LADIES' COLUMN.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1689, 19 July 1879, Page 4

LADIES' COLUMN.

ECONOMISING. [From a correspondent of the "Queen. ] After a winter of unparalleled severity, which, in combination with many other circumstances, social and political, has lent Additional depression to the already depressed state of trade, there are few housewives who have not had to think seriously of how general expenses may ba curtailed. Families in almost every range of society have found their incomes more or less at a lower ebb than usual. Diminished resources mean difficulty and debt, unless a very accurate calculation of expenses is made, and it is a matter of grave moment that the mistresß of a well-conducted household should contrive only to put off from its inmates such items as they will miss tho least; that is to say, it must be settled very carefully as the first step in economising what are the superfluities and what are necessaries, and it will require the exercise of considerable skill and experience before a perfect conclusion on this point can be arrived at. In an age when luxury has reached the highest pitch, we may be too happy to fall into the belief that the interminable variety of accessories of our daily life are absolute necessities. The simpler ways of life, where man's wants are few, have been long abandoned, and wealth and prosperity have begotten a false idea as to our real requirements. Without stopping to specnlate upon tne benefit which may arise from a certain check being put upon this wealth and prosperity, I propose pointing out a few of the simpler audmore obvious courses by which housebold expenditure may be reduced. Whether it be the habit of the housewife to lay in a store o£ articles for daily consumption, or whether they be ordered from day to day, if she start by making it a rule that nothing shall come into the house until it is paid for, she will at once get such a practical grasp of ■what her actual outgoings are that she will be able to seo, at a glance, almost what she can, and what she cannot do without; whereas all the while she continues to run bills, even though they be but for a week, she will never reach such a certain estimate of what is indispensable. Say that her weekly allowance for the requirements of her department be three, five, eight, or ten pounds a week, she will be able, by this practical paying for everything as Bhe gets it, to portion out her charges. It will enable her to see clearly how much she must pay for meat, bread, vegetables, and the rest of the actual necessities ; what she has left to spare for little items which, though very agreeable and nice, may not be indulged in when times are bad and purse strings tight. When we pay ready money, and in hard cash over the counter as it were, we have not so great a temptation to be extravagant and to buy things we can perfectly well do without, as we have when a bill is running. When wo can go into a shop and buy what we take a fancy to, on tho spur of the moment, by simp'y saying " put it down to my account," there is a temptation to indulge in the unnecessary which we do not lay ourselves imder when we are obliged to put our hand in our pockets, and count out the actual coin there and then ; and it is upon the same principle that I urge ready-money payment to the butcher, and baker, and the rest of the tradesmen without whom we cannot live.

The word economy does not merely mean doing things cheaply as is generally understood —indeed, it does not mean this at all; it simply represents the proper adjustment of means to end, and the housewife who can make her allowance go the farthest is the beat economiser, because she simply meets her wants by a jiut apportioning of her means. In this sense, and in this sense only, oan it be said that she saves ; for economy no more m?ans saving than it does spending money, but a nice adjustment of both, buying what you want justly with what you have.

Regulating expenditure doe 3 not imply cutting down expenses any more than cutting down expenses necessarily means regulating them, for there may be cutting down in the ■wrong places, and regulating an extravagant outlay. Onco having stopped the system of running up bills, a week's experience will show what amount of economising has been effected, and whether we have bought enough of this or that for our purpose — whather it has cost too much according to the proportion it has taken of our allowance or income, or whether we have spent too much on such articles as may be considered of secondary importance. From small things we may judge large, therefore let me illustrate what I mean with a simple example. TVe cannot give up drinking tea—perhaps ■we may call it a necessity ; but if we want to cut down the oxpenses of the tea table, we can give up drinking sugar with our tea —that is not a necessity, that is an item of secondary importance; and, if milk be added, still less is sugar a necessity. What I want to insist upon is the principle that we should not be called on to give up drinking tea, because our income is not as large as it •was ; but that we should only have to give up a superfluity in tea drinking, namely, the sugar. Apply this system and [principle to all our arrangements, and we shall get back to a simpler mode of life, which, when we have become accustomed to it, will be found to be quite as endurable, and in all probability far more healthy. Much discussion has lately been going on regarding co-operative stores versus the general tradesman, and this discussion bears very directly on the question I am considering. Of course, we may be as extravagant at a co-operative store as at ordinary shop ; but aa we shall have to pay for our extravagance At the moment we commit it, the chances are against our being equally so, and I take it that in this way mainly it is justly found to be conducive to saving to deal at these establishments rather than with the general tradesman, who, blind to his own interest, encourages his customers to run up bills. He, indeed, has chiefly to thank himself and this his policy, for the large success which has attended the co-operative system. Happily there are many tradesmen now, who having become alive to this fact, undertake to supply commodities for ready money at co-operative prices, and where they do this, I consider they deserve every encouragement ; for I have found that the articles which they dispense are, as a rule, generally of rather a superior quality than those supplied by the stores. I am here considering, it will be seen, only tho broader principles on which cutting down expenses should be ba;ed, and my illustration of the tea and sugar can be applied directly or indirectly to all matters over which the housewife rules. I do not pretend to individualise items, or to point out in detail the particular direction in which she is to work out her saving habits. In these she must be guided by the circumstances of her own particular case. Cases will vary bo much that it would be impossible to give a recipe, as it were, for economising as one would for making a pudding. Of course she knows such facts as, that joints are the cheapest form in which meat can be cooked, and that they go farther and offer IeBS waste than chops, steaks, and entrees ; that good and wholesome substitutes for expensive meaty Boups are to be found in those mado solely from vegetables ; that she may find ample instructions as to the best means of preparing these upon the French and Continental plans in most modern cookery books. Particularly, too, should she regard with favor the lentil, about which so much lately haa bten said and written, as a comestible, containing as it does nearly all the essential elements for nourishing the human body. She will be aware that when expenses have to be considered we cannot indulge the merely fanciful appetite of the moment ; that if wo desire to eat fish we must, in marketing, take that which is, as the French would say, the "best market" for the day—that is, that which is tho most plentiful, and consequently in most cases the cheapest. Mutton and beef, unluckily, do not vary much in price ; but the experienced housewife knows that certain joints are, as he would say, more economical than others, and that there are parts of the animals (not prime) which, with skilful cookery, and, in combination with such things as maccaroni, rice, potatoes, &c, make highly succulent and dainty dishes. Again, that there are many portions of sheep, calves, bullocks, &0,, which abroad are held in high estimation, but which amongst us prejudiced English people are not made enough of being, as they are, capable of culinary treatment in a dozen different fashions, with a result extremely satisfactory to the palate and the pocket. All such matters as these must be taken into consideration by the mistress of a household when she is compelled to reduce her expenses, and, however irksome it may bo to her, sho may have to superintend to some extent the matter personally; for not

tha least cf her difficulties will arise from the inborn objection, which many of those under her control seem to have, to everything that looks like saving. She will have to disregard the contumacious way in which she will surely bo spoken of in {the lower regions whenever she begins to put her reforms into practice, and she will be fortunate indeed if she is not obliged to make a fresh start altogether with her domestics. Through every department of her establishment she will have to keep a watchful eye. Butter, bread, cheese, and beer, soap, candle;, blacking, blacklead, firewood, coals, brooms, brushes, flannels, and all the rest of the articles for consumption or use, will no leas have to be looked after and made to yield maximum of use for a minimum of cost, than the larger matters by which expenses can bo cut down, such as rent, horses, carriages, or what not. No proverb can be more usefully borne in mind when economising is the order of the day, than the old-fashioned one which we teach our children, namely, that if we look after the pence and the shillings the pounds will look after themselves.