Operating expenses consist, for the most part, of the necessary expenditure to keep a house warmed, lighted, clean and in repair. The skill with which these expenses are managed is the supreme test of the ability of the housewife, materially speaking. Other decisions may be turned off more easily or attended to once for all, and there is some end to them. In these the highest success can only be realized by the woman who has a genius for details, who will allow nothing to escape her consideration, yet who has the ability to carry them with a degree of ease and mastery so that it will not be apparent to others, at least, that she finds them perplexing or burdensome. The over-anxious, wearied woman is as lacking in the element of success as the careless and heedless one. She may be able, through her greater watchfulness, to save more money, but family happiness is perhaps more endangered, through the depression of spirits and the friction which result, than in the other case. To remove friction and reduce to a harmonious unit are parts of what she must accomplish through the direction of the operating expenses.

The same standards should control in deciding the avenues of expenditure here as in selecting a house or deciding any of the other divisions. Health, comfort and happiness in the highest and broadest conception of these words should be the only factors having weight. Whether my neighbor has a maid should be nothing to me in my decision as to the necessity of having one. To be met at the door by a suitably attired official ought not to be as important as it would sometimes seem to be, in leading us to decide whether we have had a pleasant and profitable call on a friend. All these things are well in their place, but they are by no means so vital that one should sacrifice far more important things and magnify these out of all proportion.

Much of the necessary operating expense is determined when the house is selected, and the two should always be considered together. If the number of rooms is limited, the expense of caring for them will be correspondingly less. If the house is conveniently arranged so that the work may be swiftly performed, the work of each helper will "go further" than if much time is wasted through unnecessary steps or movements. So, also, in the expense of heating. One should consider whether the house is arranged compactly or not, what the loss of heat through exposure of rooms will be, etc., so that the cost of heating can be correctly reckoned with.

It has been estimated that, for an ordinary city house, the sum paid annually for wages of servants should be equal to one-half the rental value of the house. This can only be realized, however, by those who are willing to simplify their manner of living so as to reduce expenses more than the average at the present time, or by those who give assistance in the duties.

When servants are kept the cost of the other operating expenses will be increased without corresponding satisfaction. In general, they should be kept equal to the amount paid as wages. An excellent standard to keep in mind is the maintenance of the "maximum of efficiency at minimum cost." It is true economy to expend for what will remove friction or prove time-saving.

The wages of a general helper for housework vary according to location, from $3.00 per week or less in some small towns in the East and through the middle West to $4.00 or $5.00 in the larger cities. This must be doubled in allowing for board and room and for the additional outlay because of more wasteful cooking and more careless handling of furnishings. One housekeeper who kept a careful record of expenses both when with and without help, found the weekly expense from one-fourth to one-third more when help was employed.

The average cost of hiring by the hour for work done in the house is from 15 to 25 cents per hour including the midday meal, if the helper remains over that time. Laundry work for unstarched, flat pieces, averages 25 cents per dozen.

When all the main avenues of expense have been carefully considered to eliminate excessive or unnecessary expenditure, there remains for the thrifty housewife the daily exercise of much watchful care over the "littles" which otherwise astonishingly run up the expense. A three-burner chandelier ablaze instead of one Welsbach burner which would give better light at less than a third the cost; a range fire opened, at the loss of at least a hod of coal, to prepare a warm dish for supper when the use of a gas or oil stove for a short time would accomplish the desired result much more cheaply; daily orders in piece-meal over a limited telephone service, because the difference is not considered sufficiently important to necessitate the thought required to combine all the orders for that day, or for several days, in one message: these are all trifles in themselves, but five cents here and ten there make a surprisingly large difference in the sum total. The difference between skilful, thoughtful outlay and careless spending, is to be measured in the added comforts to be secured by the one who learns the secret of successful management in this group of expenses.