Mark Nathan Nov 23, 2009:

Fundamental cultural difference The proverb that came to my mind was "look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves" which is, of course, exactly the opposite of what is being said here. In fact, my grandfather always used to say "and that is how Mr Coleman got rich" when there was a (small) blob of mustard left on a plate at the end of the meal. Perhaps it was the "war generation", but there are certainly many British people who would take a very dim view of someone who was wasteful with condiments. "Economy is a poor man's revenue, extravagenace is a rich man's ruin". This is perhaps why we are struggling to come up with the same style of proverb - the idea simply is not present. "Penny pinching" is used to describe unnecessary economy, and is used in a derogatory way- yes penny pinching is bad, but more because it suggests meaness of character than a futile attempt to become wealthy. If anything penny pinching is seen as a rich person's trait - someone who has a lot of money and likes to hang on to it!
So I think you might have to present it slightly differently, e.g. "The luxuries of life cannot be purchased by making a few frugal economies".

philgoddard Nov 23, 2009:

Sorry, I deleted my answer because it was a duplicate of Terry's, so yours got deleted too.

Christopher Fitzsimons (asker) Nov 23, 2009:

:) I just replied to you but can't see my answer... hmmm... I misread the nationality of the director as "Nigerian" when it is actually "Nigerien" as you say! My apologies and thanks for the clarification!

philgoddard Nov 23, 2009:

By the way, I looked up Zarma, and it's spoken in Niger, so your film is Nigerois, not Nigerian. I'm not being pedantic - I just wanted to make sure you knew which country it was from!
Or maybe I am - we are a notoriously pedantic profession after all...