New York-based drama critic and author John Mason Brown (1900-1969) wrote in Morning Faces: A Book of Children and Parents (1949):
   
“As a rule, for budgetary reasons, I do not travel in a drawing room, much less on the Century. Yet obviously for this trip to Chicago, it had to be the Century. Yes, and a drawing room, too. So often we rob tomorrow’s memories by today’s economies.”
 
“So often we rob tomorrow’s memories by today’s economies”—in other words, “live a little”—has been frequently cited.
 
     
Wikipedia: John Mason Brown
John Mason Brown (July 3, 1900 – March 16, 1969) was an American drama critic and author.
 
Life
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he graduated from Harvard College in 1923. He worked for the New York Evening Post from 1929 to 1941. He served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy during World War II, beginning in 1942. His book, To All Hands, documents his activities aboard the USS Ancon (AGC-4) during Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily.
 
Upon his return, his “Seeing Things” column appeared in The Saturday Review starting in 1944 until his death in New York City.
     
OCLC WorldCat record
Morning faces : a book of children and parents
Author: John Mason Brown
Publisher: New York : Whittlesey House, 1949.
Edition/Format:   Print book : English
 
25 March 1950, Washington (DC) Post, “Confessions of a Famous Father: Takes a Compass to Get Around U.S. These Days” by John Mason Brown, pg. 6B, col. 1:
(Editor’s Note: Mr. Brown turns his critical eye away from the world with its woes to observe with reportorial zeal his two small sons and their playmates. This is the last of six chapters condensed from John Mason Brown’s latest book, “Morning Faces,” published by Whittlesey House.)
(...)
As a rule, for budgetary reasons, I do not travel in a drawing room, much less on the Century. Yet obviously for this trip to Chicago, it had to be the Century. Yes, and a drawing room, too. So often we rob tomorrow’s memories by today’s economies.
 
Google Books
The Reader’s Digest
Volume 57
1950
Pg. 62:
So often we rob tomorrow’s memories by today’s economies.
—John Mason Brown, Morning Faces (Whittlesey)
 
Google Books
20,000 Quips & Quotes
By Evan Esar
New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Books
1995, ©1968
Pg. 815:
So often we rob tomorrow’s memories by today’s economies.
— John Mason Brown
 
Google Books
Famous and Infamous Quotes
By Raymond Grillo
Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance Publishing Company
2014
Pg. 29:
“So often we rob tomorrow’s memories by today’s economies.” —John Mason Brown, American Critic, and Lecturer (1900-1969)
 
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“So often we rob tomorrow’s memories by today’s economies.” - John Mason Brown
6:07 PM - 4 Jul 2016