Have you noticed how fashionable frugality has gotten in TV ads and common culture recently?  Makes me laugh . . .

Suddenly, the "sensible" dollars and sense component of every offer is highlighted-- especially car commercials.  Remember when safety was the big selling point?  Fast food commercials are all based on "value items"-- really frugal items.   The funny thing is they don't say, "frugal".  It is as if frugality were a dirty word . . .

In fact, I have often felt that the word "frugal" is treated like there is a stigma attached to it.  Apparently, it is not something you tend to discuss openly in mixed company.  If you do you are either cheap or crazy. Yet, frugality is suddenly fashionable.  What we have here is a group of people in denial.

I recently heard that sales at Wal-Mart are on the rise among the more well-to-do (those with household incomes in the six figures), while sales at most retailers are on the downslide

Perhaps, this is what we need-- people being frugal without calling it being frugal . . .