penny wise and pound foolish

Idioms  

1. Stingy about small expenditures and extravagant with large ones, as in Dean clips all the coupons for supermarket bargains but insists on going to the best restaurants—penny wise and pound foolish. This phrase alludes to British currency, in which a pound was once worth 240 pennies, or pence, and is now worth 100 pence. The phrase is also occasionally used for being very careful about unimportant matters and careless about important ones. It was used in this way by Joseph Addison in The Spectator (1712): “A woman who will give up herself to a man in marriage where there is the least Room for such an apprehension ... may very properly be accused ... of being penny wise and pound foolish.” [c. 1600]

---

Example Sentences

Given that individual stocks are highly unlikely to match the performance of an index fund over time, that’s the definition of penny wise and pound foolish.

From Slate • Jul. 13, 2016

“That was penny wise and pound foolish, in my humble opinion,” said Tsutsui, who argues that having a tough negotiator could in the long run save the state millions of dollars.

From Washington Times • Oct. 12, 2015

That approach could be penny wise and pound foolish, however.

From Science Magazine • Jun. 4, 2015

I try to just because in general most people are far too penny wise and pound foolish to objectively realize they are fretting over nominal amounts when it comes to tipping.

From New York Times • Feb. 26, 2010

In the making of a golf course it is very easy to be "penny wise and pound foolish."

From The Complete Golfer by Vardon, Harry