The budget plan is a sort of blue print of what one proposes to do with the funds at his command. The builder can do his work properly only with suitable plans before him. The difference between the structure erected with a plan and that erected without one is great. The difference between the results of an income administered according to system and those of one spent at random is one of just about the same degree. To attempt any work without a well-formulated plan of procedure means several regrettable things. It means a waste of materials; it means poor co-ordination of effort; it means a haphazard and unsatisfactory result. The budget plan is based on a system of appropriations. Such is the plan used by all successful business interests. The business is first analyzed and divided into departments. Then the amount of money needed for the work of each department is estimated. This amount, or as nearly this amount as the sum of money at command will permit, is then appropriated to the work of that department. It is left to keep its accounts up to the total placed at its disposal. It is, of course, held responsible for the use it makes of the funds given it. If at the end of the year it is found that the distribution was not equitable, the proportion can be changed. The same plan can be adapted to home use, and it will do just as much for the guidance and welfare of the family treasury as for that of some great business corporation. The work may be done after about the same fashion. The needs of the family should be analyzed and divided into departments. The resources at command may then be estimated and apportioned to the various departments of expenditure in the same way. Expenses are then to be kept within the appropriation, and, if the division is found unfair to any interest, it can be changed. If this is properly done, the benefits derived will be very great. If income is always consulted before outgo is determined, the effect of the system on the family resources will be found to be little less than magical. The funds in each department will so accumulate as to keep a surprising balance on hand all the time. The reason for this certain growth in reserve funds is plain. One will not purchase a thing in a given department of expense until enough money has accumulated in that particular department to pay for it. Suppose, for instance, that one would like to buy a suit of clothes or an article of furniture. Ordinarily, he would get them if he could command the money to do so from the total at his disposal. Therefore, he would stand a chance of paying for it with money which really should have gone to something else. Moreover, the habit of buying anything he wants and can pay for keeps his funds down to the low water mark all the time.