The Business of Being a Housewife
A manual to promote
Household Efficiency
and Economy
by Mrs. Jean Prescott Adams
Director of the Department of Food Economics
As meat is one of the most important items of American diet, its price is a matter of moment to every housewife. Comparisons between the cost of live animals and the price per pound of meat sometimes lead to the conclusion that the existing margin is too wide and that possibly the profits of the middleman are too large.
After fair analysis, the housewife realizes that a live animal is not all meat and, furthermore, that the meat carcass is not all steaks and rib roasts. A comparison, therefore, between the live cost of meat animals per pound and the cost per pound of a tenderloin is misleading, if it results in any conclusions relative to margins.
Then we must reckon with the wide difference in grades of meat. We cannot correctly estimate the cost of a steak cut from a prime beef by that of a steak from a grass-fed cow. There are several grades of meat, depending upon the nature and feeding, each wholesome and nutritious, but some demanding more special cooking than others.
About fifty-five per cent of a steer is meat; the remainder includes the hide and various other by-products, which, except the hide, are not worth in their primary state anywhere near as much per pound as they cost alive. The fifty-five per cent of the animal which is meat must, therefore, carry the greater portion of the original cost. That is why a steer carcass might be sold by the packer for twenty cents a pound and still fail to pay a profit, even though the live animal cost the packer only twelve cents a pound. The casual observer, noting a difference of eight cents a pound between the live animal and the carcass, might say a sixty-six per cent increase in price is unduly large; but a little deeper study develops that the return from the carcass in this instance would fail to equal the amount paid for the live steer.
When a retailer buys a carcass, he purchases neck meat as well as loins; chucks as well as rounds. Portions of the carcass have to be sold at or sometimes less than he paid per pound for the carcass. The choice cuts necessarily have to make up for the losses on the less desirable portions. It is not unreasonable, therefore, that the retailer should charge fifty or sixty cents a pound for choice steaks and fifteen cents a pound for boiling beef out of a carcass which he bought at the rate of twenty cents a pound.
Only the aggregate price which the retailer gets for all parts and portions of the carcass will show his margin over the initial cost. It is wholly improper, therefore, to compare sixty-cent steaks with twelve-cent cattle with a view to determining profit.
The same thing is true of hogs and of sheep. A hog is not all meat, nor is the meat all ham. A sheep is not all carcass and only a small part of the carcass cuts up into chops. One must know the aggregate return and something about the costs of doing business before a justifiable conclusion as to price margins can be determined.
THE home managers have in their hands the most important business of the nation. American women realize that to their duties as home makers, mothers, and guiding influences, is added an important economic responsibility. The manner in which the purchasing power of twenty million home managers is used has an inestimable effect upon the production, collection, and distribution of all products in the market.
This second edition of “The Business of Being a Housewife” is respectfully dedicated to the thousands of wise home managers who are determined to understand more fully their relation to the producers of the country and to the great industries, such as that of Armour and Company, who have made possible the providing of perfect food in perfect condition at any distance from the farm.
ECONOMIC CHANGES
A study of the national and world situation on food production shows that old-time low food prices may never return. Formerly much of the food was raised by numerous individual families on Government land at nominal cost; today practically all food is raised on expensive land—the plains have been turned into villages and farms by the increasing population. Many men and expensive machinery and equipment are needed to produce our present high standard products.
It became economically unsound for so great a percentage of food producers to spend their time in producing meats and staples, only part of which could be consumed by themselves and their near neighbors, the rest going to waste. The great waste of the surplus products set the minds of men of genius to devising ways to preserve the foods of abundant harvests for the seasons of scarcity. The result is before us in the form of modern cold-storage plants, refrigerator cars, volume-curing and pickling of meat products, and volume-canning of fish, meats, fruits, and vegetables; great cereal factories, etc.
The standard of quality has been raised and the sanitary handling of foods greatly developed. While this has increased the prices a little, it has also increased the efficiency and earning power of the consumer and has tended towards the better health of the nation. The only way to equalize prices, for the high quality of foods demanded by discriminating home managers, is through efficient commercial handling and the conservation of every bit of material. While the efficiency of the Armour organization is regarded as of the highest standard, the organization is continually striving to still further increase this efficiency.
Armour and Company act as a great service link between the farmers and consumers. Through our agricultural department we reach out to the farmer and advise him in producing the best meat animals and farm products within his farm’s possibilities. We assist him to improve his soil and to feed his animals to the best advantage.
The raw material buyers for Armour and Company are all experts in their special lines. They search the markets to select the best products for each branch of our service. Then various corps of specialists analyze and prepare the foods in the most efficient, scientific, and satisfactory way for the consumer. Through able management the most expert service today goes into the translating of a meat animal into wholesome U.S. Government inspected meat, either fresh, smoked, dried, prepared, or canned.
BUY FOR REAL VALUE
Expensive experimenting with foods may be eliminated from your accounts by the simple method of buying by known brands. Label reading is today’s most important buying guide. A dealer soon learns the wants of his quality buyers, and, knowing your demand for high standard commercially prepared foods, he will be careful to select correspondingly good quality foods when replenishing his stock.
Every careful home maker demands that the meat she buys, whether fresh, smoked, dried, cured, or canned, bears a U. S. Government inspected-and-passed label, and should demand canned foods marketed under a reliable firm name.
Standards of purity and quality in the preparation of commercial foods have gradually raised, until now there is practically every food for every need in convenient sanitary packages at your corner market under a quality label guarantee.
Drudgery has been literally taken out of food preparation. Madam Home Manager’s time may now well be employed along more constructive lines than in shelling peas and stringing beans. Hers is the responsibility and privilege of selecting foods for her family’s menus in such combinations that every food-need of the body is supplied in proper proportion.
Be sure of real value for every expenditure
DO YOU KNOW FOOD VALUES?
This is one of the most serious matters before us today, and the physicians of the entire country are deploring the fact that many of the children of the wealthy as well as of the poor are undernourished. Do you know foods? Prepared foods release you from less important tasks, that you may have time to learn food values. It rests with the responsible housewife to plan her own time so as to achieve the greatest returns in the health and efficiency of her family. Food knowledge means a better-fed nation.
A pantry stocked with a wide variety of quality foods and a working knowledge of individual needs and food values will make it possible for the home manager to prepare the proper foods within her budget limitations.
PLAN YOUR EXPENDITURES
A simple budget, or account keeping system, is a necessity in every well-ordered, successful business. The world of today holds so many attractions that we must carefully select those necessities and comforts that will mean the most in real value to us, and then adhere to that selection. The only way to know that we are following our own plan is to have a simple accounting system. At the end of the month, we should look over the figures and decide upon the readjustments necessary. To insure progress and stability, our monthly accounts should show some savings and advancement expenditures.
We offer suggestions throughout this book, arranged to help the average housewife solve her knotty home-managing problems. We have been greatly assisted by the women editors of national women’s publications, prominent home economics teachers, and writers on vital home subjects. This array of talent aims to make this book of the greatest help possible to the American Housewife.
—Jean Prescott Adams
Many thousands of housewives have come to depend upon the Armour Oval Label as a buying guide for a wide variety of their pantry and refrigerator staples; they know they can depend upon the uniformity and quality of every Oval Label product.
Madam Home Manager receives the full benefit of our fifty-some years of experience in caring for foods. She has the Armour assurance of uniformity and quality and is guided in her buying by the distinguishing quality Oval Label.
We prepare and distribute with great efficiency, fresh, smoked, cured, dried, prepared, and canned meats, all Government inspected.
A full line of Armour shortenings and frying mediums, as well as our economical oleomargarines and delicious Cloverbloom Butter, may be secured from your dealer. Salad oil under the Oval Label, as well as peanut butter, will continue to meet with popular favor. The evaporated milk and identifiable or carton eggs are considered indispensable by the average home manager.
Cheese is becoming more and more favored for its high food value, and it is with satisfaction that many learn of the great variety of cheese sold under the Armour guarantee of quality.
Armour’s Pork and Beans, Peanut Butter, Evaporated Milk, Mince Meat, etc., are favorite products, and Madam Home Manager will be able to obtain the well-established Armour brands at her market.
Armour and Company maintain a well organized department of Food Economics as a medium of expression to the American housewife. This department is made up of trained and experienced dietitians, teachers of home economics, food chemists, practical home managers, writers and lecturers.
We are equipped and prepared to give every home maker the practical, technical and economic information she may need on any food or home managing subject.
It is the purpose of this book to assist Madam Home Manager in her mastery of the problems incident to the feeding of a family for health, happiness and efficiency.
To simplify the presentation of this very important material, we have divided the book into four sections: Section one covers the apportionment of the income; Section two deals with the wise selection of foods and the place of each class of food in the building of a well-balanced menu. Section three is devoted to fundamental cookery suggestions. Section four holds for the reader a wealth of general information to assist in simplifying the labor of cookery.
As this is a manual of household efficiency and economy, we have aimed to give the greatest possible number of helpful suggestions, referring the reader to a number of splendid cook books for recipes. (See Page 28)
Keep this book handy for constant reference
Every home maker has a cherished ideal for the various members of her family. The rapidity with which that dream is realized depends upon how the family income and individual energy are used. To those who have never kept a record of expenditures, the first definite step toward establishing a substantial financial basis and assuring progress to the family is the keeping of an expense account. Each day, make an accurate accounting of all expenditures. Keep this carefully for four months, then, with that account as a basis, plan your expenditures for the next four months and live within that plan. The third quarter, keep your expense account again and then you will have the accurate information regarding the financial needs of your particular family. After a careful analysis, make up a year’s budget, cutting down non-essentials and adding to accounts that really mean an advance step toward your goal.
The following percentages will serve as a guide showing the possibilities of various incomes. Each family will find it necessary to adjust the figures according to special needs, local conditions and family ambitions. Special education is worth economy in many lines, as it offers future returns and is really an investment.
The food section of the Family Account Book is perhaps the most important. Without properly prepared food in proper combination, and quantity, we are not able to exercise our greatest earning ability, to grasp new situations as we should, or to invest our savings wisely. By keeping the food account according to the body building uses of the food purchased, we daily progress in our food knowledge and become adepts at using alternative foods.
When one really operates a budget plan to win, it is an advancement in itself. In cases of a large independent income it is wise to have your banker’s representative work out a budget for you. The budget outline, on page 6, is estimated for a family of five, one young child, two school children, mother and father. Where the family is smaller, the food and clothing accounts will change, the amount saved going either to savings, investments, or advancements.
As this monthly income should be apportioned to permit of the proper savings and investments
|
Family of Two |
Family of Three |
Family of Four |
Family of Five |
|||||
|
Items |
% of Income |
Amount |
% of Income |
Amount |
% of Income |
Amount |
% of Income |
Amount |
|
Food |
20 |
$40.00 |
25 |
$50.00 |
32½ |
$65.00 |
40 |
$80.00 |
|
Shelter |
17½ |
35.00 |
20 |
40.00 |
22½ |
45.00 |
25 |
50.00 |
|
Operating |
10 |
20.00 |
11 |
22.00 |
12½ |
25.00 |
13 |
26.00 |
|
Clothing |
9 |
18.00 |
11 |
22.00 |
13 |
26.00 |
15 |
30.00 |
|
Contingency |
43½ |
87.00 |
33 |
66.00 |
19½ |
39.00 |
7 |
14.00 |
|
Total |
100% |
$200.00 |
100% |
$200.00 |
100% |
$200.00 |
100% |
$200.00 |
Dividing Income for Wise Spending
As the $200 Income of Fifty Representative Urban Families was spent Jan. to June, 1920