It is not cheapness we're not talking about buying shoddy goods or inflicting twice-used tea bags on your guests. Nor do we suggest cheating and calling it frugality no taking from other people so you can have more, no lifting of saltshakers from restaurants, towels from hotels, or heirlooms from unsuspecting relatives. No, Yankee frugality means that you ferret out the best deals, the offers that are there for the taking, or the loopholes that work in your favor without slighting anyone else. There are other habits that the word frugal does not embrace. Try to forget all those great stories about wealthy old friends trying to outmaneuver each other when the tab arrives or the man down the street who'd do anything to avoid tipping the paperboy they don't have a place in the frugal attitude.
Frugality has nothing to do with meanness.
In fact, the true spirit of frugality often allows you to be more generous. Whipping up your own batch of sun-dried tomatoes, for example, might allow you to share a jar with several friends for the price of one tiny package at the gourmet food store. Using cast-off materials for the garden might mean that you can plant twice as much to share. In fact, frugality always has a method behind the madness going to a free horse show instead of a movie so that you can spend more money on art supplies, for example. There's always a reason for being frugal even if it's just that the cheaper way is every bit as good as, or even superior to, the more expensive one.