This is my first blog and opening myself up to this subject I have to admit, I have some unsettling feelings about it all. ‘Will a family/friends think I am a cheap bum?’ Maybe, a potential date might think, ‘Wow, with all this thrifting, how is this guy ever going to be fun to be around?’ I must first define what I understand to be the difference between being cheap and being thrifty to best answer these questions.
Well, I believe that there is a serious difference between being cheap and being thrifty. Part of me, my more ambitious side, wants to go off on a “this is what cheap is, and I am like this” rant, but that would only affirm what little hostility I actually harbor towards the subject. Being thrifty is a skill set not just a lifestyle choice and when I think of some of my mentors in business and sports, for example, thriftiness is a core principle in all of their strategies.
Struggling to made ends meet during the start up phase? Rent a house and have all the employees live in it so that they are constantly collaborating and are never distracted - Facebook. Not enough money to buy a top-notch gear to race in down-hill skiing? Use duck-tape everywhere possible to decrease wind drag and increase speed - TH, BC Provincial Downhill Team. In Business, depending on the business cycle, it goes by bootstrapping, efficiency, automation, or networking. All these processes find ways to minimize waste and maximize output. And in sports there are other examples - I will elaborate in my fitness section the lessons that I am specifically learning to make this a little more personalized.
Also, check out your dictionary on the subject, this is what I found on a basic website:
www.dictionary.reference.com
Cheap: costing little labor or trouble; of little account; of small value; mean; shoddy; embarrassed; sheepish; stingy; miserly
Thrifty: economical management; frugal; thriving, prosperous, or successful; growing vigorously.
If those dictionary definitions do not do enough to convince you of the absolute polarity of these terms then you need to seat yourself back in grade school my friend - really I’m just coming to terms with the differences too:). And they are not so much different on a strictly financial axiom so much as a conscious, human, choice oriented one. Where on the one hand, the cheap individual decides to finds success by reducing his expenditure, while on the other hand the thrifty person chooses to find their highest return on income in managing the fine balance between resource allocation and forward momentum. Or put another way, the later seeks to further his dollar not by hoarding cash but by nursing his investments. One a reducer, the other a capacitor. One a negative, the other a positive.
Well, I think I have at least convinced myself of the point I have been trying to articulate on the difference between being cheap and being thrifty. So, to my family and friends, rest in peace that though you may not receive large Christmas gifts, your kin is in good health. And to the pleasant woman whom I am fortunate to accompany, I have a great travel idea...ever thought about volunteering?
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