Thrifty Tuesday

A few weeks ago I finished a book on finding the best of life through thrifty practices. The author said she refused to use the word "frugal" because it meant cheap.

So I decided to pull out my Collins Gage Canadian dictionary and look up the meanings of those two words.

Frugal.... 1) avoiding waste
               2) so sparing as to be barely sufficient

I prefer to use the first meaning of the word when thinking of my life.

Thrifty... 1) economical management; the habit of saving. adj. thrifty.

Hmmm, to my way of thinking both of these go together. Kind of like hand in glove.

When one is thrifty, one avoids waste, and get into the habit of saving. I am not really sure if one can be thrifty without being frugal, at least in the way I understand being frugal.

Being frugal enabled Harvey to retire early, us to take holidays, have wonderfully filling and varied meals. Being thrifty meant paying off our debts quickly and saving the extra cash.

Now we really have no need to be as thrifty or frugal as we were in the past, but being so is more or less second nature now. Which is probably a very good thing considering that costs continue to rise here in Canada.

When I say we are frugal, we are not cheap. We buy the best that we can and these items last for a very long time. I buy on sale with a look to getting the most bang for our dollar.

So do I agree with the author of this book I read? Not really, I think perhaps she did not realize how the two words compliment each other, or perhaps she is locked into the second definition of frugal because of bad decisions (she did make some really bad decisions with her money and personal life).

What do you all think?

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.