There is this great expression: "Penny wise and pound foolish".
Like a person who will go out of his way to save five cents on flour, but will then buy a boat that he won't even use.
It is often used about somebody who will refuse to make a small expidenture who could give a large payback. (Example: one of my neighboring apartments stood empty for long periods until the owner finally realized that it would pay off to replace the very ratty carpet and furniture.)
I'm wondering if many of us don't have a similar affliction in other areas. Like putting a lot of thought into what color shoes to buy, but never really reflecting too much on the big things, like our overall direction in life, and what we believe.
I often wonder whether maybe I'm not rather pound-wise but penny-foolish. I have consistently considered my overall direction in life, and what I believe. But I've done very little practical or useful, and I can't keep a job.
ReplyDeleteI am a skin-flint when it comes to money. Maybe I am penny-wise after all ...
I'm wondering if many of us don't have a similar affliction in other areas. Like putting a lot of thought into what color shoes to buy, but never really reflecting too much on the big things, like our overall direction in life, and what we believe.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking this before, but even more so after seeing "An Inconvenient Truth" - we're really not looking after the most important thing of all and still assume that life will still keep going on like it used to.
(Not that the film states anything new but it does do a good job with bringing the sad facts, and the accompanying permanent denial, back into focus.)
It may sound dramatic but I believe it's true - our planet's state is the pound that makes or breaks everything else, which turns out to be just pennies worth.
Just my 3p...
"A penny saved is a penny earned."
ReplyDeleteWhich means exactly what is says. So ask yourselves whether it is worth the effort, for just a penny!
Although, unlike some, I am one to bother and pick up the small change that I've dropped on the ground. Be it only to give it later for charity, where every penny counts.
I count change. I account my pocket change to the penny. I save my quarters (USA 25-cent pieces), roll them, and use them in the laundry machines at my apartment complex. I record when I have transferred a pile of quarters to a $10 roll, when I have used a roll in the laundry, when I spend $4.82 at Cuppa Joe's, and if the eighteen cents doesn't account right at the end of the day I worry about how I'm throwing away change frivolously.
ReplyDeleteThen, when I book an airline flight, I will just as likely click "buy" if it's $298.79 or $314.82.
Go figger.
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sensible about money. In comparison to my income at al least. But I am still careful about not wasting a piece of tissue paper, but I'll buy an expensive camera with an excuse as flimsy as that paper.
"It's the small gesture that counts." Too much, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteMaybe we're trying to compensate our guilt of being careless by conveniently focusing at the very available small details.
Okay, I'll stop with the surgery-deep-introspection-without-anesthesia already!