To know this we must keep accounts. Perhaps the girl
has an impression that accounting is dull and troublesome. But this
impression, if she has it, is a mistaken one.
This chapter on Spending, Saving and Investing is not written to keep the
girl from having what she wants. It is written to help her to make the
most of her wages, so that she will get the most use and pleasure from her
spending. A pretty blouse does not make up for the prettier colour that
ought to be in the girl's cheeks; it rather makes one notice more readily
that the girl herself is not looking her best. To be well dressed and well
cared for, to make the best of herself, a girl should learn to keep
accounts and to plan her expenditures carefully. She has often seen a man
poring over his business books, because he knows that by doing so with
good judgment he can improve his methods. Similarly, the time a girl
gives to the study of her accounts will also be to her advantage.
One business woman who has made a study of her expenditure has the
following list of headings for her private account book: Board and
lodging; clothes; laundry; dentist and doctor; car tickets and stamps;
contribution to family life; books, magazines and papers; church and
benevolence; gifts and entertainment of friends; holidays and travel;
recreation, candy, music, and the theatre; study; clubs and societies;
miscellaneous; taxes; saving and investment. The girl at work can usefully
make a study of these headings since they, or others of the same character,
are used by women in business who desire to lead normal, generous and
helpful lives. The business woman just mentioned says that the money she
has for her income would give her no satisfaction if she had not people of
her own to love and if she were not helping to take care of them. From
this statement any girl will understand the meaning of the heading
"contribution to family life" in this business woman's accounts.
The girl at work, however, can begin her accounts in a much simpler form
than the foregoing. The list of headings given above have been evolved
to fit the life of a woman who has been at work for a number of years.
A girl's first accounts may be as follows: Board and lodging; clothing;
recreation and holidays; dentist and doctor; church and charity; savings;
miscellaneous.
Mrs. Ellen Richards, whose work in teaching people how to live wisely
is making her name more famous every year, gives in one of her books
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