174-Year-Old Wisdom
From The American Frugal Housewife by Mrs. Child, 1832:
On general frugality:
If you are about to furnish a house, do not spend all your money, be it much or little. Do not let the beauty of this thing, and the cheapness of that, tempt you to buy unnecessary articles. Doctor Franklin’s maxim was a wise one, ‘Nothing is cheap that we do not want.’ 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 splendour; but it is always painful and inconvenient to decrease. After all, these things are viewed in their proper light by the truly judicious and respectable. 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. The consideration which many purchase by living beyond their income, and of course living upon others, is not worth the trouble it costs.
(Emphases are mine.)
On raising children:
In early childhood, you lay the foundation of poverty or riches, in the habits you give your children. Teach them to save everything,—not for their own use, for that would make them selfish—but for some use. Teach them {7} to share everything with their playmates; but never allow them to destroy anything.
I once visited a family where the most exact economy was observed; yet nothing was mean or uncomfortable. It is the character of true economy to be as comfortable and genteel with a little, as others can be with much. In this family, when the father brought home a package, the older children would, of their own accord, put away the paper and twine neatly, instead of throwing them in the fire, or tearing them to pieces. If the little ones wanted a piece of twine to play scratch-cradle, or spin a top, there it was, in readiness; and when they threw it upon the floor, the older children had no need to be told to put it again in its place.
…
Those who have wealth, have recently had many and bitter lessons to prove how suddenly riches may take to themselves wings; and those who certainly have but little to leave, should indeed beware how they bestow upon their children, the accursed inheritance of indolent and extravagant habits.
(Emphasis is mine.)
On materialism:
‘Everything is so cheap,’ say the ladies, ‘that it is inexcusable not to dress well.’ But do they reflect why things are so cheap? Do they know how much wealth has been sacrificed, how many families ruined, to produce this boasted result? Do they not know enough of the machinery of society, to suppose that the stunning effect of crash after crash, may eventually be felt by those on whom they depend for support?
Luxuries are cheaper now than necessaries were a few years since; yet it is a lamentable fact, that it costs more to live now than it did formerly. When silk was nine shillings per yard, seven or eight yards sufficed for a dress; {109} now it is four or five shillings, sixteen or twenty yards will hardly satisfy the mantuamaker.
If this extravagance were confined to the wealthiest classes, it would be productive of more good than evil. But if the rich have a new dress every fortnight, people of moderate fortune will have one every month. In this way, finery becomes the standard of respectability; and a man’s cloth is of more consequence than his character.
(Emphasis is mine.)
On young people and materialism (I’m reminded of my mother complaining about a particular cousin of mine regarding the same):
There is nothing in which the extravagance of the present day strikes me so forcibly as the manner in which our young people of moderate fortune furnish their houses.
A few weeks since, I called upon a farmer’s daughter, who had lately married a young physician of moderate talents, and destitute of fortune. Her father had given her, at her marriage, all he ever expected to give her: viz. two thousand dollars. Yet the lower part of her house was furnished with as much splendor as we usually find among the wealthiest. The whole two thousand had been expended upon Brussels carpets, alabaster vases, mahogany chairs, and marble tables. I afterwards learned that the more useful household utensils had been forgotten; and that, a few weeks after her wedding, she was actually obliged to apply to her husband for money to purchase baskets, iron spoons, clothes-lines, &c.; and her husband, made irritable by the want of money, pettishly demanded why she had bought so many things they did not want. Did the doctor gain any patients, or she a single friend, by offering their visiters water in richly-cut glass tumblers, or serving them with costly damask napkins, instead of plain soft towels? No; their foolish vanity made them less happy, and no more respectable.
I love this and will be poring over these pages with great interest. Of course, Mrs. Child’s prim point-of-view is quaintly pre-feminist, but it’s funny (and a little sad) how much persists in relevance, 174 years later.
My interest is particularly piqued by the dye methods she suggests and might give a few of them a go with dyeing yarn. The setting agent she recommends is alum powder, which can be found in the spice aisle of most grocery stores, apparently.
Now where the devil is my bonnet?
[via Path to Freedom]
ruthee said,
July 23, 2006 at 8:00 pm
Wonderful….thank you sharing….and reminding us….=)
nichola said,
July 24, 2006 at 2:27 am
Thanks so much for sharing this, it’s very interesting. Which one do you recommend downloading?
Liz said,
July 24, 2006 at 7:16 am
Frugality is something that is definitely not valued these days. If it were, I wouldn’t feel like such an outsider. Crazy how something like that can make you feel so different from the masses of people, but it’s true.
Michelle said,
July 24, 2006 at 11:04 pm
“Do they know how much wealth has been sacrificed, how many families ruined, to produce this boasted result? ”
This just gives me chills. I know human nature is and always has been the same, but this indicates that its not ALL Walmart’s fault.
Really cool post.
farm-witch said,
July 26, 2006 at 11:42 am
so cool. I once found a book called “the confederate housewife’ a the library. I had a hard time reading it because it was most definitely from a pre-anti-slavery viewpoint but it also had some great recipes…if you could sift through the racism and arbitration of women and children.
I hope you’ll be sharing some of the dye recipes!
Gina said,
July 27, 2006 at 11:45 am
Ah, so much to learn from our “elders”. There was wisdom in those early years!
Great post, thanks for sharing!
The Worsted Witch » Money Quotes said,
February 22, 2007 at 11:23 am
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