I like to think of myself as relatively thrifty, somewhat frugal, and not very cheap (or at least I like to think). The relevant definitions of each from dictionary.com are as follows:

  • thrift·y, - adjective, practicing thrift or economical management; frugal: a thrifty shopper.
  • fru·gal, -adjective
    1.economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful
    2. entailing little expense; requiring few resources; meager; scanty
  • cheap, adjective, stingy; miserly: He’s too cheap to buy his own brother a cup of coffee.

Dictionary definition hardly ever tell the whole story, and people will have their own notions about what not only what each word means, but have emotional baggage associated with each. Though universally, I think most people view being cheap as a pejorative. Cheap somehow involved taking advantage of someone else. Being both frugal and thrifty are more positively viewed.

From the Ven diagram above, I believe there’s overlap between thrifty and frugal. Cheap is it’s own separate territory, and there’s no reason ever to be cheap. I also think you can be thrifty without being frugal.

So what does thrifty, frugal, and cheap mean to me? I’ll use an example. Let’s say my friends were going out to dinner and asked me to go along if I were:

  • thrifty: I would go and order the “cheapest” item on the menu that I still wanted
  • frugal: I would pass on dinner and meet up later
  • cheap: I would order the most expensive item on the menu, and then insist that we split the bill evenly

In truth when in comes to going out eat and drink, I’m hardly thrifty and definitely not frugal. As someone who keeps a personal finance blog, I value both thriftiness and frugality, but I hold thriftiness in higher esteem. Thriftiness means saving money and being environmentally conscience without having to make too much of sacrifice. It means being smart and efficient. I’m always happy with myself when I’ve acted in thrifty manner. When I’m frugal, I’ve denied myself something. Here are some other things I categorize as thrifty vs frugal.

Thrifty:

  • Maximizing the interest rate on my cash holdings
  • Turning off the lights (though it’s unclear I benefit)
  • Reusing aluminum foil
  • Building my tupperware supply from take-out containers
  • Being on family plan for my mobile phone

Frugal:

  • Not Having a landline
  • Not replacing my TV with a new flat panel
  • Wearing pants that have tattered ends
  • Not having a proper (non summer) suit
  • Not putting in window AC unit for most of this summer

You’ll notice on my list of behaviors that I think of as frugal, there’s a lot of “not.” A big part of my view of being frugal is denying yourself something that you might actually want. Being frugal by forgoing pleasures or items is often a good thing, but does have some type of emotional cost. My list of thrifty behaviors, on the other hand, have no cost other than some thought (and thinking is a good thing). My family has saves collectively over $60/month by being on one phone plan instead of three. I don’t need new aluminum foil to keep a dish warm when aluminum foil from the last time I need to cover a dish does just as good. I certainly don’t need to have the light on when I’m not in a room.