Thrifty Scot: Difference between revisions

{{quote|"In Scotland, panic buying of petrol is rampant, with Scots putting in as much as ''five pounds'' at the pump."|[[Brian Blessed]], [[Have I Got News for You]]. For reference, £5 is around 8$8.}}

Along with being [[Brave Scot|brave]] and [[Violent Glaswegian|violent]], Scottish people are also often stereotyped as being thrifty with their money and belongings. Within Scotland itself, people from Aberdeen may be stereotyped as being especially thrifty. Probably [[Truth in Television]], since Scotland has always been a poor area compared to England, not to mention being considerably less fertile than the south. Thriftiness is a necessity under such circumstances.

* [[Little House Onon the Prairie (Literature)|Laura Ingalls Wilder]] was of Scottish descent on her mother's side. A couple of times in the books, Pa makes an admiring comment about Ma's Scottish resourcefulness with food when they're living in the middle of nowhere.

* Classic ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' serial "Terror of the Zygons" used this stereotype a punchline to the last episode. The majority of the action took place in Scotland but for the finale the action moved to London and at the end the Doctor and Sarah Jane are retrieving the TARDIS. The local duke whom they had rescued then berates the Brigadier (who had been earlier wearing a kilt) for [[No True Scotsman|calling himself a Scotsman yet not getting the refund of the return tickets]].

* One of the first claims discussed on ''[[Would I Lie to You?]]'' was from Scottish multimillionaire Duncan Bannatyne of ''[[Dragons Den (TV)|Dragons' Den]]'' fame, saying that he'd banned his employees from buying paper clips, forcing them instead to use only the ones that came in with the mail.

{{quote| '''Angus Deayton:''' Lee, what are you thinking about this?<br />

'''Lee Mack:''' Well, I have to say, the idea of saving money on paper clips is absolutely ridiculous, although the accent is swinging it a little bit... Okay, we think that's true.<br />

* The characters Hamish and Dougal, created by Graeme Garden and Barry Cryer for the Sound Charades round in ''[[I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (Radio)|I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue]]''. The [[Catch Phrase]] "You'll have had your tea?" is intended to be heard as "You're not expecting me to feed you, right?"

* This, combined with [[Violent Glaswegian]], is a major part of [[Billy Connolly]]'s act. "My uncle once dropped ten pence; he bent over to pick it up, and it hit him in the back of the head."

** "You may have heard that nasty rumour floating around that copper wire was invented by two Scotsmen fighting over a penny."

** One time, Connolly was on Conan O' Brien explaining that he once bungee jumped naked on his travel show. Why? The place apparently had a policy that if you jumped completely naked, it was free. When Conan asked why he did this just to save a few tens of dollars, Connolly replied "You'd have to be a Scotsman to understand".

* In Disney's ''[[The Wind in Thethe Willows]]'', Angus McBadger is in charge of Toad's finances and thus is very concerned about money. Although Mr Toad being an UpperClassTwit who [[Drives Like Crazy|writes off several expensive cars and racks up an impressive number of fines for speeding and reckless driving]] in the original canon, he has good reason to worry.

* In the Disney cartoon ''Pigs Is Pigs'' (and the [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2004/2004-h/2004-h.htm short story] upon which it's based]), the conflict in the story is partially because the Scottish McMorehouse doesn't want to pay an extra 4 cents to have the guinea pigs shipped as "pigs" rather than as "pets" (probably justified in this case because 4 cents would be a lot of money in 1905).

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