|
DJ Happy: as a Lebanese I definitely agree with your description.. Lebanese culture is showy. And being extra-thrifty is looked down upon. Which implies some vanity and wastefulness. But also, as a counterpart, some generosity (though the motives might not necessarily be pure).
I grew up in a relatively well off family, though my parents weren't as well off when they were growing up. Still, I grew up not needing anything, and not caring that much about money (not that I was throwing it from the window, but I wasn't being as careful with it as I could be).
Now that I'm living on my own, and earning my own money, I try to be more careful. Although, since I make a decent salary, and know in the back of my head that I have my parent's safety net below me in case anything unfortunate should happen; I probably don't have as much incentive to try to save a lot.
And you can't just tear out the cultural part.. It feels right to me not to care about expenses much (assumuing they're not gonna severely hurt me financially).
Abaya (my gf) had some issues at time with my spending habits, since she has a different mentality about it. Nothing we couldn't overcome; but still, it's an issue at times.
|