As a child of the Depression and with six of us too young to work when our dad died, we had to be penny-conscious in everything we did. My mother was one of the wisest people I've ever known, though she had a very limited education. She had the capacity to make excellent decisions, and she raised her children on her little "sermonettes." We always heard one when there was any evidence of waste on our part. She would admonish us that "willful waste makes woeful want."
Mom wasn't telling us to stand around and count pennies, but to be conscious of avoiding deliberate waste is a key to accumulating a nest egg that would make a difference.
Example: An article in a July issue of USA Today points out that Americans waste 27 percent of their food. That means they throw out 365 pounds of food a year for every man, woman and child.
The article states that, according to the Department of Agriculture, if even 5 percent of that edible food that is tossed out annually were salvaged and used, it would feed 4 million people a day for a year. That's astronomical! It's criminal that so much food is totally wasted when there are people who literally do not have enough to eat in this great land of ours.
Individually, we might not be able to do a lot about the national waste. But when we start looking at our own, who knows, maybe we will raise a generation of people who will be concerned about waste and use their food and other items in a much more effective way.
Practice non-waste in your life, and you will be able to accumulate more for yourself and have enough left over to help others. See you at the top!
To find out more about Zig Ziglar and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. Subscribe to Zig Ziglar's free email newsletter through zigziglar.com.
View Comments