The Art of Spending

The Art of Spending

Sanjib Saha  |  April 17, 2021

I GREW UP IN a middle-class family in Kolkata, India. Like most folks, my relationship with money was shaped by my parents’ financial habits. They were on different sides of the saver-spender continuum. My homemaking mother strove to live beneath our family’s means and never seemed to feel deprived. By contrast, my father—even with a modest salary from his government job—was focused on the art of spending.

At my mother’s insistence, my father bought most of our household supplies from wholesalers and cooperative stores, instead of the pricier local bazaar. Branded condiments and drink concentrates were missing from our grocery list, because my mother considered them overpriced. Instead, she joined a community food-processing center to learn how to make tomato ketchup, rose syrup and the like. She used to make enough for our family, as well as neighbors and relatives. My childhood friends still reminisce about the homemade mango-flavored drinks that she served them on hot summer days.

Meanwhile, my father had no problem paying up for convenience and life-enhancing extras. He wasn’t extravagant, but he wouldn’t be deterred by the price tag if he felt an item was worthwhile. Years before television became mainstream, he bought a black-and-white set for our home. A few years later, a basic refrigerator appeared in our kitchen to give my mother a break from daily cooking. To manage these expensive purchases, he’d set a financial goal and then save regularly toward the cost.

When I first started working, I continued to live with my parents and—similar to my father—made a few big purchases. I installed an inverter power generator to combat the frequent electricity cuts at that time. I learned to drive and bought a used car—our family’s first ever vehicle—for occasional commutes when public transport was inconvenient. Each purchase emptied my accumulated savings but was worth every paisa.

This balance between saving and spending, alas, eroded over time. My attitude toward money increasingly came to resemble my mother’s. Ironically, this change happened because I started earning more—thanks to taking jobs overseas. I had grown up in a city with an incredibly low cost of living. Faced with higher costs abroad, my resistance to spending kicked into high gear.

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