When is fuel an item in rent and when current housekeeping expense?
When are club dues education and when amusement?
When is vacation health and when amusement?
When is the theater amusement and when indulgence?
When is rent a necessity and when an extravagance?
[Footnote: From "Suggestion for Home Demonstration Agents regarding Methods of Teaching Thrift," States Relations Service Circular, Dec. 27, 1918.]
THRIFT IN SAVING
(3) The object of thrift in spending is both to get the greatest value for our money now and to insure savings that will provide for the future. Every budget should make as definite provision for savings as for rent or clothing. The purpose of a budget and of accounts is to assure a surplus rather than a deficit. Successful men and women make it a practice always to spend less than they earn, no matter how little they earn, and they cannot be sure of this without planning ahead and keeping accounts. Saving in this way is largely a matter of habit; but it is astonishing how many fail to form the habit. Court records show that out of every 100 men who die, 82 leave no income-producing estates, or that about 85 per cent who reach the age of 65 are dependent upon relatives or upon the community. "Out of every 100 widows, only 18 are left in comfortable circumstances, while 47 are obliged to go to work and 35 are left in absolute want." [Footnote: S.W. Strauss, "The Greater Thrift," National Education Association PROCEEDINGS, 1916, p. 278.]
AMERICAN EXTRAVAGANCE
Wise buying means saving money; and so does the wise use of what we buy. It is said that an American ship can be distinguished from the ships of other nations in harbor by the flocks of gulls that hover around to feast on the food thrown overboard. Whether this is true or not, Americans have a reputation for wastefulness. It has been called our chief national sin. It is said that a family in France can live in comfort on what an American family in the same circumstances ordinarily throws away. An average load of garbage in New York City has been shown to contain fifty dollars' worth of good food materials.