A practical manual treating household management as an economic enterprise, offering guidance on food selection, purchasing, storage, and meal planning to maximize efficiency and economy. It clarifies how meat prices reflect carcass yields, grades, and processing costs rather than live-animal price per pound, and outlines shifts in production, preservation, and commercial handling that affect quality and cost. Emphasizing waste reduction and informed buying, it recommends reliance on inspected products, reputable brands, and labor-saving prepared foods, and provides tips for conserving raw materials and composing nutritionally balanced menus aligned with broader production and distribution systems.