The Evening After

Well, I wouldn't call it the social event of the decade, but my parents cleaned their plates - my dad even asked for seconds - and we had some good laughs afterward as I showed them the cookbook I'd used and shared some of the recipes I spared them! Though I'd planned on serving a 1940s Easter menu, I decided at the last minute to serve up a medley of some of the surprisingly wonderful vintage recipes I've discovered in cooking dinner for myself over the past year. I guess you could say it was kind of like my annual report on vintage cookery.

Lima-Bean Casserole
Mashed Potato Balls
Beet Pickle Salad
Popovers
Honey Rice

Mashed Potato Balls are patties formed from cold mashed potatoes and a beaten egg yolk. Brown them in the oven with a dab of margarine on top. I added some seasoned salt to mine to give them a little kick. The Beet Pickle I used for the salad was a canned version purchased at the supermarket. (Aunt Nellie's is the brand. I like to think of her as my dear old Aunt Nellie who pickled the beets straight out of her Victory Garden last summer.) I sliced the beets and served them on a bed of lettuce with a tiny dollop of mayonnaise. Popovers are an old family favorite and the recipe in The American Woman's Home Cook Book (1945) doesn't disappoint. (Note: If you're using a modern popover pan, the batter only makes about six.)

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POPOVERS

1 cup sifted flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon melted shortening

Sift flour and salt together. Beat eggs and add milk, shortening and sifted dry ingredients. Beat until smooth with rotary beater. Fill greased muffin pans 1/2 full and bake in very hot oven (450 degrees F.) 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to moderate (350 degrees F.) and bake 15 minutes longer. Makes 8.

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Whew! It's been a long time since I had such a heavy meal so late in the day. My eating habits have changed so much over the last twelve months that it felt positively strange to wake up still feeling so not-hungry this morning. I guess I've gotten used to waking up with an empty tummy! I felt so full I couldn't face anything more than Toast for breakfast this morning. My sink is full, too. Full of dirty pans that needed a good soaking. My mission tonight is to finish cleaning up after the party.

Lessons learned? 1) I truly would have appreciated one of those vintage ranges with three or four different oven chambers. You can set each chamber at a different temperature, right? None of last night's recipes wanted to play together when it came to temperature. 2) My apartment is way too small to entertain more than one person at a time. And it's awful tough to serve dinner at the kitchen table when you have to ask one of your guest to stand up for a minute while you open the oven to check on your Honey Rice. (I'm thinking Dorothy Dix would not have approved.) Let's face it. Nobody should be seated right in front of the oven! Talk about a hot seat.

Party Time

Inviting my parents over for a vintage dinner party has been a blessing in disguise. As hard as it's been to drag myself out of this slump, knowing they are going to be here - tonight! - has forced me to open the windows, let the sunshine in, and set my house to rights. It's 6:30 on Sunday morning as I sit down to write this post --- which means I've got less than 12 hours before my guests arrive. In just one more week, my parents will be heading back East for the year. I do so want them to leave knowing I'm back on my feet.

I'm still planning some sort of blend of the Easter menus in my last post, but haven't made any final decisions yet. The women's pages of 1940s newspapers were packed with suggestions for Easter table decor. Putting aside some of the bunnies and candy eggs and calla lilies made from thin slices of turnip and carrot strips(!), some of these suggestions will still work quite nicely for a bit of vintage springtime flair.

The Pittsburgh Press (April 22, 1943)
"A daffodil centerpiece on the Easter table will bring Spring indoors."

The Spokesman-Review (March 27, 1947)
"...huge bowls of gladiola, carnations, and spring flowers..."

The [St. Petersburg, Florida] Evening Independent (April 1, 1947)
"For the table - centerpiece low and modern of pink and white carnations, dawn pink roses with blue lace flowers to accent. Arrange in a crystal bowl. Place on Irish linen cloth in new postwar design. Use the lovely new crystal dessert plates and goblets."

Ottawa Citizen (April 2, 1947)
"By all means use your green tablecloth, a perfect natural background for all colors used in your setting or foods. If possible, have a flower centerpiece, all-white flowers are often used for an Easter table-setting, or an artistically-grouped bouquet of vari-colored spring flowers or make a pert old-fashioned bouquet, small flowers tightly circled about a center rosebud. Or use one large shallow bowl, or two matching smaller ones, holding floating flowers: for example, white and yellow freesias, pansies, hyacinths, daffodils. At each side of the center piece have a dish of brightly colored candies, mints perhaps... Of course use your most colorful china and glass, gleaming silver."

The Miami News (March 24, 1948)
"That means bringing out your delicate china, pastel china... For your table centerpiece you might use a low bowl of yellow gladioli..."

A big trend I noticed in looking for ideas for table decor is the color of the menu. Article after article extols the goodness in having a springtime menu that covers every shade of the rainbow. Not only did the '40s housewife have to plan her menu around ration points and local food shortages, but she also had to make sure the menu included dishes in shades of red, orange, yellow, green, violet, and pink. A colorful menu was just as important as a colorful new outfit on Easter Sunday.

Here's my post-breakfast plan of attack for the day:

1. Clean the kitchen garbage can with boiling water. Leave outdoors to air dry.
2. Finalize the dinner menu (don't forget the color!) and prepare a shopping list.
3. Walk six laps at the park.
4. Marketing
5. Light lunch
6. Wash the kitchen floor.
7. Dust and polish furniture in living room.
8. Vacuum living room and bedroom.

Yipes --- it's already 7:45! I'd better run. Lots to do!!!

Baby Steps

Well, this last week has been a mixed bag.

It's been successful in some ways --- I was able to get all my weekday walks in and made it through five laps at the park yesterday. Today's goal: six! I filed my federal tax return on Thursday and mailed off my state return yesterday, so $638 should be winging its way to me within the next few weeks.

It's been unsuccessful in others --- I'm really struggling to find the motivation to do anything at home. I'm not having any trouble shopping, however, so I have been enjoying buying some new spring clothes to fit my new body and some new bedding to fit my new mattress. I find myself resisting the thought of having to start from scratch, but I guess there's no other way out of this hole. So I'm making a pledge right now - whatever else I do or don't do this week - to put the routine back in my morning. Remember these? These nine simple steps I adopted one at a time beginning in November 2007. They became the core of my housekeeping routine:

Open window in bedroom on arising, for free circulation of air.

Throw back bed covers, including top sheet.

Carry soiled clothing to the hamper. Hang up other clothing. Put away any personal possessions out of place in the bedroom.

Prepare and serve breakfast.

Clear away dishes and misplaced articles from dining room, after breakfast.

Operate ventilating range hood while scraping, rinsing, and stacking dishes in the dishwasher. Leave pots and pans to soak in sink.

Put away food.

Make bed.

Close bedroom window if air conditioning will be used during day.

There's no excuse in the world that feels as good to me now as I used to feel having accomplished these nine simple steps every morning of the week. Whether I'd like the extra sleep or not, my body is used to getting up at a certain time and getting things done, so I can't even truly enjoy re-setting my alarm and spending another hour in bed! I just lie there, tossing and turning, feeling stupendously unaccomplished for not getting up and doing my chores. I'm resolving, in fact, to do every one of these chores before I press "Publish Post" on these very words this morning. By the time you read this post, I'll have finished each and every one of them...

There, I've finished the first three steps. Now for a little fun. I've asked my parents over for a vintage dinner party on April 11 before they head back East for the year. It's the Sunday after Easter, but I'm planning a 1940s springtime menu complete with vintage table decorations. I've been doing a little research into Easter menus from that time period. Leaving out the meat, of course, I'm sure to be able to mix and match from these dishes to come up with a menu appropriate for my dinner party. Which one is your favorite?

Milwaukee Journal (April 18, 1943)
Broiled Ham Slice
Parsley Buttered Potatoes
Steamed Peas in Orange Cups
Fresh Fruit Salad
Baking Powder Biscuits with Honey
Cake [made with coconut and candy eggs] and Fresh Pineapple
Coffee

Better Homes and Gardens (April 1945)
Baked Ham Slice
Easter Eggs
New Potatoes and Peas in Cream
Little Green Onions
Carrot Curls
Rosy Radishes
One-a-Penny Buns
Mile-High Lemon Chiffon Pie

St. Petersburg Times (March 18, 1945)
Cream of Fresh Vegetable Soup
Celery Crisps
Chicken Loaf
Frizzled Ham Slices
Glazed Sweet Potatoes
String Beans Hollandaise
Fruit Fan Salad [segments of chilled citrus fruit, strawberries, apple slices, and raisins for garnish]
Toasted Crackers
Cheese Spread

Toledo Blade (April 16, 1946)
Orange and Grapefruit Cup
Fried Chicken
New Potatoes with Watercress
Butter
Fresh Asparagus
Endive and Hard Cooked Egg
Salad
Corn Meal Muffins
Rhubarb Cream Pie

Pittsburgh Press (April 1, 1947)
Three Fruit Cocktail [frosted peaches, grapefruit, strawberries]
The Easter Ham [garnish of peach halves]
Sweet Potato Puffs
New Asparagus
Mock Hollandaise Sauce
Molded Spring Salad
Hot Biscuit or Rolls
Preserves or Jelly
Meringue Shells with Ice Cream and Strawberries
Coffee
Candy
Sliced Nuts

Tomato Consomme
Crisp Wafers
Olives
Radish Rose
Celery
Roast Chicken with Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans with Celery
Mixed Fresh Fruit Salad
Frozen Strawberry Dessert
Coconut Frosted Cup Cakes
Coffee
Candies

Fresh Fruit Cup
Crown Roast of Lamb with Mint Apples
New Potatoes in Cream
Buttered New Potatoes or Cauliflower
Spring Vegetable Salad
Daffodil Cake a la Mode
Coffee
Salted Nuts
Candies

[Spokane] Spokesman-Review (March 18, 1948)
Fruit Cup
Baked Ham
Creamed New Potatoes and Peas
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Jellied Gingerale and Pear Salad
Relishes
Hot Cross Buns
Orange Chiffon Cake
Coffee

Southeast Missourian (April 14, 1949)
Consomme with Cut-up Vegetables
Roast Leg of Spring Lamb
Mint Sauce
Brown Gravy
Surprise Baked Potatoes
Green Peas
Buttered Asparagus
Parkerhouse Rolls
Butter or Fortified Margarine
Watercress Salad
Angel Pie with Crushed Strawberries and Pineapple
Coffee
Milk

You can definitely see some trends as to what kinds of foods were considered springlike in the 1940s, even if there was no way on God's green earth most Americans could put fresh peas, asparagus, strawberries, or pineapple on the dinner table in April! Unless you lived out West, you probably wouldn't be able to pull that kind of thing off 'til June. Most housewives would have had to rely on canned (or frozen) fruits or vegetables for an Easter menu like these. Maybe that's what these Easter dinner menus are really all about --- a taste of what's to come in a couple more months. A hint of your first harvest from the garden, even if it's weeks away and those seedlings aren't even yet in the ground!

Back to work. Let's face it, my kitchen's a mess. And the last thing I feel like doing is any kind of baking or cooking in a mess. I've been stalled up on this last week's breakfast menus ever since Tuesday's called for some baking. I need to address that, but I can't do it before eating my breakfast this morning - so I'm going to shoot for something simple, but filling. How 'bout Thursday's menu:

Grapefruit Half
Poached Free-range Eggs
Toast

I've just finished steps four, five, six, and seven. It's literally the first time in weeks I've eaten a meal sitting at my kitchen table. I've still got two more steps to take, then I can publish this post and go forward with my day...

Check, and check! I'll have to share some of the decorating I've started in my bedroom in another post. For now, my bed is made. The room has been aired, but it's warm enough these days that I should be able to open the window again in a couple hours and leave it open 'til sunset. Thanks for holding my hand while I worked my way thru these chores. Clearly - even after all this time - keeping things clean and organized does not come naturally to me. Will it ever?

Vernal Equinox

Today is the first day of spring. (How did it get to be late March?) A day for new beginnings and fresh starts --- boy, do I need one! I've been working hard to get my walking routine back on track, but just about everything else in my life is still in chaos. It's monumentally tough to want to work hard when you feel so uncomfortable. My lower back aches and I'm always crampy - it's like PMS every day of the week around here - but my doctor assures me this is normal for someone recovering from a ruptured cyst. This, too, is supposed to pass.

So I forced myself to sit down at the computer this morning and plan my breakfast menus for the week ahead. That's something I used to do every Sunday and it feels good to do it again. I'll make a stop at the supermarket later today and make sure that my pantry and refrigerator are ready to go. Since I'm not yet doing any morning exercises, I've got some extra time and I'm even planning to do a little baking on Tuesday morning. There's a recipe for Pineapple Muffins in The American Woman's Cook Book (1945) I've been wanting to try. (I'll share if they turn out yummy.)

You know, it turns out I've become a bit of a snob since I started baking for myself. When I let myself indulge in whatever the heck I felt like eating over the past month, the things I indulged in rarely tasted as good as I'd expected them to. Isn't that funny? Things I remembered from before my diet as having been to die for didn't really pan out when I "treated" myself to them again. And it's not that I've become some fantastic cook, so maybe it's the ingredients. Those looooooooooooong lists of additives and preservatives just don't taste very good to me any more. Has my palate changed? I guess I've become accustomed to eating things that are simpler and fresher. That's probably a good thing in the long run, but it does make "indulging" a little harder...

Thank you all so very much for your kind comments and warm thoughts. I'm sure I'll feel more like blogging as I start to feel more and more like myself. Wishing you all a happy first day of spring!

Hello There...

Hello there, dear readers... It's Jitterbug - crawling out of the cave where she's been licking her wounds to check in with the world.

It's been a long few weeks since I last posted. The virus never resulted in dehydration, but shortly after my last post the symptoms morphed into something I thought was a bacterial infection. It actually turned out to have been an ovarian cyst which has since ruptured. Several doctors' visits + 1 CT scan + 2 courses of antibiotics + 1 ultrasound + lots of Vicodin later, I'm finally starting to feel like a human being again.

If there's anything good that's come out this, it's that I've realized how much my life before The Experiment resembled a sick person's. I had been physically healthy for years. My ulcerative colitis had been in remission for five years, yet I was still living the existence of somebody mired in illness. Buying supplies as they occurred to me. Eating catch as catch can. Opening my mail once a month or so. Clueless about how much money I had or where it was going. Moving in a fog from bed to work and back to bed again. I was forced to live like this for the past few weeks --- and it appalls me that I lost half a decade of my life to that lifestyle by choice. It was one thing during the years that I was actually dealing with illness and surgeries. Another thing entirely when the surgeries were over and my body was physically in good order. That's the toll that depression can take on somebody.

Oh, yes --- here's one more good thing. I was stuck at home so much during the last few weeks I got to watch season two of The Tudors. Drama-licious! Especially the finale. I'd never have thought I'd be weeping for the woman who got beheaded when I cheering for it one episode earlier. (Okay, the Vicodin may have been partially responsible for my mood swings.) I'm waiting for season one now so I can see what happened first. If you're on the lookout for a guilty pleasure, The Tudors might just fit the bill. And, hey, it's history. Educational, right?

So, I'm picking up the pieces. I'm not entirely comfortable yet and have two more tests to look forward to, but I want my life back. My biggest goal today is to get outdoors and walk. Slowly. 30 minutes at the park. It will have been the first time in three weeks that I've done a lick of exercise. And I'd like to slowly pick some things up around the house and start a shopping list for things I'll need from the grocery store this weekend. No heavy-duty cleaning, no stretching/toning --- just a little something normal. I promise I'll check in again soon...

All Quiet on the Home Front

I'm sorry I've been so quiet this week... I picked up some kind of a nasty stomach virus early this week and have been a mess ever since. I've lost 6 lbs. in water weight since Tuesday - 2 of those lbs. were just the standard PMS bloat, but 4 lbs. are healthy water weight. I would gladly trade them back if these symptoms would just disappear. I'm doing everything in my toolbox to re-hydrate, but may have to go into the hospital for a day or two to get some IV fluids. The large intestine is where most of the fluid we ingest is absorbed into the body, so - without a large intestine - dehydration is something I have to guard against constantly. In ten years, it's never once been a problem bad enough that I had to go the IV route. Rats! Breakin' my record!!! Thank goodness for that comfy new mattress. It's gotten quite a lot of use this week. I'll keep you posted, but don't be worried if I'm a bit quiet for a few more days. This virus has got to work its way through me eventually, right?

Dorothy Dix Says...

I'm not sure that several decades' worth of statistics have borne out Ms. Dix's opinion, but here are her thoughts on whether divorce is "hereditary" or not. This column was first printed on February 17, 1949.

Dear Miss Dix: The boy I am engaged to is all that a girl could want in a husband, except his folks have been divorced and each has married again and so have mine. Divorce on both sides. Does that mean that divorce is hereditary in our families? People tell me that if one’s parents are divorced, there is no chance of having a happy marriage. Is this true?

MISS BETTYE.

Answer - No. There is not a scintilla of truth in the belief that divorce is hereditary, and that if your father and mother were unhappily married your marriage is bound to be a failure. Indeed, so far as family fights being catching, the opposite is generally the case, and the children who have grown up in discordant homes usually make the most peaceful and considerate husbands and wives.

Their parents are an awful warning to them. They have seen the cat and dog lives their mothers and fathers have led. They have seen their homes broken up and their families scattered. They have suffered from the disaster that a high-tempered woman and a selfish man can inflict upon helpless children, and they are determined not to bring such a misfortune upon their own households. The children of broken homes want no divorce in theirs.

Perfect Sleeper

I feel like such a grown-up.

My car and my computer are probably the only items - until yesterday - that I've ever made a substantial investment in purchasing. Now I can add a new mattress to that list. When I first moved out of my parents' home and into an apartment of my own, I trucked along the mattress they'd bought me several years before. When I moved out west, I inherited my sister's old mattress --- which has got to be about 15 years old now. Those hand-me-down mattresses have served me well, but it felt wonderful yesterday to choose something brand new. Something I chose because it met all of my own mattress needs. My own hard work translated into something tangible for once. Not just groceries (which disappear almost instantaneously) or clothes (which I shrink out of sooner or later), but something substantial that's going to be part of my home for quite some time.

Henry Humphrey, the editor of Woman's Home Companion Household Book (1948) asserts that there is no other furnishing in the household so important as a quality box spring and mattress. You know, even as I left the mattress showroom yesterday, I was feeling a little guilty about not having purchased the least expensive mattress I tried out. I ended up spending $700 for a mismatched queen-sized set by Serta, but I could've spent less. Reading this makes me feel easier about my investment:

From the standpoint of health and comfort, the bed is the most important single article of furniture in the house, and it deserves all the consideration that it can be given, both when you come to select it and when you start to care for it. By bed we mean box spring and mattress. The frame isn't at all important to your comfort; it serves only an esthetic purpose, but the best mattress and spring available will pay dividends in rest and health.

You can select a bed from any one of five different types and still have the utmost in comfort. A box spring is almost essential but there are good springs which are not boxed. The choice of a mattress depends upon you - whether you like a soft, downy bed or a hard, firm one. Up until a few years ago, the innerspring mattress was considered the best in comfort and durability but the development of the rubber foam type has been a serious challenge to the innerspring. Other health authorities recommend horsehair or cotton felt mattresses, but no matter which type is chosen it is always wise to buy one with a well-established name from a reputable dealer. There is no such thing as a bargain in a mattress.

With 60 years' hindsight, we know that innerspring mattresses were never completely eclipsed by rubber foam mattresses. Today's mattresses combine the best of both worlds - in most cases the innersprings are surrounded by various kinds of foam.

Did you know Serta's been around since the 1930s? Thirteen independent U.S. mattress factories banded together in 1931 under the name Sleeper, Inc. with plans to capture a share of the national market by manufacturing mattresses according to the same specifications and standards. They called their first mattress (the first tuftless mattress ever made) "Perfect Sleeper" and, though the company changed its own brand name to Serta during the early '40s, the Perfect Sleeper remained a hot commodity throughout the decade - and is still being sold today!

Well, my 21st-century Serta is supposed to be delivered today. You know how that goes. I'll probably be stuck at home most of the day waiting for the delivery people to arrive, but I'm going to make the most of that time by catching up on this weekend's housework. And I'm going to go to sleep tonight on my very own mattress. You know how they say you sleep better in your own bed... here's my chance to find out.

57 + 1 = 58

One more week - and one more pound. I weighed in at 136 this morning, for a total weight loss of 58 lbs. That mini-goal of 134 by Saturday, February 20 is just 2 lbs. away now. Can I do it? I'm certainly going to try!

This has been a lovely winter. My parents have been in town since late November and don't plan to head home to New England until early April --- which has been fantastic (it's such a treat to see them playing with Kitten and Poppet!), but it also makes my social calendar more full than it was during my first year of The Great Housekeeping Experiment. And when my social calendar is full, I feel like I'm always one step behind in my housework. I'm looking forward to making one of my vintage dinners for them one of these nights, though, and showing off some of my new cooking skills. Boy, won't they be surprised! I guess I ought to give some thought to the menu. Maybe I can plan a Washington's Birthday celebration or something...

One of the many things on my to-do list while my parents - and their truck! - are in town is to make my major furniture purchases for my nest: a sofa and a new mattress set. We're headed out this morning to do a little "market research." I haven't been furniture shopping in years, so it'll be good to see what's out there and get a feel for the prices. (It may take me a few trips like this just to get comfortable with the money I'm going to have to fork over. When you haven't spent a lot of money on any one thing in years, the idea can take some getting used to!)

Henry Humphrey's Woman's Home Companion Household Book (1948) offers some interesting advice on sofas:

To follow a good general rule, be sure that there are as many upholstered pieces as there are members of your family. Add to these a couch or sofa and there will be a comfortable seating arrangement for both family and guests. For large gatherings, provision will have to be made for extra chairs, probably taken from other parts of the house, so consider the upholstered pieces from the standpoint of comfort for your immediate family and the average number of people you entertain.

If there is no other accommodation for an overnight guest, the living room may occasionally have to substitute as a bedroom. For this purpose, a studio couch, or some type of couch which can be made into a bed, is a sensible investment.

If the guest bedroom problem does not concern you, the living room's upholstered furniture may be of any kind or type you like. There are all sizes and shapes of sofas; there are loveseats, couches, studio couches and chairs. Quality is important when buying. Flashy exteriors never make up for solid construction.

Okay, so if there's only one member in my family, then I only need one upholstered piece in my living room + a couch or sofa. Sweet! I'm halfway there. I already own an oversized club chair and ottoman covered in a burgundy velvet. I don't have any accommodations for overnight guests, but I rarely have overnight guests --- and now that my parents have a place out here which is going to be vacant half the year, you might say I have a guest room just across town. (Just kidding!) I would like to upgrade to a larger apartment at some point - one with a second bedroom for Kitten or Poppet to sleep in when they stay over at Auntie's - so while a sleep sofa might come in handy once in a great while, I probably wouldn't need it in my next place. I suspect sleep sofas are much more expensive than traditional sofas, but that's something I need to look into while I'm out shopping today. It's still on the table.

What do you suppose a "studio couch" is? As near as I can figure from the instructions in this book on slipcovering a studio couch, it's a flat piece you'd leave bolsters on during the day for seating and remove them at night to convert it into a bed of sorts. My great-aunt, who built and furnished a home in the 1940s with her husband, had two of these pieces on the sleeping porch. When my sisters and I were visiting, we'd take the bolsters off at night, pile them on the floor, then spread our sleeping bags on top. There were three of us and only two of the couches, so one unfortunate sister always ended up sleeping on the window seat. Luckily it was padded!

The living room in my apartment is not large, so size is key. I'm aiming at something about the size of a loveseat. And if I need a larger sofa in my next place one day, I'll still be able to get some use out of the smaller sofa in another room or as a second piece. I'm planning on something with a fairly neutral upholstery - maybe a medium tan or straw color - but who knows what'll strike my fancy. It probably won't be any of bright jewel tones popular in '40s upholstered furniture. Check out the blues and greens and violets in these vintage slipcover advertisements! You never know, though.



Here are the background colors I have to work around. My living room has wall-to-wall carpeting in a dingy apartment blue (think slate blue). The walls and woodwork are painted apartment beige. The window blinds I have to leave in place per my lease are apartment beige as well. My one upholstered chair is a deep burgundy.

I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks as always for making this blog a place where I can focus my thoughts and refine my plans. Y'all are the best!!!

Dorothy Dix Says...

What kind of advice does Dorothy Dix have for thirtysomething women whose biological clocks are starting to tick very loudly? She weighs in on the subject in a column first printed November 2, 1940.

Dear Miss Dix - About once every five years I take a personal inventory to check up on development and progress, if any. Have just been doing this and realize with a shock that I am 33 years old and that if I ever wish to marry and have the normal life of a woman I must be up and doing. So far I have never been in love. Never thought of marrying. Have let two good chances pass me by because I have to support my mother, and lately an invalid sister who is divorced and has two children have been added to my burden. Now the next five years are very important if I am to marry, and I know that I do want to marry. I know that I am good wife material. Am affectionate, attractive, energetic, well read, and domestic. Can you suggest any way out for me, bearing in mind that there is no other revenue other than my salary coming into the house? I will appreciate any advice you can give me on how, when and where to snare the illusive male.

DOT.

Answer - No other woman in the world has such a good opportunity to marry as the business woman, because she is thrown every day and all day in contact with men. Propinquity has a chance to get in its deadly work and it does so often that there is always a big turnover in the female employes in every establishment where the two sexes labor side by side.

So you have the ideal environment. You are casting your bait, so to speak, in a river that is full of suckers, but it is up to you to have enough skill and adroitness to hook your fish and land him. Nobody can teach you the trick.

You have to evolve your own craftsmanship, and apparently you have so far not taken the trouble to do it. You even scared off the two who came and nibbled at your line. So if you want to make your catch you will have to get busy. Thirty-three is getting along toward the deadline for fisherwomen.

I hate to be discouraging to any woman wanting a good husband, but, being a practical business woman yourself, you are bound to realize that your family is an almost insuperable handicap to you. Not many men in these days make enough money or are generous enough to marry a whole ready-made family and take on their shoulders the support of five people instead of one, as your husband would have to do.

Maybe there is some rich old man who would realize that a young, charming, interesting and domestic wife, such as you would be, is worth the price, but even if such a one should appear on the scene, would he be the Prince Charming you had always hoped to marry?

I think that nothing is more tragic than the fate of girls like you who would like to marry and who were intended by nature to marry and make some man happy, but who cannot do so because they are the family goats.

And I think that nothing is more cruel than the way in which families ruthlessly offer up these daughters, without a thought that they are making girls give up their lives for them.

Mothers who are perfectly capable of earning their own support settle down at 45 or 50 on Janey for the balance of their lives. Sisters and brothers demand that Janey work her fingers to the bones and do without everything she wants to send them off to college and give them good clothes, and then they marry without every repaying Janey a cent and go off about their own affairs and leave her to take care of Mother.

Why shouldn't Mother work if she is able to? Why shouldn't the sisters and brothers work their way through college if they are bound to go? Why shouldn't the sisters who lose their tastes for their husbands put up with them, as Janey does with her unpleasant bosses, instead of coming home with a houseful of children for Janey to support?

I am fed up hearing about parasitic families and I am hoping and praying that I will live to see the day when the nanny goats get up on their hind legs and stage a rebellion and refuse to furnish the sacrificial meat any longer. For why work when Janey provides a comfortable home and three square meals a day?

Dorothy Dix Would be Appalled

Talk about an etiquette disaster... I set up a Gmail account several months ago, linked it to my profile, and promptly forgot about it. Packrat mentioned the other day having sent an email to me, so I logged in and there were 18 messages there - some from as far back as last August! You should've seen me blush with embarrassment. Dorothy Dix would be appalled. I responded to about half of your messages last night and will get to the other half as soon as I'm able. To those of you who've written me at that address, please accept my apologies. If I haven't already replied, I'll be doing so very soon.

Balancing the Books

I've spent a few hours balancing my books for January 2010 and it's an interesting picture. The figures below in bold are the recommended allowances for each category of expenditures by the authors of America's Housekeeping Book (1945). In the case of shelter, clothes, operating expenses, and food, I'm spending less than the recommended allowance. This isn't exactly a surprise --- as I've mentioned before, these allowances were based on a single income providing for (on average) a family of six. I should be spending less than the allowances. When it comes to advancement, my spending is right in line with the recommended allowance. So I have to wonder if - based on the above - there are some "leaks" I might plug in my spending on advancement. My savings is above the recommended percentage of income, and that's appropriate. If I'm able to spend less in other categories (as a one-member household), then I should be saving more of my income than the 1940s family was able to save.

Shelter (if heat must be supplied) - 20% of income
Estimate: $479.25
Actual Expenditure for January 2010: $478.01 (14% of income)

Clothes - 15% of income
Estimate: $140.00
Actual Expenditure for January 2010: $247.20 (7% of income)

Operating expenses - 10-15% of income
Estimate: $186.67
Actual Expenditure for January 2010: $120.86 (4% of income)

Food - 20-35% of income
Estimate: $286.25
Actual Expenditure for January 2010: $417.06 (12% of income)

Advancement - 15-20% of income
Estimate: $594.43
Actual Expenditure for January 2010: $606.64 (18% of income)

Savings (other than life insurance) - 10% of income
Estimate: $490.94
Actual Expenditure for January 2010: $528.44 (16% of income)

When you add up my actual expenses in these categories for January 2010, they only total 71% of my income. (My gross income for January 2010 = $3371.71 (pay + interest)). So where's the other 29%? Well, 19% of it went to taxes ($640.48). Another 4% went to payment on debts ($134.64), and the remaining 6% is accounted for simply by the fact that I happened to have $204.57 more cash on hand on January 31 than I did on January 1. (Not to fear! It'll be spent.)

The authors of The Manual recommend your income be spent in the following proportions:
Food (20-35%)
Shelter (20%)
Advancement (15-20%)
Clothes (15%)
Operating Expenses (10-15%)
Savings (10%)

Here's how my expenses for January 2010 break down:
Taxes (19%)
Advancement (18%)
Savings (16%)
Shelter (14%)
Food (12%)
Clothes (7%)
Operating Expenses (4%)
Payment on Debts (4%)

Phew! Balancing my books was exhausting... I'm going to try this again for another month to see if I can gradually get a more accurate picture of my budget. As you can see from the figures in italics, my estimates were close in some categories. In others, like clothes and food, I was way underestimating what I'm spending! I suspect the food one is off because I ate a couple meals out in January (salads only, of course) and did some treating, as well. This has been a very useful exercise, though, and I've been able to identify several specific financial goals for 2010:

1. Once I begin buying new furnishings, I need to investigate the cost of renter's insurance. After going years without, it's time to take the plunge. I'm making a deal with myself - no new goodies if I don't insure them.

2. I've just made the very last payment on my car. (Yippee!) My plan has been that after eliminating that monthly bill, I would upgrade my lifestyle a bit and invest in a broadband internet connection (at last) and purchase a cell phone for emergencies. I need to begin researching bundling plans and see if I can't cut the cost of my landline (averages $55.37 per month) by carrying coverage for all three utilities through one provider.

3. Here's a tip from The Manual that I've been especially mindful of lately: "Don't sacrifice good lighting, but don't keep lights on in empty rooms." With an electric bill that averages $56.90 per month for a one-bedroom apartment, I'd like to see if I can make some savings here.

4. I'd like to double my emergency reserve from $500 to $1,000 by again transferring $25 each pay period from my checking to my savings just for this purpose. At $50 per month, this should be done by the end of November and be relatively painless.

5. Spend wisely! It's time to put some of that reward fund toward feathering my nest. I must be conscious, though, and invest in sturdy things that will stand the test of time. I want to continue growing my reward fund as I go, however. A new car will be necessary at some point - mine is nine years old now - and, as my credit score improves, I know I'll begin wanting to save toward the down payment on a condo or house. (Note to self: it's been a year, face the FICO and find out where you stand!)

6. When my auto insurance expires in June, I'd like to renew the policy with a single payment and save the interest I'd otherwise be paying with monthly payments. If I begin saving now specifically toward that goal, I ought to be able to make that payment in June.

7. Continue paying down my last remaining credit card.

56 + 1 = 57... and Life Insurance

Sayonara, 138! I weighed in at 137 this morning, for a loss of 1 lb. last week. It was a week that tried my willpower. Lots of chilly temps, cloudy skies, and rain. Conditions that conspired many times to making my walks seem so not the thing to do. And wouldn't you just rather curl up indoors on a day like that, eating comfort food and watching season 4 of The Office on DVD? Well, I managed to pull one out in the end, but it wasn't always a given. Onward and upward! I've got 3 more lbs. to go to reach my mini-goal of 134 by Saturday, February 20...

Life insurance - the face of your policies should amount to 2 or more years' income

When it comes to life insurance, the authors of The Manual don't have any insta rule-of-thumb on what percentage of your income should be spent on premiums. Probably because the amount and type of life insurance policies varies so much per family.

How much life insurance? For a family of two, enough insurance to pay bills in case of the husband's death, and to provide a temporary income for the wife - say a $5000 ordinary life insurance policy type costing $80-$100 a year. When a child is expected and for every additional dependent in the family another policy should be taken out in temporary-term life insurance of $1000 to $5000 or more, costing only $10 a year for $1000, and carried until the child reaches majority.

As a one-member, single-income family, I guess the only life insurance I need to carry at this point in my life is enough to pay any bills related to costs of death - funeral expenses and something to cover whatever costs there might be in closing my estate, however small it might be. My employer pays about $1 every two weeks to carry a basic $15,000 life insurance policy in my name. That's probably enough, right?

The Manual goes on to address retirement savings. For those without a pension or who couldn't look forward to any kind of Social Security income, it was recommended that they purchase an "old age annuity" from their life insurance provider. I've been contributing to a state retirement plan for two years now and have been paying into Social Security since I was 16 years old. I'm not always sure that the Social Security will even be there by the time I retire, but at least I have something else now for retirement savings.

Most teachers look forward to a pension, and are depositing annually 5 per cent of salary for it; through Social Security legislation, most workers anticipate old-age pensions; any family that does not have this old-age protection should devote 5 per cent or more of income to an old-age annuity secured from a life insurance company.

Finally, some sage advice on payment plans. You can save big bucks - or purchase a better policy - if you pay the premium in one lump sum instead of in monthly payments. This is something I need to begin doing when it comes to auto insurance.

Families that are buying their life insurance by weekly payments to a collector should transfer to a plan payable every three months, or once a year, at the company's office, thus increasing their insurance by half as much again at the same annual cost. In a few states it is possible to buy life insurance cheaply through savings banks. This type of insurance should be made legal in all states.

Life insurance is the last of the categories of expenses for which the Manual provides some guidelines in its "pattern" budget. Next up: a summary of my income and expenditures for the month of January 2010. How do my actual income and expenditures compare to what I've estimated I'm spending in each category?

Dorothy Dix Says...

This week's column - which dates to January 25, 1940 - is a back-to-the-basics lesson in etiquette. The letter writer must have written the morning after a dinner party she hosted or attended was ruined by a very late guest.

Dear Dorothy Dix - What do you think of a woman who never keeps any appointment or arrives at any function on time? When she is invited to dinner she keeps her hostess and the other guests waiting thirty or forty minutes while the soup scorches and the souffle falls and everybody gets hungrier and hungrier and crosser and crosser and the affair is ruined. Otherwise this woman is charming and pleasant, but she is losing all of her friends by her utter disregard of other people's convenience.

Answer - It is said that promptness is the courtesy of kings, and certainly nothing shows utter lack of breeding as for a selfish individual to make other people wait for him or her. I knew one woman who solved this problem of the dilatory guest very satisfactorily. In her house when dinner was at 8 it was promptly at 8, and the guests who arrived late were served the course that was then in progress, and if they only got in for the salad it was just too bad for them. The result was that as far as Mrs. B., who was noted for her famous food, was concerned, her guests were always on time. I recommend this plan. It always works.

Savings

Savings (other than life insurance) - 10 per cent of income

Moving from expenses to savings, the authors of The Manual take an interesting tack when it comes to the kinds of things that qualify as "savings." I'd never really thought of it like this before, but they count payments on the principal of your mortgage as savings. Makes sense. Unlike us schlups in Apartment Land, you homeowners are building equity every time you make a mortgage payment - at least with a portion of that check! Here's a rundown of the other things considered savings:

Another column of your tentative budget lists savings and investments. Figures for payments on property (exclusive of interest), annuities, endowment policies, life insurance, stocks and bonds, deposits in the savings bank and your reward fund are entered in this column.

Well, I don't own any real property. I'm also not building any kind of annuity or endowment policy, but - as a state employee - $151.72 is deducted from my paycheck every two weeks ($303.44 per month) and deposited in a state retirement account. That money is mine should I leave the state's employ at any time, so I guess we could consider that an annuity of sorts. Life insurance will be considered in my next post. I don't purchase any stocks or bonds. During the past month, I've transferred a total of $187.50 from my checking to my savings account. My total savings during the past month then are $490.94 or 13% of my gross monthly income of $3666.67. Good news! Though I doubt my savings would be quite this healthy if that retirement contribution wasn't whisked away without my even seeing it, I'm toeing the 10% mark set forth in the "pattern" budget.

Some families whose incomes boast a small surplus, or who can "manage" to reserve a few dollars over and above expenses, like to build up a separate bank account as an emergency reserve or "balance wheel." This account should never be drawn upon for minor emergencies or to make up deficits. Authorities recommend that $500-$1000 be built up and maintained in this account.

There are various types of savings accounts described by the authors of The Manual. The first is your basic emergency reserve. $500-$1,000 may not sound like much, but in today's dollars it's actually more like $5,921-$11,841. Wow! My emergency reserve only totals $500 - and I was darn proud of having put that aside for the first time in my life! The figure recommended by vintage "authorities" is closer to the "three to six months' expenses" often cited by financial experts today. I'm falling far short of the mark of a healthy savings in this respect. I built that small emergency reserve by transferring $25 each pay period ($50 per month) into that account and stopped when I reached goal. It sounds like I'd best go back to doing that. Pronto.

One dollar a week seems a minimum amount to save, and as income increases one should save up to one dollar in every ten dollars earned or more; these savings should go part into life insurance and part into the "balance wheel" account.

$4 per month in 1945 dollars = $47 today. So $50 sounds like a reasonable contribution on a monthly basis toward building a more healthy emergency reserve.

Another type of savings account described by the authors of The Manual is a reward fund - or a fund designated with specific expenditures in mind:

The reward can be big or little, ranging from a new set of dishes to a car or a house. You may decide to make a five-year plan or a one-month plan, depending on the goal. The important thing is that a reward is in view. This reward should be of interest to the whole family, of course, and a council should be called to decide on something that the majority are eager to have.

Get the family together and list everything that everybody wants: the clothing items each one needs; new equipment for kitchen and laundry and tools for work bench or garden or garage; household furnishings for living room, dining room and bedroom, whether repair of old or purchase of new; a rug, a picture or a musical instrument; and then personal needs - for games at home and sports outside, for recreation, for arts and crafts, for reading, music, plays and movies. Of high importance are books, magazines and lectures that will aid father in his vocation and mother in her homemaking. When the lists are made, discuss them in a breezy family round table and choose the most important items to try and secure month by month for next year. Many will have to be deferred, but why miss the thrill of thinking that we will have it too! Such goals are good for family ambition. Some things desired can be made at home; free books and magazines are awaiting us at libraries, free lectures and music are available for the asking or the arranging of a committee to provide them which we might help establish. Once the goal is established, set the date for achievement, and plan to put aside a certain sum each week or month until the reward is won.

Now you are ready to construct the rest of your spending plan, in order to find the ways and means to save the reward fund. You may find so many small "leaks" after a month or so of budgeting that the reward fund will accumulate more rapidly than you had hoped.

My reward fund started out as a relocation fund. I hated feeling trapped in this town and wanted to build enough in a savings account so that moving "home" would actually be an option for me one day. These days, relocation is not a priority. To be frank, I have a hard time imagining living 3,000 miles away from my darling Kitten and Poppet. For any reason. So the relocation fund has become the money I'm planning on spending to feather my nest this year. To buy some new furnishings, a new mattress and boxspring, maybe do a little decorating. I've managed to sock $2,256.76 away over the past nine months. (Funny - I guess I started building that account just about the time I started my vintage fitness and reducing plan. I hadn't realized that!) Next up: Life Insurance.

55 + 1 = 56... and Advancement

Advancement - 15-20 per cent of income.

The title to this category caught me off-guard at first. What could they mean by "advancement"? Here's the scoop:

Now for another main heading of our budget - advancement or development. Under this heading come health, recreation, pocket money, personal care, automobile expenses, gifts, contributions and education.

Okay, I get it. The "pattern" budget includes separate columns for both "health" and "automobile expenses" - acknowledging that these items probably make up the lion's share of expenses related to advancement. This is such a wide-ranging category it's going to be tough for me to come up with any kind of estimate as to what I'm spending, but I'll give it a shot.

Under health we list medical and dental care and drugs. Regular visits to your physician and dentist are cheaper than emergency measures necessitated by neglect. The Chinese pay their doctors to keep them well, and this seems to be the best idea of all. Hospital insurance, costing two to three pennies a day, is a wise investment for every family, even though they may never need it. And meeting bills caused by illness, through membership in an insurance association, is a method which is now becoming available.

Thankfully, in 2010, I can count on more than just "hospital insurance" - as long as I'm employed at my current job, that is. I spend $73.70 per month on medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums + $39.16 per month on long- and short-term disability premiums. During the past month, I've also spent $70.00 on co-pays. As near as I can figure, I've spent $35.58 on medication and vitamins during the past month. Though my premiums are steady from month to month, these last two figures will always vary. My total spending on health during the past month is somewhere in the neighborhood of $218.44.

Monthly automobile expenses include my car payment ($210.14) and car insurance ($60.17). I've only spent $26.33 on gas during the past month, but I'd better deduct from that the $18.63 I estimate spending on gas for my commute to work during the past month. (That falls under the "shelter" category in my vintage budget.) That leaves $7.70 spent on gas for non-commuting travel. I haven't had any maintenance or repairs this month, so my costs are definitely on the low side. My total spending on automobile expenses during the past month is about $278.01.

Recreation almost deserves to be listed under health, so essential is it to well-being and happiness. It is not at all necessary to be extravagant in order to have fun, but neither is it wise to be stingy to the point of starvation.

Sadly, I can't think of anything I've purchased during the past month that truly counts as recreation. Something to think about...

Magazines, newspapers, books and circulating-library fees all come under the head of education, as do fees for professional associations, school expenses, etc.

Nope, nothing here. I don't have any magazine or newspaper subscriptions. I rarely buy books, and the libraries I visit don't charge any circulating fees - unless you're late! I don't have any expenditures to chalk up to education during the past month.

What's left? Personal care --- here's where beauty products, haircare, and other toiletries come in ($63.24 during the past month). I've spent $10.79 during the past month on gifts and $11.00 on contributions. The one item I haven't really been able to categorize, but seems to fall into the "advancement" area, is a bouquet of tulips I bought last weekend for my desk at work. I guess I'll just have to consider that $12.95 as pocket money!

My total spending on "advancement" during the past month = 594.43 or 16% of my gross monthly income of $3666.67. I fall squarely into the 15-20% figure recommended by the authors of The Manual when it comes to this category. Next up: Savings.

PS: I weighed in at 138 this morning --- 1 lb. closer to my mini-goal of 134 by Saturday, February 20. All aboard! It's full steam ahead on the reducing train!!!

Dorothy Dix Says...

Dorothy Dix has been currying a lot of favor for the last few weeks, but this week's advice may be a bit more controversial. In a column first printed on December 17, 1940, she weighs in on the issue of publicizing adultery.

Dear Miss Dix - I have been married for 30 years. My husband has been kind to me and a good provider, but he has always been a philanderer. Recently I discovered that he had been having a love affair with a young business girl in our home town and that this had been going on for five years. I came across some love letters in his coat pocket from this girl. After reading them I passed them on to my 15-year-old daughter and also to several friends. Finally I gave them to the girl’s employer to read. I knew he was a man of high morals and that he would dismiss the girl if he knew of her conduct. He did so reluctantly, for she was a very competent and dependable worker. Now I would like to know whether I did wrong in publishing my husband’s shame to the world and causing the girl to lose her job?

MRS. L. M. D.

Answer - It is easy to see how a wife, driven mad by discovery of her husband’s infidelity and with jealousy of the woman who has supplanted herself in his affections, does things in the stress of her emotions that are neither wise nor right. Much excuse is to be made for her. Not many of us can be calm and judicious in our reasoning when our hearts are torn to tatters and our world is crumbling about us.

No one can wonder that in your fury at being betrayed you took the first means at hand to revenge yourself upon your husband and his lady love. But you have found, as we all do who try it, that revenge is not as sweet as we thought it would be. It is gall and wormwood in our mouths. For it makes us do and say things that we spend our lives in regretting.

I know that you must be very sorry that you showed those incriminating letters to your young daughter, because they shattered her ideal of her father and forever killer her respect for him.

Never again can he be a hero in her eyes. She will always see him as an amorous old man having a sordid intrigue with a girl and double-crossing his wife. To the young elderly Romeos are not romantic. They are disgusting.

No matter how your husband has treated you, you were not justified in hurting your daughter in order to hurt him. To shake a child’s faith in her father is almost as bad as to shake her faith in God.

And you must also be very sorry that in the fury of your passion you blazoned your husband’s shame to the world, because that puts you in such an undignified position if you go on living with him. The only way a married woman can save her face when she has a philandering husband is to pretend that she does not know about his infidelities.

Food

Food - 20-35 per cent of income (the smaller the income, the larger the percentage that must be spent for food)

This is going to be the shortest of my budget posts as I've taken an in depth look at this category in the past. Last winter, I spent a month tracking my food expenditures - adding the total amount spent and breaking it down by food group. Six months later, I tried the mission again and the difference my reducing plan had made was dramatic. The total amount I spent on food for a single month had dropped from $375.67 to $286.25. The majority of my "food dollar" (37%) was spent on fruits and vegetables. Six months before, the majority of my spending (66%) went toward fats, sugar and miscellaneous items!

I'd like to try this mission again sometime just to keep myself honest, but the information from August's tracking should be helpful in estimating how much I spend on food today. If I'm spending something like $286.25 per month on food, that's only 8% of my gross monthly income of $3666.67 --- a far cry from the 20-35% recommended by the authors of The Manual. Part of the reason my food expenditures seem so small is that I'm not using one income to feed six mouths. My income only has to feed me. The other reason is quite simply that food costs a heck of a lot less now than it did during the 1940s. When you allow for inflation, the average American bag of groceries is astonishingly cheaper now than it was in grandmother's day. This is good news for the hungry, but bad news for the family farm. Government-subsidized agribusiness has pushed the inflation-relative cost of food so low that the small family farm is no longer viable.

At any rate, I guess I'm in good shape when it comes to food. Next up: Advancement.

Power Marketing

As I was doing my marketing yesterday evening, it occurred to me that this biweekly trip to the grocery store is a great opportunity to burn some calories. Having a tough time trying to figure out how to fit a workout into your busy schedule? Make your marketing work for you!

1. Park on the edge of the parking lot.
Do you drive to the grocery store? Well, put your legs to work next time and park your car at the very edge of the parking lot - as far from the store as possible. Not only can you avoid all the congestion near the closest parking spots, but you'll burn some extra calories walking to and from your car.

2. Take that cart up and down every aisle.
Every aisle - whether it contains items you need or not. Weave it in and out every stack of fruits and veggies in the produce section, too. And don't forget the bakery! As your cart gets more and more full, you're adding resistance to your workout. Not only is this a great opportunity to burn some calories and tone leg muscles, it keeps me from forgetting anything I need at home. I always take a list to the grocery store with me, but there's inevitably something that slipped my mind as I was making up my list. Walking up and down each aisle reminds me of anything that I'm low on and need to add to my cart.

3. Return your cart to the cart corral.
It's always been a pet peeve of mine when people leave their grocery carts willy nilly all over the parking lot --- ripe for rolling right into other cars or blocking off just enough of another parking spot that it has to be bypassed when spots are scarce. Take an extra minute and return your cart to the nearest corral. You'll be doing your fellow drivers a favor and burning a few extra calories at the same time. A win-win!

4. Take your time getting the groceries into the house.
The fact that my apartment is on the second floor of my complex gives me a chance to combine a stair-climbing workout with my marketing. Instead of trying to carry every one of my grocery bags into the house in one trip, I take just two bags at a time. One in each hand. If I've got a particularly heavy bag that needs to be hoisted and carried in my arms, I'll take that up by itself. I carry my bags all the way into the kitchen. Set them down on the table, then head back downstairs for the next (small) load.

I've never used a pedometer to try and calculate the amount of calories burned by adding these extra steps to my marketing trips, but all these little steps have got to add up when taken week in and week out. Think of it as "power marketing."

In a February 1944 advertisement, the Borden Company (think Elsie the Cow) offered up four tips of their own for weary wartime housewives. These tips were designed to make marketing a little easier during an era of food shortages and ration points, but the last one would be a great power marketing tip for those of you who live close enough to a grocery store that you might be able to turn a "quick run for a few things" into a workout. The Trader Joe's I shop at on Wednesday evenings is just two blocks from my apartment complex and I've always stopped there on the way home from work to do my shopping. Maybe it's time I start driving all the way home, then walk back to the store to pick up my groceries and carry them home in my own two arms. I never buy more than one bag worth on Wednesdays...

1. DO YOUR WEEK-END SHOPPING EARLY IN THE WEEK! Miss the Saturday mob - and get better service.

2. PLAN YOUR SHOPPING LIST AT HOME! Means less time in the market - and helps budget ration points.

3. KEEP UP-TO-DATE ON POINT VALUES! Check ration calendars... Know when points expire. Your grocer will love you for it - and you'll get your points' worth, too.

4. CARRY YOUR PACKAGES! Then you won't have to worry about slow deliveries.

53 + 2 = 55... and Operating Expenses

Another week, another weigh-in. And a successful one at that. I weighed in at 139 this morning for a loss of 2 lbs. during the past week and a total loss of 55 lbs. since April 2009. It's time to set a new mini-goal! How 'bout this: by Saturday, February 20, I want to weigh in at 134. Now, on to the fun stuff:

Operating expenses - 10-15 per cent of income

Operating Expenses is a wide category. From electricity to toilet paper, it covers all of the basic utilities and supplies - with the exception of food - that it takes to keep a household running smoothly. I may have a tough time estimating how much I'm spending for some of the items listed under Operating Expenses, but I'm going to give it a whirl. I'll know more as the new year progresses and I'm tracking my actual expenditures every month.

Electricity
I logged on to my electric company website and can see that during that last 12 months I've spent $682.83 for electricity (Yikes!) or an average of $56.90 per month.

Gas
I suspect they're not referring to automobile gas here, but natural gas piped into a home. None used here.

Fuel
This category covers any alternative sources of energy. In the '40s, coal, wood, and kerosene might typically have shown up here.

Telephone
Here's another place where those online accounts come in very handy. During the last 12 months, I've spent $664.48 for telephone service (Double yikes! That's for just a single land line!!!) or an average of $55.37 per month.

Garbage Collection
My rent includes garbage collection, so nothing extra here.

Water
My rent also includes water, so nothing here.

Ice
This item made me giggle at first, but I suppose it was a very real expense for homeowners of the '40s who still owned an icebox.

Service and Repairs
I'm not sure what kind of subtle differences the authors of The Manual might have intended between "service" and "repairs." Any ideas? At any rate, most of my household repairs are taken care of by the landlord at no expense to me.

Furnishings
Can't wait to spend some cash on furnishings during 2010! My expenditures in this category have been few and far between, so it's hard to hazard even a guess here...

Household Supplies
I've saved my supermarket receipts for the past two weeks, so I've got a little something to go on. My purchases in 2010 that have fallen under this category include toilet paper, dishwasher detergent, a refill for my hand soap dispenser in the bathroom, garbage bags for the kitchen, a box of envelopes, and some of those one-time-only mini loaf pans I used to make up the rest of my holiday quick breads. I seem to be spending an average of $14.60 per week on household supplies - which works out to about $58.40 per month.

Laundry
I spend $4 per week (or $16 per month) to do my wash in the laundromat in my apartment complex. Haven't bought any new detergent yet this year, but that'll also fall under this category. As would any other items somebody might regularly use, like dryer sheets or spray starch. Do you send anything to the dry cleaners? Better include that expense here...

So my best guess is that I spend about $186.67 per month on Operating Expenses. That's 5% of my gross monthly income of $3666.67. I'm sure once I start indulging in some of the new furnishings I have in mind for 2010, I'll have no problem spending something more like the 10-15% figure recommended in the "pattern" household budget! They were planning for the expenses needed for the average family, though. One income split six ways - where I'm only splitting one income one way. The authors of The Manual also have some suggestions when it comes assessing your expenditures on Operating Expenses:

Are you amazed at the present cost of running your house? Which items seem too high? Can you cut them? Don't sacrifice good lighting, but don't keep lights on in empty rooms. Learn to operate your kitchen range and electrical appliances economically. Keep track of telephone calls so that you won't exceed the limit unless absolutely necessary. Operate your heating plant efficiently. Buy furnishings with an eye to wearing qualities and cleaning ability. Don't waste water by letting faucets drip. As you see, there are many ways to cut operating costs if you are determined to do so.

Dorothy Dix Says...

Ah, the eternal problem of the not-so-empty nesters... A stepmother trying desperately to wean her grown children from home wrote to Dorothy Dix for advice. This column was first printed on December 27, 1940.

Dear Dorothy Dix - I married a widower with three nearly grown children. I was good to them and they love me. So well that they are not willing to leave mother and her cooking. The two girls married soon after leaving college and they chose fine, sensible, well-educated young men, but was it easy to get them out of the house? I should say not. They never would have gone if I had not kept moving into smaller and smaller apartments. Because they can’t come home, where there is no room for them, they have settled down to a salutary routine of cooking and housekeeping and baby-rearing. Now the problem is the boy. He is 21. Won’t go to school. Won’t work. Hates the slightest physical or mental exertion. Sits at home and does nothing but play solitaire and read newspapers and detective stories and smoke. How can I get him on his way out of the nest in a way beneficial to him?

MRS R. J. H.

Answer - Get the boy a job and tell him that henceforth he is his own meal ticket, and that if he wants to eat he will have to work. Then go to live for the time being in one room in a hotel so there will be no place for him. Evidently he is one of the birds that will never leave the warm home nest of his own accord. He will not only have to be pushed out of it, but you also will have to destroy the nest so he cannot return to it.

There is no problem that parents have to face that is more difficult than that of what to do with their lazy, purposeless children who settle down on mother and father to be supported, and who refuse to make the slightest effort to provide for themselves.

It is a problem so complicated with a false idea of parental duty, and so mixed up with maudlin affection, that most fathers and mothers lack the nerve and backbone to solve it in the only rational way. Which is by turning the youngsters out on their own and locking the door behind them.

But few parents have the hardihood to apply such a drastic remedy, although they know it is the only cure. They can’t bear to think that Mamie may be having to cook a poor meal over a gas jet, or Sammy may have no nice, comfortable bed to sleep in. So they let Mamie and Sammy sit around idle year after year, with nothing to do but play golf or pool or follow some sort of temperamental occupation which brings in no pay envelope.

All of us know dozens of cases like these. We know plenty of homes in which there are husky young men and women with plenty of intelligence and plenty of energy in amusing themselves, who positively refuse to leave home long years after they should have been out of it and about their own business.

It is the knowledge that there is always home to stay in and three square meals a day that is responsible for nine-tenths of the no-account loafers that encumber the earth.

It is the boys and girls who know that they can always go back home and be taken care of who are the quitters and shirkers, who throw up a job the minute it gets hard sledding and there are disagreeable bosses to be contended with.

The boys and girls who have no one but themselves to depend on, nowhere to go but the room their labor pays for, nothing to eat but what they can earn, are the ones who stick to their work and put their hearts and backs in it until they win out to success.

So the parents who are afflicted with parasitic children who refuse to take an education or hold on to a job do their youngsters the greatest kindness they can possibly perform when they follow the example of the birds and push them out of the nest and make them try their own wings.

"The Family"

First, the disclaimer: I haven't yet finished this book.

I know, I know, I've had a month. I'm out of practice when it comes to reading... Exercise and housework have taken up most of my spare time for the past year. I did read as far as Part II, Chapter 19, so I'm going to base tonight's post on what I've read thus far. Guess I can't spoil the ending for anybody! I don't want to postpone this discussion any longer in case there are any of you who've already finished the book, so I'll just add any thoughts on the rest of the book in the comments.

Nina Fedorova's The Family (1940) was the #10 bestselling novel in the U.S. during the year 1940. A hot commodity --- and I can see why. Though I haven't found anything myself that's particularly special in the author's style of writing, the premise for the book is fabulous. It's set in the British Concession in Tientsin (today spelled Tianjin), China beginning in May 1937 through the Japanese invasion and occupation of the city in July - and I've read as far as March 1938, when the American regiment stationed in Tientsin was moved to another location. The background for the story is truly dramatic. Where else in the world would every one of the peoples who would be major players in the Second World War find themselves nose to nose during these pivotal years before war had "officially" broken out in most of the world? Japan, China, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France, the United States, the Soviet Union: all these powers had a presence in Tientsin, whether they leased one of the city's "concessions" from China or whether their people were refugees or natives. The British Concession, where the story takes place, is a sanctuary of sorts for its residents and an attractive focal point for a community of refugees from Soviet Russia. The Japanese aren't able to either bomb or invade the British Concession without damaging themselves politically, but they do begin censoring all the mail which reaches its residents and maintain an active network of spies within the concession.

Fedorova always capitalizes the phrase "The Family." And in the beginning, it refers to a small family of Russians who operate a boarding house in the British Concession. Granny, Mother, Lida (Mother's daughter), Peter, and Dima (Granny's grandsons by now deceased sons). You quickly begin to see, however, that The Family extends to include many of the residents who come and go at the boarding house. They're all refugees in their own ways - people without a country - yet they bond and celebrate each other's joys and mourn each other's sorrows. Khan, the manservant, is a refugee from the poverty of the Chinese countryside. Madame Militza, the Bessarabian fortuneteller, was born in a land which has changed hands so many times she can't obtain the visa needed to leave China. Mrs. Parrish is an alcoholic, recently widowed and waiting for her brother to come from Great Britain so he can liquidate her late husband's estate and she can leave. Until Granny's death prompts her to become sober, you might say Mrs. Parrish was a refugee from reality. The elderly and opinionated Professor Chernov and his wife Anna Petrovna are Russian refugees, imprisoned for dissidence before fleeing for sanctuary in China. Irina Gordova, orphaned and alone in the world, is also a Russian refugee. She's in love with an American soldier who cannot legally marry while deployed overseas, so they live together from time to time and he supports her financially. Mr. Sung is a Chinese university professor who narrowly escapes the Japanese when he's forced to flee Tientsin with underground knowledge of some sort. Then, of course, there are two memorable appearances by the dressed-from-head-to-toe-in-brown Miss Pink, a "reformer" determined to convince Irina that she's living in sin:

Like all great reformers, she was quite alone in this huge overpopulated world.

Life in Occupied Tientsin is grim. Poverty and hardship and suspicion are everywhere. Neither Peter nor Lida is able to find paying work as the only available jobs are all but closed to Russians. Lida has an out - she's engaged to an American boy who's gone back to the States for college. Dima has an out - Mrs. Parrish wants to take him to Great Britain and raise him as her own. Peter is screwed - he can't find work and, without a visa, he can't leave the concession. At least as far as I've gotten in the story, he's contemplating traveling overland with a band of gypsies and criminals, sneaking across the border into the Soviet Union, turning himself over to the authorities, and hoping that they'll grant him citizenship of some sort after he does several years in prison or a labor camp.

"Aunty," - and a deep bitterness sounded in Peter's voice, - "it seems that whatever way I go I am doomed to be killed... If such is my fate, let me be killed on my native soil - be killed for something."

Mother manages to scrape together enough to keep the boarding house afloat, but she eats very little herself and is always very tired. Yet Fedorova seems to be trying to tell us that we can find the strength to carry through the hardest of times if we make the most of the people around us. And that even a big collection of strangers can be a Family to each other if they need one badly enough. There may be some big finish to this story which drives the point home, but I haven't gotten there yet... I can only guess where she's taking us!

Nina Fedorova was a Russian refugee herself, eventually settling in Eugene, Oregon, then in San Francisco. America is viewed as nothing less than the promised land in this book. A place Dima dreams about, where "children eat ice cream and candies daily," where both the young Russian women in the book plan to escape and build new lives in democracy and freedom. According to a 1947 newspaper article, Fedorova wrote a sequel to this book, titled The Children - you know a book's got to have been popular if a sequel was written! - and there was interest from Hollywood in making a film of the first book. I gotta tell you --- the entire time I was reading this book all I could picture was the action taking place on the silver screen. It was so easy to picture one of those melodramatic black and white films of the era with the bad foreign accents, the rainy Chinese setting, sweeping overhead battle scenes, and the fade-to-soft finishes on teary heroines. (Greer Garson would've made a perfect Mother!) They would have had to shrink the cast of characters though. Maybe combine a few of the characters. There are just too many to keep track of... Can you see this book as a classic Hollywood film? Who would you have cast in the roles?

Next month's Book of the Month Club selection will be the #8 bestselling novel in the U.S. during 1940: The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck. I'm going to get an early start on this one, dear readers! Please join me on Friday, February 12 for the next meeting of our club.