Resolutely oily rag

By Frank and Muriel Newman

As another December is torn from the calendar, the appearance of January is an opportunity to make promises for the year ahead. For many, resolutions are more about aspiration than fact, but oily rag folk like aspiration so we thought it would be fun to reflect on penny-pinching resolutions, mottos and quotes that never seem to age.

• Savings is about spending less than you earn.
• To start saving, stop buying stuff you can’t afford!
• If you haven’t got the money to buy it you can’t afford it.

• Janice from Oamaru says, "Eat it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Or do without!"

• Something is never a bargain unless you really need it.

• A dollar in your pocket is better than your dollar in someone else's pocket.

• Cheap is good but free is better.

• Use half as much and get the product at half price!

• Needs are things that are really needed. Wants are things that are not really needed.

• "Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor” - Samuel Johnson

• If you want to get somewhere you have to start somewhere - and where you are now is as good as anywhere!

• Many banks have a new kind of Christmas club in operation - the new club helps you save money to pay for last year's gifts!

• Thrift comes too late when you find it at the bottom of your purse – Seneca

• Money, if it does not bring you happiness, will at least help you be miserable in comfort – Helen Gurley Brown

• The waste of money cures itself, for soon there is no more to waste - M.W. Harrison

• Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons – Woody Allen

• Dogs have no money. Isn’t that amazing? They’re broke their entire lives. But they get through. You know why dogs have no money? No Pockets. – Jerry Seinfeld

• Car sickness is the feeling you get when you miss a monthly vehicle repayment.

• Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair - Sam Ewing

• Business is the art of extracting money from another man’s pocket without resorting to violence - Max Amsterdam

• If you must borrow, then borrow from a pessimist – they don’t expect to be paid back!

• Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like – Will Smith

• Money isn’t the most important thing in life, but it’s reasonably close to oxygen on the “gotta have it” scale - Zig Ziglar

• Short-term happiness is getting a tax refund - then realising it was your money to start with!

• All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy - Spike Milligan.

• People are living longer than ever before, a phenomenon undoubtedly made necessary by the 30-year mortgage - Doug Larson

• Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy - Groucho Marx

• If there is anyone to whom I owe money, I’m prepared to forget it if they are - Errol Flynn

• I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something - Jackie Mason

• I made my money the old-fashioned way. I was very nice to a wealthy relative right before he died — Malcolm Forbes
Do you have a favourite oily rag tip that would help others in 2013? If so, please send it to us at www.oilyrag.co.nz or write to Living off the Smell of an Oily Rag, PO Box 984, Whangarei.

*Frank and Muriel Newman are the authors of Living Off the Smell of an Oily Rag in NZ. Readers can submit their oily rag tips on-line at www.oilyrag.co.nz. The book is available from bookstores and online at www.oilyrag.co.nz.

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