What’s in a word?

Anybody who reads this blog will likely notice that I avoid using the words “tightwad” and “cheapskate,” even though two of my frugal heroes -- whose writings I include in my frugal bible -- use those words to refer to either themselves or their writings or both. But much as I admire Amy Dacyczyn, author of "The Tightwad Gazette", and Jeff Yeager, the "Ultimate Cheapskate", I just can’t bring myself to use words that carry such negative baggage.

I prefer the words frugal and thrift, whether you’re talking about an act or a person or a movement. In fact, I like to use the plural form of frugal (there isn’t one, I made it up, though I probably wasn’t the first) to refer to people who examine the economic impact of their actions: Frugals. I just like the sound of it.

The hulking 2,662-page dictionary my husband got me for Christmas a few years back, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, supports my intuition on this word-choice issue.

Here are the definitions it lists for these four words, presented in alphabetical order:

cheapskate -- first entry is “a miserly or ungenerous person” and “one who tries to avoid his share of costs” Lists this quote by Frances W. Browin: “If we were courageous enough to demur at the price we were made to feel in no uncertain terms that we were cheapskates.”

frugal -- “economical in the use or the expenditure of resources“; “not wasteful or lavish”

thrift -- believe it or not, the first definition listed is “healthy or vigorous growth.” Definition No. 2: “good fortune, success.” 3. “savings accumulated through frugality” 4.a. “careful management of financial affairs” It’s not until definition 4-b that a negative connotation arises, “stinginess, miserliness”. But by definition No.5, it’s back to positivity: “Gainful employment, useful occupation.” (There’s a definition No.6, but it’s a reference to a specific type of plant that’s n/a here.)

tightwad -- a person who spends, lends or gives away money grudgingly or not at all; a close or miserly person.

I should note that this dictionary’s copyright date is 1993. It would be interesting to see if the definitions of these words have been updated in recent years to account for the many “frugals” who have tried to take ownership of them and expand their meaning. Yeager, for instance, may well be the “Ultimate Cheapskate,” but he advocates charitable giving and other admirable, earth- and people-friendly acts in his book, “The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Roap Map to True Riches.”

A frugal bible lesson

If I were to construct a Frugal Bible -- which is to say, assemble a collection of writings that have most influenced my personal philosophy of thrift -- I’d stick Jeff Yeager, author of “The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches,” somewhere in the New Testament.

He’s too outrageous to be a frugal forefather, and besides, that’s where he comes in the timeline: decades behind “The Good Life” pioneers Scott and Helen Nearing, nearly two centuries behind Thoreau, and a good 15 years behind legendary miser matron Amy Dacyczyn, author of “The Tightwad Gazette.”

The casual reader might say he’s more of a cheapskate comedian than a philosopher. But since this is my Bible, I’d vote him in for the simple reason that his audacity helped me finally develop a backbone after 15 years of self-imposed (but overly self-conscious) thrift.

So what do I make of the fact that a couple of my biblical hero’s claims -- that it’s possible to boil eggs in both a dishwasher and the filter basket of a coffeemaker -- didn’t pan out when we tested them in our homeschool “laboratory?”

When I posted our findings on our homeschool message board, I was taken to task for getting suckered by an urban legend. But I’m willing to give Yeager the benefit of the doubt.

For one thing, knowing the lengths Frugals go to test their theories (myself included), I doubt he gave up after just one try. He may have had to do some tinkering to make his miracle happen. Can you adjust the temperature setting on a dishwasher? Beats me. But I bet Yeager knows the answer to that one.

The other thing is, Frugals are often willing to put up with hardships that so-called normal people wouldn’t dream of subjecting themselves to. In this case, I’m willing to believe that the eggs we found too disgusting to eat might be the picture of soft-boiled perfection in Yeager’s eyes.

At any rate, unlike the authors of the actual Bible, the man who wrote the Book of Cheapskate still walks this earth. So I’m planning to ask him.