SHOPPING can be dangerous, even hazardous unless you have yourself in hand and well disciplined. Your budget can suffer for months under the barrage of a big sale-day appeal. Be wary of bar gains; remember it isn't a bargain if you don't need it or it doesn't fit. Know your materials and know your children. Some clothing that is left over is so styled that no child can wear it gracefully. Don't buy frilly clothing for a girl who likes tailored things—just because it is on sale. It will hang in her closet and never be worn. A few well-chosen and well-planned garments are far more usable than a whole closet of bargains. However, off-season buying can sometimes be very beneficial. Bargain shoes are a poor buy—they usu ally are too narrow or too wide or don't fit at the right season. Buy specifically for the child's needs—school, play, or church —when you are buying shoes. Growing feet are too precious for cheap shoes.
Living within your salary must be planned; it will never just happen; we are too human for this. Your budget will have to provide for the physical needs—shelter, food, clothing, medical care—but above this, watch out for extras. Buy one new thing at a time, and plan for it; you can be as excited and happy over a new dryer or stove that you have waited a long time for, as a whole houseful of new furniture. The latter, if you get it all at once, will hang like a millstone of debt around your neck and be such a worry you won't enjoy it. But one new piece added at a time, and planned for, can bring much happiness.
Food and clothing are the leaky places in a budget; here is where the housewife can help. Buy wisely. Decide how much you can spend a week for groceries and then stick to it. Buy good quality food, but buy only the staples—leave the fancy mixes and frozen packages and out-of-season fruits for the unwary buyer. Cook a food cereal for your family's breakfast and keep the dry cereals for a treat. Have you ever figured what you are paying for a bushel of wheat at Wheaties price? Besides, the children appreciate them more if they don't have them every day.
Don't buy large amounts of perishable foods just because you get them cheaper by the dozen. Sometimes the last twenty-five pounds of a one-hundred-pound bag of potatoes sprouts and withers before you can use it. Whole-wheat flour gets wormy if you keep it too long. I had to throw away almost half of a fifty-pound bag one time—which made my big bag no bargain at all.
Cut down on desserts—they are expensive. Snack foods are also expensive, as are fancy crackers, chips and dips, olives and cheeses. Use them only for entertaining or special occasions. Cook only what your family will eat; leftovers are often wasted. Can or freeze your fruit in season. Fruit is necessary in the diet but is the most expensive item at the store.
Plan your meals ahead and make good use of baked beans, lentils, soybeans, and other legumes. They take time to cook, but are the core of economy meals, and are also a good protein supply. Learn to bake good homemade bread. Your children will never forget how good home smells on bread-making day. Use powdered milk for drinking—it will quarter your milk bill.
Small economies add up, just as turning off lights when they are not in use can help your light bill. Watch your habits and practice economy. I don't mean you must be stingy, but be careful with your possessions, and other people will respect them too. The children will soon learn that half an inch of toothpaste cleans just as well as an inch, and the tube lasts twice as long.
The children will be careless if you are careless—careless in the way they care for their clothing, the way they use the furniture, the way they take care of their toys and books and clothing. You will have restless, whining children, always wanting more and more things, if they have not learned to respect what they have and the value of little things.
As children get old enough, have them save toward a purchase of their choice. They will treasure for years a book or game they have worked hard to earn. Let them use Cousin Jim's old bike until they can earn that shiny new one. They will take much better care of it for waiting. Encourage them to develop their talents by hobbies that attract them. Let the scientific child buy his own microscope or telescope, the athletic child his ball glove. Open a bank account for each child and teach him to save his coins until they can be spent for something worth while.
The center of budgeting is contentment. The Bible says, "Be content with such things as ye have" (Heb. 13:5). "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be there with content" (1 Tim. 6:6-8). Content with the things we can afford; no discontent or anxiety because we cannot have the fancy homes or cars or vacations that our friends have. But a solid joy and happiness in the things that don't carry a price tag—the love of family, the beauty of nature, the fellowship of church and friends. Add to this the restful sleep of the man who has money to pay all his bills and you have real contentment.
