Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-12-14
According to
Budget
-
By Jane Osborn
By Jane Osborn

When Morton Blake, who had been
married a year and was supremacy
happy in his snug little apartment with
his blue-eyed little wife, seated him
self in his favorite easy chair with a
volume of his favorite author and his
favorite pipe, preparatory to enjoying
for the evening all the happiness of
bachelor life rolled into one with the
contentment of married life, there was
blue-eyed Pegg on the other side Of the
table with a flat, oblong book that had
a new look to 1t. Peggy opened 1t with
care and pressed the cover back as
one does with a book that has never
been opened before.
1t was the budget book.
"Angelica has been here today"
Peggy announced, "and she brought
this-it's such a wonderful idea Nor
ton, did you ever hear of a budget? |
never had, but Angelica explained
what it means and here Is the book.
She has made a special study of house
keeping, you know"
"But what does Angelica Know
about making men happy in their
homes?' queried Morton, who had not
an altogether pleasant mental image of
Peggy's tall, angular, many-degreed
cousin, who seemed to be sc fond Of
putting ideas into Peggy's head as
Peggy was of sponging them up.
"What does she know about real home
making?"
"Oh, she knows a great DEAL" in
sisted Peggy. And she says that the
reason why so many people aren't hap
by is because the wives aren't bust
ness-like and don't apply the sam
methods to housekeeping that men do
to their businesses. Angelica would
make some nan wonderfully happy"
did she tell you that, too?" asked
Morton, putting on his pipe %viciously.
Eyes, only, of course, she is so busy
telling other women how to make their
homes happy that she doesn't have
time. Well, she brought me this bud
get book and I am to put down in
these little columns just what l spend
each day-see, here's a place for bread
and one for butter and another for
meat and fish, and all the things we
eat, and here's one for ice and one for
help and carfare and light and things
like that-Angelica says you call those
last mes operating expenses. It is the
first of the month, so | started right in.
See, / bought some face powder at the
drug store and l put that down under
medicine, and the two dollars for the
laundress-that goes under help. Every
time you give me anything that goes in
here under receipts. And every week
l am to balance it both ways so | can
tell at a glance just how much l am
spending for every different sort of
thing-and in the front of the book
there is a table telling how much we
ought to spend for things and If I'm
spending too much for any one thing
then We'll know it and can stop max
ing that mistake. Angelica says she
will help me balance and figure out the
percentages never could do per-
centages."
"You don't mean that Angelica is
going to keep tabs on our household
expenses?" gasped Morton.
"Oh, you mustn't mind that. She
helps lots of young married girls-she
says she is helping them to make their
husbands happy and c%ontented. That
is her life work. She started doing 1t
only for the poor people in the settle
ment, but she has discovered that peo-
pie comfortably off need help just as
much. And so 1 started right away,
but 1 can't finish till you tell me your
part of it. Here's a place for mans
lunch and another for 'carfares,' that
you must tell me, and every day you
must tell me how much you have spent
for magazines or papers-that goes
under improvements and if you give
something to a beggar you must tell me
so I can put it down under Church and
a Charity
'Every night I will ask you so you
won't forget anything. Angelica has
been helping one young couple and
they haven't been a cent out of the
way since they began. The husband
remembers every tinty winty thing he
spends and he is so happy just on ac-
count OF IL.
Morton snorted inwardly and had
some rather sinister thoughts regard
ing Angelica and her missionary enter
prise. us there a definite percentage
for the amount of tobacco a husband
can use?"
eyes, indeed-but the book says that
one of the things the young people
ought to strive to do is to divert that
money-those are the words the book
uses-into other more worth-w hile
channels, such as lecture courses, the
purchase of an encyclopedia or a beau
tiful work of art. Don't you think An
gelica is doing a wonderful work?"
"Yes, quite wonderful, not to say re-
markable, phenomenal and epoch
making" said Morton, and Peggy was
satisfied.