waste not, want not

proverb If you use something wisely, sparingly, and completely, it will be less likely that you find yourself in need of anything. I plan our meals very carefully each week so that we use almost everything we get in the groceries. Waste not, want not. You may need to overhaul your production strategy if resources keep going to waste. Remember—waste not, want not!

Prov. Cliché If you do not waste anything, you will always have enough. Always save the fabric scraps left over from your sewing projects; you can use them to make something else. Waste not, want not. Sam never let his leftovers spoil in the refrigerator but made sure to eat them. "Waste not, want not," he said.

Wise use of one's resources will keep one from poverty. For example, I just hate to throw out good food-waste not, want not. This proverbial saying was first recorded in 1772 but had an earlier, even more alliterative version, willful waste makes woeful want (1576).

Economical use of one’s resources pays off. This adage was quoted—and perhaps coined—by Maria Edgeworth (The Parent’s Assistant, 1800), who wrote that those very words “were written over the chimneypiece . . . in his uncle’s spacious kitchen.” It was widely repeated throughout the nineteenth century, but has been heard less in the current throwaway society.