Ten Dollars Enough: Keeping House Well on Ten Dollars a Week How It Has Been Done; How It May Be Done Again

This bill of fare, glibly rattled off by a neat waitress, promised a very satisfying breakfast, supplemented as it was by abundant cream-of-tartar biscuit and potatoes. Yet Mrs....

It was a small house, or rather cottage, in the fashionable New Jersey town of Greenfield, and contained a dining-room, sitting-room and kitchen on the first floor, and four roo...

MRS. WINFIELD had given Molly some useful information about her neighbors, and one item was that she could get cream from one, and salad and fresh vegetables from another. She h...

“Why not? You don’t suppose you are going to monopolize all the merits and reap all the glory of this housekeeping, do you? Why, I should not be able to have one of the little j...

WHEN breakfast was on the table, Molly directed Marta to go up-stairs with pail and cloth and to bring down the soiled water, fill the ewer with fresh, etc. As Harry rose to put...

MOLLY congratulated herself on her unusual good fortune in securing such a girl as Marta, when she saw, in initiating her into the bedroom work, how well she did it. But she was...

A WEEK passed, and Molly found her ten dollars left a narrow margin, as will be seen from the account she triumphantly showed to Harry, and the week’s bills of fare, which she w...

WHEN Molly had cut the steak into finger-lengths, she floured the pieces lightly, and put an iron saucepan that held about three quarts on the stove, and, when it was hot, dropp...

WHEN Molly reached home it was nearly six. Marta had followed directions fairly well, but Molly had taken the precaution to do everything she could before leaving home. She had...

MOLLY had not entered so fully into matters with Harry as she would have done had he been a woman; but as this story is to tell, not only what Molly did, but how she did it, I m...

“I DON’T think there is any more painful fact connected with a small income than one’s inability to do anything for the distress one hears of,” said Harry as he chipped an egg a...

MARTA, unpromising as her appearance was, had shown considerable aptitude for cooking, but about the house generally she was rather hopeless. She had succeeded already in breaki...

MOLLY had resolved to take the first opportunity to prepare two or three articles for her storeroom which would simplify work for Marta, and indeed she herself had felt the lack...

WHEN Molly reached her butcher’s next morning, Wednesday, she was surprised to find Mrs. Lennox there, and by the way she hastened to the door to greet her it was evident she wa...

MARTA had twice made bread very satisfactorily, and Molly thought she might now show her how to make plain rolls; therefore she had told her to save out a piece of her bread dou...

MOLLY knew the virtues of rye bread; and in perfection, as had she eaten it once in her life, she had enjoyed it much,—it had been so sweet, so light, and seemed to have the qua...

HARRY and Molly had talked over the matter of the dramatic club, and whether they could afford to join it. Molly was old enough, not being a school-girl bride—did I ever mention...

WHEN Molly had said Marta was to make croquettes for breakfast, she had forgotten that she had kidneys in the house; but, remembering it before she went to bed, she told Marta s...

IT has been said that Molly was providing for visitors by economizing slightly in her table. She was always economical, but it made some difference whether the fish she bought w...

WHILE the beefsteak, on Saturday, was being converted into such a savory dish, Molly, who wished to oversee the simmering, took that time to prepare the chicken. The one used fo...

AS I have said, the fowl was a yearling, and Molly meant to try with it an experiment she had seen practiced in France, by which fowls, not quite young, were made very tender, w...

MOLLY reached the end of her first month’s housekeeping, and now could see exactly where she stood, and could plan for the coming month to advantage. Referring to her note-book,...

MOLLY during the month had become acquainted with all Mr. and Mrs. Winfield’s friends; they had gone to the “readings” each week, and, not being hypocritical young people, but v...

MOLLY’S enlarged circle of acquaintances enabled her to ask aid for poor Mrs. Gibbs; and several had subscribed small sums, which, put together, bought the poor soul fuel for a...

I HAVE said before that Molly had repeated, as often as she could, the dishes she had first taught Marta, so that she might not get confused, and might know thoroughly a few thi...

MOLLY had intended showing Marta how to fry potatoes, so as to have them crisp. If she gave directions merely, the girl would naturally think, being so much smaller than other t...

THE next day not being a very busy one for Marta, Molly proposed to candy the lemon-peels, that had been lying in brine until enough had been collected. There were now the peels...

THE next day Molly, while showing Marta how to cook the dinner, added two other articles to those she liked to have always ready. Cake, as she said, was so little eaten by Harry...

FOR next day’s dinner Molly bought a piece of cod about three inches thick, and a leg of mutton (the cod weighed three pounds, the mutton six and a half, which she directed the...

THE next morning, bright and early, Molly came down-stairs. She was going to help get breakfast, as she always did whenever she had any dish new to Marta. Two or three times a w...

WHEN Molly returned from her walk to the dépôt with Harry, she found on the back stoop a barrel and a packing-case that had come by express. The barrel she quickly saw contained...

3 lbs. butter $0.75 Eggs .50 Milk .60 Tea .40 Fuel .50 Suet .08 Soup meat .20 Beef (flank), 3 lbs .36 Beets .05 Bacon .15 Cream .10 Flounder .15 Beans .04 Fowl .45 Oysters .40 M...

IT was with a heart full of happy content that Molly started to meet Mrs. Welles, and when the train slowed into the depot, she saw a well-known head, with bright chestnut hair,...

MRS. WELLES’S trunk arrived the next morning and Molly found her friend had come as she said, “prepared and loaded for a kitchen campaign.” Several little things not easily obta...

bread (_grisini_) to eat with the _bouillon_, and before the bread was put to rise a piece was broken from the dough of the size of a large orange; to this was added the white o...

THE next day Mrs. Welles and Molly were in the kitchen bright and early. She had ordered the day before all she would need for dinner, and did not require to leave the house. Th...

THE next morning the lobster which Molly had ordered was sent; it was quite a large one, and it was put on _head downward_ into boiling water in which there were four table-spoo...

OF course Molly’s supper was a success, and of course there were many who thought it must have cost a great deal more than the amount usually expended; but when there was a comp...

“I have usually made hash of it and given it to a family who need all the help they can get; but there is so much, I am inclined to try an experiment. Would not part do to make...

MRS. LENNOX came in to call on Mrs. Welles later the same day. Her Maggie had been with her now several days, and she could judge how far she was likely to be of use to her. Mol...

MRS. WELLES’S visit was to have been a week only; but at the end of it it seemed as if they had but just got to the point of enjoying each other, and Mr. Welles was induced to s...

IT is July, nearly a year after Mr. and Mrs. Bishop began the experiment of keeping house in Mrs. Winfield’s cottage, which has become very dear to them both, although in three...