nconvenience, by
waiting, rather than violate her rule.

Another lady, whose husband is engaged in a business, which he thinks
makes it impossible for him to know what his yearly income will be, took
this method:--She kept an account of all her disbursements, for one
year. This she submitted to her husband, and obtained his consent, that
the same sum should be under her control, the coming year, for similar
purposes, with the understanding, that she might modify future
apportionments, in any way her judgement and conscience might approve.

A great deal of uneasiness and discomfort is caused, to both husband and
wife, in many cases, by an entire want of system and forethought, in
arranging expenses. Both keep buying what they think they need, without
any calculation as to how matters are coming out, and with a sort of
dread of running in debt, all the time harassing them. Such never know
the comfort of independence. But, if a man or woman will only calculate
what their income is, and then plan so as to know that they are all the
time living within it, they secure one of the greatest comforts, which
wealth ever bestows, and what many of the rich, who live in a loose and
careless way, never enjoy. It is not so much the amount of income, as
the regular and correct apportionment of expenses, that makes a family
truly comfortable. A man, with ten thousand a year, is often more
harassed, for want of money, than the systematic economist, who supports
a family on only six hundred a year. And the inspired command, "Owe no
man any thing," can never be conscientiously observed, without a
systematic adaptation of expenses to means.

As it is very important that young ladies should learn systematic
economy, in expenses, it will be a great benefit, for every young girl
to begin, at twelve or thirteen years of age, to make her own purchases,
and keep her accounts, under the guidance of her mother, or some other
friend. And if parents would ascertain the actual expense of a
daughter's clothing, for a year, and give the sum to her, in quarterly
payments, requiring a regular account, it would be of great benefit in
preparing her for future duties. How else are young ladies to learn to
make purchases properly, and to be systematic and economical? The art of
system and economy can no more come by intuition, than the art of
watchmaking or bookkeeping; and how strange it appears, that so many
young ladies take charge of a husband's establis