The true economy of housekeeping is simply the art of gathering up all
the fragments, so that nothing be lost. I mean fragments of _time_,
as well as _materials_. Nothing should be thrown away so long as it
is possible to make any use of it, however trifling that use may be;
and whatever be the size of a family, every member should be employed
either in earning or saving money.
'Time is money.' For this reason, cheap as stockings are, it is good
economy to knit them. Cotton and woollen yarn are both cheap; hose
that are knit wear twice as long as woven ones; and they can be done
at odd minutes of time, which would not be otherwise employed. Where
there are children, or aged people, it is sufficient to recommend
knitting, that it is an _employment_.
In this point of view, patchwork is good economy. It is indeed
a foolish waste of time to tear cloth into bits for the sake of
arranging it anew in fantastic figures; but a large family may be kept
out of idleness, and a few shillings saved, by thus using scraps of
gowns, curtains, &c.
In the country, where grain is raised, it is a good plan to teach
children to prepare and braid straw for their own bonnets, and their
brothers' hats.
Where turkeys and geese are kept, handsome feather fans may as well be
made by the younger members of a family, as to be bought. The sooner
children are taught to turn their faculties to some account, the
better for them and for their parents.
In this country, we are apt to let children romp away their existence,
till they get to be thirteen or fourteen. This is not well. It is not
well for the purses and patience of parents; and it has a still worse
effect on the morals and habits of the children. _Begin early_ is the
great maxim for everything in education. A child of six years old can
be made useful; and should be taught to consider every day lost in
which some little thing has not been done to assist others.
Children can very early be taught to take all the care of their own
clothes.
They can knit garters, suspenders, and stockings; they can make
patchwork and braid straw; they can make mats for the table, and mats
for the floor; they can weed the garden, and pick cranberries from the
meadow, to be carried to market.
Provided brothers and sisters go together, and are not allowed to go
with bad children, it is a great deal better for the boys and girls
on a farm to be picking blackberries at six cents a quart, than to be
wearing out their clothes in useless play. They enjoy themselves just
as well; and they are earning something to buy clothes, at the same
time they are tearing them.
It is wise to keep an exact account of all you expend--even of a
paper of pins. This answers two purposes; it makes you more careful in
spending money, and it enables your husband to judge precisely whether
his family live within his income. No false pride, or foolish ambition
to appear as well as others, should ever induce a person to live one
cent beyond the income of which he is certain. If you have two dollars
a day, let nothing but sickness induce you to spend more than nine
shillings; if you have one dollar a day, do not spend but seventy-five
cents; if you have half a dollar a day, be satisfied to spend forty
cents.
To associate with influential and genteel people with an appearance of
equality, unquestionably has its advantages; particularly where there
is a family of sons and daughters just coming upon the theatre of
life; but, like all other external advantages, these have their proper
price, and may be bought too dearly. They who never reserve a cent
of their income, with which to meet any unforeseen calamity, 'pay too
dear for the whistle,' whatever temporary benefits they may derive
from society. Self-denial, in proportion to the narrowness of your
income, will eventually be the happiest and most respectable course
for you and yours. If you are prosperous, perseverance and industry
will not fail to place you in such a situation as your ambition
covets; and if you are not prosperous, it will be well for your
children that they have not been educated to higher hopes than they
will ever realize.
If you are about to furnish a house, do not spend all your money,
be it much or little. Do not let the beauty of this thing, and the
cheapness of that, tempt you to buy unnecessary articles. Doctor
Franklin's maxim was a wise one, 'Nothing is cheap that we do not
want.' Buy merely enough to get along with at first. It is only by
experience that you can tell what will be the wants of your family. If
you spend all your money, you will find you have purchased many things
you do not want, and have no means left to get many things which you
do want. If you have enough, and more than enough, to get everything
suitable to your situation, do not think you must spend it all, merely
because you happen to have it. Begin humbly. As riches increase, it
is easy and pleasant to increase in hospitality and splendour; but
it is always painful and inconvenient to decrease. After all, these
things are viewed in their proper light by the truly judicious and
respectable. Neatness, tastefulness, and good sense, may be shown in
the management of a small household, and the arrangement of a little
furniture, as well as upon a larger scale; and these qualities are
always praised, and always treated with respect and attention. The
consideration which many purchase by living beyond their income, and
of course living upon others, is not worth the trouble it costs.
The glare there is about this false and wicked parade is deceptive;
it does not in fact procure a man valuable friends, or extensive
influence. More than that, it is wrong--morally wrong, so far as
the individual is concerned; and injurious beyond calculation to
the interests of our country. To what are the increasing beggary and
discouraged exertions of the present period owing? A multitude of
causes have no doubt tended to increase the evil; but the root of the
whole matter is the extravagance of all classes of people. We never
shall be prosperous till we make pride and vanity yield to the
dictates of honesty and prudence! We never shall be free from
embarrassment until we cease to be ashamed of industry and economy.
Let women do their share towards reformation--Let their fathers
and husbands see them happy without finery; and if their husbands
and fathers have (as is often the case) a foolish pride in seeing
them decorated, let them gently and gradually check this feeling,
by showing that they have better and surer means of commanding
respect--Let them prove, by the exertion of ingenuity and economy,
that neatness, good taste, and gentility, are attainable without great
expense.
The writer has no apology to offer for this cheap little book of
economical hints, except her deep conviction that such a book is
needed. In this case, renown is out of the question, and ridicule is a
matter of indifference.
The information conveyed is of a common kind; but it is such as the
majority of young housekeepers do not possess, and such as they
cannot obtain from cookery books. Books of this kind have usually
been written for the wealthy: I have written for the poor. I have said
nothing about _rich_ cooking; those who can afford to be epicures
will find the best of information in the 'Seventy-five Receipts.'
I have attempted to teach how money can be _saved_, not how it can
be _enjoyed_. If any persons think some of the maxims too rigidly
economical, let them inquire how the largest fortunes among us have
been made. They will find thousands and millions have been accumulated
by a scrupulous attention to sums 'infinitely more minute than sixty
cents.'
In early childhood, you lay the foundation of poverty or riches, in
the habits you give your children. Teach them to save everything,--not
for their _own_ use, for that would make them selfish--but for _some_
use. Teach them to _share_ everything with their playmates; but never
allow them to _destroy_ anything.
I once visited a family where the most exact economy was observed; yet
nothing was mean or uncomfortable. It is the character of true economy
to be as comfortable and genteel with a little, as others can be with
much. In this family, when the father brought home a package, the
older children would, of their own accord, put away the paper and
twine neatly, instead of throwing them in the fire, or tearing
them to pieces. If the little ones wanted a piece of twine to play
scratch-cradle, or spin a top, there it was, in readiness; and when
they threw it upon the floor, the older children had no need to be
told to put it again in its place.
The other day, I heard a mechanic say, 'I have a wife and two little
children; we live in a very small house; but, to save my life, I
cannot spend less than twelve hundred a year.' Another replied,
'You are not economical; I spend but eight hundred.' I thought to
myself,--'Neither of you pick up your twine and paper.' A third one,
who was present, was silent; but after they were gone, he said, 'I
keep house, and comfortably too, with a wife and children, for six
hundred a year; but I suppose they would have thought me mean, if I
had told them so.' I did not think him mean; it merely occurred to me
that his wife and children were in the habit of picking up paper and
twine.
Economy is generally despised as a low virtue, tending to make people
ungenerous and selfish. This is true of avarice; but it is not so
of economy. The man who is economical, is laying up for himself the
permanent power of being useful and generous. He who thoughtlessly
gives away ten dollars, when he owes a hundred more than he can pay,
deserves no praise,--he obeys a sudden impulse, more like instinct
than reason: it would be real charity to check this feeling; because
the good he does maybe doubtful, while the injury he does his family
and creditors is certain. True economy is a careful treasurer in the
service of benevolence; and where they are united respectability,
prosperity and peace will follow.
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