Since Gilbert Gottfried was on the recent season of Celebrity Apprentice it seemed to make information about him pop up more. I then noticed that he was on an episode of a show called Celebrity Swap. As the name implies, each celebrity literally swap wives with each other for a week to see how the other lives and what changes they would implement in the household. This episode was like the epitome of trying to compare a frugal lifestyle versus a lavish one it seems when it comes to spending money. Gottfrieds’s family is extremely frugal whereas Thicke’s family lives a lavish lifestyle. Kind of interesting considering both of them are financially wealthy. You can see the episode here:
Granted I don’t know how much of this show is say scripted or edited to tell a specific story angle. But there were so many entertaining examples such as Gilbert taking the swapped wife to a 99 cent store and she still ends up buying over $200 worth of goods. In terms of extreme frugality though, even stuff such as waiting for hours to try and win a free ticket seems extreme to me. Reminds me of like lining up for a clearance deal on an electronic where the discount doesn’t equal the money you lost from not doing any work.
I was naturally leaning towards Gottfried’s family when it comes to money not so much because of the financial management part but it seemed like they understood money more as a tool as opposed to a necessity to do tasks or to acquire happiness. Example, walking to a short destination as opposed to thinking you have to spend money for like a limousine.
The last part kind of got the most reaction out of me where Thicke’s wife seemed to have gotten agitated that she was potentially being perceived as a materialistic person who is leaching money from a rich person. She then made a comment to demonstrate how much she works such as every fabric was picked out by her. At the same time, how every color on the wall she saw in a magazine that she liked and specifically picked it out.
Like there, it’s not so much a money topic but how the amount of money and how one spends it creates extremely different views of what is say hard work. It was almost like learning to be frugal actually teaches you more natural life skills and compassion. That’s not to say a big spender can’t be the same too. But even from my own observations I have often found people that can be extremely frugal without complaining about it seem to be more down to earth I find.
Maybe teaching people frugality is the simple and “frugal” way to teach one responsibility and life values in many ways. Doesn’t have to always be just about money itself when it comes to finances.