Thrift

Thrift is the careful management of resources, especially money, to avoid waste and preserve financial security over time. It encompasses attitudes and behaviors such as budgeting, saving, and the prudent use of materials and energy. The term can refer both to personal discipline and to broader economic practices that favor long-term value over short-term gratification. Etymologically, thrift derives from the idea of prosperity or well-being associated with prudent conduct.

Across cultures, thrift has been valued as a virtue linked to self-reliance, contingency planning, and social responsibility. In modern economies, saving and frugal spending can contribute to household resilience during shocks, influence consumer behavior, and affect national savings rates. Critics argue that extreme thrift can dampen economic growth if it suppresses demand.

Thrift stores are retail outlets operated by charitable organizations that resell donated used goods at low prices. Revenue typically funds social programs or employment services, and the shops commonly provide volunteering opportunities. These stores also promote recycling and extended product lifecycles by reducing waste.

Practical expressions of thrift include budgeting, repairing or repurposing items, buying second-hand, and choosing durable products with longer lifespans. Thrift as a lifestyle can align with sustainability goals by reducing resource use and waste.

In computing, Thrift refers to Apache Thrift, an open-source framework for scalable cross-language services and data serialization. It originated at Facebook and is now maintained by the Apache Software Foundation; it provides a software bridge among many programming languages.