“The choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation.”–Tupper.
THE most handsomely dressed man and the most magnificently gowned woman are garbed within certain limits of conventionality. The most beautiful house or the handsomest automobile are never of the really freakish type.
Things of beauty which are also things of utility must be kept within certain limits in design and color, if they are to have that much-to-be-desired individuality, without being freakish.
Freak notions, wild fancies and ridiculous fads have been costing the American people hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
It is not desirable to try to stamp out individuality or the touches of our own personality in the things we possess but it is surely desirable to eliminate the freakish and the grotesque.
Lines of simplicity and elegance in our home, in our motor cars, in the apparel we buy and in the ornaments we wear are the things to be desired. They cost less, give us more pleasure while they last and last much longer than the flashy, tinseled folderols, which have been too much affected in the recent past. Simple lines are usually the most graceful; ultra quality always makes its impression and these two combined add so much to the length of life of anything that they would seem to be worth while.
By employing a good architect and in planning a simple and substantial home, we can have elegance, convenience, satisfaction, durability and real value at a cost far below the average house with its unnecessary and often unsightly tips and turrets.
In our household furnishings and equipment, if we will give more attention to real utility and simple beauty, we will be able to reduce our expenditures in that direction by a large percentage.
When selecting wearing apparel of any kind, the most careful thought should be given to what we already possess in order that the newly acquired garment shall harmonize and enable us to always appear well-dressed. Some people are able to spend very little money and possess a real wardrobe, while those who are more extravagant dressers, finally find themselves possessed of a mere jumble of clothes and no one garment appears to bear any relation to the others.
These principles may be applied to every part of our daily lives. In the purchase of food for the table, more careful selection will insure a better balanced meal at less cost and such well-balanced rationing will mean better health for the family.
It is not the person who earns the most money but rather the discriminating buyer who apparently lives on the fat of the land, who is always well-dressed and lives in a home which is the envy of his neighbors.
Earning money is an occupation, but spending it wisely is a fine art. There are few people that cannot actually add 50% to their earnings by doing a better job of spending their money.
Economy, Frugality and Thrift are words which are commonly misunderstood. The man is neither penurious nor stingy who exercises his best judgment in the selection of every article he buys. Such a man usually acquires wealth and it is such men and women who have built up the Country.
No one has a right to criticize the man who insists upon quality when he buys and who will not buy until he is sure he is getting his money’s worth. This is true economy and–
“Economy is in itself a source of great revenue.” –Seneca.
You have probably often noticed that a few people simply seem to grow rich. You do not notice that they are making any unusual amounts of money but they continue to give evidence of having more and more money until at last they are recognized in the neighborhood as being among the really rich. Such people become rich, as a rule, through wise buying and, after they are rich, they continue to buy carefully and judiciously with the result that they not only remain rich but continue to increase their wealth.
Sometimes we are unreasonable enough to envy the rich, while most of us are unwilling to even try to do what they have done in order to become rich and to remain rich.
Wealthy people usually get their money’s worth when they buy because they have long ago learned the lesson of Thrift. Quite poor people are often extravagant buyers, the well-to-do are sometimes careless buyers but the rich are always thrifty; that is how they became rich and that is how they remain rich.
“The man who will live above his present circumstances is in great danger of living in a little time much beneath them.”–Addison.