penny wise pound foolish
Who taught: Carol and Mark
Penny wise pound foolish (source: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/)
In the U.S., there is mother’s day and father’s day separately whereas there is parents’ day in Korea. Yesterday was the father’s day in the U.S. I was thinking, if my father is around me, what kind of gift I should give to him. And, then, I watched U.S. Open final round. What an amazing play and gift for a father’s day! Rory Mcilroy finished his final putt and hugged his father, saying, “Happy father’s day! This is for you.” Oh man, if I were his father, I would be so proud of him that I feel like I have everything in the world. Great job, Rory! Looking forward to seeing your more often on the leader board!
A few days ago, we had a housewarming party at my place. My friends, Carol and Mark, brought two bottles of wine. I believe you all know that every wine has its own name or brand, right? So, the wine Mark brought was Jargon and the one Carol brought was Pennywise. Carol explained that why they brought those wines. There is a jargon, penny wise pound foolish. She asked me whether I can feel it or not. I said, “hmm…. not really!” First of all, since I am in the U.S., I am not really familiar with the English word, pound, even though I realized what it is later. Anyway, can you feel it? I think you can.
It is always great to hear an example of usages of an expression. When can we use this expression?
For example, you decided not to buy a gum because it is too expensive, then later you decided to go on a luxurious and upscale trip to Europe. Basically, you were trying to save a penny and then later you spend a lot of pounds, or dollars, on something that is too much for your budget.
Well, I am sure we all make mistakes that are penny wise pound foolish. I really want to buy GTI but, if I buy that car now, then it would be a good example of being penny wise pound foolish, right? I know, I know. But I really like that car. Jessy, can I buy it?
By the way, what kind of gift did you give to your father yesterday? How about winning the U.S. Open next year? 🙂
What you are describing above is someone who is just bad with money. I think pennywise pound foolish is a little more intricate then that. I think of it as cheaping out on small things thinking you are saving money but are actually costing you more in the long run.
Like as a home owner if you always put off maintenance, you are being pennywise, but eventually the repair costs of letting stuff go will cost more then if you had got it fixed in the first place.
Another classic example are people who drive 30 miles out of their way to save 2 cents on gas.
Another good example for us programmers, would be some companies think they are saving money by writing a component from scratch instead of buying an off the shelf library. But if you add up all the developer time, support, bug fixing time, lost opportunity etc.. you end up paying more but you feel like you were pennywise.
This example makes me really feel the expression. Way better than the first example. 🙂 Thanks for the information!