Here is another method, which is easy to understand, but tends to become clumsy if the details are many. For this, one should have a book with an unusually large page, and wider than it is high. Rule it like this form below. It saves confusion if the vertical rulings are done in red ink.
| 1909 | Fuel | Groceries | Meat | Clothes | Carfare | Church | Wages | ||||||||
| Aug. | 1 | 20 | 35 | ||||||||||||
| " | 2 | 6 | 00 | 1 | 00 | 98 | 10 | ||||||||
| " | 3 | 60 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 00 | 20 | ||||||||
| " | 4 | 72 | 10 | ||||||||||||
| " | 5 | 30 | 60 | 15 | 10 | ||||||||||
| " | 6 | 20 | 1 | 00 | 10 | 1 | 00 | ||||||||
| " | 7 | 1 | 68 | 1 | 90 | 25 | 5 | 00 | |||||||
| Week's Total | 6 | 30 | 4 | 20 | 4 | 58 | 4 | 15 | 1 | 05 | 1 | 35 | 5 | 00 | |
At the end of the week, the amount at the foot of each of these columns should be compared with the weekly amount for that department allowed in the plan of expenditure. If the week's total is more than the allowance, the amount it has exceeded should be put down in red ink at the head of the column for the next week. This will serve as a reminder that when that column is added up, it should be possible to add in the red number without exceeding the week's allowance for that department.
This method has the disadvantage that it does not record the items for which the money was spent. It is practicable, however, especially for a housekeeper who only manages the part of the income devoted to the food supply. Often, in this case, items can be obtained, if desired, from the little books of the butcher or the grocer in which purchases are charged for a week or a month.
This method does not show the credit side of the accounts. The previous method has a credit side, but it is theoretical. That is, the amounts on the credit pages were taken from the plan, they are not a record of actual checks or amounts of money in which the income was received. This defect in these methods must be remedied.
It can be done by devoting a page of the account book to the dates on which, and the amounts in which, the actual credits come in. They will be salary, wages, interest on investments, gifts, etc.; or the sum of money from the business which supports the family, which at stated times is deposited in a bank or given into the hands of the housekeeper for the living expenses. It is necessary to see that these things come in regularly; if they do the housekeeping plan may safely remain unchanged. If they decrease, a way must quickly be found to lessen the expenses; if they increase, one must decide slowly what is the wisest thing to do with the surplus.
If this way of recording actual credits does not seem convenient, a general account can be kept to supplement the detailed accounts. It will be well to have a small account book especially for this purpose. Two of its pages will look like the example below. The items on the debit page are gathered from detailed accounts such as have been described. Completed for a month, it should be balanced as any account is balanced.
| 1909 | General Acc. | Dr. | 1909 | General Acc. | Cr. | ||||||
| Jan. | 1 | Savings | for | Jan. | 5 | 00 | Jan. | 1 | Salary | 125 | 00 |
| " | 3 | Rent | " | " | 35 | 00 | " | 15 | Interest on investment | 15 | 00 |
| " | 31 | Clothes | " | " | 20 | 00 | |||||
| " | " | Food | " | " | 38 | 00 | " | 25 | Extra work | 10 | 00 |
| " | " | Fuel | " | " | 8 | 00 | |||||
Many people keep no accounts except in their checkbooks. That is, they write down carefully therein the date and source of every check deposited; and on the stub of each check drawn they write the purpose for which the money is to be used. This method is much better than no account keeping, but it is hardly detailed enough for a house account in which there are many items too small to be paid by check. After every three or four checks there is apt to be one marked "Incidentals," or "General Expenses." Into these indefinite checks often go the trip the family meant to take, the table linen they meant to buy, the savings they meant to put away, and at the end of a year it is impossible to say what they had instead.
Unless purchases are always paid for in cash, charge-accounts will have to have a place in the house account book. Some people have passbooks kept by the baker and the butcher and the grocer, and pay these accounts weekly. Others have charge-accounts with all their tradespeople and pay their bills monthly. If one has a charge-account with a firm, purchases made from them should invariably be charged. Paying for one purchase, and charging the next makes a tangle which neither the purchaser nor the shopkeeper can hope to prevent.