House (rent, taxes, insurance, repairs)........................25%

Food (all expenditures for the table, ice, etc.)...............30%

Clothing (materials and making, repairing, cleaning, pressing,
millinery, shoes)...........................................

...13%

Housekeeping (labor and materials for laundry, fuel and light,
telephone, supplies, and furnishings)..........................12%

Educational (school and school books, club dues, church and charity contributions, gifts, books, magazines, newspapers, amusements, medical and dental treatment)...................................6%

Luxuries (all items not necessaries and not coming under
“educational,” such as candies, etc.)...........................4%

Savings................................................

........10%

Total..................................................

.......100%

Before a budget can be planned, and in order to know whether it is being lived up to, it is necessary to keep accounts of receipts and expenditures.  With such accounts, it is possible to determine where savings can be made under some heads and where, perhaps, it is necessary or advisable to spend more.

Is a budget used in your home?  Find out from your parents their reason for using, or not using it.

Could you use a budget in your own personal affairs?

Find out whether a budget system is used by your local government and your state government in apportioning expenditures.

How may we “budget” our time?  Is the time you spend in school “budgeted”?  Make a daily time budget for yourself.

When is clothing a necessity and when a luxury? [Footnote:  This and the following topics are adapted from “Ten Lessons in Thrift.”]

When is food a necessity and when an amusement?

When is amusement education and when a frivolity?

When is fuel an item in rent and when current housekeeping expense?

When are club dues education and when amusement?

When is vacation health and when amusement?

When is the theater amusement and when indulgence?

When is rent a necessity and when an extravagance?

[Footnote:  From “Suggestion for Home Demonstration Agents regarding Methods of Teaching Thrift,” States Relations Service Circular, Dec. 27, 1918.]

THRIFT IN SAVING

(3) The object of thrift in spending is both to get the greatest value for our money now and to insure savings that will provide for the future.  Every budget should make as definite provision for savings as for rent or clothing.  The purpose of a budget and of accounts is to assure a surplus rather than a deficit.  Successful men and women make it a practice always to spend less than they earn, no matter how little they earn, and they cannot be sure of this