For Elizabeth Warren, the former Harvard Law School professor helping to set up the new consumer regulator, thriftiness is very much her cup of tea.
In a profile in the January issue of Vogue she is quoted as saying that she "just can't stand the waste of throwing out a tea bag after one use. It's like a knife in the gut for me."
Warren has been named by President Obama to help set up the Bureau of Consumer Protection, which is supposed to be operating by next July and will be housed in the Federal Reserve. She probably won't be running the agency as her outspokenness has made Democratic leaders skeptical of her chances for being confirmed.
The Vogue profile highlights her views on everything from the consumer credit system to her own fashion challenges.
On the former, she describes herself as a free market advocate who favors government intervention when markets don't work.
"I believe in markets," she said. "The appropriate role of government is to support markets so they can function, but the consumer-credit market is broken."
On the latter, she says she struggles with her wardrobe and said "it us the one area where I really envy men. And yet I simply cannot dress like a man."
And while Warren is thrifty, she isn't opposed to people splurging on fashion purchases.
"I am not against spending money on clothes. As long as you are straight on your fixed expenses [housing, food, utilities, etc.] and you have put aside 20% in savings, go ahead and buy those $400 shoes. That doesn't make you a bad person. I want to live my life with color. People who can't enjoy their money are missing the colors in life."
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