Learn to be thrifty

“It’s so hard to keep up,” she said to her companion. “Things are so expensive and we haven’t had a raise in three years.”

The sound of the traffic drowned out the next few sentences. She continued, now with a painful whine as she described how easy her brother and his family had it, how they enjoyed so much more than she and her husband could provide for their family.

She continued her tale of woe with a description of her brother’s family’s stuff, basically a litany of acquisition of things like cars and Xboxes and gigantic flat screen TV’s, one in each child’s room. Even I thought that was over the top, and I wondered if all of this stuff made her brother any content or happier than she might chose to be.

I thought about the comparison in general and wondered if this penurious family had taken advantage of what previous generations, often facing great deprivation because of war or economic depressions, knew.

Did she know about thrift?

Thrift is a simple but often misunderstood concept. It means that you are careful not to spend your resources on things that aren’t important. First things first. You use your resources to pay for the basics and then if there is anything left over you prioritize how that will be spent or saved.

People are often confused about what is basic. Fancy sneakers or the rent?  Those flat screen TV’s are at least in some ways, culpable.

Unfortunately, in the eternal search for meaning, the basis of philosophical meanderings, the watchword today is not thrift or frugality, but rather accumulate.   Those who have more win the game.

It was a few years ago that a woman named Amy Dacyczn appeared on the Phil Donahue show and demonstrated how she and her husband were able to live a lavish life style by practicing frugality.

On a very limited income, she was able to raise six children with all that entails and purchase a huge farmhouse and land in Maine.

She was an inveterate thrift store and yard sale shopper, furnishing their home with second hand items with all of the family clothing similarly purchased. She made use of what the community had to offer, the library, the parks, community events and neighbors good will, herself a generous sharing person.

Time has passed and all of Amy’s children are grown. Still, her belief and practice of thrift continues, as she says, a fun challenge.

While her newsletter, The Tightwad Gazette is out of print, she is on a number of Youtube videos, each worth a look. Type in her name on the Youtube site and enjoy.

It has often crept into my conscience about the kind of childhood that we provided to our children. While it wasn’t lavish, it was a big cut above what either my husband or I experienced as children. Still, we tried to teach thrift and frugality by setting limits, by encouraging resourcefulness, by the example of volunteering and sharing.

One can live a full and fulfilled life within the framework of community.

Libraries and their multiplicity of resources, their access to the modern digital world, community fraternal, religious and civic organizations, the lovely parks that are part of most municipalities, schools,  concerts, the list goes on expanding the opportunities to learn, enjoy, volunteer, be something more, none of which requiring a big bank account or any bank account.

I am thinking about last weekend.

My youngest grandson spent a good deal of time with two boxes of colored markers, neither box complete, the back sides of two pages from a 2004 calendar and a small pad of post-it notes.

He drew a picture of SU vs. Buffalo complete with balloons, bleachers, etc. dedicated to grandma and grandpa. No expensive do-dads, nothing requiring batteries, a lesson in simplicity and the joy of simple creativity.

Winning the lottery would be nice.

Getting a big promotion and raise would be nice.

Inheriting a ton of money would be nice…but…and this isn’t preaching, it is an observation, none of these brings fulfillment if the focus is on the accumulation of things.

There is always the need for more. And, there are things that are more important than those that can be purchased.

Find purpose first and order your resources accordingly, or as my grandmother would say, “Waste not; want not.”