual money to pay for purchase, but can put off the day of reckoning for a more or less definite period.
 This is a matter upon which I would like the opinion of other housekeepers. Does their experience in this respect duplicate mine or are they as economical with charge account as they are when paying cash?
 compromise may be effected for the sake of those who find it peculiarly in convenient for any reason to settle their bills daily. The weekly account is far less precarious than that kept by the month, since it is a poor memory which cannot keep track of purchases made five or six days back. and the work of comparing the statements fer week with the daily slips sent in IS far less ex- acting than the monthly comparison. It is a simple matter to discover errors made in such bills and to have them rectifed while your memory and the recollection of your provision merchant are still fresh. It is a protection to his honesty as we'll as to your purse, for even the bookkeeper inclined to make errors in his own favor will hesitate to do this in too barefaced a fashion when he knows that the accounts will all be exam ined at the end of the week and mistakes can be discovered and pointed out.
 And this leads me back to the question of marketing by telephone. have spoken on this matter before, but I 10 not feel I can let the occasion pass without utter ing protests against this method Of pur- chasing household provisions. It has absolutely nothing to commend it excep. its convenience to the housekeeper. When she is not we'll, or when the weather is had or when an occasion arises on which it is ncce ssary to send hurry call for some unforeseen item, the telephone may be permitted, but the woman who wishes to keep house economically and to buy to the best advantage should go to mar ket herself and see what she is buying, watch meat cut off and groceries weighed. unless she possesses paragon of mer- chant whom she can trust absolutely and such men are too rare for many housekeepers to be sure these miracles have come their way.
 The woman who goes to market gains seve ral advantages besides those of being sure of getting correct weight For one thing. she can often find items she can buy to better profit than would be pos sible did she not see for herself what the