Thifty

I have not heard this word or term in years. My Grandparents always used it and I always remember them saying 'they had to be very thifty'. I do not think they thought of it as mean but I think they used it as a term "to cut back on spending" We will probably here the term being used more now with the financal situation around the world. I think we all need to be thrifty and watch our pennies.

Hi Anne18 Thifty? I can't say I have ever been called thifty! Thrifty yes, but thifty, no, never! LOL I think there is a big difference between being thrifty and being mean. Thrifty is just being careful with your money and being mean is, well, just being a tight wad when you don't have to be!!

well not for me it isn't mean I wasn't born into a family that had a lot of money so since I was a child I never had fancy things other kids my age had I was always made fun of in school because of that so for me I really don't mind being thrifty although I had my days of spending spree when I was working full time because I wasn't happy and I felt like spending would make me happy, after all I worked for it I'm sure the crisis has made people understand the value of money and that spending spree is not necessary unless of course they are celebrating something

it has definitely changed.. Due to inflation and current recession, everybody is holding back their spendings.. SO i guess it's supposed to be thrifty as most of us are trying hard to stretch our dollars to its max..haha =D But in a way, it's good too because we are forced to save, and it's good for ourselves.. But in terms of global economy, it isn't good, because we need to spend more to boost the economy worldwide.. haha =D It's contradicting huh?? hehe

No your smart. cd

Yes, I think this has changed. I think thrifty now means economical. I think in this economy, many of us are trying to be thrifty. I don't think it means being mean anymore. I think it's now a good thing to be thrifty.

Being thrifty is also being a smart shopper. For many years my partner and I have worked hard to establish our small organic farm and so the money available for us to spend has been somewhat limited. At least we have limited it ourselves, because we want to retire from working other than on our farm in a couple of years and would like to have no debts then. At least if the mortgage has been paid off then we do not have to worry about finding the money for that every month. Briefly, both my partner and I had been married to others (and separated) before we met but neither of us had any money then. My partner had bought out her ex so she did have a home which she subsequently sold around the time that I received the proceeds from the sale of the house I had owned with me ex. In neither case was it a lot of money plus I was still paying child support for my children as they were still young at the time. As I was in my early 50's and my partner in her latge 40's when we started out together, it was a bit of a "late start" for us in the financial sense. That has tempered a lot of things that we do and how we do them. In the economic environment in which we now live, I think that anyone who did not try to get the best value for their money, is not very bright. Basically a business might be able to sell a few things at or below cost, but they cannot do it too often or they will not survive in business. Now we have a small organic farmlet so I do have a fairly good idea on just how the system works and it is the same principal for all businesses. We know how much it costs to produce our fruit and vegetables as well as the jams, sauces, preserves etc that we make. We are not price setters but rather price takers when it comes to the bulk of our produce and we will negatiate the best deal that we can. However when it comes to selling smaller volumes in the local area, it operates a little bit differently. If we have some produce that might be perfectly good to eat but has been marked by perhaps the plant, then we cannot send it to market or one of the big supermarket chains. We will however sell it cheaply to someone local who is happy with the slightly imperfect shape or whatever it is. I do not consider the people who buy those products as stingy or mean but rather they are sensible shoppers. We apply the same princial to our own shopping, whether we are looking to buy a shed or a piece of machinery for our farm or even the groceries that we will be eating/using. It is being sensible and wise with money. We do see a lot of it with the people who buy the fruit and vegetables from us and as I said, there are many who will be mre than happy to buy our slightly imperfect produce. If we did not sell the fruit and vegetables, then it would get thrown out or maybe donated to one of the local charities. Either way, we make no income from it and yet we have still expended money to get those fruit and vegetables. If we did not reduce the price of this slightly imperfect produce for our local customers, they would still buy from us but they would take less product. They only have so much money available to spend and naturally they want to get the most for their $. So doing what we do is a situation where we all win and none of us is being mean but we are thrifty and wise with our money.

Years ago it was also said that the person had more money than sense!. I am glad I had sense. For me this has still not changed.

Everything has changed hon, now a days it's called being a tight a@@.

"Mean," doesn't always mean being bad to others - see, in in my sentance there is the word. "Mean" in the thrifty sense has more of a "a middle point between extremes" meaning rather than any other meaning.

I think being thrifty is very in nowadays...With not enough money to go around I know I truly "love a bargain" and try to stretch my money as far as I can. I guess that could be called thrifty.

I don't remember the mean part I do remember the cheap part. We called them cheap. Well, in my family it has. This year there are no presents. I was going to make scarves but they didn't want them ok. I'm cold will make a blanket. My son is happy as we are having Ham for christmas which he loves. We are going back that is for sure. And you know it just mite be a good thing. One never knows. Have a great day and a happy Holiday.

I guess there hasn't been serious change in relation to this! I guess that people make all kinds of judgements like that, I also guess that they are pretty shallow minded! There's just so much judgement going around about people and circumstances and no one really knows the particulars about that particular person. Even if they were thrifty, they should not be judged for being that way, this is the way they are; live and let live I guess. Andrew

Now, it has changed. But now, everythng has changed.