Frugal vs Stingy

A speaker from a renowned unit trust company in a Financial Planning session blasted out frugal living as "Giam Siap" (in Hokien meaning stingy).

I have a thought about this. Is frugal life a stingy life? No, frugal life is spending your money wisely, and not wasteful. Stingy life is reluctant to use your money, not spending and not giving.

In fact, frugal life or stingy life is very objective. A person who barely have sufficient income to provide his basic needs has to live a frugal life. Other people may see him as stingy. Another person may have lived a difficult life before. When money comes by, he will safeguard it carefully. Other people will see him as a stingy person who doesn't spend on himself to live comfortably.
 
I know of a couple who did not have steady income because both of them had never hold a job for long. They were very tight on their budget. They lived with the husband's family. They didn't contribute on any family expenses. I would say that they saved practically every cent. The wife must be feeling insecure financially. Finally when both of them have stable jobs, I would guess their monthly income was at least RM7000. However, they are still extremely carefully with their spending, so much so that they would take every opportunity to let others pay for their bills, even for their children's education expenses. This, I would see as money phobia. Having a negative opinion on them may be unfair as inwardly they are very fearful of parting with their money.

My parents went through the 2nd world war. Life was not easy. Every men had to use their labour to work and earn for the family. My father was very careful with money as there were ten mouths to feed.  He worked very hard, and taking every opportunity to earn money. I really appreciate for what he did for the family. By his example, all of us are prudent in money management.

We had gone through difficult time as well. Sometimes life is like that. When things don't go smooth, everything seems to be not right with you. I am very glad that we had some savings to see us through. We also did not have any loans and debts at that time. My husband hired two Indonesian girls to make some home baked biscuits for sell. Life was tiring but I was very happy because my husband's willingness to put off his status to make sure that he brought home some income. I saw the very "man" in him who took the responsibility as the man in the family. After 9 months, he finally got his feet back to his profession.

I thank God for the experience even though I don't wish to go through the whole thing again. I love my husband more and my children also learned to be careful with money. I believe these are valuable to us.