Trend toward budget-making; [News items];

              Bulletin HASKINS & SELLS 93
The Trend Toward Budget-making
THERE is probably nothing more irk­some
to the average housewife than
account keeping. There is a story of a
young bride whose bookkeeping typifies
this suggestion. When called to account
by her precise husband at the end of the
first month, she exhibited her elaborately
ruled cash book which contained two
entries; on one side, "Received from
George, $50.00; on the other, "spent it."
Such is the philosophy on which many
households are run.
But every once in a while, some unique
young woman is discovered who keeps a
careful, although perhaps simple record
which shows the receipts of funds and the
amounts disbursed with a classified sum­mary
of the purposes thereof. The re­sults
are studied. There are some sur­prises.
More was spent for some things
than was necessary. There was possibly
a disproportion among the various classes
of expense; too much for theatregoing and
not enough for clothes; extravagance in
the purchase of certain supplies; nothing
saved.
With such facts brought out a new
start is made. The income for the next
period is estimated and apportioned; so
much each for rent, household supplies,
clothing, recreation, and saving. Another
year-end rolls around. The allowance
for any expense group has not been ex­ceeded.
The savings have been larger
than planned. The discipline of control
has been stimulating. There has been
more orderly living. One or more per­sons
have been saved from the ranks of
economic failures, and have become assets
rather than liabilities of society.
The use of a budget for governmental
purposes has one of its best exemplifica­tions
in Great Britain, where the budget
has become highly developed and gener­ally
satisfactory. Mr. Chief Justice Taft,
in an introduction to "The Budget and