Boston Globe humor: "Just splurge a little"
leno...@yahoo.com
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/02/08/just_splurge_a_little/
One thing the writer doesn't mention is how good it feels to have the
money you need for a rainy day, whether your methods are "extreme" or
not. As I wrote in a copy of "The Complete Tightwad Gazette" that I
gave to a relative a few years ago: "The great thing about frugality
is that you never have to lower your standard of living!"
There are 18 comments that follow. I smiled at the one by rick1954 at
February 08, 5:26 AM, even though *I* never considered "throwing them
away"!
And from this thread:
http://glennsacks.com/blog/?p=1553&cp=all#comments
(my posts were 11 and 14)
I wanted to add that regarding presents that are "too expensive," I
think there's almost always another good reason not to buy something,
so parents would do well to focus on that instead of saying "we can't
afford it." The only times it's really OK to say that, IMHO, are when
you're explaining why you can't pay for your kids to go to college or
go on school field trips, or why you can't get an apartment with more
than one bedroom, or why you can't afford more than two meals a day,
or why you can't even buy clothes from Goodwill. I.e., parents are not
obligated to "afford" luxuries, and if kids don't want something
enough to work for it, why should the parents?
(Check out the 1st post in the thread - it's by a father whose fifth-
grader(!) was distraught to hear from her teacher that Santa is a
myth! Sheesh.)
Lenona.