A Study of Personal Accounts of Fifty South Carolina High School Girls

[From the Introduction]

The three-fold purpose of this study was to learn, (1) something of the amount spent on or by selected high school girls; (2) what they buy; (3) the price paid for various articles bought by or for the girls.

The material for this study was secured by having each girl in the home economics classes in the Greenville Senior High School, Greenville, South Carolina keep an account of everything that was spent for her individually by her family, for the school year 1938 to 1939. It was made clear to each girl that this was a personal account and that she and the teacher would be the only ones who would see it. Each book was checked at the end of each month by the teacher who kept it overnight for this purpose. At the end of May the accounts were summarized by each girl. By this time there was no secrecy about the account books. The girls were so interested they talked frequently about their expenditures and summaries.

This study is taken from fifty selected high school girls' account books.

When the keeping of accounts was first started many protests were heard. Very few of the girls had allowances, but instead their money was handed out to them for each purpose. After the summary of the first month's expenditures the majority of girls decided they did not want allowances. Each one who did not wish an allowance thought that they would not obtain one large enough to cover her expenditures.

Many of the girls remarked that they were not going to let their parents see their account books, and that they were afraid the parents would not let them have as much money if they were aware of the amount spent. The sum of their expenditures also seemed to come as a surprise to the girls as each one said she could not believe she had spent so much.

Many valuable suggestions came from the girls for revising their account books for another year.

The information that has been gained from an analysis of these fifty account books has been recorded in tabular form and summarized according to the average amount spent on the major items, the number of articles purchased, and the prices paid.