Most every word or expression that describes careful consumption has a negative connotation. Would you like to be called cheap? Tight-fisted? Cost-Conscious? A penny pincher? Ick! Why not just call me Scrooge?
Even the more neutral terms convey skimpiness. Thrift evokes buying low-end, cheesy merchandise. Being economical suggests a lack of means to purchase anything classier. Even “careful” strikes a tone of anxious watching, tracking each penny. Who wants to hear about self-discipline, really?
These behaviors, which are the basis for both ecologically responsible and financially sensible lifestyles, need serious rebranding! How about intentional? If that sounds too sober, go with prudent. Or just dub it intelligent or savvy.
Simply describing this approach to resource consumption as smart, rather than frugal would go a long way towards improving the self-image of those of us who are indeed practitioners of “nerdy parsimony”, as Maria Panitiras recently described car shoppers looking for deals at the Auto Show. This explained how these consumers could possibly even be thinking about purchasing a new automobile amidst this financial tsunami.
I nominate myself for inventing the most penny-pinching personal practice – yet silly as it might seem, how dumb is it to throw out useful products? When we’ve squeezed all the toothpaste out of the container, I cut the toothpaste tube in two, creating two open-ended halves, from which I easily scoop toothpaste out with my toothbrush. The results of this experiment: another week of toothpaste.
Do I do this to save on my toothpaste outlay? Extending the purchase of a tube of toothpaste by two weeks a year, it will probably take the rest of my life to save a whole tube of toothpaste. So, no. I simply do it because – why not? Why throw out a week’s worth of toothpaste if you can simply slice the tube open to access it?
I call this: judicious.
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