From our March 20th edition

I’m not very good with money. I don’t mean that I spend it irresponsibly, it’s just that I’m not interested in it.

For me, money is a means to an end. I need it to get shopping and to pay bills and to give away to people and projects and causes I like to support – but I am not in the least bit interested in how much I earn or how much I could save or invest. It really doesn’t bother me.

I know there are others who need to know where every penny goes.

I have one friend who, if you go out for coffee or lunch with her, she needs to split the bill. To my mind that means halving it, or quartering it depending on how many of us there are.

For this friend, though, nothing as simple will do. Her cup of tea might have been cheaper than my cup of coffee, so splitting things half and half is, in her eyes, not fair.

The difference in cost of what we might have consumed, needs to be taken into account.

This friend doesn’t pay more than her fair share. And while I can see where she’s coming from, I have to confess it’s an approach to life that baffles me.

What are a few pennies between friends?

To be concerned with every tiny financial detail seems to me to reduce relationships to an accounts ledger.

You brought me some flowers, so I will have to get you some in return. I gave you a birthday card – you had better give me one.

I know that all relationships are about give and take, but that seems to me, to be taking things to the extreme.

What’s so bad about being generous? Is there not something wonderful about being able to give without wanting or expecting anything in return?

And in my experience it’s those who can least afford to do it, who give beyond their means.

And that is always so humbling to acknowledge.

I am fortunate, I have a job and a regular income.

There are those who can’t work and there are those who are retired who struggle to pay their bills and yet even although these people may not have as much to live on, they choose to be generous and to support so much that is going on in our communities.

Including our churches.

While others of us look out for ourselves first, making sure we have savings and enough for a rainy day, stockpiling what we can for unexpected expenses that may or may not crop up, these others realise that money is about far more than banks and stock markets.

They understand that money is a currency that can open or close doors for individuals, families, communities and nations – as long as it’s not hoarded.

And in this respect, they have so much to teach the rest of us.

There are those who give £1 and think they have given the world.

Then there are those who know exactly how far a pound goes because they need to count each one.

These are the people who can teach the rest of us a thing or two – Susan Brown.

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