HOUSEKEEPING ACCOUNTS.

      63. One of the greatest trials of the young wife is the ACCOUNT-BOOK. This book becomes a perfect bugbear to some ladies, who are yet perfectly capable of keeping a neat and regular debtor and creditor account if they could be once started with a regular system of account-keeping.

      64. Girls, whose monetary responsibilities have begun and ended with their quarterly allowance, find housekeeping accounts very difficult to manage properly ; and although experienced matrons may smile that these words, a lesson in easy account-keeping is not without value.

      65. We must state at the beginning that although the know of many other methods of keeping accounts, yet we believe our method to be so easy, that we can conscientiously recommend it to housewives.

      66. A neatly-bound ACCOUNT-BOOK of oblong shape, an ivory slate and pencil, and a card and pencil in the purse is the whole stock-in-trade as account-keeper. The account-book is kept in the mistress's Davenport, the slate hangs up in the kitchen, and the card and purse are naturally in the pocket.

      67. Every time any money is spent enter the item at once on the card, which is kept in place in the purse by an elastic passed offer it. Every Saturday remove the card and insert a fresh one, copying the list on the card into the account-book.

      68. Every Saturday morning receive the household books from the cook, who hands the slate, on which she has marked the sums paid at the kitchen door for parcels and sundries not put down in the weekly books ; this statement includes all extras. To this add the housekeeping expenses: butcher, baker, milkman, grocer, greengrocer, washing, &c., and add this up.

      69. Then copy the sums written on the sheet into the weekly account-book, of which we subjoin a specimen page. It will be observed that we "enter," or write down the sums paid out on the right-hand page only, reserving the left-hand page for sums received.

      74. Each double page is complete in itself. And the end of every quarter or thirteen weeks enter the total of sums received and paid, giving the dates of each week, as above shown. It will be seen that the balance of each week is shown on the week's account, and the quarterly balance is struck on the page which shows the quarter's total expenses. Every week you put down extra expenses, as taxes, or wages (for which a cheque or money order is received), on the right hand page, entering in the same line on the left -hand page the check for taxes, wages, &c., or whatever the item is ; thus the actual expense is shown each week, independently of all sums given and paid for extras other than housekeeping.

      75. Besides which, you should take out a "schedule" of expenses ; that is, write a list every thirteen weeks of the sums paid to each tradesman, so that you can tell at a glance what the quarterly cost of every article consumed is.

      76. But ACCOUNT-KEEPING does not begin and end with the account-book. Every tradesman's book should be compared with the cook's slate or tally, or tickets brought with the meat, as in the butcher's case, for instance ; then the books must be added up, or the statements verified by the ready-reckoner, as few ladies are clever enough to keep reckoning tables in their heads as one does the multiplication tables.

      77. The MEAT TICKETS should be kept on a hook in the kitchen, and verified by the mistress when comparing the weight charged with that sent in. The cook most of course weigh the meat before allowing the butcher to leave the door ; she will then be able to see if the weight is correct, and make the butcher alter the ticket or take back the joint if the weight is not correct. Groceries must also be weighed, as well as bread, and, indeed, all goods sold by weight. Washing should be counted over by the housemaid on Monday morning in presence of the mistress, who should enter the items in the washing-book, and, on the return of the linen, the housemaid should compare the quantities returned with the book before airing and putting the linen away.