Are you practicing the virtue of frugality? Here are 5 questions to ask yourself or your Ben Franklin Circle.

Franklin’s definition: “Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.”

 

1. What’s the difference between being frugal and being miserly or cheap?

 

2. What do you think Franklin means when he says make no expense but “to do good”? What do you spend money on that does good for yourself or others? How do you weigh what’s good and what isn’t?

 

3. What is something you spend money on that doesn’t do good to others or yourself? Could you eliminate that expense? 

 

4. How does this virtue play out—or fail to—in our broader culture? Should our culture be more frugal?

 

5. How can being more frugal actually make us more generous?