The adjectives frugal, thrifty, and cheap may all be used to describe someone’s attitude towards spending money.
Although the first two words are very similar in meaning, there is a fine line between being frugal and being thrifty.
A frugal person is careful not to waste money (or anything else). They always buy everything at the lowest price available, and make sure they don’t buy anything they don’t need.
- I didn’t like staying with my granny as a child. She was really frugal and never bought me anything I asked for.
- If it hadn’t been for our frugal lifestyle, we couldn’t have bought this house.
When talking about a frugal person, you can also use the adjective “careful”.
- I don’t think Susan and James will come. They’re saving up for a car and are very careful with money.
A thrifty person also tries to buy everything at a good price, however, it’s not so much about saving money, but rather about finding bargains. They might even buy something they don’t necessarily need if it is very cheap.
- As a thrifty traveller, Susanne avoids hotels and always stays at small B&Bs in the suburbs.
- You don’t need to spend thousands of pounds on the renovation. If you’re thrifty, it will only cost you a few hundred quids.
While thrifty and frugal are usually considered positive traits, being cheap is not nice at all.
A cheap person avoids paying for anything expensive. They don’t do this because they haven’t got enough money, but because they are not generous. They particularly dislike to pay someone else’s bills.
Also, they choose price over quality. That means they wouldn’t spend more to get a better quality product or service if they can get the poorer quality version for less.
- Go on, invite Melania for a drink. Don’t be cheap.
- Christine is very cheap, I don’t think she’ll pay for an extra seat.
Here are some other words you can use to describe a cheap person:
- stingy
- penny-pinching
- mean
- greedy
- ungenerous
- tightfisted
To learn some interesting money-related idioms, read 8 Tricky Idioms About Money with Meanings.
