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Your Take: What Does Thrift Mean To You?
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Did you know that it’s Thrift Week?
In celebration of National Thrift Week, I want to know, what does Thrift mean to you?
To me, thrift always seemed like one of those old fashioned words from a bygone era. I always equated it to frugality, where you are smart about your money and trying to get the most out of every dollar. Thrift was virtuous and consumerism was evil. Since that era, which I think ended sometime in the 70′s or 80′s, we’ve replaced thrift with consumerism. Saving was replaced by borrowing.
I was especially interested to learn that thrift referred to more than just saving money and spending wisely. It also referred to working hard and giving back to the community, two points that are once again coming back into fashion (along with saving and spending wisely). I think we’re seeing the pendulum swing back away from frivolous borrow & spend and swing towards thrift. I think it’s a good sign. What do you think?
Templeton Press, the fine people behind this push to bring back thrift, have generously offered to give away three copies of David Blankenhorn’s Thrift: A Cyclopedia. Leave a comment sharing what thrift means to you and you will be entered to win a copy of the book. This contest will close at noon on January 30th.
The contest is now closed. Congratulations to the winners, Diane, Caitlin, and Audra, we hope you enjoy your new copy of Thrift!
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 By Jim |
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Interesting post Jim. When I personally think of thrift, I think of using my spending power wisely. That encompasses keeping personal spending on a leash, but also carefully choosing how and where to put our dollars to best use. You bring up a good point here – if we carefully choose charitable organizations that make wise use of donations, we are also in a sense being ‘thrifty’. I’m wondering about a more abstract definition.. for example, in some way could hiring employees be considered thrifty?
“A Scout is thrify.”
One of the 12 points of the Boy Scout Law. This is great advice, especially to view it as a point of community service.
I often teach my Scouts that they should be paying their way (summer camp, uniforms, books, camping equipment, etc.) through Scouting. An 11-year old can generate the funds to do it (mine do) through chores, mowing the lawn, working in fundraising efforts, making good choices with “gift” money, and more.
Of course, just because the BSA teaches it doesn’t mean that Scouts are the only ones who can benefit from it!
scoutsigns,
Thanks for bringing back a few memories.
I believe most people think of ‘cheap’ when they hear “thrifty”, but I like the BSA idea of being wise with your time, opportunities, and resources. That is what a real spend-thrift is.
When I think of thrify, I think of cheap. It’s a bummer I know it doesn’t mean that, but I have been conditioned to think that. I guess it was a bit of the way my dad used the word “thrifty”
Hmm. I honestly never thought of the term that much before. Personally, I believe being thrifty isn’t just about getting as much as you can for your money, but also making good use of what you have around you. For example, I believe I’m being thrifty when I repair the holes in my jeans instead of buying a new pair right away. Or using up the food I already have in the fridge before going to the grocery store and buying things that I may already have, and running out of space to store things. Also making water my primary drink, so when I go out to eat, I just pay for the meal without added cost for beverages. Stuff like that.
In my opinion, being thrifty is primarily an attitude which can be observed through many activities such as saving for a “rainy day”, “making do” with what one already has or fixing a broken item instead of running out to buy a new one, shopping around (online when possible to save gas) for the best price on items one needs, and sharing resources with ones neighbors — one might have a hedge trimmer, another a bread maker, a third a snow blower that all might share. To use another term that may sound foreign to some, being thrifty means practicing good stewardship of all the resources available to you.
Thrift means getting the most bang for the buck on things you really need.
I have the Thrift Cyclopedia and it’s really a very interesting book. Readers will probably be surprised to see how the definition and usage has evolved over time!
To me Thrift means having a budget and sticking to it. While making the budget we try to be thrift and not generous.
Thrift to me means
1. Prioritizing your expenses, so that the important things in life are not missed out on.
2. Saving money on everything else.
3. Having a safety net for unplanned circumstances.
When I think of Thrift, I think of my grandparent’s defininition, after not just surviving, but thriving during the Depression: Making good use of everything, absolutely everything. Not just spending wisely in the first place, but recycling, re-using, and being creative and crafty. Finding treasures that others have cast away, and re-making them into something useful. Like using wood scraps for toys, unraveling and re-knitting the yarn from barely worn sweaters, refinishing furniture, and using grocery store receipts to do math homework. (That was my father’s trick:)
It takes a creative mind to be thrifty.
I look at thrifty as a way to learn to manage your money, as little as you may have. What will you do when you have millions, if you can’t manage 1000, how can you manage 1M.
Also, thrifty trains you to be committed and focused on setting appropriate goals when it comes to money and growth.
To me being thrifty means saving money and never paying full price for anything. Not necessarily being cheap – in my mind these are two different things. However, being thrifty allows one to utilize more of their money for the good of others as well.
Getting the best price for the most product.
Thrift means making modest sacrifices today so that my children can have a better tomorrow – and teaching them to do the same for their own children.
To me thrift means being respectful of resources, both financial and material. It means repairing instead of replacing, even if the cost is almost the same. It means realizing that every dollar saved is approximately $1.40 that I didn’t have to earn. It means going to tag sales to look for useful things, and then donating an equivalent quantity of “stuff” to Goodwill, to keep our home in balance and avoid unnecessary clutter.
Thrift means to me being able to truly ask the following question and respond with an honest answer … “Is this thing, item, desire a WANT or a true NEED in my life”. If it is a WANT, then am I willing to hold off for a time before purchasing or pursuing it to make sure I really really want to expend the resources necessary to get that want.
Thift means:
1. Being smart. Exercising common sense and god-given wits in an active manner for the benefit of who who care about and are responsible to care for.
2. Caring for your family.
3. Developing a greater appreciation for the benefits of what you don’t need to spend money to enjoy or benefit from. Here are a few examples: Like a brisk walk. Going to a museum. Reading a book. Lifting weights. Doing a yoga class. having friends over and plying a pick-up game of basketball or touch football or throwing darts in the garage with your neighbors. taking a hike to watch deer graze and a hawk make lazy circles in the sky. Riding bikes to get coffee and share a big cookie.
4. using only what you need.
What thrift means to me:
1) Living within your means.
2) Saving.
3) Investing
4) Avoiding financial risk and “playing games with money”
5) Minimizing stress
6) Sleeping well with the wife of my youth
Thrift is more than saving money. It’s buying locally to help stabilize the community, hiring young or inexperienced people to help them develop job skills and stay off the welfare rolls, growing a garden to lower food costs but also reduce medical/dental costs through smart eating, teaching your children and grandchildren the value of hard work and money, and most of all, sharing your wealth with the less fortunate as often as you can, because that gives peace of mind to both you and them. Without a stable community, family, and inner peace, your money isn’t worth a thing.
When I think of “Thift” my local thrift stores are always the first thing that pops to my brain. I have visited those stores frequently whether if it was to find great clothes for Halloween costumes or to supplement the number of serving dishes I needed for my first Thanksgiving
Either way, to me being “thrify” is about finding the most affordable way to make ends meet. Whether its being thrifty through using coupons in combination with store sales to get things for free or visiting the local Salvation Army to get good deals on things I use rarely.
I think thrift is something I’m slowly learning, but need to spend more effort on. I believe it is making good use of your money, though that definition is slightly different for everyone.
I’d love to win this book and read more about it!
It means being 50 years old, getting three kids through college, having my house paid off, being debt-free, and still living as though I have tons of bills. It means living beneath my means.
to me thrift means being frugal, only buying what is needed and getting the best prices
I have to say that thrift is more than money. It’s a lifestyle. Although I am not as thrifty as I should be, I am getting better.
Reading your blog backwards in my RSS reader, I noticed this book on your desk.
Yes please.
Thrift to me means spending money wisely and geting great deals on almost everything!
The thrill of the hunt!
Would like to have a chance to win this good book
I did not grow up in a thrifty household, so I’m trying to figure it out on my own. To me it means using coupons and taking advantage of sales.
Thrifty to me means staying in my budget for all things and having some left over for fun. Thank you
I am achild of the 80s-Spend Spend Spend! I did not grow up really learning to be thrifty and am slowly and painfully learning some hard lessons on money management. Thriftiness to me means paying attention to the little things-turning off lights when you leave the room, turning the thermostat to 66 instead of 70, using coupons and maintaining my car maintenance. The big things are easy-its trying to pay attention to all of the small waste that has become important to me and seemd to define thriftiness for me.
Growing up, I associated “thrift” with Goodwill stores. Now I associate it with spending money wisely.
THRIFT means to me that nothing is set in stone. Everything is negotiable. You should develop skills at, and enjoy, the negotiation process.
To prove that everything is negotiable, I took time to show some friends this at regular, big-box department stores we see all the time–Sears and J.C.Penney.
At Sears I went into the computer area and checked out all the desktops. I needed to buy one, so I was very talkative with the sales clerk. Eventually I settled on the one I wanted and asked it’s price. Upon hearing it, I mentioned that I could get the same one at a competitors for 25% less. After a bit of back and forth, the salesman agreed, wrote the ticket up as a ‘sale’ and gave me MY price.
At JCPenney, I went to buy some boots. After trying on several pair, I decided on one. Upon close inspection I noticed a large thread loose on the inside (it didn’t affect anything). While the salesman produced other identical pairs without the loose thread ‘defect’ and said he’d return the loose-thread pair to the manufacturer, I tried on all the others. But I insisted the loose-thread pair actually fit most comfortably. I had to negotiate for almost 5 minutes before he finally agreed to sell me the the loose-thread pair. Since he had already said the loose thread was a ‘defect’, even tho’ it didn’t affect anything, he gave me a 1/3 price discount!
Thrift=enjoying the negotiation.
Thrift and wise are two words that are interchangable. My dad grew up a farmer and taught us the value of a dollar, saving and using resources wisely. He left the farming community and was a white collared professional raising us in a community of doctors and other professionals. In an era of designer labels and hot spending,I survived. i still consider myself a thrifty person. Thrifty to me means being green, wise and resourceful. I try to instill these values in my children in this i want it now world.
when i hear of thrift and thrify I think of money/budget conscious. Thrifty to one may not be thrifty to another, as their frame of reference is their income/salary. Not everyone’s income/salary is the same, so everyone’s frames of reference will be somewhat different.
I’m having so much fun making friends and blog-hopping again this year. Thanks for such a generous giveaway! I hope I’m chosen as the lucky winner!!!
I think of being thrifty as doing the most you can with the resources available to you. Thanks for a great giveaway!
Thrifty to me means using my money and resources wisely. It means using coupons, rarely eating out, shopping thrift stores/yard sales, stocking up, saving electricity/water and being green before green was fashionable.
Thrifty to me is learning to see the value in what you already have instead of always rushing out to buy new. I have long shopped resale and thrift stores, not only to save money, but to save more things from going to the landfill. I have always believed in living below your means..and being thrifty has helped us to accomplish this.
Thrift to me means never spending more than you HAVE to, even if you have it to spend. The money you save can then be put towards something else. I know people who have no concept of being thrifty. They buy what they like, when they want it, whether they have the cash or not.
Being thrifty is about figuring out what you truly need (not just want) and then getting it cheaper than others think to. If you can repurpose things or buy them on sale, you’re being thrifty!
Thrifty does not mean cheap to me. Cheap has too many bad connotations and I don’t believe thriftiness is bad. Being thrifty means making the most of your money.
Thrift means to me getting everything that we need to maintain a comfortable life at bargain basement prices.
To me thrift means not only saving money and finding bargains, but also means taking care of what we possess, including the earth.
We re-use, re-cycle, re-store. Thrift means not wasting our resources. We conserve water and electricity.
May Canadians enter?
Thrift, to me, means living within your means and getting the most out of your money and other resources (which doesn’t necessarily mean getting the cheapest version of everything, but rather getting the best value). The point about community isn’t one I would have thought of, but it does seem to go along with the rest.
Thrift means that I should get good value for my money. I am getting to the point where I would rather pay more money for something really good, including waiting to get it, rather than getting something cheap.
An example was a kitchen table we got at Dillards a few years ago. My wife was working there at the time and they had a sale on what seemed to be a good basic table. The chairs even seemed to be good enough to support my large size. Her discount made it seem even better.
One chair has already broken and I am no longer convinced that it was a good deal. While I didn’t want to spend $1-2,000 on a good table, I should have considered that rather than buying a low-end one, even if it seemed good at the time. It was not thrifty to make this purchase.
On the other hand, a dining room table I inherited from my grandparents has lasted a long time and the chairs have held up do solid use, even though we are really using it as a kitchen table. Though I am sure the price was much, much higher, it was a much more thrifty purchase.
Finding a solid value in some areas, like furniture, can be quite challenging. That makes it really hard to be truly frugal with such purchases.
Brad
I hear the word “thrift” and it reminds me of my grandmother…growing up she LOVED going thrift store shopping…getting the most she could for as little as possible and she was pretty darn good at it too!
thrift meant grandparents who wrote down every cent they spent in little notebooks kept in the glove compartment. Thrift meant toil. For their children, new 1950s postwar wealth earned meant less toil, no thrift. To their children, their no thrift meant redefining thrift after a coming of age with no thrift; hard to remake decades of spending habits, but it’s amazing what a pair of scissors can do to a credit card.
I feel thrift is a way for me to get more for less, and have things that are uncomon things that you cant just get any ware and you don’t see 10 other people wareing in class. also I see it as away to reduce my inpact on the envronment!
thanks
Thrift has become a big part of my life this past year. I’ve started trying to reduce my purchases, and when I do buy things, always check the thrift stores first. It’s rewarding for me to know that I’m reusing items instead of generating more waste by buying new. It’s also satisfying to fill my home and my wardrobe for much less. I also have a passion for interesting objects, whether antiques or just fun but “worthless” baubles. The thrift store is like a big treasure hunt that gets my creative juices flowing and satisfies something inside me…
Sounds like an interesting book! Thanks for the chance to win!
thrift means living under your means and taking care of family without debt or loans from family, etc. Knowing between a need and want. Thrift is being smart enough not to have to compete with the Joness down the street..being comfortable in your own enviorment