idioms - "Saving on the parrot's chocolate is futile"


In Catalan there is an expression "ser la xocolata del lloro" that can be translated as "saving by not giving chocolate to the parrot is futile", conveying the meaning that when a household wants to save money, there are ways by which not much saving is going to be made. As an example, if you stop giving little bits of chocolate to the parrot to enjoy, although it looks like a saving measure, it's more posturing than real savings, so that doesn't make much difference: you actually won't end up saving much, because the amount of chocolate is very small.


Is there any equivalent expression in the English language for the same kind of saving efforts that won't make a difference?



Answer



The term penny-wise refers to being "careful in dealing with small sums of money or small matters". It's commonly found in the phrase penny wise, pound foolish, meaning "Someone who is penny wise, pound foolish can be very careful or mean with small amounts of money, yet wasteful and extravagant with large sums."


You may also find the term bikeshedding of interest:



The word ... implies technical disputes over minor, marginal issues conducted while more serious ones are being overlooked. The implied image is of people arguing over what color to paint the bicycle shed while the house is not finished.



The term cheeseparing economy refers to "a useless economy." According to ngrams for cheeseparing economy it is occasionally but not frequently used. The phrase "strain at a gnat and swallow a camel", from Matthew 23:23, means "to fuss about trifles while ignoring more serious matters" (per reference.com) or "to criticize other people for minor offenses while ignoring major offenses" (per thefreedictionary.com). For related phrases, also see questions #41508 and #39726.


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