A few days ago, a woman's "complaint" about her mother-in-law caused many netizens to watch:
She placed an order for a strawberry in Sam, washed it and handed it to her mother-in-law, asking her if it was delicious, and her mother-in-law replied: This is good, very delicious.
However, when asked how much the box of strawberries cost in the next second, the old man who got the answer was full of surprise, and even seemed to spit out the strawberries that he had already eaten, for fear of wasting them.
"Actually, it's not that the family can't afford it. ”
As a daughter-in-law, the woman has no choice but to complain, and the older generation is reluctant, which makes her distressed and sad as a junior.
Netizens who have similar experiences to women have posted their same elders in the comment area:
"I picked the strawberries home yesterday, and my mom didn't know the price before she said it was sweet. Then I said 35 pounds, my mother said it was not delicious, and he was probably afraid that I would buy it again. The problem is that my family is not poor."
"When I went to the movies, my mother said that I was annoyed. ”
"At home, the bathroom faucet is always dripping, and I use the basin to flush the toilet. ”
"My dad is like this, and he can't afford to buy food. In summer, the air conditioner is not turned on, and occasionally turning on the air conditioner will catch a cold, because the heat is Xi. It would be nice to take a shower for a while, saving water. The same is true for what he eats, and if he buys a good one, he asks him not to eat it, and he will eat it when it is almost bad. ”
"My mother-in-law's house doesn't turn on the lights at night, and now her eyes are about to go useless"
There are even netizens who have to evolve the function of randomly lying, lowering the price of things to appease the fragile little hearts of the elders:
"Grandma loves to eat Sam's jelly for a bucket of 69.9, ask me and I say 15, she is a little reluctant to eat ~ Dandong 38 a pound I said 8 yuan ~ give her some milk tea 18 ~ I said 9.9 buy one get one free no way you help me drink a cup I can't drink, these white lies have come to my fingertips"
"So every time I buy something and ask at home, I will take the initiative to say that the price is lower."
The northern mountaineering suit is several thousand large, and netizens say that it is 200 yuan for sprinkling water.
However, more is still a complaint about the old people's pursuit of "large quantities and cheap":
"The Dandong strawberries I bought are very delicious, and the children love to eat them, the cream strawberries bought by my parents-in-law and mother-in-law are weak and can't let go, and they can happily say that they are cheaper than the ones I bought, but the cheap ones are not delicious, I don't like to eat, and the children don't eat a bite, what's the use of being cheap"
Someone on Zhihu even initiated such a topic: "What are the ineffective thrifty behaviors of the elderly in the family?"
Below the question, there are various examples of thrift posted by netizens:
Fruits and vegetables are bad and reluctant to throw them away, eat the bad ones first and then eat the new ones, but the new ones are bad again, and the results are not able to eat the fresh ones;
Every corner of the house will be stuffed with colorful plastic bags, saying that they are kept to fill the garbage, and they will be used to fill the kitchen waste, and when they are lifted, they will leak dirty water, so they can only put on a new bag and wash the trash can again;
took advantage of the broken code discount, bought a bunch of ill-fitting clothes, the money was spent, but none of them could be worn out, there was always a shortage of clothes, but it was always spending money;
In summer, turn on the air conditioner, turn it on and off when it is cold, turn it on again when it is hot, turn it off again, alternate between cold and hot, and as a result, the cold is not taken over, and the cold is not only not saved because of saving, but also affects the health and quality of life.
Just looking at these descriptions, it is indeed head-scratching, as if the elders are ignorant children, and they will make trouble for the family.
But is that really the case?
Nowadays, there seems to be a trend to criticize the parents and elders for "ineffective frugality", saying that they will not enjoy it, but only know thrift, which reduces the quality of life and brings endless troubles to children.
What's the matter, thrift has always been a traditional virtue, and why today some people have become like rats crossing the street.
Saving has become the original sin?
Have you ever wondered why the previous generation did what they did?
If it weren't for the extreme scarcity of materials back then, which made them extremely lack a sense of control over material things, they would not be criticized today, and it seems that every young person who passes by can step on it.
In this regard, netizens have something to say:
"I remember my mother said that her family used to be very rich, and she was afraid that others would say that she was a landlord, and that she was guilty of being rich, so she had to patch a few patches on the new clothes she bought before she dared to wear them, and she felt that it was glorious to endure hardship."
"It's normal to be thrifty, because the older generation has survived hard times. ”
What is the growth environment of the previous generation, they were in war when they were young, and they had a big pot of rice in the back, and it was not until the forties and fifties that they really ushered in the marketization, and the material was rich, and they were reluctant to use money normally.
What's even more commendable is that they can still let us grow up as children under such conditions.
A netizen who is also a daughter-in-law commented on his rural in-laws:
"My mother-in-law is a native of the countryside and does not have a stable and reliable income, but she supports two college students. I found that the older generation can save money without relying on anything else, that is, "will live". ”
What she learned from her mother-in-law includes, but is not limited to, the following:
I grow green onions, sesame seeds, peanuts, corn, and I usually only buy seasonal fruits and vegetables;
If the clothes, shoes and socks are torn, they will repair them by themselves.
If you go back to your hometown, you will know that the older generation is a natural long-termist, and many of the objects in the home are "old antiques" that can withstand the years: handmade tables and chairs, porcelain plates with outdated patterns but durable, and hand-woven fans......
These objects often bear a few traces of repair, and as long as they are not unusable, they can be used forever.
However, today's young people, when something is broken, the first thing they think of is to spend money to replace it, rather than to see if it can be repaired and reused.
Someone said: "The older you get, the more you can identify with the frugality of the older generation." ”
One of her colleagues, whose salary is comparable to his own, can take out the entire house at once.
So she decided to follow the example of her colleagues and save a down payment for three years.
Such an example is a slap in the face to the propaganda of today's consumerism that "money is earned, not saved".
If you go home on vacation, you can learn a lot from the consumption views of the older generation.
Like what:
Mom cooks all three meals by herself. Even if it is sold on the street, she will not buy it because it is too troublesome to cook alone.
Grandma never eats snacks, she said she doesn't like it, and she usually eats whatever fruit is sold in the market.
Mom and Dad grow their own vegetables, the family has their own vegetable garden, which has seasonal vegetables for each season, there are vegetables to eat throughout the year, sometimes the vegetables are harvested, and they have to eat this kind of vegetable for a month or two, they will also change their tricks to do it, and they will not buy vegetables if they can.
As for clothes, they wear them for a long time, many years, and they insist on using up and eating things that are not good or delicious.
When the items at home are broken, the first thing that comes to mind is not to lose them and buy a new one, but to see if they can be repaired and used.
Netizens witnessed all this, and after returning to the city, they sighed:
"We think they don't know how to enjoy life, but it's us who don't. ”
Back to Sam's Strawberry.
In addition to the overwhelming grass planting propaganda on the Internet, there are still many real voices:
"Sam's 35 strawberries cost 100 yuan;
A box of 98 yuan is too expensive;
The big injustice will buy Sam's strawberries, and one will cost 2 yuan 5;
Don't buy Sam's strawberries, lightning protection!"
As for the taste, many people react that it is sour and hard, which is not as good as the ordinary strawberries sold on the street.
"98 yuan and 2 catties is really not cheap, not that you can't afford to consume, is it really worth the price? Now it's not in season and the price is expensive, it's really unnecessary, eat some seasonal fruits and the price is cheap and fragrant."
"I remember when I was a child, strawberries weren't so expensive, who was they fried?"
"When I was a child, strawberries were marketed in the summer, and there was one yuan a catty, and I never thought strawberries were cheap fruits. So I never buy strawberries in winter."
Some people also suggest that netizens who feel sorry for their mother-in-law follow the old man to the vegetable market for a walk, and they will understand that the strawberry money is really not worth spent.
The reason why Sam's strawberries are expensive and unpalatable, there are still many young people who go forward to pay for it, and a very helpless practical factor is-
We live in an age of brainwashing by consumerism.
Without a dozen lipsticks of different colors, you are not a delicate woman;
Only if you can afford to drive a BMW Mercedes-Benz for hundreds of thousands, you can barely be considered an elite.
In the shopping mall in winter, the new clothes in spring and summer can't wait to be new, aiming at your wallet;
The same backpack comes in six or seven colors at once, so you can grow six or seven arms, or carry one every day.
Correspondingly, the quality of the clothes bought is getting worse and worse, and the food is becoming more and more unpalatable.
We are immersed in the lie of "material abundance", thinking that our living conditions are much better than those of our parents, but we do not know that making the best use of things is a respect for any object.
The so-called anxiety of modern people is often brought about by more and more materialistic desires.
Only by quitting him and having the comparison that I also have, there will be a lot less troubles in life, because you will not be easily coerced by too many things.
Reduce material desires, and the pressure will be less great, let alone anxiety.
Nowadays, many young people have woken up, questioned their elders, understood their elders, and become elders.
When I was in my twenties, I couldn't look down on my parents' way of spending, but when I reached my thirties, I began to understand them slowly.
When I was young, I spent money lavishly, never thinking about it, and it dawned on me at the age of 30 that most ordinary people could not break through the class of their parents, and could neither become a million-year-a-year person at the age of 30, nor achieve great wealth in the more distant future.
In fact, a lot of expenses do not improve the quality of life, and even too many items carry more storage and cleaning burdens.
At this time, we found that the consumption Xi of the older generation is like a mirror, helping us to distinguish which expenses are consumerist traps.
END