“POT" MONEY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 22, 9 January 1912, Page 6

“POT" MONEY.

(E.M.B. in "Sydm y Herald.")

There are few people to whom r.o much gratuitous advice is offered as to the young married housekeeper, i’e she experienced or otherwise, she is seldom without a flourishing crop of mc-thers-in-law, sisters-in-laa sisters, aunts, and fimale cousins, ail willing to proffer the results oi their expeiience, or to make, through the medium of their newlymarried relative experiments. th> outcome of which may cr may not be all that is predicted of them.

M’e all know the maxim, "In the multitude of councillors there ’s .vkiloin.” bat a young wife, fresh jto her household responsibilities, j will need to be fairly level headed Ho retain her balance in a deluge oj kindlv suggestions. A good house- : keeper may be either born or made. The funner takes to the *badge o; I he keys and purse like a duck to ' water, the latter through a series of | failures and successes, while other? — a few, let us hope—adopt a policy ::f laissez faire. which begins in confusion. ami ends in the mental derangements of long-suffering usbands.

Now, while the majority of wo men manage their household? to their entire satisfaction, it us an in-

disputable. fart that a large oerce-i--ag? come to grief on the rock ci finance, for the average* woman’-, strong point is emphatically not arithmetic. To most it is as simple is shelling peas to give a tradesman's order. A little practice very soon regulates the weekly requirements. but when it comes to a matter of footing the bill many an a:: xious housekeeper has been reduced to despair, culminating in an appeal to "hubby” to supplement the funds. Husbands are methodical creatures, and like their wives to be the same : they regulate their own expenditure, i"d one of their regular items is

"household expenses” so much. In my early married days many a sir reptitious tear was shed behind th- 1 pantry doer because the family purse refused to meet the demands upon it, and it was very, very reluctantly that I began to admit that the fault lay in myself. Finally. I adopted the following plan, to which I have adhered for years and have always found work without a hitch. The weekly allowance is divided into a number of portions to meet the demands of the various tradesmen. and other regular household expenses, allowing to each portion a small margin for possible emergencies. These various and varying sums are then put into respective pots labelled butcher, baker, rent, gas, fowls, and so on. Now, take a practical illustration. When th? bills come in at the end of the week or month, as the case may be, perhaps. you will find fowl food has risen, and you are a few pence short in the "fowl pot.” As there is not likely to have been a rise in every department, you naturally turn to one of your other pots to supply the deficiency. And where, m a moment of ecstacy .you find, for instance, that butter has gone down, there is sure to be a jolly little surplus in the biuter pot. and so on. Not only does this system answer, though, at first blush, it looks like robbing Peter to pay Paul, but many an unexpected trifle, both useful and ornamental, has been purchased through the medium of these pot surpluses. When a woman has all her money m one purse, it looks at the beginning of the week as if it could stand any strain and is a temptation to spend what she really hasn’t got, without taking into consideration the ultimate calls upon it.

My pots which are nothing less than those that contained my husband’s shaving sticks, have afforded amusement to many, but try some of your own. It is better to laugh than cry any day ; better to have a few shillings in many pots than none in one purse.