Frugal or tight: Where's the line?

[Khan]

Frugal or tight: Where's the line? - MSN Money

[W2R]

Quote:

First, let's settle on definitions. What might seem perfectly normal to one "frugalite" (washing sandwich bags, say, or Dumpster diving) might seem beyond the pale to another.

Washing sandwich bags is in the same category as dumpster diving? OK...

[bbbamI]

To me frugal is when you use a sandwich bag twice. Tight is when you staple the used bag because the seams have torn.

[tarheeljim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbbamI To me frugal is when you use a sandwich bag twice. Tight is when you staple the used bag because the seams have torn.

...sandwich bags!?! Anybody remember wax paper or plastic wrap? Guess that's too old school...

[Midpack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbbamI To me frugal is when you use a sandwich bag twice. Tight is when you staple the used bag because the seams have torn.

What if you use Tupperware instead of plastic bags? A box of sandwich bags will last us for years, we use them very rarely.

[WhoDaresWins]

Ditto on the Tupperware or Rubbermaid containers. I just wash them out and reuse them. I will reuse bags if I have just stored bread or something like that in them. Otherwise I toss them due to squeamishness about something bacterial lurking.

[freebird5825]

I say I'm frugal.
dh2b says I'm tight.*

I will repair things that really should be thrown away with my infamous tube of Marine Goop. I will repair something once or twice. When it fails again, out it goes.
I save all sorts of plastic containers for re-use in the garage. I re-use them regularly to avoid clutter and then recycle them.
"Use your plastic twice" is a favorite motto.
I use half a paper napkin at the table and half a tissue for wiping my eyes after eyedrops. He gets the other half.
I buy only items on sale inless it is a food item I need now, like milk or eggs.

* watch it, peanut gallery members at large

[bbbamI]

Sandwich bags be gettin' a bad rep!

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbbamI Sandwich bags be gettin' a bad rep!

Back when I was brown baggin my lunch, I was partial to these...

[bbbamI]

So that's how penicillin was discovered.....

[REWahoo]

That's what you want the lunch thieves to think....

[Kroeran]

the DW and I order one meal in restaurants and split the food.

[Moemg]

My most frugal (okay cheap ) thing is I will not join Sam's club . I search for a one day pass and then I load up on all the Sam's club items I like . I do this a few times a year .

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Want2retire Washing sandwich bags is in the same category as dumpster diving? OK...

Hey, let's not impugn our dedicated dumpster divers. I resemble that remark.

I don't make the time to live completely freegan. But it's a nice skill to know if I need it.

I think frugality is just simple living-- a lifestyle that avoids waste. Extraordinary frugality, however, can be deprivation. Everyone understands how to avoid waste, but everyone also has a standard of living they're not willing to give up to achieve that level of avoiding waste. ER benefits from frugality, but it doesn't require extreme frugality. Except possibly for this guy.

Everyone has a line between frugality & deprivation that they choose not to cross. The difference is that frugality feels good and makes you enthusiastic about reaching your goals. It's a challenge, and when you're doing well then you feel like a winner. You might not even miss the materialistic lifestyle that you're doing without. Deprivation is always doing without for a higher priority, willingly or not. Frugality matches your values and usually frees up quite a bit of savings. You're living a life that you enjoy and you're making progress toward your goals-- it's easy to feel good about it. Deprivation, however, rarely matches your values and feels more like slavery than volunteering. You may be making great progress but it's definitely not easy and you will not feel good about it. Prolonged deprivation is extremely difficult to voluntarily sustain and it usually leads to unhappiness...

[Midpack]

Maybe we should start a thread on what each of us specifically consider frugal vs tight. Has it been done (recently)?

[WhoDaresWins]

As for dumpster diving, many years ago, when I was newly married and living in a roach infested studio apartment in NYC, my husband and I used to take walks on the evenings the trash went out on the sidewalks for collection the next day. We picked up some nice things: clothes hangers, a suitcase, a kitchen table, a floor lamp, working manual typewriter. I think I am frugal but not cheap. I try to get the most bang for my buck but I also give a lot of things to friends and donate to the thrift stores. I gave the newly married daughter of a friend an oriental rug, some chairs and a lot of kitchen stuff that I no longer have room for since I have downsized into a smaller house. It is great to see those things in her home where she is making use of them. I hate to see waste in anything and feel good about things being used.

[WhoDaresWins]

Oh, and REWahoo, I LOVED your sandwich bags. Had a chuckle over them. Your sandwich would have been summarily pitched from our office kitchen fridge, name or no name on the item. Unless we knew about your penchant for bag artistry of course.

[hankster]

Frugal...Buying inexpensive toilet paper

Cheap...Recycling your toilet paper

[ziggy29]

When you decide something isn't worth spending money on, you're frugal. When you don't spend money other people wish you'd spend, you're tight...

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 When you decide something isn't worth spending money on, you're frugal. When you don't spend money other people wish you'd spend, you're tight...

Ding ding ding!! We have a winnah...