Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1918-02-14
According to
Budget
q
By Jane Osborn
By Jane Osborn

|
! per Syndicate)
| 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
| volume of his fayorite 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 fiat, oblong book that had
Il new look TO It. Peggy opened it with
| care and pressed the covers back as
| one does with a book that has never
! been opened before.
| Ii was the budget book.
angelica has been here today"
Peggy announced, "and she brought
i this-it's such a wonderful idea Nor
! ton, did you ever hear of II budget? 1
never had but Angelica explained
what 1t means and here is the book.
She has made special study &C house
keeping, you know"
But what does Angelica know
about making men happy In their
honest" queried Morton, who had not
an altogether pleasant mental image OF
Peggy's tall, angular, many-degreed
cousin, who seemed to he so fond of
putting ideas into Peggy's head as
Peggy was of sponging them up.
"What does she know about real home
makingy
"Oh, she knows 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
ncSs-like and don't apply the same
! methods to housekeeping that men do
to their businesses. Angelica would
make some man wonderfully happy"
did she tell you that, too? asked
Morton, putting on his pipe viclously.
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 ! am to put down in
these little columns just what | spend
each day-see, here's 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 ones operating expenses. 1t is the
| first of the month, so l started right in.
See, bought some face powder at the
| drug store and 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
| am to balance it both ways so l can
| tell at u glance just how much | 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 wen know 1t and can stop MAX
ing that mistake. Angelica says she
will help me balance and figure out the
percentages2I 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 contented. That
is her life work. She started doing ii
nr1r 20 hA In ho
ment, but she has discovered that peo-
pie comfortably off need help just as
much. And so l started right away,
but l 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, an6 every day you
must tell me how much you have spent
for magazines or papers-that goes
under improvements and IL you give
something to a beggar you must tell me
so l can put 1t down under Church and
Charity
every night l 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 IT,"
Morton snorted inwardly and had
some rather sinister thoughts regard
ing Angelica and her missionary enter
prise. rs there a definite percentage
Tor the amount OF tobacco a husband
can user
yes 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 worthwhile
channels, such as lecture courses, the
purchase of an encyclopedia Or beau
tiful work Of art. Don't you think An
gellca is doing a wonderful work."
Yes quite wonderful, not 70 say re.
markable, phenomenal and epoch.
making" said Morton, and Peggy was
satisfied.
Every night for a month thereafter
Morton was obliged to confess Just how
much he spent on luncheon, shoe
shines, heggarS and tobacco, and even
D had to admit that he lost a dollar on
hot Npa dow opd ua{nA5 .,,., 3.fta-- ~