Your Thrift Habits
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Almost all of the Coronet films produced between 1946 and 1956 feature dramatic storylines and a cast of characters that resemble their intended audience. Their narratives generally show children or adolescents learning how to understand something (rather than just learning a set of facts) and thus express great moral gravity. Your Thrift Habits, one of a number of films designed to influence the development of healthy spending practices, works just this way.
Jack's healthy interest in photography and his desire to buy a camera just like Ralph's invokes a moral tale practically equal to Ben Franklin's autobiography. As if goaded by the mocking voice of the narrator, Jack reforms his profligate spending habits with the aid of a budget. Guided, no doubt, by a mandate to practice visual means of instruction, this film has Jack inventing a "cameragraph" as a kind of progress gauge of his savings. Compliance with his budget brings happy results.
Although the mental predilection to save money resides in a deep and mysterious place, it's more likely that this film expresses reactions to the financial instability brought on by the Depression just a decade earlier. The bright new postwar world of consumer goods bore the same temporal relation to economic privation as, say, 1986 does to today.
Ken Smith notes: Irresponsible "Jack" is envious of the camera that sensible "Ralph" has just purchased. How can Jack possibly save the money he needs to buy one for himself? "Are budgets just for parents?" the narrator asks, mockingly. "If he'd do without extravagances he could save every week!" Jack concedes that he should learn to budget his income, so he devises a "cameragraph" and attempts to follow it. This isn't always easy, but the narrator is always on hand to humiliate Jack whenever greed and gluttony surface. "Too many movies! Too much candy!" he chides. "You can't have EVERYTHING you want!" Needless to say, Jack does finally save enough money to buy his camera -- and probably had a good laugh at this film once the unthrifty fifties got rolling.
MONEY THRIFT SAVING EXTRAVAGANCES BUDGETS BUYING PURCHASING CAMERAS GRAPHS TEMPTATION HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS CHARTS
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- Addeddate
- 2002-07-16 00:00:00
- Ccnum
- asr
- Closed captioning
- no
- Collectionid
- 19434
- Color
- B&W
- Country
- United States
- Identifier
- YourThri1948
- Numeric_id
- 1254
- Proddate
- 1948
- Run time
- 10:33
- Sound
- Sd
- Type
- MovingImage
- Whisper_asr_module_version
- 20230805.01
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Reviews
Subject: Why Pass On The Peach Supreme?
School supplies? Far as I recall that was once a semester at the beginning. So, take that 50 cents and have a peach supreme AND go to the game.
He forgot about putting film on that new budget aiming at a watch. Oh well, another 7 weeks plus the previous 15 weeks, either his birthday or Christmas should be imminent - so just have the folks get him one.
Saving 3 bucks out of 8. My gosh, Chinese to todays folks. I do like the graph idea though.
Subject: SAVE for what you want?!?
This concept seems corny and outdated because today's society has a "why wait when you can get it NOW" mentality produced by the financing and credit card industry.
Yes, the cost of living and a man's wages were different back then, but all families still had financial obligations commensurate with the times just like today...only I doubt Jack's parents were up to their eyeballs in debt. Their budget discipline most likely allowed them to sleep very well at night.
As much as I'd love to riff on this particularly corny old-fashioned film, I think it better to apply it's sage advice of learning to discipline ourselves to save for what we want by living within our budget.
The Coronet mantra of "making a list" for every dilemma is often hilarious but making a budget of income and expenses is quite reasonable and wise.
Whether or not you want to "make a list" of extravagances to watch out for is strictly up to you.
Subject: Easier back then?
I definitely think this should be an issue taught in high schools, maybe even younger.
Subject: Another good one in need of dusting off
Like an obese glutton at an all you can eat buffet, our culture just can't seem to push itself away from the table.
The virtues expressed in this movie are plain: self discipline and planning will yield results. As Dave Ramsey says "If I could just get the guy in the mirror to behave, I could be SKINNY AND RICH."
The era in which the film was made or viewed is irrelevant. The message is simple, clear and easily followed.
A great short film.
Subject: Easier then
Subject: Poor Richard's instructional film
Subject: Screw the budget, give me a Peach Super Delight!
All this is rather fun, actually, when you look at it from a financial standpoint and look at the COST differences everything was at compared to now! I mean, Mom and Dad were only allowed 3 bucks each allowance! (Some of it HAS to go to Benevolences you see). A hoot! Highly recommended!
Subject: Too much math for Americans