Thrift is the habit of procuring goods and services only when necessary and in a restrained manner, avoiding wastage and extravagance
The biggest beneficiary in the festive season, Dussehra to Diwali particularly in north India, is the marketer. A significant number of them especially the sweets and garment dealers earn as much in a few days as in the entire year. The colourfully decorated, well-lit markets and makeshift shops attract buyers with special offers, discounts and incentives stimulating the customers’ shopping urge. The choicest items in the shopping list are apparels, upholstery, linens, kitchenware. Many book a new vehicle or home. A reflexively parsimonious person also buys something tangible on these ‘auspicious’ days. The buoyant spending goes on till the New Year, and beyond.
The tendency of indiscriminate buying leads to accumulation of unwanted goods, machinery and equipment in an already diminishing residential, commercial, government and industrial spaces. “Thrift was never more necessary in the world’s history than it is today,” said the noted US banker Francis H. Sisson. Our age and times warrant exercising utmost thrift in any additional purchases for multiple reasons.
Thrift or frugality is not a derogatory term;being frugal doesn't mean going by the lowest price or compromising on quality; it doesn't mean depriving oneself of pleasures of life either. Thrift is the habit of procuring goods and services only when necessary, and in a restrained manner, avoiding wastage and extravagance. Frugality empowers one to devote resources to a cause that is worthwhile and meaningful. By observing frugality, you bring your money under your control.
Kitchen items like mixer-grinder, coffee maker, dough kneaders; medical equipment like blood pressure or sugar level devices, etc. often procured on an impulse remain idle for years and are eventually discarded or handed over for repair, never to be duly brought back.
Purchases are at times made as status symbol irrespective of utility. There are examples of government offices procuring scientific equipment at enormous cost that were hardly or never used, for any reason, thus entailing colossal wastage apart from blocking precious space. A 2016 CAG report on National Health Mission deplored that life-saving equipment like blood storage units, ultrasound and X-ray machines worth crores of rupees remained unutilised since skilled manpower to run the advanced machines was not in place. In fact, the disposal of the unwanted materials itself turns out to be a formidable problem. Apart from occupying precious spaces, such junk creates negative, counter-productive vibes. The message is loud and clear: before you buy something, consider whether you actually need it.
In an era when many oldsters hardly have children around, they can bank on their savings to meet their necessary needs of products and services. Here is a take for youngsters: espouse frugality from early years. Concrete savings provide not only a cushion to meet unforeseen financial needs but also feeling of security, a dire need of the aged. To promote a saving habit in a planned way as in banks (rather than under the mattresses) among people at large, World Savings Bank Institute (WSBI) has been sponsoring World Savings (or Thrift) Day annually on October 31 since 1925 (in India it is celebrated on October 30). Through formal savings not only the young generations find themselves in a ‘socially and economically safe environment’ but such funds do contribute to development agenda of the nations.
On the flip side, emphasis on savings can create imbalances. Mark the massive food grains being dropped into the ocean or elsewhere because the procurement was far in excess of storage facilities, or cooked food items stored in refrigerators being thrown out as they could not be consumed in time. Apropos also of many grandparents who grew up in poverty and whose savings accounts usually remained unknown to their kith and kin even posthumously and ultimately their hard-earned deposits were appropriated by bankers in absence of claimants.
On the other extreme is the younger generation unmindful of Benjamin Franklin’s precept, “beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship”. They prefer a lifestyle of spending to the extent their wallets or credit cards permit, an addiction of sorts. After making every one a debtor in developed countries, the plastic money kingpins now have eyes set on high salaried Indian youth. For every 100 persons at a workplace in metro cities there are 150 credit cards - not a good sign. It is time for us to take stock of how much do we actually need in our life time vis-à-vis our resources, and how much to store for the future.
(The writer is a blogger and writes on social and health issues. The views expressed are personal.)
