60 
House & Garden 
“COMMON SENSE APPLIED TO SPENDING” 
Roosevelt's Definition of Thrift Is The Best Guide for Householders In the Purchase of 
Foodstuffs^ Furniture, Clothing and Equipment 
L. K. C. OLDS 
A BARGAIN is a bargain only when you 
require what you buy. 
If you purchase an article because the price 
attracted you, and the need for the thing does 
not exist, then the transaction was not a bar¬ 
gain, except for the shopkeeper’s pocket. 
The spending of money in such a manner 
is not thrift. 
Thrift has been a badly used word. Some 
people pronounce it as though it meant par¬ 
simony. Up to 1917 Americans rather looked 
down on the word, and avoided using it. As 
for practising thrift, such a proceeding was 
beneath one’s class. To-day thrift is rising 
up in the national consciousness as a bulwark 
against the extravagance of the times. It has 
taken on a new meaning. 
The best definition of the word came from 
the lips of an American who left us more 
ideals than we knew America owned. He is 
dead, but one of the last of his memorable 
sentences was this: “Thrift is common sense 
applied to spending.” When Roosevelt left 
that compact definition for America to ponder, 
he did his country a service at a time she 
needed it sorely. 
“/^OMMON sense applied to spending” 
sums up the whole duty of the house 
manager. Common sense is keeping oneself 
balanced, watching your step, as the trolley 
conductors say. 
The first way to apply common sense is not 
to buy too hurriedly. Do not telephone—shop. 
I know a woman whose husband has an in¬ 
come of $15,000 a year, and every morning of 
the week—except Sundays—she goes out on 
her tour of markets and stores, selects her meat, 
watches the proper cut and sees it weighed. 
She talks with the grocer, examines the eggs, 
peers into the lettuce head, chooses her celery 
bunch and sees to her order being made ready 
for sending. 
This woman has become an expert. She is 
not cheated, nor overcharged. Her shopping 
occupies about an hour of her morning, but 
she makes a profit in that hour. She also 
saves time in other purchases she makes. 
Among these are canned goods, or as the trade 
calls them, package goods. She is an expert, 
and being this, she relies upon experts. 
/^lERICA is the one country of the world 
,/jLthat has developed package goods the 
farthest. Consequently, in spite of what statis¬ 
ticians declare, it is probably the cheapest, 
dollar for dollar, to live in. 
Buying as this woman does, the raw mate¬ 
rials for her needs, she must rely upon her 
know'ledge. This came from experience, for 
she started, as most American brides begin the 
managing of their homes, with hardly a rudi¬ 
mentary knowledge of housekeeping. But she 
plunged in, and learned, and the shopkeepers 
respect her and serve her. On her side of the 
bargain she also respects the knowledge of 
others. This she shows in the buying of re¬ 
liable goods, which have authority. 
Mr. Roosevelt’s definition of thrift is true, 
but the power of that definition for good comes 
from the authority of the man who uttered it. 
Exactly so with the authority of goods which 
have back of them the reputation of their 
producers. 
W E cannot complain that the men of this 
country have not met the home managers 
half way and more, says a well-known woman 
writer, for they have done more than those of 
any other country in producing labor-saving 
devices, in food, machines, and equipinent of 
guaranteed value, to make the housekeeping 
job an easier one for all concerned. This is a 
fact that is often overlooked, but it is an im¬ 
portant one just now. 
It is estimated from actual demonstrations 
that a household reasonably well equipped with 
these devices saves one-third of the time of 
the household workers. 
For example, take the simple item of soups. 
The modern grocery store around your corner 
can offer you to-day several brands of soups, 
in many flavors, and most of them are guar¬ 
anteed to contain wholesome ingredients, ready 
to heat and serve. The list of similar food 
products in a score of different lines will oc¬ 
cur to mind at once. 
F urniture is another item on the house¬ 
hold budget. Here the need of the e.xpert 
is great, and the better expert he is, and the 
more authoritative, the more common sense will 
a spender put into her purchase. 
Taste, quality, style, adaptability, all these 
factors are important in the purchase of furni¬ 
ture, and there are many makers of such 
things who spend hundreds of thousands of 
dollars for correctness of detail. 
Someone has said that a great deal of senti¬ 
ment has been sprinkled over the Roman roads 
of Europe, when a well-made macadam stretch 
in America outclasses in every particular the 
best that the Caesars built. So with much of 
the modern furniture the American manufac¬ 
turer offers you. Again you consult the expert. 
I N clothing a somewhat different condition 
presents itself. Not only does the question 
of wear and durability enter, but another prob¬ 
lem that is peculiar to clothes alone. This is 
style. Here we hesitate to make a general or 
even a specific statement. The clothes ques¬ 
tion affects the whole family, and style is so 
personal a matter that it cannot well be stand¬ 
ardized. But here is a suggestion: First 
make out an inventory of your clothes needs 
—what you need and for what occasions, what 
you can afford to spend for them all, and then 
calculate your answer on the basis of the 
actual value these clothes will be to you. 
Some women have the faculty of “looking 
Avell” and have gained the reputation of being 
well dressed with two or three gowns, whereas 
another woman may possess dozens of gowns 
and still appear “tacky”. 
Of course, personality and taste enter into 
the solution of this puzzle, but in most in¬ 
stances one will find that the first type of 
woman has had her clothes made by an expert 
in the art. This expert may be a private dress¬ 
maker or tailor, or, as is becoming more often 
the fact, a wholesale dressmaker with great 
resources to choose from. For the advantage 
which the men have been enjoying in buying 
smart clothes at a reasonable price, ready-to- 
wear, is being shared now by their wives and 
sisters with equally satisfactory results. 
T hen there is the important list of labor- 
saving household devices which are of 
comparatively recent development. These are 
worthy of more attention than they have re¬ 
ceived from the American home manager. 
Frederick Taylor points out the interesting 
fact that machines alone save the house man¬ 
ager fully half of her time, both by bringing 
into the home products which the machine has 
made, and by bringing into the home machines 
that save the workers from drudgery. 
Scores of such tools are at your disposal. 
Electric devices from toasters to washing ma¬ 
chines, vacuum cleaners that will renovate the 
rug and dry clean suits, water heaters—a long 
list, each item the product of an expert. 
y^TER all, the expert will seek the expert. 
.ZllThis we think has been made plain. 
Now you are ready to ask this question: 
The expert and his products may be all well 
enough, but will we not have to pay a high 
price to buy them? 
The answer is: Yes, your initial expense 
will be greater than if you had gone bargain 
hunting. But in the long run, you will save. 
Bargains as we have said are not always 
bargains. Sometimes in season, bargains sail 
into view and should be hailed and boarded 
like swiftly disappearing ships. But authority 
is always authority, and when it believes in 
itself, authority for its ovm sake makes good. 
You can purchase a tin of authoritative soap, 
or a piece of furniture, or a coat or pair of 
shoes, or an electric heater, and, if it carries 
a good name, you can rest assured of getting 
}’our money back when it does not make good. 
And you can be reasonably content that such 
products have in them good materials well put 
together. But you cannot expect such assur¬ 
ances from things that come casually out of 
an open barrel. 
S QAIMED up, common sense in spending is 
knowing what you want and going to the 
right place to get it; seeing what you buy when 
you buy it; assuring yourself that it carries 
the guarantee of an expert; and apportioning 
your expenditure properly among the needful 
requirements of your home according to the 
best information your budget figures give you. 
