The missing virtue of frugality - II
| Date :17-Mar-2019 |
The boy in his mid-teens lived in a faraway place to pursue his education. His parents sent him only limited sums of money from their moderate resources. Sharing a room with three others in a hostel, skipping a meal if he could, walking to the college that was 5 kilometers away so that he could save on his bus ticket, refusing to join friends on khara-meetha-chai breaks, this young fellow would save some money. And when he came home in vacations, he would bring with him loads of gifts for his parents or siblings -- a saree, shirts, sweaters, fancy items and whatever. Everybody would be surprised where he got the money from when they sent him only limited sums. The answer was in the boy’s frugal habits. He saved money wherever he could, and brought back home not just some gifts but also a lot of actual money that he did not consume. LET us be assured that this is not at all an isolated case. We come across countless such persons everywhere and every now and then, making most of their resources, saving decent sums of money when others would not even imagine that it could be done. And let us also be assured that such people are not miserly at all.
They know how to spend, but more importantly, they know how to save. This is the virtue called frugality which teaches us how to mobilise and utilise our available resources and lead a happy life. “Of course, saving money is an art and only some master it,” said a colleague in ‘The Hitavada’ Newsroom. She couldn’t be more right. Saving is almost an art form, since it involves many fine nuances of definition of living well. The young fellow described above is leading a successful life professionally and personally, enjoying thoroughly his brand-new marriage with appropriate spending and a lot of saving. “For me, money is not a wad of currency notes in the wallet or stashed safely away in the bank; it is a means of living well,” he said to me. I am so proud of my nephew, you know! For, the young fellow talks tremendous sense. He treats money as an expression of Laxmi, even though he may not say that in so many words. We come across such persons very now and then. We know young married girls who make a great success out of their marriage by monitoring strictly the spending of every rupee. They may have only moderate family incomes, but are able to purchase a lot of things of utility for the family. For, they know how to spend money and how to save it.
Yet, most unfortunately, they are in a minority in today’s consumerist world. More and more people -- mostly young and possibly employed -- are getting into the wrong habit of senseless spending. They go to stores to buy new shirts just because they have not washed their shirts and had those pressed in time for a meeting or going for work. A couple of years ago, I had written about how a girl (who had not been married at that time) in her early twenties did not have even Rs. 5,000 saved when she earned a monthly salary of Rs. 65,000-plus from her corporate job. The reason was simple: The girl had developed a habit of visiting a shopping mall near her office before she went to work every morning, and visiting it again in evening once her work was over. And once in the glittering place in a big metro city, all she did was brandish her wallet or card and buy things, sit around with friends in coffee shops.
Her purse was always thin (with little money left in it) but her own weight was a matter of concern. Such profligacy is the worst enemy of frugality. But let us tell ourselves one thing clearly -- that profligacy does not indicate a good economic status; it indicates spiritual bankruptcy.