8. Plan a budget for a family of five in your community having
$1000. Suppose they have $2000, how would you change your
budget ?
9. Work out with your parents a budget or schedule of probable
household expenditures for your home for the next month ; the next
year.
iFrom Chapin's "Standards of Living." By permission Russell Sage
Foundation.
CHAPTER XX
SYSTEM IN MANAGEMENT
The housekeeper should learn to use the labor-saving de-
vices for her records that are now employed so largely in the
world of business. This equipment should include a desk
with fittings for systematized and rapid work. A roll-top
desk, with pigeonholes and drawers is convenient, but a flat-
topped desk with drawers below gives a larger space for
writing, although it has to be supplemented by boxes to take
the place of pigeonholes. Such desks may be purchased for
twenty dollars and upward, in woods to match other furni-
ture. It is a pleasure to have artistic desk furnishings, but a
large amoimt may be spent on these, and the desk still be un-
equipped for practical purposes.
Files and loose-leaf books. — A card file is as advantageous
to the housekeeper as to the business man. Some desks
contain a place for the card file in the upper right-hand drawer.
Guide cards are furnished in several colors to indicate
divisions of the file, and these are plain, or with printed
numbers and letters. The record cards also are made of
several colors, to indicate different uses. The suggestions
here cover only a few of the possibiUties. Visit some oflSce
fiu*nishing department or shop to see what an array of con-
veniences has been devised for the dispatch of business. If
you once form the habit, you will find new uses for the card
file almost daily, an i will keep on the cards, addresses, en-
gagements, cash a<.eounts, shopping lists, inventories of
332
SYSTEM IN MANAGEMENT ^ 333
clothing and furnishings, menus and recipes. A loose-leaf
book is preferred by some people for inventories and accounts.
A letter file shaped like a pocketbook can be purchased for
only twenty-five cents, and will serve the purpose for a small
correspondence. Large files with guide cards are made for a
larger correspondence.
The small file will answer for filing bills and is useful also
for clippings. Some desks have bill files in the pigeonholes,
and a letter file in one of the large drawers.
Have regular hours daily for attending to work at the
desk, stated times for planning menus, making shopping
lists, looking over the inventories, recording expenditures,
and balancing accounts.
Order in time and place are studied further in the chapter
on Housewifery.
Keeping of accounts. — This has been called by many,
drudgery and tedious routine. Many business men go
through much such drudgery to attain their goals, why should
not the housewife be willing to make a similar sacrifice in
her home for the sake of the service she is rendering the
members of her household ? The aim in keeping the accounts
is to register the amounts spent for various purposes so that
all phases of life will be considered and so that the manager
will be able to profit the second year because of the expe-
rience of the first year. This makes housekeeping interesting
and businessUke. The expenditure is made to produce the
maximum of value received and is accompanied by the
greatest possible pleasure.
Page 165
Presented as published in 1914. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
8. Plan a budget for a family of five in your community having $1000. Suppose they have $2000, how would you change your budget ?
9. Work out with your parents a budget or schedule of probable household expenditures for your home for the next month ; the next year.
iFrom Chapin's "Standards of Living." By permission Russell Sage Foundation.
CHAPTER XX
The housekeeper should learn to use the labor-saving devices for her records that are now employed so largely in the world of business. This equipment should include a desk with fittings for systematized and rapid work. A roll-top desk, with pigeonholes and drawers is convenient, but a flattopped desk with drawers below gives a larger space for writing, although it has to be supplemented by boxes to take the place of pigeonholes. Such desks may be purchased for twenty dollars and upward, in woods to match other furniture. It is a pleasure to have artistic desk furnishings, but a large amount may be spent on these, and the desk still be unequipped for practical purposes.
Files and loose-leaf books. — A card file is as advantageous to the housekeeper as to the business man. Some desks contain a place for the card file in the upper right-hand drawer.
Guide cards are furnished in several colors to indicate divisions of the file, and these are plain, or with printed numbers and letters. The record cards also are made of several colors, to indicate different uses. The suggestions here cover only a few of the possibiUties. Visit some office furnishing department or shop to see what an array of conveniences has been devised for the dispatch of business. If you once form the habit, you will find new uses for the card file almost daily, and will keep on the cards, addresses, engagements, cash accounts, shopping lists, inventories of
clothing and furnishings, menus and recipes. A loose-leaf book is preferred by some people for inventories and accounts.
A letter file shaped like a pocketbook can be purchased for only twenty-five cents, and will serve the purpose for a small correspondence. Large files with guide cards are made for a larger correspondence.
The small file will answer for filing bills and is useful also for clippings. Some desks have bill files in the pigeonholes, and a letter file in one of the large drawers.
Have regular hours daily for attending to work at the desk, stated times for planning menus, making shopping lists, looking over the inventories, recording expenditures, and balancing accounts.
Order in time and place are studied further in the chapter on Housewifery.
Keeping of accounts. — This has been called by many, drudgery and tedious routine. Many business men go through much such drudgery to attain their goals, why should not the housewife be willing to make a similar sacrifice in her home for the sake of the service she is rendering the members of her household ? The aim in keeping the accounts is to register the amounts spent for various purposes so that all phases of life will be considered and so that the manager will be able to profit the second year because of the experience of the first year. This makes housekeeping interesting and businessUke. The expenditure is made to produce the maximum of value received and is accompanied by the greatest possible pleasure.