A proper quantity of household articles should be always ready, and more bought in before the others be consumed, to prevent inconvenience, especially in the country.
A bill of parcels and receipts should be required, even if the money be paid at the time of purchase; and, to avoid mistakes, let the goods be compared with these when brought home.
Though it is very disagreeable to suspect any one’s honesty, and perhaps mistakes have been unintentional, yet it is prudent to weigh meat, sugars, &c. when brought in, and compare with the charge. The butcher should be ordered to send the weight with the meat, and the cook to file these checks, to be examined when the weekly bill shall be delivered.
A ticket should be given by the cook for each loaf, which will on return give the number to be paid for.
Thus regularly conducted, the exact state of money affairs will be known with ease; for it is delay of payment that occasions confusion.
Accounts should be regularly kept, and not the smallest articles omitted to be entered; and if balanced every week and month, the income and outgoings will be ascertained with facility, and their proportions to other be duly observed. Some people approve of keeping in separate purses the money for different purposes, as domestic articles, clothes, pocket, education of children, &c.
Whichever way accounts be kept, some certain method should be adopted and strictly adhered to.
Many families have owed their prosperity full as much to the conduct and propriety of female management, as to the knowledge and activity of the father.
Those who are served with brewer’s beer, or any other thing not paid for on delivery, should have a book for entering the date; which will not only prevent overcharges, but at one view give the annual consumption.
It is much to be feared, that for the waste of many of the good things that God has given for our use, not abuse, the mistress and servants of great houses will hereafter be called to a strict account.