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In 1833 a small book appeared in print titled, "The American Frugal Housewife". This book written by Mrs. Child and Dedicated "To Those Who Are Not Ashamed of Economy" has never gone out of print.

Much of the advice concerns habits we don't use any more such as the making of soap from ashes, or how to nurse someone with dysentery. Some advice never goes out of style though and what remarks she makes concerning the practice of economy are applicable even today.

Without further ado here are some of Mrs. Child's recommendations for those not ashamed of economy:

It is wise to keep an exact account of all you expend --even of a paper of pins. This answers two purposes; it make you more careful in spending money, and it enables your husband to judge precisely whether his family live within his income. No false pride, or foolish ambitions to appear as well as others, should ever induce a person to live one cent beyond the income of which he is certain. If you have two dollars a day, do not spend more than nine shillings; if you have one dollar a day, do not spend but seventy-five cents; if you have half a dollar a day, be satisfied to spend forty cents. [p. 4]

If you are about to furnish a house, do not spend all your money, be it much or little. . . Buy merely enough to get along with at first. It is only by experience that you can tell what will be the wants of your family. If you spend all your money, you will find you have purchased many things you do not want, and have no means left to get many things which you do want. If you have enough, and more than enough, to get everything suitable to your situation, do not think you must spend it all, merely because you happen to have it. Begin humbly. As riches increase, it is easy and pleasant to increase in hospitality and splendor; but it is always painful and inconvenient to decrease. . . Neatness, tastefulness, and good sense, may be shown in the management of a small household, and the arrangement of a little furniture, as well as upon a larger scale; and these qualities are always praised, and always treated with respect and attention. [p.5]

Economy is generally despised as a low virtue, tending to make people ungenerous and selfish. This is true of avarice; but it is not so of economy. The man who is economical, is laying up for himself the permanent power of being useful and generous. He who thoughtlessly gives away ten dollars, when he owes a hundred more than he can pay, deserves no praise, --he obeys a sudden impulse, more like instinct than reason: it would be real charity to check this feeling; because the good he does may be doubtful, while the injury he does his family and creditors is certain. True economy is a careful treasurer in the service of benevolence; and when they are united respectability, prosperity and peace will follow. [p.7]

Catch up with Miss Liss at A Year of Wisdom or The Fascinating Woman, based on Fascinating Womanhood.