by Sarah Lytle
Lydia Maria Child called extravagance “the prevailing evil of the present day” in 1828.[1] Her book The American Frugal Housewife taught families how to live within their means. After reading that book, I began to consider the relationship between frugality, as Lydia Maria Child named it, and Biblical stewardship.
Over the past few years, I have become interested in nineteenth-century cookbooks and other books written specifically for homemakers and housekeepers. When I began sifting through publications like The Art of Cookery and Cottage Economy, I was looking to learn about household management and the art of baking breads and making preserves. Writers like Child, Susannah Carter, Hannah Glasse, William Cobbett, and Amelia Simmons appeal to my own frugal sensibilities by encouraging contentment and discouraging extravagance.
If we take seriously the creation mandate in Genesis, then we must see stewardship as an essential part of household management. God commanded man to rule over the animals and the earth, to cultivate the earth, and to tend to it (Genesis 1:26–30; 2:15). Believers have a responsibility to manage all that God has given them. The question is: what does stewardship look like in everyday life. I argue that part of being a good steward is living frugally. Being a good steward can be as simple as forming wise habits. The Scriptures describe a good steward as a faithful steward; so stewardship is a continual part of life. The faithful steward manages artfully, economically, and virtuously.
The Art of Stewardship
Yet so it is, through all classes of society. All of us covet some neighbor’s possession, and think our lot would have been happier, had it been different from what it is. Yet most of us could obtain worldly distinctions, if our habits and inclinations allowed us to pay the immense price at which they must be purchased. True wisdom lies in finding out all the advantages of a situation in which we are placed, instead of imagining the enjoyments of one in which we are not placed.[2]
This principle of “finding out all the advantages” exemplifies the artistic quality of stewardship. Living frugally requires contentment, which is the opposite of covetousness. Child recognized how tempting it is to compare the wealth of one family to another, but she warned against this temptation. Frugality is the practice not only of saving money but also of contentment. The art of stewardship is using what resources you have creatively. With careful attention, the steward allocates his resources to the greatest possible advantage of the home. He is aware of what he has and how to care for it.
By saving up scrap paper or repairing old clothes, the steward consumes thoughtfully. Frugality is artistic in the sense that materials are being used resourcefully. Think of the current revival in thrifting and repairing old clothes. A woman’s dress, when worn out, could be altered to fit a young girl. After it can no longer hold up as clothing, the material can be cut up and sewn as a cleaning rag, before it is thrown away. The idea here is that the Christian should not be wasteful because he manages what is not his own. In this sense, frugality elicits a conscious effort from the steward to reuse or repurpose old materials. To be a faithful steward is to ask what can be kept rather than merely thrown away. Stewardship engages the imagination; carelessness is not a quality of the steward.
The familiar parable of the talents speaks to this point of mindful, artful stewardship. The servant who buried his talent in the ground was an unfaithful steward. The master called him a “wicked and slothful servant” yet said “well done” to the servants who doubled or tripled their talents (Matthew 25:26, NASB). Those who were found faithful did not simply keep watch over the master’s resources; those servants multiplied their talents. The unfaithful steward stored up the talents, rather than imitating the master’s own fruitful management.
The Economy of Stewardship
William Cobbett, author of Cottage Economy and The American Gardener, defined economy as “management.”[3] Management, by his definition, “generally applied to the affairs of the house and family.” While stewardship does not concern only money, economic stewardship is a large part of this discussion on home management. Budgeting resources makes one conscious and careful of what he spends. Take the analogy of a young couple furnishing their first home. The temptation is for the young couple to buy expensive furniture, beautiful décor, and every kitchen appliance advertised to them so that they have a “nice” home that matches the luxury of their friends. Is this wise?
Perhaps the young couple would benefit from beginning humbly. Being frugal is not depriving oneself of enjoyment; rather, it is a recognition of your station in life. Economy does not mean you have to live miserably or even uncomfortably. The faithful steward purchases what he finds he needs, rather than spending all of what he has. If the young couple exhausts all of their resources on a beautiful home, they may find themselves with many things they no longer want, without the means of purchasing what they need.
In cooking, too, Susannah Carter teaches the reader how to use every meal to the fullest extent. Extra vegetables should be boiled down into broths or pickled to preserve them through the whole of the year. Some vegetables were replanted in the cellars to extend the ripeness out of season. The Art of Cookery, The Complete Woman’s Cook, The American Frugal Housewife, and American Cookery all include diagrams that show how different cuts of meat can be used in broths, stews, and roasts. Carter’s recipes rarely called for more than a few ingredients, and most of the items would have been common and easily accessible to her readers.
Luxury and idleness are the enemies of economy. Catherine Esther Beecher correctly argued,
Christianity teaches, that, . . . we must give account to God; and that we have no right to waste a single hour. In employing our time, we are to make suitable allowance for sleep, for preparing and taking food, for securing the means of a livelihood, for intellectual improvement, for exercise and amusement, for social enjoyments, and for benevolent and religious duties. And it is the right apportionment of time, to these various duties, which constitutes its true economy.[4]
While the language seems more like a maxim than a principle, Beecher took seriously the idea of stewardship and economy. She applied this same logic to the management of property and expenses.
The Virtue of Stewardship
There is an art and economy to stewardship. By taking one’s whole life into view, the person must decide whether he will live frugally or opulently. This decision applies to the rich and the poor. Living frugally does not mean we cannot enjoy life, though it depends on how we define enjoyment. On the one hand, if enjoyment is simply possessing everything we desire, then, no, we are not to enjoy life in that way. On the other hand, if enjoyment is more like contentment, then, yes, we are to enjoy life. These two ideas go hand-in-hand. Enjoyment is found by being content, and the steward as we have already noted is content. The steward considers the costs, exercising wisdom and judgment in his management.
Saving money instead of spending money may seem miserable, but choosing good habits is virtuous. Being frugal is not a list of dos and don’ts. By practicing artful and frugal stewardship, one cultivates a deeply Biblical attitude toward life. Mindfulness is a remedy to wastefulness. When one puts life in its proper view and understands the role of the steward, he is reminded of his purpose. Keeping up with trends is a young man’s game. The Bible calls the love of money the root of evil. The “love” is vanity. No one should feel ashamed of being frugal. Child affirmed this sentiment, saying we cannot be free from embarrassment until “we cease to be ashamed of industry and economy.”[5]
Child’s advice to the homemaker is to exercise wise judgment: “He who thoughtlessly gives away ten dollars, when he owes a hundred more than he can pay, deserves no praise, —he obeys a sudden impulse, more like instinct than reason: it would be real charity to check this feeling; because the good he does may be doubtful, while the injury he does his family and creditors is certain. True economy is a careful treasurer in the service of benevolence.”[6] The sentiment expressed here is that the true economist is a careful treasurer of time and materials.
Lay the foundation. Choose the habits of stewardship or choose the habits of mindlessness. Child offers a very simple remedy to extravagance. The character of true economy is the ability “to be as comfortable and genteel with a little, as others can be with much.”[7] The key to economy is contentment; this one virtue undergirds the steward’s theology. This command is a hard philosophical pill to swallow. We all want what we do not have, but the steward, the frugal-minded, finds out how he can use what he has wisely.
Conclusion
It is tempting to believe that consumerism is a relatively new problem or that it is exclusive to the American context, but the more I read eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cookbooks, the more I am convinced that the problem is older than we realize. Mass production and technology has certainly given us access to more things, but the question at stake has always been and will always be a matter of contentment.
About the Author: Sarah Lytle works in public history at Historic Castalian Springs, the managing non-profit for state historic sites Cragfont, Wynnewood, and Hawthorn Hill. She has a BA in History from Welch College and is pursuing the MA in Humanities at Welch College. Sarah is an active member of Sylvan Park Free Will Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Her interests are history, hiking, gardening, philosophy, puzzles, and traditional folk music.
[1] Lydia Maria Child, The American Frugal Housewife (Boston, MA: Carter, Hendee, and Co., 1833), 89.
[2] Child, 106.
[3] William Cobbett, Cottage Economy (New York: John Doyle, 1833), 1.
[4] Catherine Esther Beecher, A Treatise on Domestic Economy: For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1845), 181.
[5] Child, 6.
[6] Child, 7.
[7] Child, 7.
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