Jia Xiaoyu, born after 1995, lost her job during the COVID-19 epidemic. With no source of income, she depended on her savings to support herself. The situation made her think that she should probably stop spending so much on things she once considered essential, such as clothes, bags and shoes.

“Do I really need these things?” After realising that the answer was no, Jia made up her mind to be more careful with her money.

One reason for her change in attitude is that she wanted to save some money for her ageing parents. Another is that she felt a sense of crisis during the epidemic, and hoped that she would never be troubled by a lack of money and could live a life of stability in the future.

Many young people in China share Jia’s views. Survey results released by China's central bank, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), on April 28 indicated that 22.0 percent of residents’ spending patterns tended toward "more consumption," down 6.0 percentage points from the previous quarter.

53 percent of surveyed residents said they were focused on building up "more savings", up 7.3 percentage points from the previous quarter.

Ge Yanxia, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that due to the epidemic, many young people were unable to make earnings for several months, which affected their quality of life.

However, being thrifty doesn’t necessarily mean that young people have lost hope in life. In fact, these days, being thrifty is considered ‘cool'.

On the review platform Douban, people shared the ways they were saving money, such as buying lunch for less than one yuan and cutting their own hair at home.

Song Peng (not his real name), a man in his 30s, works in Beijing. He saves money by making his own furniture, articles for daily use, and toys. Coming from a less well-off family in northwest China’s Shaanxi province, he believes being thrifty can make for a more interesting and positive way of living.

In April, 27-year-old Yuan Jie from Zhengzhou in central China bought a property together with her mother with a down payment of 450,000 yuan. She had saved 300,000 yuan of that money over the previous four years after graduating from university.

Yuan said that when she bought the house, she appreciated the pleasure of being economically independent.

Being careful with money helps people better accept and adapt to uncertainties, and cope with risks, said Ge, who suggests that young people avoid overspending and invest more in improving themselves.