{"id":2871,"date":"2012-09-08T05:04:29","date_gmt":"2012-09-08T05:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=2871"},"modified":"2012-09-08T05:04:29","modified_gmt":"2012-09-08T05:04:29","slug":"we-hate-to-spend-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/we-hate-to-spend-money\/","title":{"rendered":"WE HATE TO SPEND MONEY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

WHY ARE WE SO CHEAP?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was brought up in an era when<\/p>\n

Thrift was still considered a virtue.
\nPaul Getty<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

My generation saved their pennies. \u00a0They take pride in the ability to PAY for what they wanted.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0They are aware of government services today that provide for people on low income, but they think everyone on welfare is either lazy or insane.\u00a0 My generation believes taking care of yourself is a matter of integrity.\u00a0 If our pensions don\u2019t match our expenses, our solution is to trim the expenses and take advantage of savings we get from coupons and special offers. Charity is for the indigent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How many times have you heard Aunt Sarah say, \u201cIt is disgusting how those people try to milk their unemployment benefits.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t they just go get a job?\u00a0 When I was young, I didn\u2019t ask the government for money.\u00a0 If I wanted a new dress, I baby sat and washed dishes until I earned the money to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t even try to tell her that \u201cthose people\u201d paid into the unemployment fund or got a back injury that made them unfit for work.\u201d\u00a0 She will shake her head and say, something like \u201cIf they weren\u2019t so lazy, they could find something to do.\u00a0 I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It has to look ridiculous to people of your generation when your parents won\u2019t drive because the cost of gasoline is almost $4.00 unless you remember that $4 when they began to notice money had the spending power of almost $65.\u00a0 You have to admit you, too would think twice before spending $65 for a gallon of gas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Every generation has the same issue with the one before.\u00a0 I can still remember my sister infuriated with my father because he spent all her inheritance caring for my mother at home while she had cancer.\u00a0 She couldn\u2019t seem to understand that it was HIS money and he earned it.\u00a0 Yet, this same man who seemed so extravagant to my sister had three cars in the garage that no one ever drove.\u00a0 He refused to sell them or give them away.\u00a0 \u201cI never know when I just might want to drive again,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My father was 87 years old, had Alzheimer\u2019s and couldn\u2019t see.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I love the story of my friend Andrew, who actually MARRIED a woman when he was 70, only because she was so good at clipping coupons.\u00a0 \u201cShe is saving me at least $40 a week,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cThat kind of woman is one in a million.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What\u00a0 neither he nor his bride understood was that they really didn\u2019t need all that toilet paper, cleanser and car wax they were buying with those coupons.\u00a0 They may have saved $40, but they spend over $80 on products they would never use.\u00a0 \u201cYou never know when a carton of air freshener will come in handy,\u201d said Andrew.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t that we are cheap\u2026.it is that we are afraid of outlasting our money and we don\u2019t like to ask our children to help us.\u00a0 WE controlled the purse strings for THEM for too many years.\u00a0 Losing control of your spending power is not just humiliating\u2026it is terrifying.\u00a0 You no longer have the confidence that you can handle the kinds of tragedy every older person dreads:\u00a0 a surgery, an unexpected fall; a stock market collapse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Think of it this way.\u00a0 Would you ask your fourteen year old to lend you $25 from his paper route money because you had maxed out your credit card and needed to buy groceries?\u00a0 Of course you wouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 Instead, you would go to the \u201creduced for quick sale\u201d and buy something you could disguise with enough ketchup be palatable.\u00a0 No one wants to ask their children for money.\u00a0 It is embarrassing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, there are times when the concept of frugality can be carried to a ludicrous extreme.\u00a0 \u00a0It is the people who really don\u2019t NEED to hoard money who are so hard to understand.\u00a0 Mary Ellen is 93 years old and receives life insurance payments from the death of her husband John, money from his physician\u2019s pension and social security.\u00a0 When she heard that the United States government was thinking of reducing its social security payments to people with incomes over a million dollars a year, she was livid.\u00a0 \u201cSam paid into that fund his whole working life,\u201d she sad.\u00a0 \u201cHe EARNED that money.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That is how we think.\u00a0 If you work for something, the payment you receive belongs to you and no one else.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t that we are not charitable. It is just that we believe the money you earn is as much yours as your house, your closet full of clothes and your automobile. The government certainly would not say to Mary Ellen, \u201cYour income is so large we are going to take away your Mercedes Benz,\u201d would it?\u00a0 To my generation, that is just as outrageous an idea as reducing promised payments on a pension fund we had invested in with our own money.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is the way we are cheap that your generation cannot understand.\u00a0 My friend Grace will travel thirty miles out of her way to save seven cents on a gallon of gasoline, and then drop $100 dollars at the nearest casino on the chance that she will hit a jackpot no one has figured out for thirty years.\u00a0\u00a0 I can\u2019t justify it to you except to say that Grace makes as much sense to me as you do when you spend hundreds of dollars to play games on your cell phone but will drive blocks out of your way to avoid putting money in a parking meter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So when your parents insist celebrating their anniversary at Denny\u2019s because they have a coupon that gives them one dollar off Tuesday\u2019s at four, don\u2019t tell them the food has so much fat and additives it will kill them.\u00a0 Don\u2019t even hint that they both could afford to go to a real restaurant with table cloths and candle light.\u00a0 Just think to yourself, \u201dWhen I get to be their age, I want to have the right to spend what I have earned, any way I like.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is frugal to one generation is nonsense to the next.\u00a0 It is no use telling your Uncle George that spending $10 on a cab makes a lot more sense than a thousand dollars on a new fender because he drove without his glasses.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0He won\u2019t hear you anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHY ARE WE SO CHEAP? I was brought up in an era when Thrift was still considered a virtue. Paul Getty My generation saved their pennies. \u00a0They take pride in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"