Are you frugal, or stingy?

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Are you frugal, or stingy?

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveMoney/AreYouFrugalOrStingy.aspx

By Liz Pulliam Weston

All of us have to make choices about how we spend our money. Wise choices allow us to build our wealth and, eventually, achieve financial independence. But how do you decide when you're being frugal, and when you've crossed the line into stinginess?

• If you decide in advance how much to spend each year on charitable contributions, and then try to stay within that budget, you might be frugal. If the last thing you gave to charity was an ancient can of lima beans you wouldn't eat yourself, then you're probably stingy.

• If you use a tea bag for more than one cup of tea, you might be frugal. If you offer a guest the cup made from the used bag, you're probably stingy.

Frugality can be, and often is, a virtue. It implies you're being careful, not wasteful, with your resources.

Stinginess is a vice, and it carries a whiff of meanness. The word "implies a marked lack of generosity," as Webster's tells us. Stinginess is about pulling back when the more-human impulse is to give.

VOCABULARY:

ancient -  very old.

virtue    -   goodness

vice       -  An undesirable habit,

whiff      -  A slight, gentle gust of air

Answer the following questions:

1.  One of my friends grew up poor. She's not any longer, but she still finds herself reflexively saying no when her kids ask her to buy them something. Is she being financially prudent, she wonders, or just stingy?

2. Another friend is involved with a man who often cooks her dinner at his house. Does he really love to cook that much, she asks, or is he just trying to avoid spending money in restaurants?

3. You've been invited to a dear friend's wedding, but you're struggling to pay off credit-card debt. Does economizing on a wedding present make you frugal, or a miser?

4. What kind are you? Frugal or stingy?

5. How do you deal with  people who are so unreasonably stingy?