- English translation
Handle your midday meal with care, and there will be something left for the evening.
- Literal wording
Manage your lunch, and you will find your supper.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying urges forethought. Whoever uses what they have sensibly now, rather than consuming it all at once, will still be provided for when a later need arrives. The meals of a single day stand for the larger habit of looking beyond the present moment; it is not merely a remark about cooking.
It ties careful management to security. Good planning is shown as the way to avoid going without, while thoughtless use of resources today leaves a person empty-handed once the next need comes around and nothing has been set aside.
- When it is used
Offered as practical advice to someone spending, eating or using up supplies without thinking ahead. It encourages measured use of what is available now so that later needs are already covered, and fits everyday talk about household economy and prudent habits.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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