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One of my Aunts used to boast and brag about how "little" she paid for things. She acted superior and tried to "one-up" the rest of us. We heard about her "steals and deals" over and over again. And how smart she supposedly was for being frugal...On the other side of the spectrum my Uncle (my Mom and Aunt's brother) was a rising star in his corporation. He and his wife were definitely social-climbers...When we spent time with them they bragged and boasted about how "much" they paid for things! (They talked about their expensive vacations and how they planned to send their kids to Harvard etc.)...I got "it" from "both ends!" And it got "old!" I felt like my Aunt and my Uncle were both insecure people...My Aunt's "claim to fame" was being cheap! And my Uncle's "claim to fame" was being a big-spender. (Due to the high salary he earned.)...Have you run into people who "one-up" and act superior on both "ends" of the spectrum?
All this proves is that there are classless, gauche people in every income bracket and with every kind of spending habit.
Both these people sound damn annoying.
People who have money and who are surrounded by other people who have money (and they usually are) don't bother bragging about money...it would make no sense. If everyone around you has money, who the hell is going to be impressed by your money? It's all really stupid.
People who brag about their frugality have general issues with self-righteousness, I think.
stan4...Thanks for your post. My Uncle and his wife were part of the "newly rich" and sometimes people in their situation do tend to boast and brag a lot on their way "up the ladder." And some never stop!...My Aunt could be self-righteous (and bizarre) in so many different ways. Our family was Catholic. My Aunt used to boast and brag that she was "best buddies" with Saint Jude. (He's the saint people pray to when they feel hopeless.) Anyway my Aunt would say that she could get Saint Jude to grant our requests because the two of them were "tight!"...My Aunt was famous for lying! She would buy cheap cookies and put them in a tin and claim she made them herself. (They were "rock-hard" by the time Christmas rolled around!)...My parents could be frugal. They did a lot of comparison shopping before they decided to buy something new. But quality was important to them too. (Along with the price.) They didn't want to end-up replacing an item right away because it was made cheaply. And they certainly didn't need to tell the whole world how much they paid for things.
SifuPhil..Thanks for the praise. You're right! It is all about balance and "happy mediums!" I always look for a "good value" for my money. (Decent quality combined with a fair price.) ..I don't want to get all caught-up in "image" or status-consciousness because this might push me to buy things I really don't want or need. (Just to "look cool" to others!)...And I don't want to go to the opposite extreme and buy inferior products or things I don't really lIke just to keep some "spare change" in my pocket!
Balance in everything. Evidence of your assertion can be seen many times over on C-D.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stan4
People who brag about their frugality have general issues with self-righteousness, I think.
But if a C-D topic is created with reference to a certain behavior, the people who respond are not necessarily inclined to brag about that behavior in an out-or-forum context. It is unfair to assume that they do.
For example, in the Travel Forum, people who respond to threads do not necessarily brag about their travels to everyone else. People responding in the Computers subforum do not necessarily brag about how much they know about computers at the barber shop. Nor are they necessarily "bragging" even in the forum, they are just responding to a solicitation for information or experience concerning a topic they have a familiarity with.
This is the Frugal Forum, what do you expect posters to discuss? And here you are insulting and ragging on people who observe a frugal lifestyle merely because they share ideas with like-minded people. If you went to the Pets Forum and insulted and ragged on pet owners, merely because they spoke proudly of their diligent pet care, or started a thread with that objective, you'd be infracted by the moderator.
SifuPhil..Thanks for the praise. You're right! It is all about balance and "happy mediums!" I always look for a "good value" for my money. (Decent quality combined with a fair price.) ..I don't want to get all caught-up in "image" or status-consciousness because this might push me to buy things I really don't want or need. (Just to "look cool" to others!)...And I don't want to go to the opposite extreme and buy inferior products or things I don't really lIke just to keep some "spare change" in my pocket!
Being a Salvation Army Seeker and a Dollar Store Denizen I've learned a thing or two over the years about false economy. It's like the old Blondie and Dagwood joke that has Blondie coming home laden with packages and telling him "I HAD to buy all this - it was on sale!"
I've found that in general when I try to be too clever and get something for an impossibly low price - one end of the pendulum swing - I usually get burned. It happens in the form of the item falling apart or my discovering a bad hem or a hole in the pocket, or in the case of foodstuffs it's that indescribable flavor combination of high-fructose corn syrup and that white paste from grade school.
Just yesterday I stopped in at the local Army/Navy store looking for a few black athletic T-shirts - "wife beaters", if you will. They had them, all right - a no-name made in Korea, 3 for $20.
I walked down the street to the venerable old Boscov's department store, where the little old ladies hang out all day cooing over table cloths and support stockings, and found a 3-pack of Hanes for $12.
Normally I see Army/Navy stores as second-hand places, military surplus, etc. so the prices in theory shouldn't be too high, but the quality (Uncle Sam's best) should be great.
Not any more.
At the other end of the pendulum swing I've been guilty of paying astronomical prices for something that could have been procured with a lot less cash. I don't know if it was the name brand or the sexy marketing or just one of those uncontrollable urges, but yes I've done it - mea culpa. As a teenager I was big into impressing the crowd and was the first in my school to buy an LED watch (Pulsar, $500) and a Texas Instruments LED scientific calculator (TI-something, around $400).
I didn't NEED them, certainly, but I DID crave them for the image they would bestow upon me. It didn't matter that a few months later they were both available at a quarter of the price - I had to have them right away. The kicker was that being first-generation models they ended up having tons of problems, so my return on a dollar-per-grin basis was poor - a bad investment.
But if a C-D topic is created with reference to a certain behavior, the people who respond are not necessarily inclined to brag about that behavior in an out-or-forum context. It is unfair to assume that they do.
Well, it isn't really assumption on my part - just experience. Not everyone, certainly ... but it's the stand-outs that we remember, isn't it?
jtur88...We're talking about "extremes" on either "end" here. (Well that's all that I want to do anyway.)...I think there's a difference between sharing information with others and hard-core boasting and bragging and trying to "one-up" others. Don't you?...For example when I talked to my son on the phone yesterday I told him that our local store finally put a certain brand and flavor of cat food on sale again and I was really happy about it! My cats love this food but it is normally pretty expensive...It's only on sale "once in a blue moon!" Anyway my son was happy and excited that I got the cat food for such a low price. He knows how much my cats love it!...I have 2 cats of my own and right now I'm also taking care of my son's 2 cats while he is in the hospital. So all the cats get to enjoy the gourmet food this time...The store put the cat food on sale. And it was a "good deal" and I could afford to buy it at the sale price. I don't consider any of this boasting or bragging. Do you?...I didn't wrap my ego around any of it and call myself a "smart shopper." I didn't say that Saint Jude marked the cat down just for me or anything like that!
But if a C-D topic is created with reference to a certain behavior, the people who respond are not necessarily inclined to brag about that behavior in an out-or-forum context. It is unfair to assume that they do.
For example, in the Travel Forum, people who respond to threads do not necessarily brag about their travels to everyone else. People responding in the Computers subforum do not necessarily brag about how much they know about computers at the barber shop. Nor are they necessarily "bragging" even in the forum, they are just responding to a solicitation for information or experience concerning a topic they have a familiarity with.
This is the Frugal Forum, what do you expect posters to discuss? And here you are insulting and ragging on people who observe a frugal lifestyle merely because they share ideas with like-minded people. If you went to the Pets Forum and insulted and ragged on pet owners, merely because they spoke proudly of their diligent pet care, or started a thread with that objective, you'd be infracted by the moderator.
Wow. Defensive much? When did I ever refer to the posters of the Frugal Forum? A forum specifically to discuss frugal choices and lifestyle?? The op was talking about people who are in your face IRL. Man...you really lost it.
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Not everyone, certainly ... but it's the stand-outs that we remember, isn't it?
