Chapter 56: Being a Housekeeper is a Technical Job

  At this time, the sky was still early, Zhao Xun was stunned for a while, and Lu Ma had something to come and ask her.

  It was said to be a consultation, but in fact it was just a notification. Although Lu's mother praised Zhao Xuan for being clever and capable, she didn't think those trivial matters were something a young girl should worry about: "Big sister, the kitchen needs to go to the market to buy meat, vegetables, rice, and noodles for today's three meals. Big sister, do you have anything you'd like to eat? Old Madame is not at home, so all these things are up to big sister to decide. If you want to eat something, just say it, and Lu's mother will have someone buy it."

  If it were another child, they would definitely be thinking about their favorite dishes at this time. However, Zhao Xuan was very cautious and thought of her grandmother's usual management style, so she asked first: "At this time of year, what seasonal vegetables are available outside?"

  It's now the late spring season, just before summer, when there are fewer vegetables to choose from. However, since Fengxian is close to Jiading and Songjiang, the local produce is still quite abundant. Mrs. Lu listed some of the common vegetables they usually buy: "There's celtuce, chicken feather grass, celery, burdock, bean sprouts, leek, scallions, and sometimes bok choy, malabar spinach, and Chinese broccoli in the market. There are fewer melons and fruits, and only one or two types of meat, but fish and shrimp are plentiful. In the kitchen, there are also dried bamboo shoots and calabaza from last year, as well as several types of dried mushrooms.

  Zhao Xuan thought for a moment: "Isn't there any shepherd's purse? At this time, there should be many people digging wild vegetables to eat, right?"

  Lu's mother smiled: "That's what rural families eat, occasionally someone takes it to the market to sell, and we can see it. In fact, if it weren't for you always saying that eating wild vegetables has its benefits and is fresh, Old Lady wouldn't have let people go buy it."

  Zhao Xuan smiled awkwardly and thought for a moment before saying, "Buy some vegetables and fish, they're good for the body. The rest is up to you. I'm just one person, my appetite isn't big, mainly it's for the people below to eat. You take care of it. Oh, Lu Ma, tell the kitchen staff to ask them what dishes they're skilled at making, and make a list according to the season, best if there are dozens of dishes or more, we can discuss it together. Make a menu, change it every few days, that way you won't have to worry about what to eat every day."

  Lu's mother smiled and said, "In the past, when we were in the capital city at the Hou Mansion, the old lady also did this. At that time, there were twenty or thirty dishes on the menu every day, and it was changed once every ten days. Although the kitchen was easy to manage, the expenses were not small. Later, when we moved to Fengxian, the old lady thought the expenses were too great. She didn't bother with what kind of layout, just let people buy whatever fresh things they saw at the market every day."

  Zhaoxuan understood that since it was an abolished system, there must be a reason for its abolition. Her grandmother must have had her reasons. But now that she's just taken over the household chores, she actually doesn't have the energy to think about what dishes to eat every day. So she still made a dish rotation chart, which is more convenient, as long as she controls the number of dishes. The cost won't be much different either. When the season changes, she can adjust the dish rotation chart flexibly.

  Besides, there is no fixed routine for buying vegetables every day, and it all depends on the master's mood. The master can't supervise in person, who knows if someone will take advantage of the opportunity to satisfy their own desires under the master's name? She is not the grandmother, relying on decades of housewife prestige to suppress all the restless servants, she is just a little girl, maybe everyone can take a bite of her flesh. At this time, the existence of rules is very necessary. Anyway, after the grandmother returns home, the method can be changed back.

  Mrs. Lu had no objection to Zhao Xuan's words, it was just a meal, why not eat? She quickly finalized today's menu, let Zhao Xuan review it, then discussed the bill, and instructed the kitchen staff to take the bill to the accounting room to collect the money. The daily budget for buying meat and vegetables is fixed, and the application process has its own routine, the kitchen is used to it. Originally, she was worried that Old Lady would be away from home, and Miss was only seven years old, managing the household for the first time would be troublesome, but it turned out to be just like usual, with almost no delay.

  Zhao Xuan had only seen her grandmother manage the household before, but this was the first time she took charge herself. At first, she felt a bit awkward, but soon adapted to it. Except for listening to people's responses and handing out cards, there was always an urge to remember what the other person said in order to fill out reports later. Now she really admired her grandmother Zhang and Lu Ma, who seemed to be able to recall every single expense, no matter how much money was spent, without writing anything down, just relying on their memory, even after several days had passed, without even thinking about it.

  Zhaoxuan only wrote a few strokes, and her head was a bit dizzy. She secretly rejoiced that although the house was big, there were not many people in the family, so there were fewer things to do. After listening to everyone's report, she immediately took out paper and pen, and recorded all the things she remembered with simple keywords, marked the amount of money spent, asked Lu Ma if she couldn't remember some places, and finally made a summary, calculating the total amount of silver spent today.

  9 taels and 8 mace 6 candareens of silver

  Zhao Xuan secretly curled her tongue. This number doesn't seem like a lot, but this is just one day's worth of time. In a month, wouldn't she have to spend over three hundred taels of silver?

  After re-checking the specific expenditure items, the rice, flour, meat and vegetables that the whole family needs to eat cannot be saved. There are more than 100 people, according to Lu Ma's words, when Zhang Shi was around, the expenses were also about this amount, it can be seen that there is not much water; In addition, there are lamp oil, candles, fresh flowers for inserting bottles, fresh fruits for worship in the Buddhist hall, incense, and maintenance of boats, sedan chairs and carriages for going out. Some courtyards in the old house have been unrepaired for many years and need to be repaired, but because it is rainy now, it is not a good season for repairing houses, so we can only use wood to support them simply, this money for buying wood is also an expenditure, if the male servants in the family are not skilled enough, they may still have to spend money to hire craftsmen.

  These are all expenses that cannot be saved, and cannot be delayed. Zhao Xiu sighed, and could only lament that it's not easy to support a family. Even if the house has already locked up the unused courtyards, and reduced the unnecessary servants, after all, there is still a framework in place, and the monthly expenditure of several hundred taels of silver is really impossible to save.

  This is still the daily life expenses, the money that the Zhao family needs to spend every month. It's not just these, relatives and friends who come to visit during festivals and holidays don't count, when there are weddings and funerals, they naturally need to make an appearance. The scope of this is very broad, because the Zhao family has a good reputation, some people in the county who can't even get close to them also can't be left out, and they can't lower their standards either. Every season, new clothes and shoes need to be made for everyone in the household, whether it's the masters or the servants. There are nine branches of the family outside, some of whom have a poor financial situation. Zhang Shi usually sends money and grain every month to help them out. Then there's the expenses for Zhao Wei's school, the gifts for the teachers and the respects paid. There are also two classmates who come from poor families, Zhang Shi helps them out from time to time because of her grandson. In the county, there are several famous Buddhist temples and Taoist shrines. Every major festival or grand event, Zhang Shi always adds incense oil...

  Zhao Xuan's head was spinning, she had never realized before that there were so many places in the house where money needed to be spent. Some of these expenses were actually unnecessary, right? Unfortunately, when Zhang Shi managed the household, he left behind these rules, and Lu Ma would never change them. Zhao Xuan was only temporarily managing for a few months, after all. She was just a young girl, it wasn't necessary for her to arbitrarily change the rules left behind by her grandmother. If she really wanted to make changes, she'd have to wait until she was a few years older and had more authority.

  Household management is really a technical job, but fortunately, Zhao Xiu's family doesn't lack silver, and their daily expenses are only around 400-500 taels per month. In a year, it's just over 6,000 taels, while the income from their land alone far exceeds this amount. They haven't reached the point where they need to cut back on spending yet. But with such large expenditures, it won't last long. Zhao Xiu thought anxiously. Should he carefully investigate and think of ways to save money? If there's really no way to save, then he should think of ways to increase their income.

  Just as Zhao Xun was worried, Shen's wife came over with her daughter Qing Jie.

  They came to have lunch with Zhao Xun. Shen's family personally went down to the kitchen and made a few delicate dishes, stewed a pot of soup, and sent it over for Zhao Xun to eat. She had promised Zhang's family that she would take good care of Zhao Xun, so naturally, she didn't dare to slack off. She also thought that Zhao Xun was a young child living alone at home. Although there were servants serving her, she didn't have any playmates and must be feeling lonely. Therefore, she planned to let her daughter come over every day to keep her company, and if Zhao Xun was willing, she could even let Qing Jie move in for a few days.

  This decision has been agreed upon by Master Rong Yu and his son Zhao Jue, with Master Rong even suggesting that his daughter-in-law temporarily move to the second house for a while to help with household chores. He doesn't think Zhao Xiu, a young girl, can manage anything at home; Lu Changxiu and his wife are servants, and without their master's supervision, they will inevitably slack off and be lazy, whereas Shen Shi is much more reliable than Lu Changxiu and his wife.

  As for what Master Zhang said, Madam Shen did not express any opinion, but in fact she understood Master Zhang's private thoughts. However, that kind of thing was something she could not do. Madam Zhang appreciated Madam Shen, but it was not just because she showed enough virtue and moral integrity; her good character was the main reason why Madam Zhang was willing to entrust her granddaughter to her.

  Zhaoyue had a good impression of Shen's mother and daughter, but she felt that she wasn't really a little kid and didn't need such care. Qing Jie was the same age as Zhao Wei, already eleven years old, and could be considered a big girl, who had long started learning needlework and household skills from her mother. She remembered during Chinese New Year, Shen's family had already begun inquiring about suitable families among relatives to arrange a marriage for her daughter. A young girl of this age staying by Zhaoyue's side was actually quite awkward.

  Zhao Xun then said to Shen Shi, "How can this be good? Isn't Big Sister Jing teaching Qing a lesson on managing the household? If she accompanies me every day, won't that hinder her studies?"

  "However, it's only been a few months, how much can she have learned? She's just learned some superficial things and is still far from being able to handle practical matters. Nowadays, our household is quite busy, with rain for several days in a row, and the newly transplanted seedlings in the fields are likely to be damaged. Your brother-in-law has gone to the fields to personally supervise the workers digging ditches, and your grandfather's old illness has relapsed again, so I need to invite doctors and prepare medicine. At this time, I don't dare to let Qing Jie, a novice, help with trivial matters, and it's not convenient for me to take care of her either, so I'll just let her learn how to keep accounts first. When she's proficient, we can talk about other things later. I heard from Lu Ma that your younger sister is also learning accounting at home, and she's very quick and good at it, much better than your niece. She's a bit dull-witted, but if she follows you and learns more, maybe she'll make some progress, who knows?"

  Zhao Xuan chuckled twice, looked at Qing Jie's expression, and Qing Jie smiled slightly with some shyness, lowering her head.

  Alright, if it's just about calculation, Zhao Xuan still has quite a bit of confidence in herself.

  She smiled and said to Shen's wife, "Since you trust me, then let me take care of Qing'er. You don't have to come every day, it's not too late whenever you're free. I also have my own studies, let me and Qing'er work hard together!"