NPR's "On Point": Today's episode was "Cheapskates"
leno...@yahoo.com
Guests (this includes four links besides the 1-hour interview itself)
"Joining us from New York is Neal Templin, personal finance editor of
The Wall Street Journal. He writes the Journal’s weekly Cheapskate
column.
"From Essex County, N.J., is Clarissa Templin, Neal Templin’s wife,
the long-suffering spouse of a cheapskate.
"And from Philadelphia, we’re joined by Scott Rick, a post-doctoral
fellow and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton
School. He’s co-author of the paper 'Tightwads and Spendthrifts,'
examining the emotional and neural underpinnings of spending money.
See also, 'Are You a Tightwad or a Spendthrift? And What Does This
Mean for Retailers?,' an article from Wharton School Publishing on
Rick’s work, and the spendthrift-tightwad scale he developed with
colleagues to measure 'individual differences in the pain of paying.'
”
(You might want to listen before reading the comments.)
One remark I definitely sympathized with was from those who say they
roll their eyes whenever they hear people say things like "yes, we're
cutting back. We don't go to restaurants half as much anymore." After
all, so many frugal types haven't been eating out for years!
Lenona.
BigDog1
Not necessarily. My wife and I are extraordinarily frugal in how we
run our household, and live our lives day to day. But we dine out at
a fine restaurant at least once a month. We also attend the theater
and concerts several times a year (good seats - lower orchestra, as
close to front row center as we can get), and we have season tickets
for our NFL franchise. The current economic situation won't change
that a bit.
What's the point of saving all that money if you don't spend some of
it enjoying some of the finer things in life? You can't take it with
you! Our heirs can get theirs the same way we did - hard work, sound
investment, and thrift.
leno...@yahoo.com
> Not necessarily. My wife and I are extraordinarily frugal in how we
> run our household, and live our lives day to day. But we dine out at
> a fine restaurant at least once a month. We also attend the theater
> and concerts several times a year (good seats - lower orchestra, as
> close to front row center as we can get), and we have season tickets
> for our NFL franchise. The current economic situation won't change
> that a bit.
>
> What's the point of saving all that money if you don't spend some of
> it enjoying some of the finer things in life? You can't take it with
> you! Our heirs can get theirs the same way we did - hard work, sound
> investment, and thrift.
Well yes, one of the guests did point out that even tightwads tend to
have at least one favorite luxury and they spend money on it
regularly. Just not a lot of luxuries.
Lenona.