Sometimes as thrifty parents, we try really hard to do what is right. Last month, we got a comment on our post about
how much we spent on Christmas. One reader commented that she ⿿couldn⿿t do it!⿿ I told her that a thrifty life style comes with practice. Not all of us are born to that lifestyle like Karen, HAHA! I have to work on it every day. But it is so refreshing to come home and know that I saved money today just by shopping smart.
I recently had a friend email me a reminder of what it was like for us as kids. You know, wanting something so bad and being mortified when we fail. So take it to heart, Diane, that a thrifty lifestyle is lived through the encouragement of others. We have all been there and wanted to do the right thing and failed at some point in life. You just get up and start again. Being thrifty is about learning your limitations and making it your daily challenge for yourself. That⿿s what I do. I feel invigorated when I get a great deal and want to shout it out to the world. So I hope you enjoy this little story and remember that we have all been wet with non-frugal ways at one point in time. Just start hanging out with the thrifty crowd and let us encourage you to be smart with the money you work so hard to earn.
Come with me to a third grade classroom..There is a nine-year-old kid
sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his
feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to
stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It⿿s
never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will
never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they⿿ll never speak
to him again as long as he lives.
The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and
prays this prayer, ⿿Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now!
Five minutes from now I⿿m dead meat.⿿ He looks up from his prayer and
here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been
discovered. As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named
Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips
in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the
boy⿿s lap. The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to
himself, ⿿Thank you, Lord!
Thank you, Lord!⿿ Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of
ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him
downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out.
All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around
his desk. The sympathy is wonderful.
But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has
been transferred to someone else - Susie. She tries to help, but they
tell her to get out. You⿿ve done enough, you klutz!⿿ Finally, at the end
of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie
and whispers, ⿿You did that on purpose, didn⿿t you?⿿ Susie whispers
back, ⿿I wet my pants once too.⿿
So admit it, have you been the thrifty one who has sat in the chair more or have you carried the fish bowl more these days?
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