Thrift is a Virtue

I told Pauk ’thrift is a virtue’ as he paid for the round that came up to about £25.00, He lived further than everyone else, having this round on the last call meant, He will be more than likely to miss his tube home, which will add another £50.00 to the night out for the minicab, meaning, he would have spent a whooping two full days income after tax on a night out, that started at 6.00pm

Earlier on Friday afternoon, he decided, he was going to be thrifty and go straight home after work, but there seems to be a little chemical that is released at 5.00pm in his brain that goes ‘come on you have done a good hard week of work’ ‘you derserve it son’, ‘life is for rent’, ‘lets have some music today’, ‘lets celebrate life’

Everyday millions of us seem to  spend money on credit cards, money we should be not bespending because we fear we are missing out. In the process the banks and the credit card lenders carry on making a fortune from consumers who because the simply cannot control themselves to stop spending.

Will Paul ever get hold of his finances, a brilliant worker once bankrupt, still in debt but is extremely generous. Paul’s answer to being thrift on Fridat was ‘life is for rent mate, do you think you can take your million pound london property in marylebone with you when you go. You know, life is for rent’ saying out again the tag line from the song by Dido. ‘Hei when do you thing your tenancy is going to end’

That got me to thinking, though to me it seemed like a cop out, it had its merits. Being all that organised to Paul was not the most important thing, he has a certain recklessness that made him more creative and the person who always made the party, he seemed less stress. He did not seem to carry the guilt that many of us do after spending on what we thought was not necessary the night before or the day before. He worked very hard but was fully aware of  playing hard.

I think one needs a balance of ‘life is for rent’ and thrift is a virtue, and credit cards are there to make ‘life is for rent’ and ‘being thrifty’ the modern lifestyle.