Table of Food MaterialsArranged according to cost per 100 Calories
Group IGroup IIGroup IIIGroup IVLess than 1¢ per 100 Calories1-2¢ per 100 Calories21⁄2-5¢ per 100 CaloriesOver 5¢ per 100 CaloriesApples, driedAlmondsBeans, cannedAsparagusBacon (all fat eaten)Apricots, driedLimasBeans, canned, stringBeans, driedBananasBeans, string, freshCeleryBreadButter, over, 32¢ per poundBeets, freshChickenButter under 32¢ per poundCabbageCauliflowerCod, freshCorned beefCarrots, oldCodfish, saltCucumbersCornmealCheeseCorn, cannedLettuceCornflakesChestnutsEggs, 25-36¢ per doz.OlivesCornstarchChocolateHaddockOystersCottonseed oilCocoaHalibutPeaches, cannedCrackers, sodaCreamHamPears, cannedDatesEggs under 25¢ per doz.Lamb chopsSalmon, cannedFarinaFigsOnions (city prices)Sardines, cannedFlourGrapesOrangesScallopsGrapenutsMilk, 7 to 13¢ per qt.Round steakSteak, choice cutsLardOlive oilRump of beefSpinachLentilsPeaches, driedTomatoesVeal, loinMacaroniPeanutsVeal, legMilk at 6¢ or less per qt.Peanut butterMolassesPork sausageOatmealPuffed cerealsOleomargarineSweet potatoesRolled oatsTurnipsPeas, driedWalnutsPotatoesRaisinsPork, salt fatPrunesRiceSuetSugarTapioca
Inspection of this table shows that if we can afford only one cent per 100 Calories for food, we must get a large share from Group I, and a few from Group II; if we wish to use foods in Group III, we shall have to do so sparingly, or offset them with some of the very cheapest in Group I, to keep the average as we wish it.
When we plan an attractive menu and find it is too expensive for us, we may often carry out our plan by substituting cheaper foods of the same sort. Thus in the dietary on page313we may substitute as follows:
Doing this, omitting the soup and crackers and the salad for dinner, and increasing bread and potatoes, flaked wheat, and other cheaper foods to prevent any deficiency in fuel, we can still prepare palatable and digestible meals with the right food values, and save perhaps 25 per cent on the total cost for the day.
Feeding the sick.—When illness is serious enough for a physician to be consulted, he will give directions concerning the diet, and these should be scrupulously followed. If the case is so severe as to demand a trained nurse, she will have charge of the feeding, under the physician’s guidance.Many times, however, a member of the family is temporarily indisposed and needs food different from the ordinary family bill of fare. It is well to remember that in the first day or two of illness, fasting or taking of very little food does no harm, and may be an excellent help toward recovery, as it gives the digestive tract a chance to rest, if it has been disturbed.
Nevertheless, the internal work of the body goes on, 0.4 Calorie per pound per hour being expended during sleep, and about 0.6 Calorie per pound per hour during waking hours in bed. A person in bed for twenty-four hours will require about 0.5 Calorie per pound per hour to prevent use of body material for fuel. A man of average weight, lying in bed, will thus need about 1850 calories per day. Hence we must see to it, that after a person has been sick for more than a few days (during which he can afford to burn body fat) enough fuel is given to satisfy his energy requirements if he can possibly digest it.
Food for an invalid must always be given in its most digestible forms. Milk is one of the most valuable foods in sickness, not only because it supplies so many body needs, but because it can be used in so many ways,—hot, or cold, flavored or plain, made into junkets or sherbets, combined with eggs in eggnogs and custards, fermented as in kumyss or soured as in buttermilk or zoolak. In some form or other milk can almost always be made digestible. Eggs are also of great value, not only poached or dropped and served on toast, but as dainty omelets, or in beverages, as eggnog, egg lemonade, and orangeade. Mild fruit juices, as orange, grape, or pineapple, are not only refreshing but of considerable fuel value. If there is no fever, chicken, lamb chops, tender broiled steak or roast beef may serve to add variety to the menu. Broths stimulate the appetite and help digestion,though they are of little or no food value themselves. Cereals, eggs, and milk may be added to increase their food value. Cereals in the form of gruels or delicate puddings, as cornstarch blancmange and tapioca cream, are easily digested. Vegetables are best given rather sparingly, and only delicate, mild-flavored ones, such as spinach or asparagus, if digestion is much disturbed. In getting an invalid to take sufficient food, much depends upon the attractiveness of the service. Remember that very little things, like a fingermark on a glass, or coffee spilled into the saucer, may take away appetite and prevent enough food being eaten. Food in small quantities and taken at more frequent intervals than in health helps towards the best results. Knowledge of what particular diet is best in different diseases comes only through careful study of the science of nutrition after much study of chemistry and physiology.
1. Calculate your own energy requirement.
2. Calculate the energy requirement of your family group.
3. Find the cost for your locality of the dietary arranged from Menu No. 1.
4. Make a dietary yielding 10,000 Calories, from ten to fifteen per cent of which shall be protein calories, from Menu No. II, and calculate its cost.
5. Find out the lowest sum for which a balanced dietary could be obtained in your locality.
6. Revise the dietary from Menu No. I, so that it shall not cost over one cent per hundred Calories.
7. Plan an ideal day’s dietary for yourself.
8. Plan a day’s dietary for an invalid which shall yield 2000 Calories, 300 of which shall be protein Calories.
THE HOUSEHOLD BUDGET
The divisions of the income for which we should provide are food, shelter, including taxes and operating expenses, clothing, and the “higher life,” including recreation, education, and savings. The size of the income determines largely the proportion of money allotted to each division. We must be nourished and protected from the elements by shelter and clothing, and an income must at least provide for these necessities to be a living wage. Yet we justly claim something more from our income than mere existence.
In most families there is a fairly definite income. When the amount is not known it is wise to estimate upon the minimum income and have a surplus, rather than to expend too much. Seventy-five years ago things cost less and incomes were less, to-day the incomes have increased and cost of living is growing higher. The question is one to be studied relatively, and the cost of living will depend on the ratio between income and one’s methods of living.
Just what other satisfactions than the merely physical are to be gratified is the great question for the woman who divides the income. The problem is naturally hardest with the smallest income, where the “must be” crowds out the “may be.” But there is room for choice even with the small wage.
This work of dividing the income and deciding on the ideals should be shared by the family. When the home is first started the husband and wife should discuss frankly the problemsof division and should agree on the methods of expenditure. This common understanding between members of a family forms a bond of union, and each feels a greater pleasure and pride in doing his part. The fact that there is a budget and a system brings orderliness in methods of work and freedom from worry and anxiety as well as a saving of money. And this saving of money and strength is the same as an increase in income. This budget or division of expenses acts as a sailing chart and can be referred to from month to month. It should not, however, become a burden, and one should not worry if every penny is not accounted for.
Statisticians tell us that about 75 per cent of the male adults of our country earn somewhat less than $600 a year. That in large cities $900 to $1000 a year is necessary to bring up a family to live decently and enjoy human happiness. Much depends upon how this income is divided as to whether results will tend to develop efficiency in the members of such a family. As the income increases from $1000 to $5000 it is possible to apportion the income and indicate certain percentages which represent wise family expenditures so as to include the higher intellectual and emotional life as well as the physical welfare of the family.
From comparison of many budgets statisticians have worked out certain percentages that are helpful in making our decisions, although they are not to be taken as fixed rules.
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. 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 tofood. 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;i.e.more than one third of the total income. Suggestions as to allowance for food in families of different incomes are contained in the tables of budgets given farther on in this chapter.
Fig. 77.—Typical division of a small income.Courtesy of Ladies’ Home Journal, Oct., 1912.
Thrift in buying and using is necessary with the small income,and highly important with the larger where we are prone to yield to a foolish impulse to please a whim of the palate.
Expenditure for shelter.—The increased cost of building and the general advance in rentals make the expenditure for shelter a large one.
The question whether homes should be owned or rented is a vital one. Ownership is possible for comparatively few, but there is probably nothing that contributes more to the upbuilding of a community and the development of good citizenship than the permanent residence of families in localities. The pride of the members is enlisted in the home, its surroundings and general community welfare. This sense of ownership makes a housemorea home although real home spirit is not confined to ownership of buildings. There are of course advantages and disadvantages of ownership, and these should be carefully weighed. Preference for fresh air, more space, less crowded conditions even if they necessitate daily travel, have driven people of limited incomes and certain ideals from the crowded cities to the suburbs in search of homes. When it is possible it is certainly much more advantageous to own than to rent a home, when living means the attainment of certain ideals in the lives of the members of the family.
In deciding upon the proper expenditure, we must take into account the location, whether convenient to business, school, and church, sanitary conditions in surroundings and in the house or apartment, the appearance of the house and the attractiveness of the neighborhood as well as its convenience and healthfulness. The house should be adapted to the needs of the family and selected with this thought in mind. See the companion volume, “Shelter and Clothing,” Chapters II and III.
It has been estimated that 20 per cent of incomes rangingfrom $500 to $5000 will secure a home, not including operating expenses, with the proper sanitary conditions and one which will contribute to a right standard of living. If necessary to secure healthful surroundings more than 20 per cent may need to be spent, but 25 per cent of the income is the limit of the amount to be spent upon rent unless this also includes heat (as in many apartments) when as much as 28 per cent may be so spent. If more than this is paid, it is practically impossible to avoid debt when any unforeseen contingency arises. One thrifty German woman used 30 per cent of the small family income for rent, in order to have more bedrooms than most tenement-house dwellers can afford. She did make ends meet by working until midnight at the family sewing, and tailoring; but though she was the very soul of thrift in regard to food, and had never called in a doctor, she could not save money until the children began to earn.
Operating expenses.—The question of operating expense is closely associated with the selection of shelter and should be carefully considered with it in the division of the income. They are the expenses necessary to keep the house clean, warm, lighted, insured, and in constant repair. To these must be added in a suburban community water tax, property tax, perhaps even a fire tax.
In city apartments, heat and hot water are often furnished, and this must be taken into account in deciding between apartment and house, and between renting and ownership.
Labor is an important item in the running of the house. The close connection of selecting and operating a home will be seen. Should the administrator divide the family income in such a way that little is left for operating, the little things of everyday life become a constant source of worry.
The questions of the number of rooms, and their care,relative expense of heating by furnace, steam, or hot water, the cost of regular service in wages per week in order to attain one’s ideals, the cost of extra service, the lighting by gas, oil, or electricity are all problems of operating. Knowledge of sanitary science will make the homemaker demand cleanliness in her surroundings, quick disposal of waste, and the prompt removal of dust. Much care in planning is necessary here in order that there may be no leakage and that there may be the full share of comfort for each member.
For the income of from $500 to $5000 it has been estimated that a proportion of from 10 to 20 per cent must usually be spent for operating in order to secure comfort. Much must necessarily depend upon the amount of hired service required, which, in turn, depends largely upon whether the homemaker is to give her time chiefly to the care of her children or chiefly to the conduct of the housework.
Clothing.—A large proportion of the family income is spent on clothing. A knowledge of textiles and of purchasing is necessary in order to do this wisely and economically. Clothing is as necessary an expense as food, for it conserves the heat which the food furnishes and thus maintains body temperature. Health is the main factor in efficiency, and health is preserved by clothing which protects the body from sudden changes in temperatures, and conserves the energy for other purposes. Money should be spent on clothing to secure health, but too often more than the right percentage of income is expended because of love of display. The instinct for show, color, ornamentation is a primitive one, and the æsthetic “want” is, in one sense, as real as the physical and should be considered in expenditures for this purpose. It is a duty to look well, but it is not necessary, nor does it show good sense, to sacrifice the health, happiness, and higher life of the family by economizing onfood and other essentials in order to secure hats, shoes, gowns, and accessories that cater to a mania for show. If the income be limited so that the essentials of clothing only can be purchased, the margin of income which can be spent for pleasure may, if taste so dictates, be spent on clothing instead of pictures, books, or some recreation. That is a matter for the individual or family to decide. In the typical budgets cited below it will be seen that the expenditure for clothing was usually between 10 and 18 per cent.
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. If thought is given to this, it would mean opportunities for books, periodicals, lectures, and membership in societies; some travel and vacation, social clubs, theaters and concerts; charity and church expenditures; life insurance and other savings. It is the idea of ownership of property, of homes, of possessions of all kinds that has led from primitive living to advanced civilization. And with advanced civilization comes the need for the higher life which should be satisfied and can be through wise division of funds. The choice of things to satisfy this higher life rests with the individual; it may be music, it may be the cultivation of altruistic feeling in the help given to neighbors; it may be a bank account for some future good, or money spent on excursions, lectures, or theater. Whatever it is, it satisfies the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual life of man and distinguishes him as one of advanced civilization.
Savings.—Something should be saved yearly even if at first it is but little. Small amounts put away regularly in a savings bank mount up to a considerable sum at compound interest, for regular saving is the only kind that counts. Life and sickness insurance are other forms of saving.
Allowances.—Each member of the family should have a personal allowance, even though it is small. One mother gave each of her children five cents a week, beginning at five years of age, and increasing a cent a week each year, until they were old enough to be trusted with more. Even at this age opposite characteristics showed themselves. One boy saved his allowance until he had a quarter to spend at one time; another was in debt before the end of the week. Each had a bank, and kept accounts, as well. It is sometimes better for a child if he “earns” his allowances by performance of such household duties as seem best adapted to promote his development.
Suggested and typical budgets.—In preparation for the division of one’s income it is helpful to study the budgets of other families or individuals. Mrs. Richards in her book on “The Cost of Living” gives a theoretical division of incomes, which is shown in the accompanying table headed Suggested Budgets. It is interesting to study this account and then those of families who have worked out their problems (either with or without the preparation of definite budgets in advance) as shown in the table of Typical Budgets.
In New York City it has been estimated by those studying the problems of the cost of living of to-day that it is impossible for the average family of mother, father, and three children under 14 years to get food enough to keep the body in good condition with clothing and shelter to meet the most urgent demands of decency for less than $900.This amount in other localities would probably buy more. This means that in New York City for $900 a family of five can have a very bare existence, and that with $1000 this family can begin to maintain a decent standard of living unless there is long sickness or other catastrophe. At $1200 a normal family standard can be maintained so as to preserve health, and so that the family will have opportunities to develop in a self-respecting manner. When one considers that many families subsist on $500 or $600 a year, it is necessarily under conditions of shelter and with limitations of food and clothing, not conducive to the best development.
Suggested Budgets[23]
Percentage forFamily IncomeFROCHTwo adults andtwo or three children(equal to four adults):Ideal division2520±15±1525$2000 to $40002520±15±2020$800 to $10003020101525$500 to $8004515101020Under $500601551010
Typical Budgets[24]
Percentage forFamily IncomeFoodRent and Car Fares to and from WorkOperating Expenses; Fuel, Wages, etc.ClothesHigher Life, Savings, Charity, etc.$3098, three adults, two children27.521.116.81024.6$2500 (Mass.), three adults, no children2525131225$2500 (Mass.), two adults, one child, much company3218181022$1980 (St. Louis), four adults, two children36.324.220.918.60$950 (Mass.), two adults, three children2019161530$600 (Boston), two adults, two children23264526.1Travel, sickness, and sundries: 15.9$535 (N.Y.), two adults, three children55.222.45.39.47.7$312 (“mean” Englishman) two adults, three children55.215.58.913.17.3$300, Dr. Engel’s estimates62125165.0
Typical Budgets[25]
Average Income $650Average Income $748Average Income $846Rent$154$161$168Carfare111016Fuel and light383741Furniture687Insurance131818Food279314341Meals eaten away from home112217Clothing8399114Health141422Taxes, dues and contributions8911Recreation and amusement367Education557Miscellaneous253241—————————Total$650$735$811
EXERCISES
1. What definite aims should the wise homemaker have in mind in dividing the income?
2. What ideals should affect the amount spent for food?
3. What should determine selection of the house whether owned or rented?
4. What is meant by the operating expenses of a house?
5. What ideals should determine the amount spent for clothing?
6. In what ways should the “higher life” of the family or individual be considered in the division of the income?
7. Plan to keep account of every penny of spending money for one year. Look over and criticize at the end of the year.
8. Plan a budget for a family of five in your community having $1000. Suppose they have $2000, how would you change your budget?
9. Work out with your parents a budget or schedule of probable household expenditures for your home for the next month; the next year.
SYSTEM IN MANAGEMENT
The housekeeper should learn to use the labor-saving devices for her records that are now employed so largely in the world of business. This equipment should include a desk with fittings for systematized and rapid work. A roll-top desk, with pigeonholes and drawers is convenient, but a flat-topped desk with drawers below gives a larger space for writing, although it has to be supplemented by boxes to take the place of pigeonholes. Such desks may be purchased for twenty dollars and upward, in woods to match other furniture. It is a pleasure to have artistic desk furnishings, but a large amount may be spent on these, and the desk still be unequipped for practical purposes.
Files and loose-leaf books.—A card file is as advantageous to the housekeeper as to the business man. Some desks contain a place for the card file in the upper right-hand drawer.
Guide cards are furnished in several colors to indicate divisions of the file, and these are plain, or with printed numbers and letters. The record cards also are made of several colors, to indicate different uses. The suggestions here cover only a few of the possibilities. Visit some office furnishing department or shop to see what an array of conveniences has been devised for the dispatch of business. If you once form the habit, you will find new uses for the card file almost daily, and will keep on the cards, addresses, engagements, cash accounts, shopping lists, inventories ofclothing and furnishings, menus and recipes. A loose-leaf book is preferred by some people for inventories and accounts.
A letter file shaped like a pocketbook can be purchased for only twenty-five cents, and will serve the purpose for a small correspondence. Large files with guide cards are made for a larger correspondence.
The small file will answer for filing bills and is useful also for clippings. Some desks have bill files in the pigeonholes, and a letter file in one of the large drawers.
Have regular hours daily for attending to work at the desk, stated times for planning menus, making shopping lists, looking over the inventories, recording expenditures, and balancing accounts.
Order in time and place are studied further in the chapter on Housewifery.
Keeping of accounts.—This has been called by many, drudgery and tedious routine. Many business men go through much such drudgery to attain their goals, why should not the housewife be willing to make a similar sacrifice in her home for the sake of the service she is rendering the members of her household? The aim in keeping the accounts is to register the amounts spent for various purposes so that all phases of life will be considered and so that the manager will be able to profit the second year because of the experience of the first year. This makes housekeeping interesting and businesslike. The expenditure is made to produce the maximum of value received and is accompanied by the greatest possible pleasure.
In keeping accounts there should be some method of showing the receipts and expenses, the income and the outgo, so that a balance can be made at any time. The items should be so listed, too, that it is possible to tell what expenditure has been made for any one item, as rent, or food, or othernecessities. It is only in this way that the accounts become of value for future use.
There are many ways of keeping such accounts. The simplest one for the housewife is the best if it shows the points mentioned above. The envelope system is used by some when the income is small, and a certain amount of money according to budget plan is put in labeled envelopes for various purposes, as rent, food, operating expenses, etc. As sums are drawn from the various envelopes, a slip of paper put in the particular envelope registers the amount drawn. It is easy at the end of the month to balance the accounts. This system necessitates the presence of a good deal of money on hand, and sometimes of confusion of accounts, if money is borrowed from one envelope for use in another.
ButcherGrocerBakerMilkIceLightServiceFuel and Other Headings According to ExpenseJanuaryJan. 1Jan. 5(Dates of expenditures)Totals
Various systems of card catalogues, journals, and ledgers are in use, and all have more or less value. The simplest form for the average young woman or housewife can be kept in an ordinary blank book and the spaces ruled according to one’s need. The account book can be started in somewhat the following manner, with the dates of expenditures in the first column and the respective amounts opposite under theirproper heads. In this way it is possible by using double pages of the blank book to keep all the items for each month in horizontal series. The columns for items of expenses should be ruled as needed, but it is desirable to keep them under as few heads as will suffice to give the information which may be desired. The use of the double page is advisable, for then the outer edge of the left-hand page can be used for the dates of purchase and plenty of room for columns of expense left across the two pages. The total in the various columns can be easily calculated at the end of the first month and a new set of pages ruled for the second. The expenditures should be entered daily so as not to be forgotten. A slip of paper kept in one’s purse is of help if amounts are jotted down while one is shopping. The totals for each month should be entered in another part of the blank book. Rule spaces for the year with columns for the months across the page and items of expense corresponding to those in the daily entry at the left-hand side. In this way at the end of twelve months the totals for each item of expense can be easily found. If one desires to know from day to day of a month how the balance stands, it is possible to add to Form I two columns for this purpose. One column should show the incomeor amounts received with dates, and the second the total sum expended each day. This sum is found by adding the expense of each item across the page for the day and entering in the expense column.
Form II
Jan.Feb.MarchAprilMayJuneJulyAug.Sep.Oct.Nov.Dec.TotalsButcherGrocerBakerMilkIceLightServiceFuelClothesRentDentistSchoolSundries and other itemsTotals
Somewhere in the book there should be kept an account of the receipts from all sources. The balance of the yearly expense account with the sheet of receipt can be easily made.
Some plan must be made for showing which purchases are paid for in cash, and which are charged. A simple method is to record the articles charged, with the place, date, and price on a card in the card file in a division kept for this purpose, and labeled “Purchases charged.” When the bill is rendered, it can be checked up from these cards, and the purchases entered in the permanent account book. The record in the account book gives thus the date of payment,but not the date of purchase, unless this is added too. The date of purchase can be recorded in the inventory of household goods (see Chapter XXII).
This simple method of keeping accounts enables one to look over the monthly and yearly expenses and to see if the expenditure is apportioned to the different divisions as it should be. If some of the needs of the physical or intellectual life are being neglected, it should be possible to cut down or readjust the next year to the satisfaction both of the housewife and of her family.
It is wise for all girls before they have homes of their own to keep account of their own small incomes. In many families daughters are given money for clothing and daily expenses. Some such system of keeping accounts as the above can be used. It is astonishing in examining accountsfor clothing, to see how few maintain a correct balance. One girl found, by keeping accounts, that she spent entirely too much for hats and gloves and did not have the proper underwear to protect her body and maintain the correct temperature for health. Accounts help us to determine whether our methods of living measure up to the ideals or standards of life which we have established in order to live rightly.
Methods of payment.—Payment is either immediate, known as “spot cash,” or deferred. If deferred, the articles purchased are charged by the dealer, and a bill rendered the first of each month. When a charge account is opened, a good business reference must be given. According to another system, articles may be paid for in installments,—that is, so much each month, according to some agreement. Of this method it may be said that it is unsafe, or at least unwise, always. Remember that more is always paid in the end.
In either case the payment may be made in bills, specie, or by checks; although in ordinary shopping immediate payment is usually made in bills and specie.
The advantage of immediate payment is that the buyer spends only what she has, and does not count on future money. This method of payment enables one to keep the balance well in hand. It necessitates, however, keeping bills and specie in the house, and in one’s pocketbook, with the possibility of theft or loss; and cash payment takes more time in the shop, with the long wait for change. Sending “collect on delivery” (C.O.D.) is a way of making cash payment and saving time at the shop. Be sure that in this case there is the exact change at home, and some one ready to receive the goods.
Charging goods makes for economy of time. If you canremember that an article charged means money spent, this is a safe plan. One careful buyer says that she is too optimistic to have a charge account; too sure that while she has not cash enough to-day for something that she wants, she will surely have it by the first of next month.
There is another method of payment introduced by a few large department stores. The firm requires a monthly deposit at the first of each month and charges up purchases against this. This is good in so far that the customer is spending money that he really has, but it restricts purchases to that one shop, and this is inadvisable in the case of a small income.
The bank account and check book.—Whether payment is immediate or deferred, payment by check is a great convenience. It saves time and is also a record of money paid.
Select a bank, conveniently located, and recommended by a conservative business man. Take to the bank a letter of introduction, with the sum for deposit. The bank will record your signature, and give you a bank book in which is recorded the amount deposited. A check book will be given you that contains blank checks, and provides for keeping account of deposits and checks drawn. Each check has to be filled in, and signed with your name exactly as recorded at the bank, when you make a payment. This must be recorded in the proper place when the check is made out, stating date, amount, and payee. The sums paid out are added, usually for every three checks, and this sum deducted from the deposit, and the balance carried forward. In this way you may always know your balance in the bank, provided you are accurate. Great care must be taken to fill in the blank spaces correctly so that the check cannot be easily altered by any one.
If a check is made out to you, and you wish to cash it, ordeposit it, you “indorse” it by writing your name on the back across the left-hand end of the check. The name must be written exactly as it appears on the face of the check. If by chance the name is misspelled, write it in with the correct spelling below.
The checks that you make out are indorsed by the payee in the same way, and cannot be cashed until so indorsed. Therefore, if a check is lost in the mail, you do not lose the money. The bank should be notified to “stop payment” on the lost check, and you can then send another check in place of the first one.
When you wish bills or specie, you go to the bank and present to the paying teller a check made out to “Cash” and signed by yourself. It is wise not to make out or sign such a check until you reach the bank, because if such a check is lost on the way, there is danger of its being cashed by the finder.
Once a month you should leave the book with the teller to be balanced. In a few days you may call for it, and will receive with it the checks that you have drawn, and that have been returned to the bank by the date to which the book is balanced. These checks are called vouchers. With these there is also a list of the amounts showing the total paid out on them by the bank. Check up the vouchers with the list, then check up the vouchers with your check book to see if all in your check book had been returned to the bank by the date of balancing. If there are some still out, add that sum to your check book balance, and then compare the bank book balance with your check book.
Deposits may be sent by mail, either with or without the check book. If the book is sent, it should go by registered mail. If you do not send the book, the bank will send a receipt, which you return with the book the next time thebalance is made. In either case, write “For deposit” above your signature on the back.
1. Of what value is business equipment in household management?
2. Suggest ways in which a card file might be used in the household.
3. Suggest a system for filing household letters; bills.
4. What should be one’s aim in keeping household accounts?
5. Estimate the cost of your clothing for the last year.
6. Name different methods of payment of bills. Which do you consider the best for the family with $1200 income?
7. Describe fully payment by check.
8. How should a check be indorsed?
9. How can one deposit checks by mail?