I guess the silver lining is that more people seem to be starting to realize those guys are evil insufferable pricks. Basically all my life before now, the narrative would have been twisted with “no, see, he’s *frugal and those behaviors are why he’s rich and everyone else should emulate this”
I used to maintain a poverty skills group and I had both multiple rules and copy/paste templates about how frugality is both NOT the same and how some of it is NOT welcome either.
The “frugal” people would inevitably pull shit like benefits shame and tell people whose immediate choice was either prepare and eat perfectly edible food past the best by or starve, that “it’s better to be safe than sorry.” They’d also tell people who just didn’t have any money in their bank account to spend more to save more. To buy a warehouse membership or stock up on sales (with what money?) then store it in their extra freezer (that they didn’t own).
Dealing with “frugal” people was legit the worst part of it by far. So much more time spent on them and trying to minimize the damage their “advice” could do than trolling spamming or any other conventional bad behavior.
It’s a very general term but I’ve come to believe “frugality” usually tends to describe well off people consciously skrimping in mostly trivial ways to give themselves extra expendable money.
People who experienced abject poverty might deliberate over every purchase even at the dollar store. But from my experience they’re still generous with sharing necessary supplies and/or food with friends. It’s those that are saving up for a new second car who tend to act “frugal.”
