Foods and home making

You probably do not buy the same amount of clothing each month. Compute the cost of your clothes for an average month. Or compute the cost for a year and take one twelfth of the amount as the cost for a month. In case you have a new coat once in two years, include half the cost of your coat in the year’s clothing cost. 196 Modern Housewifery You probably buy most of your books at the beginning of the term. Count the cost for the term and divide the sum by six. Directions for computing the sum paid out for you in one month may be summarized as follows : Fraction of monthly rent Fraction of monthly grocery, meat, and ice bill Fraction of monthly fuel and light bill Fraction of monthly laundering or home-work bill Monthly cost of your clothes Monthly cost of your lunches, car fare, etc. Monthly cost of books and other school supplies Monthly cost of amusements or private lessons Monthly dentist’s or doctor’s bill Any expense item not included in the foregoing In a class it is interesting to have each pupil put her total monthly expense on a slip of paper. The paper should not be signed. Then the slips may be collected and the amounts added. From the sum the average monthly expense account of the pupils of the class may be obtained. What is your responsibility regarding your expense account? You probably have found that your parents pay out much more for you each month than you imagined. They may be making many sacrifices to pay your expense account. It seems only fair that you should have some responsibility about the money spent for you. If yesterday’s expense or your monthly expense account shows that you are spending money foolishly or carelessly, you should resolve to stop spending money for useless and even harmful things. A good policy to follow is to think twice before spending money. When you examine your expense account, it may be that you will find that more is spent for your clothes or shoes than for those of the average pupil. This may be due to carelessness. Clothes and shoes that are well cared for do not wear out so quickly as those that are carelessly treated. You owe it to your- Budgeting Time and Money 197 self and to your parents to take good care of the clothes they buy for you. Another responsibility you have is to choose wholesome food. In chapter xviii, you will learn what kind of food you should select if you buy your lunch at school. If you bring a lunch from home, suggestions for preparing a wholesome box lunch are given. If your expense account shows a doctor’s bill, it may be that you are not taking care of your health. Suggestions for keeping well are given in chapter xxxiii. If you are wise, you will take good care of your health. What is a budget ? In some families there are fat days fol- lowed by lean days. When the income is received or pay day arrives, money is spent freely. So much is spent at this time that before the next money is received, there is little or nothing to spend. If such a family followed a plan for spending their income, there would probably be no lean days.