retrench?
Shall the lot fall on the house-furnishing, or the garden, or the
toilet, or the breakfast or the dinner table? Shall we do with one
servant less, move into a cheaper neighbourhood, or into a smaller
house? No, we cannot make any such great changes in our way of life.
There are the boys and girls growing up; we must keep up appearances for
their sakes. We remember the old proverb that, 'however bad it may be to
be poor, it is much worse to look poor.'" Yet, although, for many
reasons, it is often most difficult to retrench on a large scale, there
are people who find it easier, for instance, to put down the carriage
than to see that the small outgoings of housekeeping are more duly
regulated. It is seldom, indeed, that a wife can assist her husband save
by lightening his expenses by her prudence and economy. Too many
husbands, nowadays, can vouch for the truth of the old saying, "A woman
can throw out with a spoon faster than a man can throw in with a
shovel." The prosperity of a middle-class home depends very much on what
is saved, and the reason that this branch of a woman's business is so
neglected is that it is very difficult and very troublesome.

"Take care of your pence and the pounds will take care of themselves,"
is a maxim that was much in use when we were young. Nowadays it is more
fashionable to speak of this kind of thing as "penny wise and pound
foolish." Looking to the outgoings of pence is voted slow work, and it
is thought fine to show a languid indifference to small savings. "Such a
fuss over a pennyworth of this or that, it's not worth while." Yes, but
it is not that particular pennyworth which is alone in question, there
is the principle involved--the great principle of thrift--which must
underlie all good government. The heads of households little think of
what evils they perpetuate when they shut their eyes to wasteful
practices, because it is easier to bear the cost than to prevent waste.

The young servant trained under one careless how she uses, or rather
misuses, that which is entrusted to her, carries in her turn the
wasteful habits she has learned into another household, and trains
others in a contempt for thrifty ways, until the knowledge of how to do
things at once well and economically is entirely lost.

We often hear it urged that it is bad for the mind of a lady to be
harassed by the petty details of small savings, and that if she can
afford to let things go easily she should