FoodNet

Foods and household management

1914

Page 215

Presented as published in 1914. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
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 businesslike. The expenditure is made to produce the maximmn of value received and is accompanied by the greatest possible pleasure. In keeping accounts there should be some method of show- ing the receipts and expenses, the income and the outgo, so that a balance can be made at any time. The items should be so listed, too, that it is possible to tell what expenditure has been made for any one item, as rent, or food, or other 334 FOODS AND HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT necessities. It is only in this way that the accounts become of value for futiu^e use. There are many ways of keeping such accounts. The simplest one for the housewife is the best if it shows the points mentioned above. The envelope system is used by some when the income is small, and a certain amount of money according to budget plan is put in labeled en- velopes for various purposes, as rent, food, operating ex- penses, etc. As sums are drawn from the various envelopes, a slip of paper put in the particular envelope registers the amoimt drawn. It is easy at the end of the month to balance the accounts. This system necessitates the presence of a good deal of money on hand, and sometimes of confusion of accoimts, if money is borrowed from one envelope for use in another. Various systems of card catalogues, journals, and ledgers are in use, and all have more or less value. The simplest form for the average young woman or housewife can be kept in an ordinary blank book and the spaces ruled according to one's need. The account book can be started in somewhat the following manner, with the dates of expenditures m the first colmnn and the respective amounts opposite under their FOBM I Ybab January Jan. 1 clan, o .... (Dates of expen- ditures) . . . Totals • • Butcher Gboceb Bakbb Mile SYSTEM IN MANAGEMENT 335