Excerpt from The Teaching of Thrift: A Manual of Plans and Teaching Outlines Arranged by Grades Under the provisions Of a law placed upon the Ohio statute books some time ago, instruction is to be given in thrift in all grades in our public school system, both elementary and high, to the extent Of at least thirty minutes each week. As an aid to the individual teacher, upon whose efforts the success of this thrift teaching depends, we have undertaken in this manual to present a number of suggestions and lesson outlines which it is hoped may prove serviceable. It is trite to comment upon America's wastefulness as contrasted with the frugality of the European countries, but it is really a serious question how many more generations we can continue this prodigality. Thrift is a habit; thrift is also an attitude Of mind and an ideal. Practice and precept may combine to advantage in instructional method in the subject. Thrift is Often defined briefly as saving, but it is broader than sav ing. Thrift is saving by using wisely and saving to use wisely. Thrift is not parsimony, not miserliness. Thrift is not an end but a means to an end; it connotes the ability to dispense with an immediate pleasure for the sake Of future benefits. Thrift should be interpreted broadly as the conservation of time, material and money, and it is so regarded in this outlined course. Practice Of thrift is not associated with any particular money - saving agency or institution. Thrift and war savings were linked in the popular mind so long that there is a vague, confused idea in many minds that savings ended with the war and that to drag in thrift now is effrontery. The appeal to save on patriotic grounds has left in many a resentment at continued propaganda for sale Of government securities, because of a feeling that a crisis no longer exists. This merely demonstrates that the foundations have not been laid deep enough. A great deal of our war thrift and saving' was a forced growth, a hothouse product; we must plant the seedling that will produce the oak, permanent and abiding, not the ephemeral and transitory blossom. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

First place winner for "Popular Presentation of the Catholic Faith" from the Catholic Press Association! Thrift Store Saints is a collection of true stories based on Jane Knuth’s experiences serving the poor at a St. Vincent de Paul thrift store in the inner city of Kalamazoo, Michigan. At the outset of the book, Knuth is a reluctant new volunteer at the store, sharing that her middle-class, suburban, church-going background has not prepared her well for this kind of work. By the end of the book, Knuth has undergone a transformation of sorts, and neither she nor we can ever view the poor in the same way again. Knuth’s transformation is rooted in the prevailing message of Thrift Store Saints: When we serve the poor, they end up helping us as much as we help them. Throughout the book we are introduced to new “saints,” as Knuth thoughtfully, at times humorously, describes how her encounters with the poorest people led her to the greatest riches of God’s grace. Thrift Store Saints makes clear that it doesn’t require heroic Mother Teresa-types to make a difference with the poor, and it even more powerfully shows us that working with them is not gloomy, depressing work. Knuth’s moving stories demonstrate the profound joy any of us can experience when we see serving the poor not as social work, but as a spiritual path that leads us to the heart of Jesus.

This “ridiculous” religious thinking—that when we help the poor, they end up helping us—is at the heart of the 30 stories that Jane Knuth shares in Thrift Store Graces, the sequel to her popular Thrift Store Saints. Similar to the first book, Thrift Store Graces contains personal accounts of Knuth’s experiences serving as a once reluctant, now enthusiastic volunteer at a thrift store in Kalamazoo, Michigan. What sets Thrift Store Graces apart from her first book is that Knuth introduces us to some far more challenging personal situations that emerge as a result of her volunteer work. Additionally, she invites us to join her as she hesitantly embarks on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje in war-ravaged Bosnia. Through it all, her delightful sense of humor keeps her going, along with her conviction that some of God’s greatest gifts come disguised as difficulties. Witty, inspiring, and thought-provoking all at once, the stories in Thrift Store Graces subtly compel us to redefine what it means to volunteer and to rethink why it is that we volunteer in the first place.