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Simple Home Budgeting
Discover How To Improve Financially With Simple Home Budgeting
The practice of simple home budgeting is not a difficult skill to learn, yet it's one that offers tremendous benefits to anyone desiring to get ahead financially.
We cannot get a clear picture of our financial situation without the aid of a simple budget. Our money situation might be better than it appears, or it might be worse, but we will never know until we take a proper look. Whatever our situation, it's within our grasp to improve it.
Though the following account was originally published in 1856, the application of simple home budgeting is as practical today as it was back then. The dialogue may read old-fashioned, but the simple, creative ways to save money it reveals are timeless. Just by putting these little ideas into practice you can make your paycheck go much further and improve your financial well-being.
Let's listen in on the conversation of Charles and Mary Converse as they discover strategies to save money through simple home budgeting and begin to realize their long-held dreams.
Simple Home BudgetingSimple Home Budgeting is Adapted from "Worth and Wealth"
by Freeman Hunt, 1856
"I tell you, my dear, it is utterly impossible! Save three hundred dollars a year out of my salary? You don't understand it," said Charles Converse to his young wife.
"Perhaps I do not," replied Mrs. Converse, "but my opinion is very decided."
"Women don't understand these things. You think my salary of eight hundred dollars a year, a fortune."
"No such a thing, Charles."
"But eight hundred dollars, let me tell you, won't buy all the world."
"I had no idea that it would; yet, if you had only the habit of saving what you spend for things that you can get along without, you would be able to build a house in a few years."
"Build a house?"
"Yes, it's all possible through simple home budgeting. You could even build a house, Charles."
"Well, that's a good one."
The young man laughed heartily at the idea -- too fanciful, too absurd to be harboured for a moment.
"Charles, how much do you suppose it cost us to live last year?"
"Why, eight hundred dollars, of course. It took all my salary -- there is none of it left."
The young wife smiled mischievously as she took from her worktable-drawer a small account-book. On the cover of the book, she had carefully penned the words "Simple Home Budgeting."
"You did not know that I kept an account of all these things, did you Charles?"
"No; but how much is it?"
And Charles was a little disturbed by the cool way in which his wife proceeded to argue the question.
"Four hundred and ninety-two dollars," answered Mrs. Converse.
"Oh, but, my dear, you have not gotten half of it down."
"Yes, I have -- everything. It's all here in my little book, Simple Home Budgeting."
"My tailor's bill was sixty-five dollars."
"I have it here."
"Hats, boots, and…"
"I have them all."
"The deuce you have."
"When you had any new thing, you know I always asked you what you gave for it."
"I know you did."
"Well, I then carefully entered the amount in my Simple Home Budgeting book. It took only a moment to do. I simply entered our expenses in one column and our income in another."
"Hmm. I will bet five dollars I can name a dozen things that you have not gotten down."
"Done!" said the young wife with a laugh, as she took from her drawer a five-dollar bill, and placed it on the table.
Charles Converse covered the money.
"Capital idea for you to bet against me with my money!" said he good-humouredly.
"If I lose, I will do without that new silk dress I am to have."
"Nay, my dear, I don't want you to do that."
"But, go on," said she with a gleam in her eye.
"Pew rent, six dollars," said the husband promptly.
"Here it is," answered she, pointing to the entry in her Simple Home Budgeting book. "Try again."
"Season ticket on the railroad -- twenty."
"I have it."
"Sawing the wood."
"Entered."
Charles reflected a moment; the case began to look desperate.
"New linings for the cooking-stove."
"Here, in the book -- two dollars."
"Cleaning the clock."
"One dollar -- here it is."
Mr. Converse began to look hopeless.
"Our taxes."
"Well, I have not got that."
But that was the only thing he could mention of these necessary expenses that was not found to be entered on his wife's Simple Home Budgeting book. Still, Mr. Converse was not satisfied.
"Your figures cannot be correct, Mary," said he.
"Why not?" Mary waited for her husband to reply.
"My salary is all used up; you can account for only four hundred and ninety-two dollars of it."
"Then you must explain the balance," said she.
"I -- me! Why, Mary, I have not been extravagant. It is true, I buy a great many little things during the year, but they are hardly worth the mention."
"Ah! There's the mischief," exclaimed Mary. "That is where the money goes; you may depend upon it."
"Nonsense! You women just don't understand these things," he said playfully.
"Of course, we don't!"
"Well, your figures show that you don't. Where has the three hundred dollars gone to, then?"
"I don't know, Charley. I haven't the least idea. I am sure that I have marked down all the items that came within my knowledge. I am positive that you have brought home no article of any description that has not been entered upon the Simple Home Budgeting account book -- I mean the articles of food and clothing, and things for the house."
"But just look at it a moment. You don't mean to say that I have spent three hundred dollars over and above our necessary expenses?" said Charles, a little warmly.
"I don't mean to say anything about it, for I don't know anything about it."
"Now I think of it, there's my life insurance, have you got that marked down in your Simple Home Budgeting?"
"I have not."
"There is forty of the three hundred!"
"But it still leaves two hundred and sixty-eight dollars unaccounted for."
"It would take a great while to collect money enough to build a house, even if the whole of this sum were saved."
"Not a great while, Charles. You know my father has promised to give you the land when you have the means to build a house upon it."
"It will be a long while," laughed the husband.
"Five or six years, perhaps, if you are prudent. Hasn't the president of your bank promised you a thousand dollars a year?"
"Yes."
"Then you can certainly save four hundred dollars a year."
"But, there's a thousand things we want when my salary is raised."
"But, we can do without them."
"I suppose we can."
"Just look here, Charles."
Mrs. Converse took from her pocket a circular issued by the People's Saving's Bank, in which the accumulation of several small sums deposited weekly and quarterly, were arranged in a table.
"Fifty dollars deposited every quarter will net in five years, one thousand one hundred and forty-one dollars twenty-five cents!" continued she, reading from the circular.
"Bah!" added Mr. Converse.
"That sum would build a very comfortable house; and when your salary is a thousand dollars a year you can save more than fifty dollars a quarter."
"A five-percent institution, isn't it?" asked the young man. But, he was much impressed by the reasoning of his wife, and during the evening he carefully read the circular of the People's Saving's Bank.
Certainly, he had every inducement for being saving and economical. He had lived very cheaply in a small house belonging to his father-in-law, for which he paid a merely nominal rent. His wife's father was a wealthy farmer, or rather he had been a farmer, before his domain was invaded by the march of improvement, and his pastures and mowing lots laid out into house lots. As it was, he still, from the force of habit, improved a few acres, kept a couple of cows, a henery, and half a dozen pigs.
Charles never liked to talk about financial matters with "Pa," because the worthy old gentleman used to tell him how he lived on a hundred and fifty dollars a year after he was married, thought Charles had a fat salary, and supposed, of course, he saved four hundred dollars a year out of it -- and always wound up by saying that he would give him a building lot -- might take his pick of all he owned -- whenever he got ready to build. All these things rather worked upon Charles Converse.
Unfortunately, Charles hadn't saved a dollar, and what was more, there was no present prospect that he ever would do so. The promised advance in salary was already appropriated to sundry luxuries. The idea of taking Mary to the opera, to Niagara Falls, and other amiabilities, had already taken possession of him.
But, the reasoning of his wife had produced a strong impression upon his mind. She had been brought up in the strictest habits of economy. Her father, though rich, had an army of children; but they were all wealthy in their thrifty habits and creative ways to save money. Simple home budgeting was as natural to them as breathing.
Charles read over and over the circular of the Saving's Bank in the evening, figured up the statistics, and wondered what had become of that two hundred and sixty-eight dollars. Before he went to bed, he had matured a resolution, though he did not say a word to his wife about it.
The next day, Charles Converse received a quarter's salary, and his first step, after receiving it, was to visit the People's Saving's Bank, where he deposited fifty dollars. But, the hundred and fifty dollars which he had left burned in his pockets. It was all he had to carry him through the ensuing three months.
There were a dozen little things that he wanted, and a dozen big ones, for that matter. Against the latter he resolutely set his face even though, in consideration of the fact that his salary would be a thousand dollars a year after the next pay-day, he had a week before made up his mind to have them.
Among other things his cigar-case was empty, and he stepped into Seavy's, in Congress Street, to have it replenished. Cigars were a great luxury -- in fact, a necessity to him, in his own opinion. The gentlemanly proprietor of the establishment placed a box of the fragrant rolls upon the counter.
"Something new," said he.
Charles took up a handful and smelt them.
"Best cigars in the market," continued the vendor.
"Tiptop," replied Charles, inhaling the grateful odour. "How do you sell them?"
"Four cents apiece."
Six of them were transferred to the case, a quarter was thrown down, and, as it was not magnanimous to pick up a copper's change, he left the store.
But then, a soft little voice inside seemed to say: "Charley, you can't afford to smoke such cigars as those. They will hardly last you two days. If you must smoke, buy a cheaper cigar than that. You will not be able to build your house in ten years at this rate."
He did not pay much attention to the monitorial voice, however, and as he passed along he drank a sherry cobbler himself and paid for three friends, whom he could not help asking to drink with him, at Barton's. At Vinton's, a Charlotte Russe was disposed of, and so on to the end of the chapter.
And these were his daily habits.
It was only a sixpence or a quarter at a time, and these purchases were so ridiculously small, that they never caused him a thought. The idea that they absorbed any considerable portion of his salary never occurred to him. He had always gratified his appetite or inclination in these matters, as they became regarded as necessities.
Still, Charles Converse had turned over a new leaf. Mary's simple home budgeting began to influence his thinking. He refrained from purchasing a great many articles which he had intended to get when he received his quarter's salary, and as he seated himself in the trolly, he congratulated himself on the firmness with which he had carried out the resolution of the previous evening.
"You are late, Charles," said Mary, when he reached his sunny little cottage with its flowery window boxes and ivy-covered walls.
"I have been paying my quarter bills," replied he, with a smile. "Here they are, my sweet accountant."
He tossed the bills upon the table, and while she was examining them, he waved his bankbook in her face.
"What!" exclaimed she, in astonishment, as she saw the book. "Fifty dollars!"
"Yes, my dear, female influence -- the influence of a wife and her Simple Home Budgeting book," and the husband playfully kissed her. "I am convicted of sin, and converted, too, which is better still. I am resolved to be prudent, economical, saving, even parsimonious."
"I am glad to hear it."
"And the house will be built in just five years, according to the program of the Bank."
As he spoke, he took from his pockets three of the city evening papers.
"Not quite cured, Charles," said Mary with a smile.
"What do you mean?"
"Journal, Transcript, and Traveller, two cents each," laughed Mary as she reached for her Simple Home Budgeting book to enter the amounts. "You are determined that the publishers shall live well."
"Why, Mary, you wouldn't have me live without a newspaper, would you? That would be a depth of barbarism whereto I would never descend," replied Charles, with a look of astonishment at the interesting mentor.
"Certainly not, but is not ONE paper a day enough?"
"That is but a trifle," he protested.
"The rain falls in drops, but washes the whole earth. Four cents a day, for a year, amounts to about twelve dollars," said Mary while gesturing to her Simple Home Budgeting book.
Charles scratched his head. It was a most astounding revelation to him.
"You are right, Mary, perhaps one paper is enough."
Charles ate his supper, but was moody and abstracted. A new idea was penetrating his brain, which, he began to think, had been rather muddy on financial affairs. Mary's simple home budgeting figures couldn't be argued against.
As he rose from his table he took out his cigar-case, and as he did so, the little voice within, who had spoken with him when he came out of the cigar shop, began to upbraid him pretty sharply. He burned his fingers in attempting to light the fragrant roll, and then relapsed into a fit of deep musing.
"What are you thinking about, Charles?" asked Mary, after she had cleared away the table.
"Eh! Oh, I was thinking how much twelve times three hundred and sixty-five are."
"Twelve means twelve cents, I suppose?" said she, performing the problem on the margin of one of the newspapers with a pencil. "Here it is, forty-three dollars and eighty cents."
"For cigars," added he, blankly.
"Which added to the sum paid for superfluous newspapers, makes fifty-six dollars and twenty-eight cents."
"And twenty for shaving, which I may do myself, are seventy-six dollars and twenty-eight cents," continued he, taking the pencil and ciphering away with all his might for a few moments.
"Gleason's Pictorial, Home Journal, Saturday Courier, and your county paper come to…"
"But, my dear, we can't do without our county paper," exclaimed Charles, looking with amazement into the face of his wife.
"I don’t want you to do without that," said his wife.
"Sherry cobblers, ice creams, and oysters; over a hundred dollars, by thunder!" continued he, turning to his figures again.
"Indeed!"
"I begin to see where the two hundred and sixty-eight dollars has gone to," said he as he glanced at the Simple Home Budgeting book lying on the table.
"And sherry cobblers are worse than useless," said she. "I had no idea you drank them, Charles."
"Say no more, Mary, I am done."
And Charles was done. The idea of "simple home budgeting" and "saving up" something took complete possession of him -- not so far as to make him niggardly -- but for enough to make him abandon the four-cent cigars, three evening papers, Vinton's compounds, and especially sherry cobblers.
On the next quarter day, one hundred dollars was added to his deposit at the Saving's Bank, and as his habits improved afterward, and his salary still further increased, much greater sums were added.
In just four years the house was built, new furniture bought and paid for, and Charles is considered one of the most thrifty young men in the town -- all of which propitious events, we honestly believe, had their origin in the beneficent influence of his dear wife's Simple Home Budgeting book and the Saving's Bank, whose circular had opened his eyes, and stimulated him to carry out his resolution.
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More than a quaint Victorian tale, the above dialogue clearly illustrates how simple home budgeting can improve our lives and help us to achieve our dreams. Like Charles Converse, resolve to be "prudent, economical, saving" and take planned action to improve your finances today.
Give simple home budgeting a try.
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