🍌 GramNana's advice: "Penny Wise and Pound Foolish" 🍌

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Someone asked me the other day, What does "Penny wise and pound foolish" mean?

Oh, dearie me, we used to say that all the time back in the day... "She's penny wise and pound foolish." It had to do with the price of candy, or "penny candy" as it was called, because you could go in a shop and buy a penny's worth of candy at that time, and the clerk would put it in a little paper bag for you.

A penny could get you one piece of really special candy, or maybe quite a few pieces of the not-so-special candy.

You can probably see where this story is going. No? I'll continue then.

So, say you went to the candy store with one of your friends... I'll use my friend Mavis-Anna as an example. Mavis-Anna and I would go to the store and each get a penny's worth of candy. I got the special kind, one piece for a penny. But Mavis-Anna would get 6, 8, 10 pieces of a cheaper candy, all for a penny, so that she'd have a whole bag full. She thought she was getting the better deal.

But if you do that week after week, eat a whole bag of candy instead of just one piece, you know what happens? You gain pounds. Mavis-Anna put weight on like nobody's business, and before you knew it, she couldn't fit into any of her peels.

So, see, she was wise in getting more for her penny, but was so foolish about it that she gained pounds... "penny wise and pound foolish."

Thank you, GramNana, for that story and a look into your past. However, I'm not sure that's really what that phrase means.

Of course it isn't!! As a British citizen, I can tell you exactly what that phrase means! It means being careful with small sums of money, but not with the larger sums. Pennies are British coins worth very little, while pounds are worth much more.
sheesh

I was only telling a story from when I was a wee little thing, Professor Dearie. I'm sure your story is just as interesting, to British people.

I... uh... it's not... (sigh)

_{I think it's a losing proposition, Professor Bananington.}

Oh, alright. That was a nice story, GramNana.

Thank you, Professor Dearie. Want me to tell you the story of the phrase, "Balls to bones"?