Whatever the condition of a family, whether large or small, in city or country, in private house or apartment, the successful expenditure of money to supply the family with needed comforts depends vastly more upon brains than upon dollars, upon the standard of life than upon circumstances. To know where to economize and where to lavish, to be on the alert for the small wastes, so often disregarded, - only training and experience can realize the ideal in these things.

The extreme economies practiced in former years are beyond doubt questionable in these days of astonishing increase in the production of wealth. Time has become too valuable to be profitably spent in weaving rag carpets merely to save the rags. If done, there must be some aesthetic value found to justify it. The same holds true of many occupations of the earlier housekeeper. The taking of these occupations from the home and the development of them into independent industries has liberated much time and strength, which it is the duty of the housewife not to waste. The changes have been phenomenally rapid, and adjustment could hardly be expected to keep pace, but there is much to indicate an appreciation of the situation on the part of many women and a sincere desire and endeavor to co-operate in meeting the changes intelligently.

There is no less need of the practice of economy in the expenditures of the present time than formerly, even if the methods necessarily differ. For instance, while we may afford ourselves finer materials and more variety in clothing there is a correspondingly greater demand for wise and intelligent choice of materials for bodily needs and the avoidance of such as purport to be what they are not. Otherwise extravagance in the loss of time through illness, or even of life itself, results. Economy in food no longer requires the family to forego certain food-stuffs which were formerly luxuries. The requisite is rather the exercise of foresight in buying the product when in season, or legitimately within the reach of the limited purse.

One must have a standard, conciously defined and recognized, in order to choose successfully. A standard of life consists of those principles which guide one's motives and direct one's activities. Conscious standards are not often enough realized in things ethical. We have standards of weights and measures by which all weights and measures are tested. We have standards by which we discriminate in music, art, and many other things. But who can define his Standard of Life readily ? We may reveal it to others, in fact we are constantly doing so as we decide this or that. The great difference between a successful person who accomplishes much, and one who never seems to amount to anything in particular, is the difference in which their standards of life have been made clear and conscious, thus becoming a vital, guiding factor in action.

Standards of Life

We recognize innumerable varieties of standards, as the result of varying education and training, advantages and opportunity, or the lack of them. False standards arise from failure to discriminate between needs and wants. There are conflicting opinions as to what vital needs are, although it would seem self-evident that they consist materially, in those things which man must have to live under the best conditions, such as pure food, healthful clothing, sanitary houses, sufficient air and light together with those things which will minister to his highest intellectual and spiritual development. Through failure to distinguish intelligently the majority of people spend two-thirds or more of their income for what fails to bring them the best results in health and happiness.

We are too inclined to scorn the women of former days because of their more limited horizons. We may profitably study their understanding of their conditions and needs and the wise adaptation to them, which gave them an important place in the work and progress of their time. The women who succeed today in the use of larger opportunities are those who, like them, dare to live in intelligent independence, true each to her individual standard of life. Such women do not indiscriminately copy the manners of living or dress of others merely to be like them or in fashion. They are not ashamed to acknowledge a liking for home-making and housekeeping. They spend with care and judgment A suggestive, comparison between the women of the past and those of the present is that of Miss Richardson in The Woman Who Spends: "In olden times women thought and thought and thought before they spent, often making the spending a burden. Now women often spend, and then think and think and think. Nor does the lack of thought beforehand ease the burden of the results of her spending."

As urged elsewhere it is not enough that we be well-intentioned since even then we may be painfully or harmfully extravagant through ignorance. We must know not only that pure food, hygienic clothing and durable furnishings are well, but we must know what constitutes each and how to secure them. Otherwise we must be classed among the extravagant.

No true economy can be practiced in the home until a standard is adopted by all the members of the family, in which there is agreement of effort to promote the family well-being; at the same time that all unite to accept with intelligent grace the common deprivations necessary to lessen family waste either of money, labor, time, health, strength, or possessions.

Standards in regard to living must necessarily differ greatly with different individual and families. The education, tastes, and occupations of people differ so widely that it would be entirely impossible to establish a universal standard. That one may have greater demands than another is purely accidental, yet must be reckoned with. Even our individual standards are not stationary but are ever giving way to new and higher ones if we are as progressive as we should be. All this makes it difficult to proportion expenditures so that the highest good shall always be secured.