Steve Pope wrote:

>> As someone else pointed out, make more than you spend. Don't be the
>> grasshopper.
>
> What is the reference to grasshoppers here about? I've heard
> this before but it's not in my phrasebook.

That would be an Aesop's Fable. From Page by Page Books.

http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Aesop...hopper_p1.html

In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping
and singing to its heart's content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with
great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.

"Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of
toiling and moiling in that way?"

"I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant, "and
recommend you to do the same."

"Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; we have got plenty of
food at present." But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil.
When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying
of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain
from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew:

It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

--Lin