By Roger Findlay, Gerogery
Being thrifty is not about being miserly. The dictionary defines thrifty as follows: Using money and other resources carefully and not wastefully.
With this in mind, I do believe it is a sensible approach for living life.
From an early age I witnessed my parents struggling through hard times in a country that was still reeling from the two World Wars. Rationing ended when I was five but that didn’t change the way we lived. A roast chicken dinner was considered a luxury as was piped hot water. In our house you had to boil a kettle for a wash (with carbolic soap) and that kettle of water served us all!
I consider myself fortunate that the school I attended taught me to save money through the weekly purchase of a savings stamp. The Wolf Cub leaders taught me how to make use of scrap materials and how to treat people that were toughing it. I remember being tested for a House Orderly badge where I had to go into a strangers’ home to make a bed, dust, polish cutlery, wash pots, peel potatoes and fry an egg.
To this day I choose to be careful with life decisions and find it difficult to proceed without a plan. Even in retirement I feel compelled to save money, spend wisely and to use fuel, electricity and water sparingly. I look at my wood pile to estimate how long it will last and I only start my mower when the grass is long enough to provide a meal for the sheep.
By now you will be getting the message but it would appear that some of our World Leaders and major decision makers are throwing caution to the wind and proceeding recklessly by wasting public money and valuable resources.
Living within our means is sensible; accumulating debt isn’t. This life we live isn’t a competition where we have to out-do the others. Unless we win the lotto or inherit a fortune, it is doubtful that we’ll be rich but we can still be happy and contented with what we’ve got.
By reviewing your current situation and implementing changes you can easily become a thrifty person without being seen as miserly. Why not give it a go?