Household goods

“ In what quantity it is wise to buy such things depends upon the size of the household, the place where these articles may be kept, the distance from the place where the supply can be renewed, the income of the family and whether the housewife or a reliable servant dispenses them for use. I think it is pretty generally admitted that households which are living on small means do better to buy food supplies in small quantities. ”

“ Few women when they assume the care of a household know the exact value of the household plant; the amount to be deducted each year for wear and tear; the relative proportions expended annually for rent, fuel, food, clothing, and service; the number of meals served and the approximate cost of each; the amount of profit, waste, or unproductiveness that results from all expenditures made. Every manufacturer, every business man knows the value of his plant, its increasing or diminishing value, the cost of materials used and of service employed. ”

“ In our material life we draw our resources from every land. Clothing, spices, fruits, toys, household furniture,—we lay contributions on the whole world for the most frugal meal, for the humblest dwelling. ”

“ Plate-glass windows and ribbon decorations in a shop and the large expense of rent on a fashionable street are all paid for by the consumer.
Relative cost of home and shop products.—When prepared food of any kind is purchased, one pays for raw material plus the cost of fuel and the labor involved in the cooking and the cleaning of apparatus and kitchen. For example, canned soup sold by one of the best manufacturers brings a good price because so much time and labor are used in a careful inspection of all material, and in keeping up a high standard of cleanliness. ”

“ Knowing my incompetence for the task, I have no intention in this paper of trying to decide on how small a sum it is possible to maintain a family in this luxurious age. I only wish to say a few words upon what I consider to be the secret of the economy which has need to be exercised in these days in the largest household as well as in the smallest. ”

“ To the wage-earner with a large family, who must of necessity husband his resources, there is in our hypothesis a suggestion of material gain not to be disregarded. The money thus saved might be expended for the education of the children, for the purchase of household treasures tending to elevate the moral and mental state of the occupants, or in many other ways that the imagination can easily supply. ”

“ APPORTIONMENT OF INCOME.--When the housewife thoroughly understands the qualities of foods as well as their comparative food values and is familiar with the factors that govern food prices, she is well equipped to do economical buying for her family. Then it remains for her to purchase the right kind of food and at the same time keep within her means. A good plan is to apportion the household expenses according to a budget ”

“ The higher life.—There are other needs of family life for which money must be spent besides the material ones of food, shelter, and clothing. In the division of some family incomes little thought is given to this phase of living. After the income reaches a certain amount, it is possible so to plan that education, recreation, philanthropy, and savings all figure in the division of expenditures. Some writers say that 25 per cent of the income of $1000 to $5000 should be spent in this way. ”

“ Unless the housewife be really poor, or unless the money be doled out to her irregularly, it will invariably pay to buy in quantity things which are not perishable, and which the household wears out and, therefore, habitually needs. ”

“ Above all things, the greatest economy, consistent with excellence, should be practised, and the price of everything which enters the kitchen correctly ascertained. The theory of this part of Household Management may appear trifling ”

“ Nor should the left-overs be disregarded if economy would be the watchword in the management of the household. Rather, they should be included in the plans for each day and used up as fast as possible. ”

“ So the strong of a family were able to help the weak. Those in rude health cheered the less fortunate. Each household was debited with the value of the weekly rations received, and seed, tools, and other necessaries supplied. ”

“ We shall state less than the truth if we estimate that fully one-fifth of the money expended for food is absolutely wasted, while the excessive [Pg 136] expenditure often fails to provide adequate nutrition.” [48] The remedy for such a waste as this clearly lies in the teaching of domestic science in our public schools to the daughters and future wives of the workingmen. As the ordinary household expenses, as shown above, absorb from 80 to 90 per cent of the ordinary income, the training of the housewife, under whose control they fall, is almost as imperative as that of the wage-earner. ”

“ Now, you will observe that in this description of the perfect economist, or mistress of a household, there is a studied expression of the balanced division of her care between the two great objects of utility and splendour: in her right hand, food and flax, for life and clothing; in her left hand, the purple and the needlework, for honour and for beauty. All perfect housewifery or national economy is known by these two divisions; wherever either is wanting, the economy is imperfect. ”

“ Webb, which constitutes the second ground for the common neglect of this branch of economics. A factory or a shop is run for profit; a household 130 simply to provide comfort and convenience for its members. To put it in technical language, in the world of industry we are concerned with exchange values, but in the home with use values alone. ”

“ And in the household budget rent is a less important item than food and cleansing. Now, the raw materials of the stuff necessary to keep a household healthily alive cost more in France than in England. ”

“ This remarkable farm-city system provides our people with produce for the smallest portion of consumers' average disposable income of any Nation. As consumers, we can use the remaining, much larger portion of our incomes for other goods, services, education, recreation, and comforts. ”

“ The necessity of practising economy should be evident to every one, whether in the possession of an income no more than sufficient for a family's requirements, or of a large fortune, which puts financial adversity out of the question. ”

“ A glance at our periodical literature does indeed show unusual interest in all questions affecting domestic life. Economists are asking why the wages paid for domestic service are higher than those paid the average woman in other occupations, and why, in spite of this, the demand for household workers is greater than the supply. ”

“ If the allowance for food be placed at 25 per cent of the total income, [22] this dietary would be appropriate for a family with an income of $2200 to $3000 per year. The majority of families have to get along with a lower expenditure for food, yet they want to be well nourished and to enjoy their fare. ”

“ Grooms’ wages, rent of stabling, hay, oats, straw, beans, carrots, bran, linseed, taxes, coals and candles, gas or oil, shoeing, stable implements, and veterinary attendance cost money in every establishment. ”

“ The volume treats specifically of foods, their production, sanitation, cost, nutritive value, preparation, and serving, these topics being closely interwoven with the practical aspects of household management, and they are followed by a study of the household budget and accounts, methods of buying, housewifery, and laundering. It includes about 160 carefully selected and tested recipes, together with a large number of cooking exercises of a more experimental nature designed to develop initiative and resourcefulness. ”

“ The very word economics means the science or the art of the household.
In primitive communities and in newly settled districts the family often carries on all essential industrial activities. It produces all the raw material, manufactures the finished products, and consumes the same. ”

“ As to the housewife, I am not prepared to concede that my picture is in essentials very fanciful. She may be a creature of habits and instincts like the rest of us, but most habits and instincts affecting household expenditure are based ultimately on some calculation, if not one's own, and reason has a way of paying, as it were, periodic visits of inspection, and pulling our habits and instincts into line, if they have gone far astray. ”

“ The vast machinery of government, especially in the new activities of the Agricultural and Labor Departments applied to investigations and experiments into the questions of pure food, household economy and employments suited to woman, is now directed more than ever before to the uplifting of American homes and the assistance of the homemakers. These researches are at the call of every housewife. ”

“ Nowadays Congress is encouraging the making of drinks at home, sensible women will take a basket on arm and supervise their own buying at grocery stores, and we are forgetting the silly twaddle about clothes not looking tailor-made. The way to meet the high cost of living is to simplify the manner of living. ”

“ We arranged meetings for the maids of households in big groups to explain the need and meaning of economy in food with great success. Every head of a household knows that the maids [pg 209] can make or mar one's efforts to save food, and we have found many of ours admirable, and willing to do wonders in the way of economy and saving.
If compulsory rationing in more than sugar comes as it may, the basis of rationing will, we believe, be worked out with as much consideration as possible of the needs of the workers. ”

“ Expenditure for food.—On examining the budgets of families having incomes from $500 to $5000, it is found that the percentage spent for food increases as the income decreases, amounting sometimes to at least 50 per cent of the income. ”

“ For every additional sum, devoted to the purchase of a commodity, limited in quantity as food is, must cause a rise of price, since one cannot increase his own consumption without diminishing the remainder which is, to be consumed by others. Secondly, they would devote a further portion of it to the purchase of food for the benefit of their families. I do not here mean, merely infant families, but children commonly maintaining themselves, though not earning a maintenance as ample as they could wish. ”

“ They proceed logically by the double method of labor and thrift. Every household exhibits an exact economy, and nothing of that uncalculated headlong expenditure which families use in America. If they cannot pay, they do not buy ”

“ But we are here considering the production of goods and services, not of gold, and from this point of view, the woman who spins thread to clothe her family, and she who furnishes by her industry milk and cheese, eggs and pork, fruit and vegetables for the consumption of her family, has produced exactly the same goods, no more and no less, than if she had produced them for the market, and whether these goods are consumed by her own family or by strangers makes absolutely no difference to their real value. ”

“ In the first place, if we inquire into the expenditure of the labouring classes of society, we shall find, that it by no means consists wholly in food, and still less, of course, in mere bread or grain. In looking over that mine of information, for everything relating to prices and labour, Sir Frederick Morton Eden's Work on the Poor, I find, that in a labourer's family of about an average size, the articles of house-rent, fuel, soap, candles, tea, sugar, and clothing, are generally equal to the articles of bread or meal. ”

“ The Government established schools of housekeeping, where the girls learned domestic economy in every branch; they were sent to market, for instance, with six cents to buy the materials for a meal, which they afterwards cooked and served. ”

“ This means that there is a limit to the money spent per capita per day for food, below which we cannot go and maintain life with even sufficient efficiency for unskilled labor. Figure 77 shows that a $900 income gives about 45 per cent to323 food. An expenditure of thirty cents per capita per day for food in a family of five with an income of $1500, is 36.5 per cent ”

“ Its programme for the future lays out a constantly enlarging sphere of activities.
All these investigations and educational measures have been undertaken in the belief that household employment has its economic side, like other forms of industry. The widespread recognition of this fact has been a most significant advance, since earlier discussions of the subject had considered only the ethical factors involved. ”

“ Whatever money was extorted for rent meant so much less food for the mother and children, for it has been shown that the family income was insufficient for food alone, and left no margin for rent or clothes. ”

“ Formerly much of the food was raised by numerous individual families on Government land at nominal cost; today practically all food is raised on expensive land—the plains have been turned into villages and farms by the increasing population. Many men and expensive machinery and equipment are needed to produce our present high standard products. ”

“ Let the sisters study economy in the labor and management of their homes. I am satisfied that more than one-half of the labor that is done in our houses can be saved by a judicious exercise of thought and good judgment. Then be wise in these things, and we shall not need tea and coffee, or any other stimulant stronger than our natural food. ”