What does penny wise pound foolish mean ?

Answer 1

What it means is that you go to such great lengths to save money but instead you go and spend more than what you were trying to save.

Say for instance you go to private postal store they mark up a dollar on a book of stamps, instead of paying the extra dollar you go the post office and wait in a long line by the time you get out the post office there is parking ticket on your car, instead of paying the extra dollar it cost forty dollars plus the cost of the book of stamps.

Answer 2

Penny Wise Pound Foolish

Answer 3

If you are promised a great job and are expected to reach the interview location at - say 10 AM. You start from home at 9.30, and know that you are already late. But instead of taking a fast mode of transport - say taxi - which costs 10 - you take a bus to save money - say the bus costs 2 - you reach the venue at 10.15. The job is already given to someone else. In this case in order to save 8 you lost a job which could have given you 5000 a month. If you ever do this or similar things you are penny wise pound foolish. In order to save 1 for putting a plaster you let go the wound and you develop septics and you end up paying 300 to the doctor. you are again penny wise pound foolish.

Answer 4

Pennies and pounds are currencies in the United Kingdom. It means we are prudent with the small things (pennies) and loose out on larger things in life which is foolish. For eg. you might bargain with your vegetable vendor for a long time to get a discount of a few pennies but just pay thousands of pounds when buying a luxury car which might not be worth the price.

Answer 5

A penny is a small amount of money and a pound is a larger amount. "Penny-wise, pound-foolish" is to be cautious (wise) with small amounts of money but wasteful (foolish) with larger amounts. Example: "We've worked so hard to save money that if we took a vacation now it would be penny-wise, pound-foolish." People sometimes worry about spending small amounts of money; then they carelessly spend much larger amounts. Example: "He spends very little on food during the week, then blows all his money drinking on the weekends. He really is penny-wise, pound-foolish."

Answer 6

What Does Foolish Mean

Answer 7

It's based on the English money system.
It means that you foolishly save a penny when you could have saved a pound by investing that penny.

Answer 8

I think when people use that expression they are talking about someone in a negative way. They are saying that the person (the one who is penny wise and pound foolish) is tight with his money, but their opinion is that he spends or wastes money on things that are frivolous or perhaps not worth the cost in their estimation. Well I say that it's none of their damn business!

Answer 9

This is probably an English expression where a pound is a bill of currency. It means you are wise with the small things and dumb with the large ones.

Answer 10

You spend all your effort to save one penny, but you're careless when you're spending your pounds (british pound). Since pounds are worth considerably more than pennies, you're not saving wisely.