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Phrase(s): penny-wise and pound-foolish
Prov. thrifty with small sums and foolish with large sums. (Describes someone who will go to a lot of trouble to save a little money, but overlooks large expenses to save a little money. Even in the United States, the reference is to British pounds sterling.) • Sam: If we drive to six different grocery stores, we’ll get the best bargains on everything we buy. Alan: But with gasoline so expensive, that’s penny-wise and pound-foolish.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
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Stingy about small expenditures and extravagant with large ones, as in Dean clips all the coupons for supermarket bargains but insists on going to the best restaurants? penny wise and pound foolish. This phrase alludes to British currency, in which a pound was once worth 240 pennies, or pence, and is now worth 100 pence. The phrase is Also occasionally used for being very careful about unimportant matters and careless about important ones. It was used in this way by Joseph Addison in The Spectator (1712): "A woman who will give up herself to a man in marriage where there is the least Room for such an apprehension . . . may very properly be accused . . . of being penny wise and pound foolish." [c. 1600]
American Heritage Idioms