Mrs. Child on Economy

“The other day, I heard a mechanic say, ‘I have a wife and two little children; we live in a very small house; but, to save my life, I cannot spend less than twelve hundred a year.’ Another replied, ‘You are not economical; I spend but eight hundred.’ I thought to myself,—’Neither of you pick up your twine and paper.’ A third one, who was present, was silent; but after they were gone, he said, ‘I keep house, and comfortably too, with a wife and children, for six hundred a year; but I suppose they would have thought me mean, if I had told them so.’ I did not think him mean; it merely occurred to me that his wife and children were in the habit of picking up paper and twine.”

—The American Frugal Housewife
by Lydia Maria Child

Related Posts

Comments

1. 

   Jill, The Crib Chick says:

   LOL…this makes me think of that nursery rhyme; ‘The dove says, ‘Coo coo, what shall I do? I can scarce maintain two!’

   ‘Poo poo’, says the wren, ‘I have ten…and keep them all like gentlemen.’ :o)

   On May 7, 2006 at 3:14 pm