SOME folks have an idea that saving money consists entirely in stopping expenses. But that is merely hoarding. Of course the first step in saving is to cut out foolish expense. One must have enough common sense to do that. But it is not enough. You can never measure a man by the amount he keeps.

The great thing is to know how to spend. He knows how to get full value for his money and how to look ahead. The thrifty man knows how to spend as well as how to accumulate. He may not go to the theater often, but he gives himself and family a restful vacation. The wise man spends money just as he eats or drinks. There is no over-indulgence or dissipation. He takes what is good for him.

It is the system, the efficiency with which one's personal finances are managed that makes economy worth while and raises it from the level of miserliness. No one but a born miser can save money unless he knows how to manage his money affairs systematically, no matter how small his income may be.

Most persons are so involved and tangled up in their personal finances that the mere suggestion of saving is ridiculous. They are lucky if they can ever figure how much money they possess, how much they owe, and how much they have on hand. They never know where they stand. This is because they do not plan ahead how to pay their bills. We all know plenty of men who cause constant annoyance by appealing to their friends for small cash loans, or presenting checks to be cashed where they are unknown; not because of any lack of resources, but from sheer carelessness and lack of forethought. Others have no regular plan for paying bills, sometimes paying by check, on other occasions in cash, or even by draft or note. Others never take the trouble to balance up their bank-books and suddenly find they have overdrawn their account.

People who would not dream of being careless in their business affairs trust to luck in their personal finances. Men who manage their business affairs well are foolish in personal matters simply because they do not carry the same system over from one field to the other. All business concerns have budgets and programs of expense. There is no reason why individuals should be more lax. There is no reason why they should lavish their money in a hit or miss fashion any more than do the corporations for which they work. A business concern that ran its finances the way many individuals operate theirs would soon go on the rocks. If the average firm or corporation kept no financial records it would shortly be in criminal difficulties.

American business houses, as a rule, lay out their expenditures in advance under a definite system. When the fiscal year is started, a firm knows from past experience about what it ought to spend, and a definite system of expenditures is laid out. The inner organization may consist of say, half a dozen men, each one of whom has his voice in making up each budget of yearly expenditure.

John D. Archbold, of the Standard Oil Company, once said that his company never fooled themselves; that they knew by their books where every penny went, and where to stop the leaks; and that it was this careful policy that made the Standard Oil Company the most suo cessful business in America.

As the treasurer of a big railroad system once said: "It saves haggling. If the item is in the budget, it is spent; if not, it is hastily passed by. It is a pleasure to spend money this way, because when dedicated to a certain purpose, it really passes out of my hands and becomes the property of another. There is no strain or gripping in the spending of it."

A great expert on efficient methods of doing business has said that most individuals spend money the way a dog jumps over a fence. They do not know whether they will land in a fox trap, a bee's nest or close to a juicy bone.

This is because most of us do not plan our expenditures ahead. It is because Americans, in general, have abandoned the old thrifty idea of a personal budget, and have simply been spending their money. It is because we are lazy and indifferent, and an account-book looks "too book-keepy" for us.

The majority of us "just pay our bills" when the bills come in, or if we live on a cash basis, make purchases until the cash runs out. There is neither system nor sense in such a plan. It is the surest incentive on earth to extravagance and waste, and the remedy, a return to the old plan of laying out a budget, is the quickest and most certain cure.

If you know what you want and have planned to buy it, you will not buy foolishly and impulsively, and you will not be led into rash purchases by smooth salesmen, thus throwing away money on what later prove to be costly blunders. Nor will you purchase bargains you don't need just because of an advertisement. The man who has a fixed standard of personal expenses knows just "where he is at," and is less likely to be extravagant because he knows when he is being extravagant.

As a simple illustration of system in personal finances a man should plan that the month's rent and food bill will be kept within his earnings for a fixed period. Or, if unmarried and independent he should work out a similar scheme for board and clothing. Then another portion of his income should take care of incidentals, still another portion be set aside for extraordinary expenses, and finally a regular fixed amount for savings. The real work of a great many clerks, accountants and bookkeepers is to analyze costs, incomes, expenses and so forth. Why not learn to analyze your own costs as well as those of your employer's business?