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The First Bill of Groceries

THE first bill of groceries is not such an enormous one, after all, for our kitchenette supply space is almost microscopic as compared with our mother's pantry and cellar supply shelves, and so must be filled accordingly.

The staple groceries which we could at once turn out of their bags and boxes into our glass jars, or keep in their own containers, would include the following:

Flour, 5 pounds Corn Meal, 2 pounds Granulated Sugar, 5 pounds Cut Loaf Sugar, 2 pounds Powdered Sugar, 2 pounds Medium Brown Sugar, 2 pounds Cornstarch, 1 pound Molasses, 1 can Coffee, 1 pound Chocolate, 1 pound Cocoa, pound Salted Crackers, 1 pound Baking Powder, pound Baking Soda, 1/4 pound Cream of Tartar, 1/4 pound Eggs, 1 dozen Tea, 1/4 pound Rice, 1 pound Uncooked Cereal, 1 pound Macaroni, 1 pound Prepared Cereal, 1 box Cooking Fat or Lard, 2 pounds Purified Cottonseed Oil, 1 quart Butter, 1 pound Canned Goods; 1 can each of Tomatoes String Beans Peas Mushrooms Corn Asparagus Pimentos Shrimps Tomato Soup Chicken Soup Peaches Pineapples Cherries Ripe Olives Seasonings and Flavorings Vinegar, 1 quart Mustard, 2 ounces Salt, 1 bag Cinnamon, 2 ounces Black Pepper, 2 ounces Cloves, 2 ounces Paprika, 2 ounces Nutmeg, 2 ounces The First Bill of Groceries Allspice, 2 ounces Vanilla Extract, 8 ounces Lemon Extract, 4 ounces Tomato Catsup, 1 bottle Table Sauce, 1 bottle Fruits and Vegetables Prunes, 1 pound Dried Peas, 1 pound Raisins, 1 pound Apricots, 1 pound English Walnuts, 1 pound Dates, 1 pound Potatoes, peck Onions, 1 quart Oranges, dozen Figs, 1 pound Loganberries, 1 pound Pea Beans, 1 pound Peanuts, 1 pound Lemons, dozen MARKETING FOR TWO The ability to market or purchase food supplies is not a matter of inheritance or of theoretical knowledge any more than the fact that four times four equals sixteen is inherited or is a matter of theoretical knowledge. Somewhere in the course of our school days we found that four fours gave us sixteen, over and over again, and the theoretical fact became a practical one that we could use. So it is with marketing, whether for one or two or more. Of course I knew theoretically how to buy cabbage, etc., how to pick out a solid head, and what it cost at the time and in the place where I was studying marketing.

But unlike the axiom that four times four equals sixteen, which is unchanged whether in China or in Philadelphia, and the same fifty years ago as to-day, food prices differ not only in different parts of the country but often just across the street, or even at another counter of the same market; they not only have changed in the last fifty years but have literally galloped within the last year - sometimes they leaped just overnight.

I have taken to marketing as I have taken to other games - and there is certainly enough of a gamble in marketing for foods these days, for no matter how A The First Bill of Groceries well I play my hand, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose; but I am finding it as fascinating a game as ever I played.

From my store of theoretical knowledge I brought out and turned into everyday use these divisions of all foods, which aid in the planning of my menus and in the marketing to fit or adjust them.