APAD: Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care

of themselves.

Meaning: Literal

 

Background:

  'Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves' is the

  kind of admonition to a virtuous and principled lifestyle favoured by

  Victorian moralists - the principle here being thrifty and careful not to

  squander money. In fact, the saying pre-dates the Victorian era by almost a

  hundred years.

  

  In 1747 Lord Chesterfield wrote to a friend saying this:

  

      I knew, once, a very covetous, sordid fellow who used frequently to say,

      'Take care of the pence; for the pounds will take care of themselves'.

      

  The covetous fellow that Chesterfield was referring to was William Lowndes,

  the British Secretary of the Treasury, 1696-1724.

  

  Lowndes never had to concern himself much with saving pennies. He was a

  wealthy man whose life's course took him from Eton to Oxford University and

  then to the Treasury.

  

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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When I was little, adults seemed forever stingy. Mom used to say: "When it comes

to money, you can't be too careful." They didn't make much to begin with and

inflation routinely pared down their savings like harvesting Chinese chives:

some years the pound felt like just another penny.

 

Given the shortage in so many things, it was a miracle that mine was a mostly

happy childhood. One reason might be that most village and smalltown folks were

not well off. We were poor but we didn't stand out like a sore thumb. These

days, things could be very different.