The Washington herald., 1917-01-02
HOUSEWIVES DAILY
ECONOMY CALENDAR
BUYING WITH A BUDGET.
BY FRANCES MARSHALL.

II you complain Of the high cost of lfv-
ing and have not instituted the budget
system then You have no claim to SYM
pathy. Nor you have not taken the
trouble to institute that great first and
last aid to household economy. OF course
strictly speaking, to make a budget sys-
tenn perfect you ought to keep house
hold accounts fairly accurately for six
months or a year before you can really
know how to spportion your budget. But
while you are keeping these accounts
YOU can make an improvised system
that will help greatly.
The budget system means nothing more
nor less than the system Of knowing Just
how much you ought to spend on each
of the various sorts Of household ex-
penses beforehand and then restricting
yourself to that amount, planning with
that amount in mind and never neglecting
one kind OF commodity for another The
very first thing to do In starting out with
the budget is to know how much money
You will have to spend, and nine house
wives out of ten have a fairly definite
Idea Of about how much money is coming
in There are almost no husbands now
a-days who do not make q household al
lowance where they have reason to be-
lieve the housewife would manage care
fully. The husband that does keep his
'yife guessing, by not telling her what his
income is and by simply arranging to pay
all household bills every month is-well,
l should have to tell those husbands per
sonally Just what I think Of them. Con-
identially, think, for one thing, that
they are very poor business men for al
most any wife will run her house much
more economically when she has Q
definite income on which to run It
Economists have drawn up rules for
the correct proportions for the various
Items Of household expenses that do help
considerably. But as a matter of fact
you know how much you ought to spend
on rent and food and service better than
those specialists do. For you know how
many there are in your family. You
know whether you and your family are
the sort Of persons who find great pleas
ure in a home and home surroundings,
whether you are appreciative OF a GER
tain lavishness of the table, or whether
you do much entertaining, or how much
you spend on being very well dressed for
your social or business success. An
these things enter into the budget ap-
portionment- II Is not that most persons
do not know how much they ought to
spend on certain things but that they
simply refuse to face the matter square
ly beforehand and admit that they have
certain limited income out of which
a certain limited number Of things has
to be paid for. After having compared
your List Of necessary expenses with the
figure you have for total income you
may see that there are more things to
pay for than there is income to pay for
them And here comes the housewives
art She must decide where that neces-
sary curtailing must be- Personally, I
think that in many cases the deficit may
be made in the matter OF rent-not liv-
Ing In less spacious abode but living
In a less fashionable neighborhood-hav-
ing less ornamental entrance hall IN
your apartmet or a less restricted neigh-
borhood for your house. Often. too
something can be made toward the rent
by permitting friends or acquaintanoes
TO rent room or SO In your home This
Is always a possibility. But there usual
ly Is one way in which the housewife
Is extravagant, and one way by which
she could cut down expenses, and she will
never discover It TIM she tries out ths
budget system.
Copynxht, rgRJ