Cut your coat according to your cloth.
Let your expenditure be proportioned to your means. "Let every one stretch his leg according to his coverlet" (Spanish).[303] "According to the arm be the blood-letting" (French).[304] "Meditating upon general improvement, I often think a great deal about the climate in these parts of the world; and I see that, without much husbandry of our means and resources, it is difficult for us to be anything but low barbarians. The difficulty of living at all in a cold, damp, destructive climate is great. Socrates went about with very scanty clothing, and men praise his wisdom in caring so little for the goods of this life. He ate sparingly, and of mean food. That is not the way, I suspect, that we can make a philosopher here. There are people who would deride me for saying this, and would contend that it gives too much weight to worldly things. But I suspect they are misled by notions borrowed from eastern climates. Here we must make prudence one of the substantial virtues."—(Companions of my Solitude.)
A good bargain is a pickpurse.
Buy what you have no need of, and ere long you will sell your necessaries. "At a good bargain bethink you" (Italian).[305] "What is not needed is dear at a farthing" (Latin).[306] This very sensible proverb was bequeathed to us by the elder Cato; and a wiser man than Cato—Sydney Smith—has said, "If you want to make much of a small income, always ask yourself these two questions: first, do I really want it? secondly, can I do without it? These two questions, answered honestly, will double your fortune."
Silks and satins, scarlet and velvets, put out the kitchen fire.
Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them.
One of the neatest repartees ever made was that which Shaftesbury administered at the feast at which he entertained the Duke of York (James II.). He overheard Lauderdale whispering the duke, "Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them." Ere the sound of the last word had died away, Shaftesbury, responding both to the words and the sense, said, "Witty men make jests, and fools repeat them." "A fat kitchen has poverty for a neighbour" (Italian).[307] "A fat kitchen, a lean will" (German).[308]
Waste not, want not.
Wilful waste makes woeful want.
A small leak will sink a great ship.
Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
He that gets his gear before his wit will be short while master of it.—Scotch.
Gear is easier gained than guided.
A fool may make money, but it needs a wise man to spend it.
"Men," says Fielding (and he was an example of the truth he asserted), "do not become rich by what they get, but by what they keep." "Saving is the first gain" (Italian).[309] "Better is rule than rent" (French).[310]
A penny saved is a penny got.
The best is cheapest.
"One cannot have a good pennyworth of bad ware" (French).[311] "Much worth never cost little" (Spanish).[312] "Cheap bargains are dear" (Spanish).[313]
Misers' money goes twice to market.
Keep a thing seven years and you'll find a use for it.
Store is no sore.[314]
"He that buys by the pennyworth keeps his own house and another man's" (Italian).[315] Partly for this reason it is that
A poor man's shilling is but a penny.
A toom [empty] pantry makes a thriftless gudewife.—Scotch.
Bare walls make giddy housewives.[316]
All is not gain that is put into the purse.
What the goodwife spares the cat eats.
There was a wife that kept her supper for her breakfast, an' she was dead or day.—Scotch.
