Confessions of a true CHEAPSKATE

[freebird5825]

Yes - don't hold out on us.

he's gonna make us suffer....LOL

 

[brewer12345]

One time when we were taking a cab to the airport in Mexico, the driver was friendly and asked us about ourselves, and DH and I were responding in our limited Spanish. When he asked how we could afford to vacation in Mexico for weeks at a time, I said in Spanish, "We eat beans and rice every day." I said this partly because those were about the only food items I knew the words for, and we did eat them a lot. He said, with a smile, "I don't believe you!". I said to DH, "He doesn't believe me because I am too fat!" and we all had a laugh because it was true, and in Mexico it's not an insult to call someone fat, just funny, even when it's true.
When we got back home I wondered why we DIDN'T eat them every day. We do now. We buy organic dried kidney beans and brown rice in 25-lb bags, and cut tomatoes at Costco in the #10 (big) can. We cook up a batch of beans in the crock-pot, and freeze it in 2-serving portions with the tomatoes. We cook up a batch of brown rice and keep that in the frig. Most every day for lunch, we dump the frozen beans and tomatoes into a Pyrex bowl and nuke it, then put it in a bowl with the precooked brown rice, and add jalapenos or salsa. Delicious, nutritious, non-fattening, and oh so very cheap!
Thank you, taxi driver.

Works great, unless you are a foodie like me. Then you end up dropping $5/pound on heirloom beans from this place: Rancho Gordo

They are more than worth it, though.

 

[toofrugalformycat]

Works great, unless you are a foodie like me. Then you end up dropping $5/pound on heirloom beans from this place: Rancho Gordo

They are more than worth it, though.

Thanks for the reference! That's what I'm paying for my organic kidney beans. These look like a lot more fun.

 

[NotSoonEnough]

I actually tear my paper towels in half for small cleanup jobs.

We cut them in thirds before using the roll.

I don't use paper towels, 1/2 or 1/3 paper towels, or any other paper towels. I have never purchased paper towels. I use washable cotton towels for everything. But, I wonder if washing cotton is more expensive than buying paper... Hmm, time for another study/experiment.

 

[Janet H]

I refuse to pay extra for sour cream for my burritos at one of my favorite restaurants. They charge 30 cents for it!

This chaps me as well. I think I'll bring my own next time and see what happens.

 

[zoey]

Some of what we do has already been mentioned like reusing plastic baggies and cutting up paper towels. We also hang our clothes on the line, instead of using a dryer. Probably, the most extreme thing we do is not heat our water heater. We turned it to "off", which saves us about $20 per month on our gas bill.

We reuse as much as possible such as tofu plastic trays, food jars, etc. I cook from scratch and we buy bread at the discount bread store. I pick up change off the street. This week was a great week for found money. I found a $20 bill, two dimes, a penney and a starbucks card that had 36 cents left on it. All this during one half hour walk. The next day I found a dime and a penney.

We don't buy bottled water. Instead we use a PUR water filter/pitcher and don't change the filter as often as they recommend. The water stays fresh tasting for months longer than they say it will. I think they just want you to buy more filters.

I color my own hair and have it cut infrequently. Last hair cut was at least 18 months ago. I'm going to to break down and go to the hair dresser soon, though.

I cut off any unused portion of paper from junk mail, bills, etc. and use it for scratch paper. We water down dish liquid--about 10 parts water to one part soap. We don't run our dish washer--instead do dishes by hand.

 

[laurence]

Brita water filters, Ditto on the overuse. Co-workers laugh at my lunch packed in trader-joes yogurt containers. Lots of others that are already mentioned.

Oh, and remember the old line? "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down?"....still the rule in our house, unless we know guests are coming!

 

[amy5708]

I used to rewash all my tin foil and plastic bags. Now I just buy the cheapest plastics in the smallest sizes and try to use the "fold over" bags instead of zip-locks.

Buy clothes at thrift stores. I can get shirts and pants with tags still on for $2. One of my favorite jackets I got at a yard sale and talked them down to $2.

Buy food on sale with coupons. I used to go through the newspaper recycling bin for coupons so I wouldn't have to buy a paper.

We hardly ever eat out. Pack lunches for all 4 of us daily.

Buy in bulk and buy generic.

Stay away from Wal-Mart.

 

[Walt34]

Probably, the most extreme thing we do is not heat our water heater. We turned it to "off", which saves us about $20 per month on our gas bill.

Eeow! That sounds painful. In the winter around here the incoming water temp is in the 40s. I try to tell her it would save water if we showered together but that only works sometimes.

 

[template]

We cut them in thirds before using the roll.

I use half a dryer fabric softener sheet in each dryer load. When I buy a box of dryer sheets, I cut the entire box in half using a bandsaw.

 

[Orchidflower]

Bounty makes paper towels that are perforated for half of the normal size sheet of paper towels, so you are not alone in this idea.
95% of your ideas are cheapskate things? Gosh...the above seems pretty normal to me. God only knows I have blown enough money in my time on things I could have done without, so I have learned to conserve where I can over the years..ha!

 

[Martha]

I think Al uses a fillet knife to slice his paper towels. We used to use a serrated knife but on his suggestion went to a fillet knife because it makes a nicer cut.

 

[REWahoo]

With a diamond blade circular saw you can get 12 'mini-rolls'.

Warning: Use caution, that last cut is dicey!

 

[Martha]

<snort>

 

[W2R]

I am in AWE of some of the things people on the board do, to be frugal. I have been thinking about this and musing over it and how I could be saving so much more, but am not. I know that I don't spend much, but to be honest I don't work that hard at being frugal, either. I really don't buy used clothing, nor do I use paper towels for toilet paper or any of the other wonderful tips that people have been giving.

I think that my approach is to just not buy very many things, compared with most people. Other than food, I was brought up to be very "easy" on things, and not wear them out or ruin them. Where someone else might say that they need something, I would be thinking "I can make do for a while longer". Then, when I finally buy whatever-it-is, I buy it new at a moderately priced store (not Neiman Marcus, but not necessarily Wallie World, either), and often on sale.

Just thought I'd mention a different approach that helps me in working towards the same goals others on this thread have. When I am buying something, no matter what the bargain, I think to myself: Is this something that I really need, or am I just responding to the "buy, buy, buy" pressures of Madison Avenue? Would my ancestors have bought this during the Great Depression of the 1930's?" If not, then I go home and enjoy the things that I already have.

 

[tightasadrum]

Some of these "ideas" I'd never get past DW. But I'm reminded of the time in the 80's when I would drive DW's old 1965 Ford Mustang to work. (She always got the "good" car, ie the one that would crank and get to the destination on time. Anyway, I would park that old Mustang on the street in front of the house and push it off down a slight incline because either the battery was dead or the started was bad, I don't remember now.

When I got to work, I would park it at the top of the sloping parking lot so I could push it off and get it cranked to drive home. It was obviously a standard transmission. I kept this up for some time with great pride in the face of disbelief and disdain from various co-workers, and got quite a reputation for being cheap. The plant engineer even suggested putting a pan under the engine to catch all the oil that was leaking onto his parking lot, then I could recycle the oil into the engine. This didn't seem like such a good idea to me.

I kept this routine up for months until we decided to sell the Mustang and was forced to purchase either a starter or a battery. I've never lost my reputation among friends and family though. To this day they all swear I still have $.90 of the first dollar I ever earned, and I suppose they aren't far wrong.

 

[calmloki]

Good to see Tightasadrum and Mick in the club - when i was a grower at a mushroom plant i drove an old Datsun 510 with a bad starter. Every morning we would head off to work - i'd throw a rope on her Audi 100ls, she'd pull start me, unhook, kiss goodbye. At the end of day i'd get a forklift driver to pushstart me - they just loved ramming the bejusus out of that little car! Around the same time we had the waterheater on a timer set for an hour on in the morning and same at night - worked pretty well except when we weren't on schedule and did save money. Clothes are nearly all from thrift stores still. Fix things that break rather than replacing them. We do give ourselves permission on some things and ignore cost: airfare down to SoCal every month and spending on the gal's Mom for instance. She's a fun lady, and my gal reached Hero status with me caring for my Mother - so i'd be a pretty sorry character if i had any problems with her standard of care for her Mother.

 

[Meadbh]

Urgent message for W2R!

nor do I use paper towels for toilet paper or any of the other wonderful tips that people have been giving.

Do NOT use paper towels for TP! Those things absorb water and will get stuck in your drains. You will pay for it with the plumber's bill. Trust me: been there, done that!

 

[Moemg]

In the late 70's I drove a Karman Ghia with very little heat . I remember driving to work as I was scrapping the frost off the inside of the window. Fun Times !

 

[calmloki]

Do NOT use paper towels for TP! Those things absorb water and will get stuck in your drains. You will pay for it with the plumber's bill. Trust me: been there, done that!

is why i always rent a place with a new wrapped roll of TP on the roller: had to pull a toilet to get the folded Brawny paper towel out of the spout at the bottom of the toilet. Not fun landlord times. Also loathe the "flush-away toilet cleaners" = sewer stoppers.

 

[Marquette]

For all of you sandwich bag washers, we've switched to a more permanent storage mechanism with resounding success:

Sandwich Keeper Set

At $11.50 for 2, it probably doesn't fit into the cheapskate thread, but it might provide a good cost/benefit trade-off.

 

[prgsdw]

Wow, lots of interesting ideas here....We hang up our clothes to dry instead of using the dryer. We buy the paper towels perforated at 1/2 size so we don't have to cut them. We always wash out the plastic containers from potato salad, etc from the store and reuse them. Also we pay a little extra for Classico spaghetti sauce because we like it and because it comes in a nice Ball jar which we can reuse.

We butcher our own meat (as a matter of fact we butchered a 270 pound pig this morning), my brother has all the equipment, so it really saves us a good buck. Probably the most frugal thing I'm poked fun about at home is I'll wear clothes around the house that have holes worn through them, etc - they're typically falling apart as soon as they get comfortable. At the office I get a lot of flak because when a group of us go out for lunch I always try to pay separately - which bothers a lot of folks who planned to buy for the group. I don't like to do that very often, but I feel like i want to reciprocate if someone buys me lunch, so I try to avoid that as much as possible.

I also drive an 11 year old car, Toyota Corolla, that I bought as a demo car when it was 1 year old with 5,390 miles on it. Now it has a little over 228k and going strong (knock on wood). Some of my family members have been through 4 cars in that time - I can't imagine how much money they've spent in the same time for reliable transportation...

We're also guity of stopping by Costco just to walk around for some samples as a free lunch. My wife will often make gifts instead of buying something - but they always turn out nice and seem to be well received.

 

[Khan]

I don't use paper towels, 1/2 or 1/3 paper towels, or any other paper towels. I have never purchased paper towels. I use washable cotton towels for everything. But, I wonder if washing cotton is more expensive than buying paper... Hmm, time for another study/experiment.

I use paper towels, a roll lasts a year or more; I use them mainly to pick up cat barf (hairballs), then drop the towel and hairball into the compost.

 

[TromboneAl]

ok, fess up. how do you cut the rolls into thirds? i HAVE to hear this. LOL

Right, fish fillet knife, sharpened just before use.

 

[Khan]

Drove my '89 car 'til '07.

Cook (mostly) from scratch.

Thrift stores are first stop for clothes, sheets, towels.

If it's yellow, let it mellow...

Heat at 60F, 50 at night; A/C at 85 (90 if very low humidity).

Don't have a dryer.

Vegetable garden (save cardboard and newspaper for mulch)

Don't go to movies

Don't go to restaurants

Turn off power strip for computer et al at night

Use washing machine rinse water for garden