Skip to footer

Forget the Joneses. Keep up with the Smiths, their frugal neighbors.

We've all heard of 'keeping up with the Joneses.' But maybe its time for a new, more frugal family to enter the lexicon. 

|
Melanie Stetson Freeman
AndrŽe Collier Zaleska works in her garden in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston in 2011. Hamm recommends 'keeping up with the Smiths' – neighbors interested in community involvement and friendships, rather than flashy possessions.

We’ve all heard the phrase “keeping up with the Joneses.” I think it’s time to add a new but similar phrase to the lexicon.

The Smiths are the frugal family you know.

They don’t drive the new car. They drive an older one.

They don’t wear flashy new clothes. In fact, the husband seems to often be wearing the same suit. It’s a nice suit, but it’s not the latest, sharpest thing.

They’re often at community events. Sometimes they seem to have some kind of role in helping put that event on.

They seem to know lots of people in the community. In fact, you know them because they introduced themselves to you one of the first times you ever saw them and they often say hello to you.

Their house is usually an older one that’s well maintained and, if you ask them, you’d be very unsurprised to find that it’s paid for. They usually have a garden, too.

This profile immediately brings to mind a few people in my area. They’re wonderful people, each of them. They go out of their way to help others, to know them, and to make them comfortable.

Almost always, people like this turn out to be the ones with a lot of money in the bank or are well along the road to getting there.

The thing is, they’re just not flashy.

Keeping up with the Joneses means accumulating gadgets and shiny new things. Keeping up with the Smiths means focusing on accumulating net worth.

Keeping up with the Joneses means having the right associates. Keeping up with the Smiths means having lots of friends.

Keeping up with the Joneses means never having enough because there’s always more that you can get. Keeping up with the Smiths happens when you realize you already have plenty.

I used to dream of being one of the Joneses. Any more, I’d be happy to be a Smith.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Forget the Joneses. Keep up with the Smiths, their frugal neighbors.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Simple-Dollar/2013/0629/Forget-the-Joneses.-Keep-up-with-the-Smiths-their-frugal-neighbors.
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe