Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues: Frugality (Plus More Thanksgiving Photos)

"Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing."

--- Benjamin Franklin on Frugality

"A penny saved is a penny earned."

This well-known phrase certainly clarifies the reason for frugality, which Ben included as one of his 13 Virtues.

It has become one of the most famous sayings attributed to Ben Franklin through his pen-named, best-selling publication, Poor Richard's Almanack. 

In actual fact, Ben neither wrote those exact words as Poor Richard nor under his own name.  He may have said it, I suppose, but most likely, it is simply that saying like human language in general evolved, and the adage adapted to confer the underlying sentiment to future generations who wouldn't understand archaic words.  

I confess that I didn't realize Ben never wrote those specific words until this morning.  In fact, you may recall that I recently included a BrainyQuote image of the saying in my article about Franklin's Virtue of Order.  The underlying sentiment nonetheless was what he intended to express.

Poor Richard's Almanack for 1737 included the phrase, “A penny saved is two pence clear.”  Pence is the plural of penny, though we have Americanized the English word to pennies.  That clearly says that saving a penny has a compound effect, which is something I find to be true.

For example, if you buy a beer, you will probably buy a second, and fast food joints have capitalized on for decades by understanding that if you buy a bargain-priced burger, you'll probably buy higher margin French fries and much higher margin sodas to go along with it.

More importantly, like any habit, spending or savings will become almost second nature over time, which is the point of Franklin focusing on one of his 13 Virtues every week.

Our kids say Julie and I take frugality to the point of absurdity, and I must agree believing that myself sometimes.  Any time I look at a menu, I immediately factor in three objectives: taste, nutrition and price.

For the life of me, I can't leave that last one out.  A McChicken sandwich may not be exactly what I want, but if it costs a buck and the Big Mac I really crave is $4, then time after time that Big Mac goes unpurchased.  When Julie pulls out a two-for coupon at Carl's Jr., I usually end up ordering whatever it is she wants, and she is perhaps even more influenced by price than me, except on travel, which is our one big exception for splurging.

Our son Jay summarized it succinctly: "You still eat canned food."  Admittedly, I like not only Starkist Tuna, Stagg's Chili and recipes that include Cambell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, but also canned black-eyed peas, refried beans and sauerkraut.  Julie's tastes are more refined.

Our kids have all moved on to far more complex and expensive diets than Julie or me.  Organi, vegan and frequently gluten-free have become musts, which pretty much takes fast food off the table.  Julie and I for the most part lean toward low carb, but that's highly flexible depending on convenience as well as frugality concerns.

At Thanksgiving, we always take advantage of a reduced-price turkey incentive.  Despite knowing we'd be in Philadelphia for Thanksgiving, we currently have a turkey in our freezer for a special meal we'll share with our good friends and neighbors Karen and Randy.

Gina, like all of our kids, doesn't become overly concerned about prices.  She says she and Laszlo are satisficeters, meaning they find what they want and go with it rather than fretting over the small stuff, including marginal price differences, which as any economist will tell you translates as weighting consideration toward the frequently overlooked cost of search.

Gina bought an amazing combination of snacks as well as foods for that meal and others while we were visiting, making us feel very well-fed and comfortable during our stay.  In a nod to my frugal direction, however, she did take advantage of a free turkey from her local Giant Supermarket, though she bought the groceries for our feast and didn't need to share that factoid with us.

A couple of years back, we had a considerably more expensive organic turkey for our family Thanksgiving, but Gina's bird was every big as delicious, though quite frankly I have trouble discerning exactly which Thanksgiving meal in a long list of outstanding family celebrations would take the cake...or should I say pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top?

In any case, Gina's turkey was cooked to perfection, and we had lots of delicious side items.  I have to say that it seemed like no expense was spared.

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah, Franklin on frugality.

Like many of the sayings in Poor Richard's Almanack, the underlying sentiment if not the exact phrasing had been around long before Franklin included it in his book.  Without taking time to research primary sources myself, here are a few I found at a site called Your Dictionary: 

In Outlandish Proverbs published in 1640 (and presumably indicating much older origin), George Herbert wrote, "A penny spar’d is twice got."  "Spar'd" means spared, as apparently he didn't have an e to spar, and by that I mean spare, unless you want to fight about it.

In 1758, Poor Richard included this adage: "A penny saved is a penny got.”  That's almost exactly the same saying that is now repeated by old dads like myself to their beloved children who don't know what it was like back in the old days when it cost a dime to buy a Coke at Tibbet's Liquor Store and then hand it to Galen to open with his teeth at the cost of the first sip.

That was lifted almost exactly --- Poor Richard wildly wasted an e but saved letters by cutting the preamble --- from Canterbury Guests, penned by Edward Ravenscroft in 1695: "This I did not prevent expences, for… A penny sav’d, is a penny got."

No matter who said it first, remembering to not be wasteful remains an important message parents should help their children understand, even if they may not take it to the extremes they see ourselves trying to maintain illogically.  Whether they know it or not --- and whether we recognize it ourselves based on our own more strict standards --- it's a concept that is valuable to understand should they ever encounter difficult financial times.

It must always be noted that being frugal doesn't mean depriving your family of what can make their lives better, if you can afford it.  For example, Emma's expanding interest in music resulted in her outgrowing small-scale piano keyboard that had served her well.

It simply didn't have all the keys for some of the challenging songs she wanted to learn, so her parents bought a new keyboard, which arrived while we were there to great jubilation.

Among her diverse song choices is Mozart's Turkish March.

Ben Franklin watching his spending helped him build his printing empire that allowed him to turn over full-time management to his partner in exchange for a lifetime penchan of 1,000 pounds per year, which along with about the same amount from his other interests including the postal service yielded the equivalent of $400,000 per year in current dollars, or roughly what Joe Biden will earn as President, a considerably harder job than being retired.

This income combined with his natural penchant for frugality allowed Ben Franklin --- at an age when most men of his era would have taken a bow for a life well lived --- to take up a new hobby for which he would gain not only personal satisfaction but worldwide acclaim, including honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale and William and Mary's, followed by doctorates from the University of Edinburgh and Oxford.  All for the price of two years of elementary school and a lifetime of curiosity.

You may feel Electricity fill the air in anticipation of the next installment of Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues!