Her income for the year had been $281.  She lived in a large, pleasant home for girls, where she paid only $2.50 a week for board and a room shared with her sister.  Without the philanthropy of the home, she could not have made both ends meet.  It was fifteen minutes’ walk from the store, and by taking this walk twice a day she saved carfare and the price of luncheon.  She did her own washing, and as she could not spend any further energy in sewing, she bought cheap ready-made clothes.  This she found a great expense.  Cheap waists wear out very rapidly.  In the year she had bought 24 at 98 cents each.  Here is her account, as nearly as she had kept it and recalled it for a year:  a coat, $10; 4 hats, $17; 2 pairs of shoes, $5; 24 waists at 98 cents, $23.52; 2 skirts, $4.98; underwear, $2; board, $130; doctor, $2; total, $194.50.  This leaves a balance of $86.50.  This money had paid for necessaries not itemized,—­stockings, heavy winter underwear, petticoats, carfare, vacation expenses, every little gift she had made, and all recreation.

She belonged to no benefit societies, and she had not been able to save money in any way, even with the assistance given by the home.  So much for her financial income and outlay.

After giving practically all her time and force to her work, she had not received a return sufficient to conserve her health in the future, or even to support her in the present without the help of philanthropy.  She was ill, anaemic, nervous, and broken in health.

Before adding the next budget, two points in Lucy Cleaver’s outlay should, perhaps, be emphasized in the interest of common sense.  The first is the remarkable folly of purchasing 24 waists at 98 cents each.  In an estimate of the cost of clothing, made by one of the working girls’ clubs of St. George’s last year,[3] the girls agreed that comfort and a presentable appearance could be maintained, so far as expenditure for waists was concerned, on $8.50 a year.  This amount allowed for five shirt-waists at $1.20 apiece, and one net waist at $2.50.

In extenuation of Lucy Cleaver’s weak judgment as a waist purchaser, and the poor child’s one absurd excess, it must, however, be said that the habit of buying many articles of poor quality, instead of fewer articles of better quality, is frequently a matter, not of choice, but of necessity.  The cheap, hand-to-mouth buying which proves paradoxically so expensive in the end is no doubt often caused by the simple fact that the purchaser has not, at the time the purchase is made, any more money to offer.  Whatever your wisdom, you cannot buy a waist for $1.20 if you possess at the moment only 98 cents.  The St. George’s girls made their accounts on a basis of an income of $8 a week.  Lucy Cleaver never had an income of more than $5.50 a week, and sometimes had less.  The fact that she spent nearly three times as much as they did on this one item of expenditure, and yet never could have “one net waist at $2.50” for festal occasions, is worthy of notice.