The difference between frugality and greed. Thrift is a caring attitude towards what is available

Economy, prudence.

Mind, kindness, talent - any of the virtues can be proud of! And everyone knows - they need to be developed in oneself. And thrift is among the virtues for some reason like Cinderella. Many even hide it, fearing that they will be called petty or stingy. And some underestimate her: in comparison with talent, frugality, they say, is such a small thing, a trifle.

Both are wrong.

Avarice and frugality are not even related. Avarice is selfish, everything is rowing for itself - it accumulates unrestrainedly, often senselessly, like Plyushkin, Gobsek: uneaten food rots, unworn things decay, and the miser continues to drag into his hole everything that he can get. Thrift is not selfish at all; thrifty people care about others first. This is the grandmother who took care, saved her pioneer tie for her grandson - and a simple, not even silk tie of one of the first pioneers in the country became a relic school museum. It is customary for taiga hunters and geologists to throw all the garbage into the fire after a halt. Then it is filled with water. The remains of porridge, bread are not thrown into the fire, they are scattered under a tree - let the local animals and birds feast on them. In vintage folk tales thrift is celebrated. One of them tells how in the royal garden the prince put a broom on the path and brought the girls here in turn. One stumbled on a broom, another kicked her, and the third picked up the broom and carried it to the place - the prince married this girl.

Thrift is caring for loved ones, and for stranger. It starts with trifles, from childhood, and acquires national proportions. Thrift is, as it were, strong banks protecting the full-flowing life of our Motherland, and extravagance, like a mouse, sharpens, bores these banks, and the river becomes shallower.

The student solved the problem incorrectly, crossed out the mistakes - dirt on the page! He took new notebook, and the spoiled one, in which half of the sheets are clean, - into the garbage chute, into best case- in waste paper. (Only a few use leftover notebooks for drafting.) There are 30 students in a class, so 15 notebooks are thrown away. And there are at least five disciplines in one class, - in a ten-year school there are at least 20 classes ... So, 1500 notebooks! And how many schools are there in our giantess country? Is it a small thing, a trifle?

More than once they wrote about the attitude to bread. But the bread continues to be thrown away, being too lazy even to feed the birds with it. What about old things? A little something went out of fashion - and a new coat, dress, skirt is already being sewn. Although ingenuity, frugality could suggest how to remake an old thing.

Look around your apartment: water is dripping from a carelessly closed faucet in the kitchen. In our country, each person is charged for using fresh water pennies, and in European countries, where fresh water not enough, they are already buying it. In the apartment, someone forgot to turn off the light - a leak electrical energy! And across the country in a day - a devastating loss. There is a saying in Vietnam: “Poverty will come to the rich but not thrifty, poverty will come to the poor but not thrift.” An old Russian proverb: "A penny saves a ruble." And here's another: "Every crumb in the palm of your hand", "Frugality is better than wealth."

Plumbing, electricity, bread, ordinary potatoes, porch walls, an elevator, books, notebooks, chairs, shoes, dresses - all this is the work and time of other people. If we respect them, ourselves, we save it all.

Bradbury has fantasy story"Safari". Such a small thing - a butterfly, carelessly crushed in the era of dinosaurs, changes life in time, from which the klutz appeared. It's not just fantasy. Remember that by breaking a branch of a tree, you inflicted a wound on it, opened access to microbes, a hollow may appear in this place or spores of the mycelium will fall - and the young tree will rot alive, collapse, before reaching its age, without benefiting anyone.

The scientific and technological revolution (STR), in fact, is the saving of time and effort of people. Scientists, engineers will improve transport by increasing the volume and speed of transportation. Air liners are bringing points of space closer together, a journey that took weeks in the last century, now takes hours. Postal triplets and carrier pigeons were replaced by instantaneous transmission of information by telephone, radio, telegraph. Automatic machines, and in the near future automatic factories will free up creative time for many people. But one cannot think that machines can do everything, they are also in the power of man and require a careful attitude towards themselves.

Frugality is also important in creativity. An interesting thought or idea came to mind, do not be lazy, write it down or tell a friend. After all, it often happens that a thought will dawn on a person, but he has no time, and he is looking for a loophole - “tomorrow there will be time, I will definitely think it over and write it down”, but tomorrow it is no longer there, I forgot. And Good idea disappeared without a trace. It's good to share a book you read and your impressions about something. “What you gave is yours, what you hide is lost forever,” wrote Shota Rustaveli. And Khachaturian told his students: in your youth, do not be lazy, carefully write down new melodies right away, in old age mastery will come to you, and you will write wonderful suites from the saved melodies of youth.

Develop self-restraint. One can rightly be proud of her, as well as intelligence, talent, kindness, because all these virtues are for people, and not for oneself alone.

Everything living and non-living is connected by time and space. Extravagance, superficiality, stinginess, ignorance tear the connecting threads, violate the correctness of life. And thrift strengthens ties, strengthens the unity of life, it is like drops of rain, which, feeding the earth together, give a rich harvest.

Finishing school, vocational school, institute, a person enters a new work team. How much waste of nerves, time, and energy is there simply because people do not take care of each other or their own own forces are withdrawn from production.

How much is lost due to poor organization of any event! A certain L. Chernyshev spent a lot of time and effort before gaining experience in this area. He formulated his experience in several rules.

Here is some of them:

  • - Try to avoid the temptation of the fussy and weak; when you see other people's shortcomings, do not rush to criticize them if you do not know how to eliminate them.
  • - Give up childish illusions, no one is obliged to do something for you, to bring you something ready on a silver platter at the first request just because you uttered a sensible thought.
  • - Determine whether there are conditions for the implementation of your idea. If not, create them yourself within the scope of your activity. Otherwise, you will be known as the local Manilov.
  • - If you meet an obstacle, don't faint, don't shout that you're overwhelmed by retrogrades. Everything new must make its way in the fight against the obsolete, obsolete. This is the law of development. And you should be happy about it. If there were no moribund around us, new ideas would not be required, and as an innovator you would be left without a job ...
  • - Know yourself and your opponents, take into account all your advantages and all your shortcomings, so that your attacks end in victory, and no one can destroy the defense.

Compliance with at least these rules will help save nerves, strength in common cause for which we are all fighting, building a new, humane society.

Economy should not be identified with boredom, necessity and need. Rather, the synonyms are different: “saving”, “thrift”, “thrift”. Associations with the word will be all the more pleasant, the more creatively and deliberately you approach the process. How to achieve savings in everyday life? This is our article today.

Much of it goes to food. recognized fact. Another thing is that spending can be reduced without compromising the quality of food. For example, how do you like the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcreating a menu for the week? Yes, of course, you will have to spend time thinking about the seven-day diet, but the benefits are undeniable. So, you definitely won’t buy extra products after work, but will come in only for the necessary (bread, milk). In addition, planning in advance will allow you to gradually fill the refrigerator with self-made semi-finished products: dumplings, soup preparations, stuffed pancakes, etc. Agree: unexpected guests will not be taken by surprise, which will save hundreds of rubles in such an emergency. The consequence of planning the menu for the week is the advance purchase of products. Now you can save a lot by shopping at small wholesale prices. Many supermarkets are happy to provide this opportunity.

Of course, at any time we can not do without shopping. Clothes wear out, shoes are torn, out of order ... But it is in our power to devote more attention things so that they last as long as possible. Therefore, we are not too lazy to study the labels on clothes for caring for them, the recommendations in the instructions for the devices, to gain new knowledge about durable items. For example, a laminate coating should not be treated with wax or oil, it does not tolerate water, it favors wet cleaning no more than a couple of times a week, and once a year it requires treatment with a special mastic. The moving parts of the plastic window fittings should be “treated” twice a year with a special lubricant, as well as rubber seals; a solvent should not be used to clean the plastic frame, etc.

Delay and with the appeal to a dry-cleaner. Maybe a greasy collar or pockets on a sheepskin coat can be cleaned with a simple tooth powder, and a stain from a coat can be removed with a mixture of glycerin and ammonia? There are many ways to solve problems on the Internet. When you are convinced that the task is too heavy for you, then apply for a paid service.
A significant share of the family budget is "eaten up" by utility bills. Provided that you are extremely wasteful of the benefits of civilization such as water and electricity. In practice, we can save up to 40% of our money without hurting family members in comfort.

For example, any type of household appliances has its own energy consumption class. Having simple knowledge in this matter will help you choose an economical model. So, the least wasteful classes of devices with markings A, A +, A ++, B.

However, no matter how economical Appliances, it wastes electricity in vain, being "ownerless" plugged into the outlet. Think about the number of devices that are connected to the network in standby mode. Maybe it's a turned off TV, a computer, a phone charger left in the socket ... For a year of such waste, hundreds and hundreds of rubles are wound up "idle"! The easiest way to save money is to unplug your appliances when you leave the house.

Go to LED lamp- another opportunity to replenish the piggy bank with a saved banknote. Unlike their counterparts ("Ilyich's light bulb", energy-saving versions), LED options are relatively inexpensive, last a long time, are unpretentious in electricity consumption and are presented in various options.

A kind of home “feng shui” will also help. This is when electrical appliances not only work with efficiency, save a hundred or two, but are also in their place. For example, a refrigerator should not be placed next to radiators and a stove, when using an air conditioner, close windows, turn off the iron before ironing the last thing (its surface retains heat for a long time). Do you want to wash things in the "washer" or turn on the dishwasher? Download them by full program”, and do not drive a couple of objects back and forth.

Options for ideas for saving in everyday life - do not count. It remains only to be surprised at human ingenuity. Someone finds regular travel companions before work, another learns the basics so as not to pay outsiders for work, the third is in constant search for discounts, the fourth sews and knits on his own ...

The main thing is not to slide into the usual redneck in the pursuit of profit. Agree, the advice to wash once a week, and even then in the shower, turn off the doorbell when you leave home, send children to visit before dinner, etc. sound ridiculous and ridiculous.

As they say, savings must be reasonable, not just economical. Therefore, if you want to go to the cinema or a cafe, you should not give up entertainment at all. Like, the same movie can be watched for free at home on a computer or limited to cooking a festive dish within the walls of an apartment. Little joys help to survive difficult times and they grow into good mood, positive attitude to life. Smart spending!

What qualities should modern man? Should he be careful? What is frugality, how does it differ from other qualities, how to manage it? You can find out more about this in the article below.

The word "protect" appeared at the time ancient Russia, has the same root as in the word "shore". It means to close the shore. Protect, hide, care.

The value of frugality cannot be overestimated, because in ancient times people believed in a goddess named Bereginya. It was believed that she protects the family and the earth from evil spirits and brings happiness to the house.

Hence: the word "thrift" means the quality of a person, which lies in his ability to carefully treat what he has. Also, frugality is the wise use of what is available. This is the preservation of material and spiritual wealth.

You need to understand that this quality applies not only to money, but also to other resources. For example: if you turn off the lights when you leave the room, you save electricity. If you wash in the shower instead of in the bath, you save water.

How not to confuse frugality with greed?

If you're saving up and saving your pocket money for something special by refusing to go to the movies and buy unnecessary things, then you're doing the right thing. But if your friend asked to lend him money for travel, and you refused because then you would have nothing to put in the piggy bank, then you are doing badly, because this is already greed. No need to refuse to help friends and relatives if their requests are really serious.

Also, excessive thrift can turn into greed towards oneself. This can happen if you suddenly start saving on such things that you can’t do without. For example: if you save on food and go hungry all day, you can earn health problems that will have to spend much more than lunch.

Thrift and prudence

These words are synonyms, but there is a slight difference between them. If frugality is just small savings and the rejection of various unnecessary expenses, then prudence is also taking into account circumstances, having a plan. A prudent person, as a rule, thinks about how he can save up and for what.

Good quality

Thrift was previously considered the lot of poor people, while the rich, on the contrary, did not spare money for anything. Now everything has changed, and in this capacity you can find many advantages.

Such as:

  • correct handling of money;
  • ability to save;
  • the ability to appreciate what you have (especially if it was bought with accumulated funds);
  • the ability to determine what is more important to you in this moment;
  • the ability to manage your time;
  • possibility of choice.

How to manage thrift?

How to learn to save, but at the same time not become greedy? Let's look at some tips that will teach you to keep track of your expenses, but at the same time not go too far with savings.

  • Calculate your income (it can be pocket money, gift money, etc.).
  • Calculate your main expenses (what you will definitely need to spend money on, travel and lunches).
  • Determine how much you have left.
  • Decide how much you are willing to put into the piggy bank.
  • Try to set aside the planned amount of money every time.
  • Thrift is not giving up everything, sometimes you can buy what you want.
  • Don't skimp if you're hungry or cold (it's better to buy food and drive home than get sick).
  • Tell your loved ones what you are saving for (most likely they will want to help you, and your piggy bank will fill up faster).

Thrift is not just a quality of a person, but a way of life. Thanks to him, you will be ready for any life circumstances, you will be able to manage your savings and choose what to spend them on. Being lean is not difficult, but beneficial, not only for the people themselves, but for the planet as a whole.

We have heard more than once that need to be careful . This is understood as the ability to spend a minimum on one's life, allowing one to exist with dignity, but at the same time not to go to extremes and excesses. It is worth noting that not many people are able to save, most of us are infected with the virus of constant consumption and strive to buy as much as possible, believing that without certain goods simply impossible to do.

However, if you think about it, most of what we so want to have is absolutely not vital, but is inspired by the common standards of a happy life being introduced into society. And if a person cannot understand that it is not necessary to spend big money on those things that can be purchased much cheaper, or does not want to do without some special attributes of luxury, this means that he cannot be frugal.

However frugality is necessary for everyone who really wants to get rich. Studying the biographies of famous millionaires, one can come to the conclusion that the path to their wealth lay precisely through thrift. After all, what is the basis of wealth? Of course, the accumulation of capital. And it is impossible to accumulate anything without saving and spending money wisely.

It doesn't really matter how much you earn. Your income may be significant, but at the same time you may have less money than your neighbor, who earns several times less. Why is this happening? Usually people who consider themselves rich spend huge sums on their daily needs. This leads to high salary sometimes not enough to cover their current needs. As a result, some take various loans, etc., which further aggravates the situation. It turns out that a person seems to be rich, he drives an expensive car and lives in luxury house but he has no savings. Both the car and the house require big money on its content, and so almost everywhere. Is it possible in such conditions to talk about the creation of some kind of savings? Of course not.

However those who know how to be frugal are able to make a decent fortune, even without a high income. They collect their capital bit by bit, year after year, turning it into their first million. For accumulation, they do not use active earning tactics, but passive tactics accumulation. By the way, in a sense, it is more profitable, since a person who is engaged in saving his own funds will always have a supply of them.

characterized primarily by the reasonable use of funds. Many people who have managed to amass a fortune qualify general attitude to certain things. Here are some rules for their behavior:

  • Always stick to a pre-planned budget for your family;
  • Know exactly how much you spend on clothes, food and housing;
  • Never buy clothes in expensive stores. Use various discounts for this.

As you can see, in order to start saving, you must first stop spending. This, first of all, concerns unjustified spending on something that can be purchased much cheaper, because we buy something to solve some specific problems. If, instead of choosing a functional thing, we begin to focus on brands, brands, fashion, and the like, then we will definitely overpay for the product that is no different from the rest in its main characteristics.

Thrift is important in ordinary life as well as in business. For example, you do not need to have a luxurious office in order to provide quality customer service. In this case, you do not have to throw out fabulous sums for renting a huge building, and it is better to invest all the saved money in business development. Of course, you should not save on high-quality equipment, but it should be borne in mind that the equipment is not so famous brands can compete with established brands. Applying reasonable economy in your business, you will be able to actively develop your business, avoiding unnecessary spending.

In this way, The best way to accumulate capital is thrift. Start using this principle today, and after a while, you will notice that you really have enough of your salary and even manage to save. Do you agree that being frugal is necessary? We are interested to know your opinion.


Waste and rule, select and own, destroy and appropriate, history and our nature have taught us. The first people could not reasonably assess their place in the universe, they were forced to survive, to resist the conditions in which they found themselves. Fear and impotence made them revere the wild nature of the universe. Then man began to conquer nature, to use it for life. We have not learned to take care of it, just as we have not learned to take care of our work. We have created a world of things that we collect around ourselves and make others envy our wealth, forgetting that things only serve a person, and do not indicate his status. We have forgotten their real meaning. Let your mind find the difference between THRIFT AND SPIN.

Imagine that we are driving in a luxury car, clean and spacious. He amazes us with his beauty. A man stands on the road and asks us to give him a lift. Why are you passing by? A person is a person, you say, does he have the right to make a choice? But how does he explain his choice? You feel sorry for your clean rugs, and he has dirty shoes - you are indignant. You say that you are thrifty, or maybe it's stinginess? You say you're in a hurry business man but maybe it's indifference. Man is selfish, we value our things more people. We have created a world of logic that helps us explain our actions with hundreds of different inferences and still be selfish. But then you stopped and picked up a traveler on the road. Oh, are you really a generous person, they thank you, or maybe you just wanted to prove your generosity to yourself, show the traveler that you are a kind person or that you believe in God, or that your parents raised you well? What explanation of the act will be a real reflection of your thoughts. Most likely each of us makes good deeds when it's beneficial or when you want it. Consciousness obeys only its own will. MAGNITY is mental addiction from what is yours. But this is not THRULY at all. A MISER owns objects rather than uses them. He needs things to show his status. He associates himself with this wealth and is realized in it as an egoist. THRUGGER understands that things are created in order to serve people, but at the same time we must protect everything that the Earth and nature gives us and everything that is created by the hands of other people. Let's imagine a situation. A schoolboy asks for a pen from his classmate.

He gives him a pen and says: "Look, don't break it." In response to such a statement, some people will not take a pen, but will ask someone else for it, deciding that only stupid man or very greedy. Although in this situation we can also argue that this is about thrift. Let's take another example. A neighbor asks you for some device you need that you are not using yet. It is clear that you must protect everything that comes to you with such difficulty, but can you be called a miser if you do not give him this device? It is with this thought that he will leave your house. You can be considered Frugal only if you have once given a neighbor any items, and he did not return them intact, although this will not always be an excuse for your action. In addition, we cannot be frugal with things and at the same time stingy with our feelings and support for other people. Here you need a subtle flair and a reasonable choice of your position. We should not be SPARE with our strengths and good feelings for other people, but at the same time, we should PROTECT ourselves for worthy people.

Let's take another scale example. Mankind uses Natural resources. Of course, since we use what nature gives, it cannot be called thrift. This is selfish in relation to future generations, especially since each person believes that everything can be used endlessly, believing that he is doing too important a thing to think about planetary problems, besides, we can only appreciate what is earned by our labor . In order to use things and your powers wisely, you need to train the brain to see everything that is reasonable and separate from the unreasonable. From time immemorial, man has sought to capture as much as possible more territory, to live in a huge palace of twenty rooms, while constantly being in one, to have ten cars, using one, to accumulate wealth to death and not give it to anyone, believing that irons and samovars will come in handy in the next world. All this is logic and selfishness. Most likely, there is no life after death, and the objects that we cherish so much and on which we depend so much grow old very quickly and turn out to be of no use to anyone. Children, for whom each of us keeps our wealth, most often do not take care of it or are made impossible because of this wealth and are a great disappointment to others. The only thing that will help us to find the difference between THRIFT and AGING is selfishness. A LEAN person is not selfish, because he also SAVE everything for people and must make sure that things serve as many people as possible. But if we help only in order to oblige other people to continue to help us, then here again we are talking about AGING, AGING for good deeds and good thoughts. Things lose their meaning if they lie in your closets and chests.

A person, collecting things, thinks that he owns them, in fact it is they who control him, make him their slave. And then money makes us stay awake at night, thinking about how not to lose it. Money makes us blind and stupid, it will not give real joy and will not help to find real friends. They pollute our feelings and turn true love into a great disappointment. Therefore, the rich people of this world understand that the envy of people is the only reward that delights their egoism, for the sake of which they sought to rake wealth around them. Money will never help them to control people. Their souls will only hypocritically demonstrate their obedience to them. Demonstrate and dream to take possession of the money. Ask a rich man whether money makes sense and happiness. And he will answer you "Yes!". But why then are they so unhappy? They drink and amuse themselves, they travel the world in search of adventure, but they do not gain any true love, no real friends, they doubt every second whether women love them because of money and whether friends help them because of money. Why do they keep taking over more wealth sparing neither health nor life?

In the next world, we don't need anything anymore. They do not find the answer to these questions, although the answer is obvious. A rich man is loved only because of his wealth, because he is surrounded by the same egoists as himself, therefore envy and profit are the only feelings that will envelop their consciousness when they are next to him. What is the difference between thrift and avarice? The difference is that the thrifty uses things to improve himself and change the world around him for the better, while the miser owns things to please his egoism. The miser does not think about other people, therefore, choosing apples, he will take the best, making his way in life, he will choose the most easy way leaving difficulties to others, he will find thousands of excuses not to do his job. He is an egoist, which means he must take care of himself or be MEAN for good deeds.

No thing in the world, no matter how beautiful and useful, will make us happy, even if it is the universe itself. And you will throw it away, disappointed that you spent half your life acquiring it, because there is no point in things. Any thing loses its meaning as soon as someone begins to own it. People bring home expensive things that they have been striving for for a long time, betraying friends, forgetting about their children and sacrificing love, and suddenly they realize that they do not need these things, but they need others, more beautiful and more expensive. We simply do not know how to get out of the context and foresee the outcome of the situation several steps ahead. Development is not about owning as much as possible large quantity things, knowledge or something else. Development is a striving for perfection and absoluteness of oneself and the whole world.

The difference in these concepts is practically not visible. You can find it intuitively in situations. Knowing and understanding the measure will finally help to find the difference. The less you show stinginess, the more you have to save, and vice versa, if you do not save anything, then you will definitely become stingy. Let's take another situation. Imagine two scientists, one of whom has an excellent laboratory for his experiments, but does not have any ideas in order to bring them to life. Another scientist, on the contrary, has an idea, but he does not have the conditions to engage in it. Each of them will own what they have and supposedly save for suitable occasion. If they agreed and worked together, they could bring many benefits to people by making discoveries, because knowledge is needed to help people develop. Why is knowledge necessary for those who own it? Most often, to sell your mind at a higher price.

Selfishness and AGING at all levels deprives us of reason. The world that we have is just a huge delusion of every person. People are increasingly moving away from each other, locking up locks in their homes in order to save the minuscule that they have: things and money. They value them so much because in this world it has become difficult to survive without things and money, or because they do not see the difference in the concepts of THRIFT and AGING. Teach your child to PROTECT everything that falls into his hands, so that he is freer than we are, so that he does not spend his life chasing objects, but devotes it more lofty aspirations. After all, it is in the pursuit of things and money that a person begins to see the meaning in them. This is how dependence on objects and avarice is born.