Confessions of a true CHEAPSKATE

[REWahoo]

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Now we know what Al's beaver is stuffed with...

 

[tightasadrum]

What if you just left them hang to dry for a few more hours? The clothes (even jeans and towels) dry in 24 hours (or less) in the winter(and that's upstairs and not in the furnace and laundry room).

I drink hot water in the winter. Use an electric cup warmer to keep tea/water warm in winter.

Don't go out that much, so don't carry water.

Khan, is the rumor true that's going around that you live on less than $10000/year?

 

[tightasadrum]

Amusing anecdote: We were in Vegas, riding the bus from downtown to the strip. It's about a 5 mile ride end to end. An older (late 50s) Indian (from India) couple is at the 2nd stop from the start of the run and the bus stops. They ask the bus driver how much and he replies 2 dollars each. They say they want to go down to the Excalibur (at the far end of the strip). It's about a full 4 miles away. It's 95 degrees out. They decide to walk. Everyone was amazed. They would fit right in on this thread.

This would have been OK with me, but DW would not have come along. "See you later sweety..."

 

[TromboneAl]

It's about a full 4 miles away.

The heat would be one problem, the lack of pedestrian access would probably be another. I've found that often if you want to walk somewhere in an urban area, you end up walking on the shoulder of a highway, crossing busy streets with no lights, your way will be blocked, etc.

Also, ask directions to someplace, even if it's just a mile away, and you always get "You want to walk there? Oh, no, you can't walk there."

 

[Fireup2020]

Doesn't everyone do this?

To this day, my only horror story from childhood is garbage soup day. She'd clean out the freezer and, if it looked like it might go together, it went in the pot. It was never the same recipe and it usually tasted ok, but it was sort of like food roulette.

We love doing a cupboard cleanout soup! Some of my best creations have come from this method.

No longer using dryer sheets (no need to) since switching to the homemade laundry detergent (LOVE it!)

No paper towels are in our house. Only the pricey lotion enhanced kleenex hidden/used for when I am really sick - use tp for regular sniffles. Ziplocs are rarely used. Brita filtered water poured into water bottles - always have a few in my car. Also, fill up my bottles from coolers at offices I let myself spend money (but it better be a great deal!) on things I think are important - ie ski trip with ski club) and scrimp in areas not so high on my radar.

 

[chinaco]

We cut them in thirds before using the roll.

Looks kinda like a roll of toilet paper. What is that to the left a Microwave or a fancy computerize Throne (toilet)?

 

[Khan]

No paper towels are in our house. Only the pricey lotion enhanced kleenex hidden/used for when I am really sick - use tp for regular sniffles.

I use cloth handkerchiefs acquired at thrift store. Mother used to sew her own from cut down sheets and tablecloths.

 

[TromboneAl]

Speaking of cupboard cleanout soup, this sounds like extreme poverty, but it's not: Last night we had our seventh meal from a single (69 cents/pound chicken). Roast Chicken (DW and me -- counts as two meals), open face chicken sandwich on home-made bread, "churkey" sandwich (just me -- like a turkey sandwich but with chicken), chicken soup with olive-oil-sauteed onions, garlic, curry, and broccoli.

 

[HFWR]

Looks kinda like a roll of toilet paper. What is that to the left a Microwave or a fancy computerize Throne (toilet)?

You want chives with that?

 

[52andout]

once when I was still working after a conference there were platters of leftover poppy seed bagels (still wrapped) and deli sandwiches in plastic containers they were going to throw away.

I took the bagels and carefully scraped the seeds off as the kids didn't like them, sliced and froze most of them. Kids were amazed I sprung for the "good" bagels. I disasembled the sandwiches and froze the bread and meats separately, and made salad for dinner from the vegetables. I also used to take all the refundable bottles home or they would go in the trash. I walk daily and still will pick up any refundable bottles and cans. and pennies or any other loose change I see.

Now I just garden like crazy. By the end of summer the storage racks and freezer are full.

All clothes super markdown or second hand, except for underwear which I skip. Just hope I am never in an accident, Mom would roll over in her grave if I showed up in an ER with no underwear on.

 

[youbet]

All clothes super markdown or second hand, except for underwear which I skip. Just hope I am never in an accident, Mom would roll over in her grave if I showed up in an ER with no underwear on.

Interesting post until this part........ Way, way too much information!

 

[calmloki]

So today i was waiting for the roofing company office to re-open after lunch - having the second half of an apartment building roof done so it qualifies as a repair and money spent this year can be written off in full this year - went up and spent 2 bucks at the Jack-in-the-box for my lunch and then thought i would kill some time in a St. Vincent de Paul thrift store. Found a little Griswold cast iron pan there once... They had an ok pan, but not ok enough, so i wandered around, and found a new looking Travelpro 24" rollaboard expandable suiter suitcase, complete with lock, both keys, original sale hangtag with $210 price on it. Spent about $40 on a rolling duffle at Costco a while back, it's getting a lot of use and it's doing ok, but this is a nice bag. Took it up to the checkstand and asked what the price was. $3.99. Hmm. I didn't even dicker. I love when being a cheapskate works out!

Oh - a sorta thrifty thing - bought a big stack of white washcloths from my buddy Costco - use them as washcloths until they get a bit dingy, then they become kitchen cloths (don't think we've thrown away or used a paper towel in decades), when they get unseemly i cycle them into cleaning rags for apartment cleaning.

 

[megacorp-firee]

Breast milk is cheaper (and better). Missed saving opportunity!

it was the 70's ... everything was 'convenience'... however DW said in retrospect, it was a good decision from a personal point of view ... many of her friends have droopy breasts ...

 

[megacorp-firee]

I use it in my coffee...

hmmm where do you buy it?
my cow is [-] past milking [/-] uh retired ...

 

[megacorp-firee]

The heat would be one problem, the lack of pedestrian access would probably be another. I've found that often if you want to walk somewhere in an urban area, you end up walking on the shoulder of a highway, crossing busy streets with no lights, your way will be blocked, etc.

Also, ask directions to someplace, even if it's just a mile away, and you always get "You want to walk there? Oh, no, you can't walk there."

LV actually has sidewalks ... and crossing lights... but I still wouldn't try it.

 

[tangomonster]

I've been trying to come up with some quirky examples of my frugality, but this stuff is so second-nature to me that it doesn't even seem to be living frugally---just my way of living! Like I know it is weird to go to Great Clips and get my hair cut for $13 (I seldom ever see other women there), but to me it's just where I get my hair cut----and everyone else with their $50+ haircuts are overspending.

And the other thing is that the cheapskate stuff is tied into other things. For example, it may appear that we are being cheap if we take our own pastry to Starbucks (we wouldn't do this with an independently owned coffe shop, but the SB don't care), but the primary motivator is just to control the fat grams and additives by baking at home. And we make our own bottled water by pouring filtered tap water into stainless steel bottles (the polycarbonate stuff got junked a couple of months ago after the negative publicity about the health hazards), but it is as much to help the environment by not using and throwing away plastic as it is to save money.

So see---it's not just being cheap. It's looking out for my health and the environment. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

 

[HFWR]

hmmm where do you buy it?
my cow is [-] past milking [/-] uh retired ...

Forced entry into the "mother's room" at work. Alternatively, I hear it's readily available in Tijuana...

 

[TromboneAl]

Using rags or cloths instead of paper towels sounds appealing, but are you sure that the cost of washing and drying those things isn't higher than the cost of the paper towels.

 

[TeeRuh]

...wash em? (they dry on their own) ...

 

[W2R]

...wash em? (they dry on their own) ...

Well, but for example if you use one to clean up spilled milk, you kinda gotta wash it... personally I use both, depending on what was spilled.

 

[Nords]

Using rags or cloths instead of paper towels sounds appealing, but are you sure that the cost of washing and drying those things isn't higher than the cost of the paper towels.

Reminds me of the cloth/disposable diaper debate. IIRC that was finally declared a tossup.

We use dishrags too, and it keeps our kid from wasting paper towels. They're a tiny fraction of the wash (one dishrag per week) and they hang on a drying rack. I can't even remember our last paper towel purchase, but it wasn't 2007 or 2008.

Next in this debate we're supposed to get concerned about all the bacteria growing in our sponges & dishrags. Remember the commercial showing the woman wiping down her kitchen with a nice moist freshly-skinned chicken leg?

Besides, what if all those paper towels end up in a landfill?!?

 

[calmloki]

Using rags or cloths instead of paper towels sounds appealing, but are you sure that the cost of washing and drying those things isn't higher than the cost of the paper towels.

No, i'm not sure, but we have a kitchen cloth out for a few days, depending on what gets wiped - last night an egg escaped the counter and met the tile floor. The cats couldn't be bothered, so there was plenty to pick up. After a rinse it went in the hamper. Really don't think that a half dozen face cloths adds much volume to a load of whites, and if i'm doing the load anyway....
I tend to use the cloth dry mostly for coffee spills and water spots, and if i use it wet it typically goes in the hamper. My honey, OTOH, uses it wet and then doesn't wring it out and air dry it fast enough - which can cause the cloth to smell bad. I'm forever tossing out new cloths on the counter and spiriting away the soggy ones.

 

[ziggy29]

Reminds me of the cloth/disposable diaper debate. IIRC that was finally declared a tossup.

...

Besides, what if all those paper towels end up in a landfill?!?

I think in the general case it depends on multiple factors. For example, if you have solar arrays on your house which generate much of your own "green" power and you have abundant water supplies in your area, washing and reusing is likely "greener" and perhaps cheaper, too.

But if you have tight water supplies and you are using "dirty" power such as that generated from traditional coal-burning plants, then there might not be an such edge to reusables.

 

[Khan]

Using rags or cloths instead of paper towels sounds appealing, but are you sure that the cost of washing and drying those things isn't higher than the cost of the paper towels.

How many cloths are you talking about? I don't see how 3 or 4 washcloths a week is adding to the number of laundry loads.

 

[haha]

This would have been OK with me, but DW would not have come along. "See you later sweety..."

The real problem with this walk is what could happen to you right about Charleston Street. The middle part of Las Vegas Bvld (north of Circus) is definitley not Beverly Hills.

Ha