Get the Habit of Being Ready

By Mrs. A.J. Wilder, Mansfield, Missouri

I have been very much impressed by a sentence I read in an advertisement of farm machinery and here it is for you to think about. "The minute we need a thing, we begin paying for it whether we buy it or not-"

That is true of farm machinery on the face of it. If a farm tool is actually needed it will, without question have to be bought in time and the farmer begins paying for it at once in loss of time or waste or damage resulting from not having it. He might even, if buying was put off long enough pay the whole price of the machine and still not have it.

A dentist once said to me, "I don’t care whether people come to me when they should, or put off coming as long as they possibly can. I know they'll come in time and the longer they put it off the bigger my bill will be when they do come." We begin to pay the dentist when our teeth first need attention whether they have that attention or not.

I can’t afford to build a machine shed this year," said Farmer Jones and so his machinery stood out in the weather to rot and rust. The next year he had to spend so much for repairs and new machines that he was less able than before to build the shed. He is paying for that protection for his machinery but he may never have it.

We think we cannot afford to give the children the proper schooling, "besides, their help is needed on the farm."

We say. We shall pay for that education which we do not give them. Oh! We shall pay for it! When we see our children inefficient and handicapped, perhaps thru life, for the lack of the knowledge they should have gained in their youth, we shall pay in our hurt pride and our regret that we did not give them a fair chance, if in no other way, tho quite likely we shall pay in money too. The children, more’s the pity, must pay also.

Mr. Colton’s work kept him outdoors in all kinds of weather and one autumn he did not buy the warm clothing he needed. He said he could not afford to do so and would make the old overcoat last thru. The old coat outlasted him for he took a chill from exposure and died of pneumonia. So he paid with his life for the coat he never had and his widow paid the bills which amounted to a great deal more than the cost of an overcoat.

Instances multiply as one looks for them. We certainly do begin paying for a thing when we actually need it whether we buy it or not, but this is no plea for careless buying as it is just as great a mistake to buy what we do not need as it is not to buy what we should. In the one case we pay before and in the other we usually keep paying after the real purchase. One thing always leads to another or even to two or three and it requires good business judgment to buy the right things at the right time.

Mrs. A.J. Wilder. "To Buy or Not to Buy." Missouri Ruralist (September  20, 1917): 18.  CLICK HERE to see this article as it originally appeared in the Missouri Ruralist.

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