Roulston - Bubbly on your budget : live luxuriously with what you have

AN ASTONISHING number of the people you know, probably including yourself, insist that they have to do a lot of economizing. They not only believe this is true, they know it is, and whats more, theyre positive they have to do more economizing than the next person. This isnt because of the size of their incomes, or the lack of size; its because they havent as much money as they wish they had, which would be true no matter what their income. They have a dream of the way theyd like to live, but its always just ahead of them, and by the time theyve covered the distance, its moved a little farther on. Their ships are eternally on the horizon and never come in.

Moreover, melancholy though we sound, this seems to be a perpetual state of affairs, having nothing to do with conditions, the Administration (whether you love it or hate it), the price of free gold, or the chance of Inflation. Its just one of the Facts of Life that go on being true, good times or bad. Depression or Boom, six maids and a butler or no maid at all, practically everybody has less money than he or she used to have, or has acquired more expensive tastes. Either thing makes you feel like the well-known mouse with religious affiliations.

As a matter of fact, most of the people who think theyre poor are right. For the feeling of poverty isnt a matter of how little money you haveits a matter of being behind with your bills at the end of the month or not making your income stretch over the things you want. That covers just about all of us except Mr. Ford and Mr. Mellon and a few other plutocrats who dont have to count the cost. We really mean a few, and even they had better not be too sure of week after next. (If there ever was such a thing as securitywhich the shirtsleeve-to-shirtsleeve tradition makes us doubtit is now a charming phantom of the past.) All of the rest of us have to budget, or should, and the sensation of having to do so is pretty much the same, whether it means giving up the third limousine or giving up the butter with your meals. (When it comes to giving up the meals themselves, its destitution, not economy, and its not the subject of this book, though we reserve the right to touch on it now and then.)

This being the case, we can think of few things more futile than stewing because one hasnt enough moneyor few things about which people do more stewing. Enough money for what? Ten chances to one, for a house like the Smiths or a trip to the Mediterranean or a new evening wrap. Wed like them too, but we dont have to have them, and wed feel no better in the larger house; the European trip would only start us planning a trip to China; and the solid ermine wrap wouldnt make a hit unless we made one too. What most people dont concede is that, with a little planning and a dash of ingenuity, they might have what they want. They hate to plan (planning about possibilities and daydreaming about improbabilities are not the same things), they detest the Problem anyway, and they dont want to make the effort needed to Do Anything About It. They want bubbly on their budgetsbut thats as far as they get.

This isnt very intelligent, because almost anyone with spirit can wangle a bottle of bubbly or two, and have a lot of fun besides. We are all for fun and bubbly, and we propose to go into the matter in our modest fashion. And wed like to begin by protesting at the spiritless way in which so many people accept what they refer to as their lot in life. Granting that each of us has a lot, it doesnt have to be a five-by-seven, or a site on an alley with a wall for a view. This is a universe where, if only youre sufficiently determined to wriggle toward the best, the chances are all in favor of your getting the best, bubbly included. And, as it happens, conditions have never been so favorable for those of us who are not millionaires but still want the bubbly (or orchids, or parties, or attractive apartments).

One helpful fact is that we no longer have to be Substantial. Not so long ago, it was a distinct advantage to be pointed out as a person whose family had been Pillars of Society for a couple of generations, with an impressive bank account and all the paraphernalia that went with it. Unfortunately, you were expected to repeat the performance. Nowadays, this point of view is becoming a little stodgy. Most of the people who Get Around and have the best time seem to come out of the Everywhere into the Here with very little in their pocketbooks.They keep just a couple of laps ahead of their bills, and that only with effort. But what matters is not the margin, or the background; its the wit that they show in keeping ahead and the grace they display against any background.

There are, of course, as many ways of meeting these problems as there are people in the world, but in this matter, they can be divided into two groups. One group includes the people who use their difficulties as an excuse for Letting Things Go, and the other takes in those individuals who have the brains and energy to Do Something About It.

Every circle has its Escapists, of course, who go over the side on the slightest excuse, and especially if their trouble is financial. The most fashionable trick is to Get Away From It All by heading for an island in the South Seas or a cabin in the woods. This is all very well if you have no responsibilities to keep you home and like living on bananas or bear meat. But most of us have to pull up stakes and put them down again a couple of miles from where we started, and were not too well fitted for the Great Outdoors Life anyway. The people with spirit make the less dramatic change enthusiastically, and those who have ingenuity besides do it smartly.

The most completely spiritless are those who do it with embarrassment, apparently not having observed that being ashamed of a lack of wealth is as dated as a hobble skirt. Lots of the Best People now live in made-over garages, or penthouses that are only slightly transformed attics, and Thrift, in its best forms, is every bit as smart as the advertisements claim.

The one thing you ought to be ashamed of is economizing grubbily. Nobody who matters cares a pouf what your income is these days, but people do care how you live and how you act about it. The scale isnt important, but the effect is. There are few things more boring than to see people counting their pennies mournfully or making you uncomfortably conscious of the need for constant counting, and few things more attractive than to see people living charmingly and cheaply. Women who talk poverty and complain about the things they cant have are invariably tiresome, and women who make something gay out of next to nothing are sure to be exciting.

Even quite dull people can live smartly if they have plenty of money, and the money often makes them duller. A slight financial pressure sharpens the wits, though it neednt sharpen the disposition. But it takes an interesting person to have an attractive mnage on a shoestring and to run it with gaiety and charm.

The trick is to have the right attitude, as it is with most things in life. To economize, if you have to economize, with gaiety and an air. Its amazing, considering how general the problem is, how few people do this. Anybody can economize drably and untidily, and a disheartening number do. Most people run down instead of cutting down. But not the interesting people. They grasp the somewhat obvious fact that any problem so pressing is worth conquering, and with as much zest as possible.