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.

A Big, Scrummy Mess

My plan for breakfast this morning was an unmitigated failure.

It started out okay. The Corn-meal Mush came right out of the pan in a single piece. I sliced it into strips and started heating some oil in a large fry pan. Now, I have almost zero experience frying foods in hot oil, so maybe I used too much oil, maybe too little, maybe the burner wasn't just the right temperature. I don't know. The strips never browned. They just kind of sat there in the bubbling oil and fell apart every time I tried to turn one over. There were actually two different recipes for Fried Mush in my cookbook. The first suggests breading the slices of Mush before frying them. The second suggests skipping the breading altogether.

I'm not sure where I went wrong, but I ended up with a mound of oily, hot-ish, half-congealed Corn-meal on my plate. (Just the thought now makes me queasy.) I was very doubtful at this point my breakfast could be resuscitated, so I was sparing with the Sirup. And after a few bites for penance - I'd had enough. Blech! I'm still trying to banish the sight and smell of it from my mind...

In honor of Dr. King and the National Day of Service, some friends and I spent the morning picking up trash on the banks of a dry riverbed. We had a good time - my legs feel like jelly! - but we managed to clean up one little corner of the Earth. What a lot of litter is out there. I picked up lots of glass and bottle caps and cigarette butts. Plastic bags, pieces of styrofoam, dish shards. A $5 Monopoly bill, a shower curtain rod. What surprised me was how much fast food trash we found. Napkins, receipts, bags, containers. It's as if people are just throwing the remains of their drive-thru lunches right out the window when they're finished. Double Blech!

Sanitation Engineering

Sanitation engineering isn't something I've given much thought to when it comes to my home. I've just realized, though, that the authors of my housekeeping manual have taken it for granted that I have a waste basket in every room of the house. And I don't. I have a garbage can in the kitchen and another, smaller one in the bathroom. It'd certainly save on the odd piece of trash I need to pick up in the morning if I could have thrown it away from the get-go without taking more than a step or two. I think they're onto something here.

There's certainly an interesting flow of garbage - or refuse, to put it delicately - through the 1940s home. The last step in my early morning routine in the bedroom is to "collect trash in waste basket." As I've added a tidy up in the dining area and the living room to my schedule, the manual instructs me again to "collect trash in waste basket." After breakfast, each room in the house is supposed to get a daily cleaning, and the housewife is repeatedly reminded to "take out... waste basket" and then to "replace" it. The only point in the routine when the terminology becomes any different is in the kitchen, when the waste basket is instead called a "garbage can."

Waste baskets were more decorative items meant primarily for paper refuse. They didn't need to be lined or covered. Some were quite literally baskets, though painted metal waste baskets seem to have been popular. Garbage cans, on the other hand, were lined with paper and the '40s housewife was expected to wash and disinfect them once a week and let them dry in the sun. Paper bags from the grocery store were great for liners, but "moisture-proof liners" designed to fit these cans were also becoming available on the market. Garbage cans had lids - sometimes operated by a pedal at the base of the can.

It sounds as if the authors of the manual are advising the housewife to take the waste basket from each room into the kitchen to empty them into the garbage can. From there, the garbage can will be emptied - into a larger can elsewhere? - once a day, ideally, just before preparing lunch. Once it leaves the kitchen... well, that must be a husband's territory, because we hear no more about it.