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MAKING THE HIGH COST OF
LIVING HIGHER
T H E R E are numerous "stunts"
employed by the average
housekeeper which masquerade
under the title of economy.
They are practiced solely for
the sake of economy, and yet they are
the causes of some of the high cost of
living.
One of these is the ice blanket. The
ice blanket is advertised extensively
at the beginning of the summer season,
and continued until winter time. It is
the rare housekeeper who does not succumb
to the temptation of paying only
ten cents for one, when the advertisement
says that one-half as much ice may
be used when the ice blanket is applied.
This is perfectly true. The ice lasts
beautifully. But does the food? Surely
the housekeeper does not buy ice merely
to keep it. The ice keeps, and the food
spoils, and the longer the ice keeps, the
quicker will the food spoil. Other people
put newspapers over the ice, which also
does the work of keeping ice and spoiling
food. But these things stop refrigeration,
and refrigeration is the very thing
that ice is bought for. So the purchase
of an ice blanket, costing ten cents, and
the saving weekly of a few cents worth
of ice, results in a loss all the way from
two to five dollars worth of food every
month of the year.
Another so-called economical stunt is
to save bread for bread pudding. Once
in a great while we meet a man who says
he likes bread pudding. But this species
is rare, and when he has said he likes it
he has probably been fed on bread pudding
that was disguised as far as possible,
by costly food products.
In the first place, if we are to have
true economy, there should not be even
a slice of bread left for bread pudding.
The finest of homes in France never have
a bit of bread wasted, because no bread is
9S2
cut unless it is to be eaten then and there.
The whole loaf is put on the table, and
the bread is either broken off or cut off
only when a slice is to be eaten.
In Italy, a whole long loaf is passed
around the table and each person breaks
off the amount he wishes. This method
might not be as desirable from the point
of sanitation, as the cutting off with a
knife by one person at the head of the
table, but at least, the Italians do not
have to eat bread pudding, and their
pocketbooks are saved a portion of the
steady drain that American breadwinners
must stand day in and day out.
Let us suppose, however, that a few
slices of bread are left over. A bread
pudding is decided on. This bread pudding
takes for four people, about a quart
of milk, two, or three eggs, almost a cup
of sugar, and in the case of a fancy
edition, this pudding is filled with raisins,
has a meringue on top, and on top of the
meringue is a bit of jelly. This makes
the bread pudding cost from thirty to
thirty-five cents at least, including gas,
and after all this trouble, it is still a bread
pudding. For fifteen cents for four
people, one can have a delicious souffle
of dates or prunes, a dainty custard, an
attractive blancmange, or a gelatin dessert,
or tapioca pudding in one of its inviting
forms.
Still other people cheat themselves in
the matter of frying bacon. In some
cook book they have read that bacon
should be fried crisp. So they go to
work and exaggerate this crispness so that
all the fat of the bacon has gone from it.
Bacon has no advantage as far as food
value is concerned, unless it has the fat
which it originally contained. The price
is high for it at best, but if it is fried
too crisp, so that no fat is left, it is a
dear article of food, even for indulgent
millionaires.