the last of the big spenders

the last of the big spenders

An ironic expression used when one is making a small or frugal purchase. Did you just order toast and a water? Wow, the last of the big spenders!
See also: big, last, of, spenders

last of the big spenders, the

A tightwad. This term, often used deprecatingly of oneself, originated in the United States during the 1920s, presumably referring at first to the lavish extravagances of the boom preceding the Great Depression. During the Depression it began to be used ironically and self-deprecatingly, as it still is (for example, “I picked it up at a yard sale—I’m the last of the big spenders”). Possibly by design but more probably by coincidence, the term echoes the much older “After great getters come great spenders,” which originated in the sixteenth century, and “Great spenders are bad lenders,” from the seventeenth century, which became proverbial.
See also: big, last, of
References in periodicals archive ?
This 1965 episode is called The Last of the Big Spenders.
Likely Lads star Rodney Bewes dies
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The Last of the Big Spenders was filmed in 1965, but "disappeared" shortly after it was screened - along with more than half the other episodes.
Likely Lads writers are Furst in line for thrillers for the BBC; Entertainment Editor GORDON BARR chats to Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement, creators of Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads, which first aired on the BBC back in 1973
On returning my change, the assistant, angry at her own mistake, made some comment about me being the last of the big spenders.
I might be 78 - but don't treat me like an idiot
So you might think I am careful with my pennies - but once I get to an airport, hey, I'm the last of the big spenders.
Airports and big spending
It's about time everyone in football got their heads around the fact that the last of the big spenders might just have left town.
Football: We must feed the minnows or the bigger fish will starve
Until recently, 13 out of 20 episodes of 60s series The Likely Lads were missing, but a team of amateur collectors uncovered an edition called The Last of the Big Spenders.
Likely Lads lost gem found
And while the last of the big spenders reckons it needs pounds 650,000 to decorate his official des.
Win a DIY treat from B&Q
Coalition ministers like to pretend that Labour was the last of the big spenders.
The reason for these cuts is ideology, not necessity; THURSDAY ESSAY: The last Labour government - responsible for out-of-control spending and borrowing? Nonsense, argues Shadow Welsh Secretary Peter Hain, as he hits out at what he sees as the revisionist economic myth-making of the coalition Government
The stranger-than-fiction story of how this former nun turned into the last of the big spenders is told in a neatly-balanced mix of drama and documentary as parents, teachers, students and fraud squad officers all chip in with their accounts of what a nightmare she was.
YourLIFE: WE LOVE TELLY - Text book operation - PICK OF THE DAY THE THIEVING HEADMISTRESS BBC2, 9pm
Hardly the last of the big spenders, but it was nearly midnight and there was only five minutes of bidding left.
YourLIFE: The man of my dreams cost me pounds 11.50
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