(3) Fixed income at irregular times. — Care must be taken to reserve resources for less productive seasons and particularly to figure food allotment per week sufficiently low to insure its continuation the year around. A definite proportion of the total 3'early income should be taken and divided into weekly amounts. (4) The week's food allotment may be still further divided into daily allotments or else into allotments to cover breakfasts, luncheons, and dinners. Generally after allowance has been made for the essentials, such as milk, cereals, and breadstufFs, for which the amounts can readily be fixed, only the variables are left to be adjusted for each meal. D. Advantages of a food budget: (1) With a weekly or daily allotment, the housekeeper is no longer uncertain in her purchasing. She knows at once to what range of price she must limit the " variables " for each meal, such as green vegetables, meat, or protein-rich foods and desserts. (2) She will know when she has managed so carefully that a special desire can be gratified without running behind, and she USE AND PREPARATION OF FOOD. 255 will know when some unusual demands not counted upon have to be met by more than usually good management. (3) Her judgment in marketing under these circumstances is much quicker and more accurate than when she goes to market either waiting to be tempted b}'^ something or with the general idea of doing the best she can. (4) Definite standards remove worry and bring more satisfac- tory results in economy. They aid the housekeeper in knowing the limit of her spending power before she arrives at that limit. 2. The keeping of accounts : A. Importance. — Keeping accounts or checking up is quite as im- portant to food economy as making a budget. Although marketing may be done upon the basis of a detailed budget, one trip should suf- fice for several days' supplies, and accounts are helpful to keep tho various allotments separate. B. Methods of keeping practical accounts. — Many people find keeping accounts in books too troublesome and have devised substi- tutes : (1) One method is the use of a food J3urse or a purse contain- ing onl}'' the funds for food. (2) A second way is a package of envelopes, each containing the money for one allotment, be this milk, meat, etc., or dinners, luncheons, etc. (3) A third way is to substract each day's food expenditures from the amount available for the week. The remainder each day shows the funds still available. Thus: $15. 00=weekly food allowance. 1. 50=Monday (spent). 13. 50 2. 30:z=Tuesday (spent). 11.20 (4) Another way is the reverse of this. The addition of the daily expenditures cither as a whole or by allotments, the foot- ing showing what has been spent to date. Thus ; $1. 50 spent Monday. 2.30 do do 3. 80 spent by Tuesday. 1.70 do on Tuesday. 5. 50 spent by Wednesday. 256 USE AND PEEPAEATIO]Sr OF FOOD. C. Cliarging purcliases to an account. — The advisability of run- ning accounts varies enormously with different people, different stores, and different incomes. Some advantages are — (1) The convenience of not handling change constantly either at the stores or at the door, with its many irritations and small errors and losses. (2) The fact that it is very difficult to keep account of these transactions in the interruptions and extreme divergence of activities in home life.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

(3) Fixed income at irregular times. — Care must be taken to reserve resources for less productive seasons and particularly to figure food allotment per week sufficiently low to insure its continuation the year around. A definite proportion of the total yearly income should be taken and divided into weekly amounts. (4) The week's food allotment may be still further divided into daily allotments or else into allotments to cover breakfasts, luncheons, and dinners. Generally after allowance has been made for the essentials, such as milk, cereals, and breadstufFs, for which the amounts can readily be fixed, only the variables are left to be adjusted for each meal. D. Advantages of a food budget: (1) With a weekly or daily allotment, the housekeeper is no longer uncertain in her purchasing. She knows at once to what range of price she must limit the " variables " for each meal, such as green vegetables, meat, or protein-rich foods and desserts. (2) She will know when she has managed so carefully that a special desire can be gratified without running behind, and she will know when some unusual demands not counted upon have to be met by more than usually good management. (3) Her judgment in marketing under these circumstances is much quicker and more accurate than when she goes to market either waiting to be tempted by something or with the general idea of doing the best she can. (4) Definite standards remove worry and bring more satisfactory results in economy. They aid the housekeeper in knowing the limit of her spending power before she arrives at that limit. 2. The keeping of accounts : A. Importance. — Keeping accounts or checking up is quite as important to food economy as making a budget. Although marketing may be done upon the basis of a detailed budget, one trip should suffice for several days' supplies, and accounts are helpful to keep the various allotments separate. B. Methods of keeping practical accounts. — Many people find keeping accounts in books too troublesome and have devised substitutes : (1) One method is the use of a food purse or a purse containing only the funds for food. (2) A second way is a package of envelopes, each containing the money for one allotment, be this milk, meat, etc., or dinners, luncheons, etc. (3) A third way is to subtract each day's food expenditures from the amount available for the week. The remainder each day shows the funds still available. Thus: $15. 00=weekly food allowance. 1.50=Monday (spent). 13. 50 2.30=Tuesday (spent). 11.20 (4) Another way is the reverse of this. The addition of the daily expenditures cither as a whole or by allotments, the footing showing what has been spent to date. Thus ; $1. 50 spent Monday. 2.30 do do 3. 80 spent by Tuesday. 1.70 do on Tuesday. 5. 50 spent by Wednesday. C. Charging purcliases to an account. — The advisability of running accounts varies enormously with different people, different stores, and different incomes. Some advantages are — (1) The convenience of not handling change constantly either at the stores or at the door, with its many irritations and small errors and losses. (2) The fact that it is very difficult to keep account of these transactions in the interruptions and extreme divergence of activities in home life.

Use and preparation of food