Thoughts on Thrift from 1905

I have a long cherished passion for vintage home management books and magazines. Indeed anything on this subject from the Victorian and Edwardian era up until the early 1970’s (when this subject fell out of favour in women’s magazines) will gain a comfortable space on my bookshelves. It grew out of a love for vintage cookery books with their recipes for exotic delights such as jellied tongue and seed cake. I am particularly fond of those Christian journals, aimed mainly at women, which were bound into volumes and designed to be read of an afternoon to one’s daughters as they gathered around the fire with their sewing and their paper dolls. Such wisdom is contained within the pages of these books, along with a good degree (to our eyes) of oddity and strangeness. They make for very entertaining and informative reading.

I came across the following little essay in a book from 1905: ‘A Healthy Home and How To Keep It’ by Florence Stacpoole. I am not sure if she was a ‘Mrs’ or an earnest spinster but she certainly comes across as a formidable lady. She seems to have had a crusade to promote good ventilation in rooms. A worthy venture indeed. Truly there is much good sense in her book (along with a few tips that would, I think, land one in the Emergency Room). Here are her thoughts on thrift. I particularly like her definition: True thrift consists in getting the best value for our money, and wasting nothing.

Thrift, or How to Save Money and have Comfort at Home.
"Muddle at home makes husbands roam."

What is the meaning of "Thrift"? Is it, as some people think, living cheaply in order to hoard? By no means. The word comes from a word in the Icelandic language, signifying to thrive. To practice thrift, therefore, is to do what will cause you to thrive. I need not explain what that means, as we all understand it.

Mere hoarding of money does not cause thriving. People have died of starvation because they would not spend on food the money they were hoarding. That is not thrift. It is miserliness. There is a great difference between the two.

True thrift consists in getting the best value for our money, and wasting nothing.

An old Quaker once said to his son, "It’s what thee’ll spend, my son, not what thee’ll make, which will decide whether thee’st to be rich or not." Isn’t this true ? I heard lately of an old woman saying a curious thing. She had noticed that well-off people are often very careful about spending money, and that poor people are sometimes very careless about using up odds and ends which could be turned to advantage, so someone overheard her saying, " If the poor was as saving as the rich there wouldn’t be no poor!"

I have often thought of her words, when I have seen, as I am sorry to say one sometimes sees in London streets, a little heap of good pieces of bread lying in the gutter, thrown there by someone too careless to trouble to use it.

" Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost," was a distinct command of our Lord’s. I think people often forget that wasting even bread-crusts, is disobeying one of our Lord Jesus’s special injunctions.

In a very good cookery book I read these words, "Probably the contents of the dust-bins of England, would more than fill the soup-tureens of France!" I am afraid this is too true, and that into our dust-bins we often throw what our more thrifty French neighbours would turn into good nourishing food. I am going to mention presently some ways of using broken bread and other things often thrown away, but first I want to say that thrift does not always mean buying the cheapest thing to be got. Sometimes the cheapest things are the dearest in the end.

Take the matter of house rent, for instance. If you have a family and if you can afford to pay for two rooms, it is no real thrift only to hire one room and all live in it, and put the rent of the other room into the Savings Bank. Why? Because you are certain not to be so healthy if you all live in one room. If you lose your health you lose your work, if you have to go to Hospital you can’t earn. The saving of a few shillings in rent will be very soon lost, and a great deal more with it, by the losses and expenses that always go with bad health.

Again, if you have enough money for wholesome food, it is no thrift to buy the cheapest and worst kind which will not properly nourish the body. Anything that defrauds the body of what will keep it strong and in good condition is indeed a thriftless thrift. I know there are some people who think it, is quite extravagant to buy eggs. They would think they spent too much if they had two eggs for breakfast-but they think nothing of drinking a pint of beer for luncheon and dinner. Now in two eggs there is about eighty times more nourishment than in a pint of beer!

Again, if you have money to buy a good strong pair of boots, it is no true thrift to buy a cheap flimsy pair for half the price good ones would cost, and put the rest of the money in the Savings Bank. Wet feet cause many an illness, and your cheap boots will be very dear ones indeed if they lead to pneumonia, or rheumatic fever. We must distinguish between real thrift and false thrift if we would get the best value for our money.

Visit Crystal's blog Biblical Womanhood to be inspired by other Frugal Friday posts.

By way of introduction

I have always battled procrastination but you really would think that by the ripe old age of …well never mind, I might have made some progress in defeating this enemy. I have not. Many times in the last few months I have sat down intending to blog (with the encouragement of my sweet husband, supplying me with cups of tea). Nothing has been accomplished as you can see. With the number of blogs I have written in my head I could have filled a book by now (well an ebook). It has all come to nothing. The problem with procrastination in the area of journal writing is that life has a habit of changing dramatically and very swiftly. Before you know it circumstances have altered so radically that what you intended to write is entirely redundant. Since making my last entry life has been filled with birth, death and everything in between; tears, and through the grace of God, much joy. Ah well. I will start again (spurred on by the kind comment from the mortonclan, whose own blog is a delight). So, an introduction…

I have been married to my dear husband Rob for six years now and I am blessed to be a ‘stay at home mum’ to our two little boys Isaac (just 4) and Elisha (nearly 2). Rob works full time for a Christian charity that provides support services for evangelistic projects, as well as running a number of theology and church history websites. We have both, in fact, been in Christian work or ministry for all of our adult lives – hence the frugality bit in this blog description! We live on the London/Kent borders in a small, not quite a town/not quite a village sort of place. Very nice it is too – we have lived in inner city locations that were far more, shall we say. ‘exciting’ and not half as pleasant.

Our home is a small maisonette. I’m not sure how international that term is so by way of an explanation a maisonette (according to www.ask.com) is "a self-contained apartment (usually on two floors) in a larger house and with its own entrance from the outside". In our case we are not in a larger house but rather above a shop. We have no garden but are blessed by being able to rent two allotments nearby where we grow lots of fruit and vegetables and we try to live an ‘urban homestead’ life as much as possible. Our dearest wish is to love and serve the Lord and to see our children do the same. We are committed to passing on to them the Christian values we ourselves try to hold on to. For this reason we have made the decision to homeschool – which certainly marks us out as strange, eccentric creatures (if having no car, no television and no home of our own hadn’t already done so to those who know us)!

So now you know a little more about me. Having re-read the above it seems like a very dry list of facts. Life is, in reality, very rich, varied and hectic. Coming to married life and motherhood relatively late in life ensures that it is also never dull. Blessing me with two little boys is evidence not only of God’s abundant goodness but also of His sense of humour. It is not always easy. Like many Christian women of my background and age I battle with the legacy of feminist thinking and influence. The British Christian community is not exactly the most friendly or supportive place for women seeking to live out either the Titus 2 or Proverbs 31 vision. I grew up in a loving and encouraging, traditional family but building such a family for myself never featured in my childhood aspirations (I was going to be a High Court Judge, a pioneering doctor and a famous novelist!). Even when I became a Christian at 18 those self-centred ambitions changed little – except now I was going to have God batting on my side too. I even thought of entering ‘the ministry’ and pastoring a church. Goodness, what a disaster that would have been. All this is to say that like many women today who are rediscovering God’s call to be ‘keepers at home’, I am learning and being grown as I go along. And motherhood is hard on the flesh whatever your age or theology. I have been greatly encouraged by the blogs I have read of women and families who are travelling down the same road. I hope that God will use this blog to encourage you likewise.

Why Baleboosteh?

Okay, so the second post is no easier to make than the first! I wonder what the statistics are for blogs that only have one initial post and then peter out into the ether. So here we go again, this time with some more introductory thoughts.....

Why 'Baleboosteh'? Well, I'm not Jewish or a Messianic Believer nor even the kind of Christian who observes Jewish festivals, holidays or food laws. Nothing against such things if that is where you feel the Lord is leading you but it isn't what we do (I have enough trouble thinking my way around the usual Christian festivals without adding some more!).

I have always loved studying language or rather how the English language has developed and embraced words from other languages. The English language is very sponge-like - absorbing new words is what has given it its richness over the years. French, Italian, Indian, all have added to the mix but my personal favourite is Yiddish. What an amazing language (itself of course a generous mix of 'donations' from other tongues)! Baleboosteh has never made it into regular English usage (shame) but it is, to my mind, a delicious word. I like the way it sounds and I love the idea of 'an excellent and praiseworthy homemaker' sitting cheek by jowl with 'a bossy woman'. I'd like to be one but find myself so often the other. A love of Yiddish also in part comes from my mother who grew up in a part of the East End of London in the 1920's and 30's which was predominently Jewish. So she had a good smattering of Yiddish expressions which she passed on to her children (not to mention words completely of her own invention for which she had a true gift). I like to think she would approve. So there you have it, the story of why 'Baleboosteh'.
P.S. The male counterpart to a 'baleboosteh' is a 'baleboss', equally delightful I think.