The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-11-28
|INC|DENTALSIN | HOME EXPENSES
 SWELLING TOTAL
Incidentals in the Domestic
 Budget Take More Than One Expects.

Not so very long ago a young hus- band and wife were figuring on the probable expenses of setting up a
 home. They had just returned from
 the honeymoon, and the prospect of nest building appeared very appealing
 to the romantic young eyes. The man, however, being of a prac- tical turn of mind on ordinary occa-
 sions, did not forget his practicability even at this time. He suggested a proper accounting of expenses So pad paper were put to work, each
 item of the household expenses esti- mated at so much, and the whole ad- ded in a grand sum total. Butcher, baker, grocer, gas, eggs, and milk, maid, house rent, tele- phone" read the happy young bride from the list. "You see, haven't for gotten a thing"
 "How about incidenta1s?" asked the
 bridegroom. "What have you allowed for them?' "Why, nothing!" admitted his as- tonished wife. "I don't know what you mean by incidentals. Haven't I
 allowed for every single thing we are apt to need in the household? I don't
 see how there can be any incidentals?" "We1l, there will be-" her husband assured her. "Any one who has run
 a business soon learns that the little insignificant iQcidentals amount to a big item in the expenses in very short while. You had better put down $50 or $40 month for incidentals." "Nonsense!" asserted his young wife,
 who had a practical streak in her,
 too. 'If I wasted that amount of | l..> 1,s. II, I should consider myself a , mighty 1 poor manager"
 Four months later she admitted
 there was some truth in her husbands assertion. Being a modern young wo-
 man with advanced ideas on running
 a house in much the same way as a r business, she of course kept an ac- | count book in which were entered all | items relating to the household expen- ses. At the end of the first month of
 housekeeping her astonishment was 1 great to find that the item incident als" (things not allowed for under general head of butcher, grocer, eggs,
 milk, etc) amounted to $50.
 '"rhe first month is always the most
 expensive" she said in excuse to her
 self, and later gave the same expla-
 nation to her husband. eI II When the second months bills were
 added up and f'incidentals'' again
 came to this amount the young house. wife had few hours of uneasiness. | 1T can't see where the money goes to-" she said to her husband. "It's
 dollar here for soap and powder, 50 cents there for writing paper, $2 for r a bolt or two and several dollars for ? curtain poles. Nothing that amounts : to much and still our money is ritter ed away"
 .1t's just as I told you,'' said the husband in the peculiarly superior
 manner men, and most women, too, :, adopt when they are in the delightful position of saying, "I told you so.''
 The third month seemed to bring :. but small reduction in the incident aP' account, and with the fourth
 month the housewife decided some
 means must be taken to do away with
 this serious leak in the household bud- get.
 She decided to direct all her ener- gies in this one direction. She would
 allow a certain sum (not quite half
 the amount she had been spending)
 for incidentals and keep within this
 amount, no matter what happened. , Of course, this cutting down took thought, for no retrenchment is easily
 made. At the beginning of the next 3 month all drugs liable to be needed for I 90 days were purchased, soaps, tooth
 pastes. powders etc., being bought in
 large quantities, and a slight saving therefore made.
 When the maid in the kitchen asked for fancy new utensils the mistress ex- plained to her that such things were not actually needed, and showed her how to get along without them.
 Fancy cakes at the bakers, for : which she had been paying 10 cents
 apiece, she |now made in the house, 2 and the saving in this direction was
 considerable. Every cent that had to
 be spent on extras was made to tell, and things not actually needed were not purchased. 7 The consequence of this careful ) watching was that at the end of the
 fourth month the item "incidentals'' amounted to SIS, when heretofore it l
 had been $50. ] The experience of this housewife is l not unusual. Most women who run l 1 a home admit that it is the little things
 that run away with large amounts of |
 money, the little odds and ends that are always needed in the home. Un- l less one keeps a strict account of the |
 money spent in this way it will soon be found that the household budget |
 is being rapidly depleted. Big ex-
 penses one expects. It is the little, |
 unexpected things that arise to eatI
 holes in one's pocketbook.
 Keep strict account of the little
 things and the big ones will look out | for themselves.-New York Telegram. l CANAnA,S C0VERNnRC