228 The Farmstead 



plate, a few glasses, etc., and then are sur- 

 prised that they seem to have very little for the 

 money. Unless the housewife be really poor, or 

 unless the money be doled out to her irregu- 

 larly, it will invariably pay to buy in quantity 

 things which are not perishable, and which the 

 household wears out and, therefore, habitually 

 needs. Handkerchiefs, stockings, underclothing, 

 china, drinking glasses, cost less by the dozen 

 and half-dozen than by the piece. Lamp chim- 

 neys are continually broken, toilet paper and 

 soap used up, yet very few housekeepers realize 

 that they waste both time and energy, beside 

 suffering inconvenience, when they buy these 

 one at a time. Buying piecemeal is demoraliz- 

 ing, as well as wasteful, because it is unsyste- 

 matic. Successful housekeeping involves atten- 

 tion to numberless details ; if by periodic instead 

 of incessant attention some of these can be 

 disposed of in the mass, there will be immense 

 saving of energy. 



Many housekeepers will object to this, either 

 because it involves the immediate expenditure 

 of a larger sum of money for one class of arti- 

 cles, or because, not having more wholesome 

 social and intellectual interests, they find recrea- 

 tion in wandering from store to store, or counter 

 to counter, pricing much and buying little ; or 

 because they love to find ''a bargain." The in- 



