Thud...it's ok you can pick yourself up off the floor....it's only a sensational blog title. Fear not...I have no intention of becoming a scattergood! I am simply giving up the word. For a long time I've used the word frugal and thrift interchangeably, but I have noticed that the nuances of the two words make me feel very different.
"Frugal" I have to come to associate with austerity, spartan, having to go without....it seems bleak and negative. "Thrift" meanwhile gives me a buzz....an ability to mend things, reuse things creatively, think out of the box and come up with original solutions. Lateral thinking is something I greatly enjoy.
As for many of us, I have lots of leftovers to use up. I've loved the process of tracking them all down and working out what I'm going to do with it. Usually, I menu plan like a demon and lurkers get incorporated that way, but I've had a couple of days off and I've been able to wing it a bit more. It's been liberating and not without its moments of humour.....the teenogre has brought home some free perishables recently which his company has been giving to staff at the close of business. Having been out for ahem a "few" celebratory drinks for a mate's birthday, he proudly announced he'd brought a spring onion home for me only to triumphantly pull a rather large leek from his bag...cue one big vat of leek and onion soup the next day!
Out of interest I looked up the definition of the two words...they are very similar. "Frugal" is from the Latin "frugi" meaning economical. "Thrift" originally meant savings and prosperity...the idea of the accumulating savings from being careful with your money came later. Although now seemingly a contradiction in terms, a spendthrift in the first sense would simply have been one who spent their savings. I was pleased to note that it is also derived from "thriven" from which we get our word "thrive". It would seem that my gut instinct was right on this occasion.
Well seeing as this is quite a long blog post for me please allow me to finish with a rather touching quote from the late Carrie Fisher speaking about the late Debbie Reynolds:
"If anything my Mother taught me how to sur-thrive."
Arilx
"Frugal" I have to come to associate with austerity, spartan, having to go without....it seems bleak and negative. "Thrift" meanwhile gives me a buzz....an ability to mend things, reuse things creatively, think out of the box and come up with original solutions. Lateral thinking is something I greatly enjoy.
As for many of us, I have lots of leftovers to use up. I've loved the process of tracking them all down and working out what I'm going to do with it. Usually, I menu plan like a demon and lurkers get incorporated that way, but I've had a couple of days off and I've been able to wing it a bit more. It's been liberating and not without its moments of humour.....the teenogre has brought home some free perishables recently which his company has been giving to staff at the close of business. Having been out for ahem a "few" celebratory drinks for a mate's birthday, he proudly announced he'd brought a spring onion home for me only to triumphantly pull a rather large leek from his bag...cue one big vat of leek and onion soup the next day!
Out of interest I looked up the definition of the two words...they are very similar. "Frugal" is from the Latin "frugi" meaning economical. "Thrift" originally meant savings and prosperity...the idea of the accumulating savings from being careful with your money came later. Although now seemingly a contradiction in terms, a spendthrift in the first sense would simply have been one who spent their savings. I was pleased to note that it is also derived from "thriven" from which we get our word "thrive". It would seem that my gut instinct was right on this occasion.
Well seeing as this is quite a long blog post for me please allow me to finish with a rather touching quote from the late Carrie Fisher speaking about the late Debbie Reynolds:
"If anything my Mother taught me how to sur-thrive."
Arilx
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I did a blog post about this early on. I prefer thrift as a concept. xx
ReplyDeleteThere's a reason why you and I get along well!
DeleteArilx
Count me in the club...frugal sounds like it could be for poshies that don't need to be so...thrift more traditional sounding
ReplyDelete. X