Ridiculed for being cheap??

[TromboneAl]

When we moved I couldn't wait to get the West Virginia tags on it and send a photo to relatives, one in particular, because it looked like the stereotypical WV pickup truck.

We want to see it. Can you post this picture?

 

[NW-Bound]

New buyer included in picture?

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Ah but grasshopper - there is a God - just that it is not us.

i've never lived my life so arrogantly as to presume. i suspect you got my drift (and are just playing) but just in case (someone else missed it): my reference was metaphoric, not a judgement call.

my point being that we not only take responsibility for our purchases, as barbarus correctly insists, but also that we own up to what system we have bought into, which seemed absent from the rant. if you do not enjoy the beast gnawing at your ankles, perhaps you should be less concerned with the teeth and more concerned with the beast for it has claws as well.

that i listened to the claims of market pundits when i knew this system was all smoke & mirrors, that i put faith in a computerized version of monte carlo when i have never entered on my own a casino and that i believed in the cult of early retirement when i was raised by a family of such strong work ethic is no license for me to declare holy war if i finally conclude this type of life is not for me. how much more hypocritical (or at least what might be viewed by the true believers as inconsiderate) of me should i continue down this path, kicking stones along the way.

 

[calmloki]

Mother often wrapped presents in the Sunday comics.

Yup, mine too! Me as well for the right person and the right gift. Also like using appropriate magazine articles or pictures for the right gift - typically with a double meaning to mislead from the wrapped item.

Also a fan of boxing, wrapping in tin foil, wrapping in toilet paper, colored paper, re-boxing, more TP, taping with vigor, string, more tin foil,... ending up with a big package and a tiny gift - sometimes the best or most valuable, sometimes a weird dimestore trinket.

 

[tmm99]

catdance said

I too, went through my 30's buying this and that, throwing parties a lot, etc. Since I've been in my 40's though, I have totally gone frugal, and really just don't buy much of anything. and the partying days are long over. I hardly even buy clothes anymore and then only on clearance!

That sounds just like me, and my friends I've had since my 30's and 40's are the ones who make irritating comments. Maybe they just miss the old me. Too bad!

Your life sounds intriguing (chickens, goats, summer gardens...).

tmm

 

[ziggy29]

That sounds just like me, and my friends I've had since my 30's and 40's are the ones who make irritating comments. Maybe they just miss the old me. Too bad!

But in a few years, you can return the favor by making "irritating comments" back to them about how nice it was to be able to retire because you didn't have to keep working to pay for all that "stuff"...

 

[tmm99]

Originally Posted by Khan
Mother often wrapped presents in the Sunday comics.


I used to get xmas gifts (used items from a thrift shop or maybe from her own closet) wrapped in unused wallpaper from this frugal (well I call her cheap) person. That is going a little too far (used items), even though yes, the thought is what counts since she was willing to pay the postage to send me the gifts.

tmm

 

[CuppaJoe]

Mother often wrapped presents in the Sunday comics.

I was not coming up with examples of others ridiculing me for cheapness until your post reminded me that I always save wrapping paper because I think it still has value; horrifying for me to see others rip open boxes and put the wrappings along with the beautiful bows straight into a large handy garbage bag.

The biggest fights with SO are about wasting food, I can't stand to see that.

 

[tmm99]

It doesn't bother me at all that people are cheap or frugal about their own business. I just don't appreciate friends who go on the "cheap" with their friends.

Interestingly, my friend I mentioned on my first post is a little bit like that.

tmm

 

[NW-Bound]

In case any of you wondered what's a guy doing with 4 PCs as I described in an ealier post ...

I have 1 main desktop, 1 laptop, and 2 more desktops just for work done at home. For speed, the latter 2 have no antivirus software, and no superflous stuff. They are isolated from the Internet.

I upgrade my PCs over the years, and rarely throw things out. Living 1 mile from a Fry's Electronics, I knew of the best things they have on sales, be it CPU, RAM, motherboards, hard drive, monitors, etc... I often go there just to look around for recreation.

So, by keeping the cases, power supplies and keyboards, and just slowly adding whatever Fry's Electronics offers as the "loss leader" of the week, I've got an array of 7 PCs, including the 3 for DW, DD, and DS. I actually have parts for 4 or 5 more, but these are bit slow.

Come to think of it, being so close to Fry's Elect. (1mi), Costco (2mi), Trader Joe (4mi), HomeDepot (2mi), Lowe's (5mi), Sprouts (8mi), and the local public library branch (5mi), I've got all that a retiring geek needs for physical and mental nourishments within reach. Heck, what kind of money would I save buying a Prius? Why did I contemplate it? Was it just my desire for another geeky toy? I'll just drive my existing cars to the ground. They may even last the rest of my life.

 

[Moemg]

Mother often wrapped presents in the Sunday comics.

Me too , I am not cheap but it galls me to pay tons of money on wrapping paper and bows . I definitely recycle gift bags and some bows .

 

[ChrisC]

Me too , I am not cheap but it galls me to pay tons of money on wrapping paper and bows . I definitely recycle gift bags and some bows .

Oh well, never mind.

 

[freebird5825]

Any Fortran programmer among us who remembers the mistake of printing a 1 in the first column of a line? It usually happened when you printed a table of numerical answers, and the leading digit of the first column happened to be a 1, and you forgot to always put a leading space in any line.

For you non-Fortran programmers, that leading 1 of a line is a form feed control. You can slew an entire box of wide fanfold paper in seconds from a highspeed printer, until the page limit of the job is reached. Oh boy, that made the frugal bastard in me felt sooo bad....

been there, done that...thanks for the memory jog!
ever play ring toss with the 9 track mag tape write protect rings?

 

[freebird5825]

Mother often wrapped presents in the Sunday comics.

confession time...i'm a treehugger
i save the white paper that is used to cushion computer parts shipped in large boxes. it is folded, but it is not wrinkled. i smooth it out, roll it onto an existing cardboard roll, and it straightens itself out after a few weeks. when using it later for wrapping paper, i wrap the present and use fun stickers like ladybugs or hearts all over the white paper. if i'm really ambitious, i pull out the stamp pad and decorate the paper with stamps. i picked up some seasonal stamps for 0.25 each at a craft store GOOB.

 

[NW-Bound]

No, did not play ring toss. But when I left school, I still had 3/4 box of unused punch cards. I threw it out some years later, not finding any use for it, frugal as I always was.

About Fortran on punch cards, I used to keep punch cards with generic statements like "DO 1000 I=1,N", or "1000 CONTINUE" to recycle from one program to the next.

Cut-and-paste editing by shuffling punch cards.

Hey, didn't I say I never throw anything away? Still have my first PC, a "turbo" x88 Mitsubishi, running at 7.17 MHz, a speed demon compared to the lowly IBM at 4.77 MHz.

Cost me $1750 in 1985 dollars, and that was before I added a 20MB hard drive, and another 256K RAM to bring it up to a walloping 512K RAM.

A 20MB HD can now store one or two high-res pictures from my camera!

And I still have it out in the garage. Sentimental value, you know?

 

[RonBoyd]

Does being frugal somehow offend people?

Well, of course. That's the Judaic/Christian/Islamic way -- "Us and Them"

 

[Milkman]

I think it is interesting that when I was younger, people called me "cheap."

Now that I am older and getting closer to retirement, I am told how "lucky" I am. In one sense I am lucky, having lived in the greatest country on God's Green Earth, but on the other hand, saving and investing 30% of my gross income isn't luck.

I guess people need to find something to ridicule or find fault with.

Milkman

 

[Khan]

Me too , I am not cheap but it galls me to pay tons of money on wrapping paper and bows . I definitely recycle gift bags and some bows .

Mother always saved wrapping paper and bows, I assumed everybody did.

'Normal' is whatever you grew up doing.

 

[Khan]

been there, done that...thanks for the memory jog!
ever play ring toss with the 9 track mag tape write protect rings?

7 track too; we are talking geezer here.

 

[Khan]

No, did not play ring toss. But when I left school, I still had 3/4 box of unused punch cards. I threw it out some years later, not finding any use for it, frugal as I always was.

About Fortran on punch cards, I used to keep punch cards with generic statements like "DO 1000 I=1,N", or "1000 CONTINUE" to recycle from one program to the next.

Cut-and-paste editing by shuffling punch cards.

Hey, didn't I say I never throw anything away? Still have my first PC, a "turbo" x88 Mitsubishi, running at 7.17 MHz, a speed demon compared to the lowly IBM at 4.77 MHz.

Cost me $1750 in 1985 dollars, and that was before I added a 20MB hard drive, and another 256K RAM to bring it up to a walloping 512K RAM.

A 20MB HD can now store one or two high-res pictures from my camera!

And I still have it out in the garage. Sentimental value, you know?

As a short person, I found a duct-taped computer card box (filled with old cards) was the perfect sized footrest.

 

[unclemick]

When wind blew right growing up - my Dad used to call that wonderful smell of pulp and sulphite - job security.

Years later I was walking in one summer day in a Boeing parking lot with Stan(Newton, Iowa boy) when the smell from the nearby RR stock yard almost gagged me - Stan took a deep breath with a smile -'Money.'

I'm fairly frivolous with paper - but I do reuse bags and bows.

heh heh heh -

 

[DallasGuy]

Any Fortran programmer among us who remembers the mistake of printing a 1 in the first column of a line? It usually happened when you printed a table of numerical answers, and the leading digit of the first column happened to be a 1, and you forgot to always put a leading space in any line.

For you non-Fortran programmers, that leading 1 of a line is a form feed control. You can slew an entire box of wide fanfold paper in seconds from a highspeed printer, until the page limit of the job is reached. Oh boy, that made the frugal bastard in me felt sooo bad....

Also, very embarrassing when your manager asks you why they just delivered 4 boxes of a report to you when it would have probably fit on 100 pages typed double spaced....

 

[GoodSense]

A friend and I were talking about going on a short vacation together. She tends to spend a lot of money. I am not terribly frugal myself (esp. compared with people on this forum), but certainly more frugal than the average person. My friend made a comment about us "not going too cheap." I have a feeling that this will be a very interesting trip if we end up going together.

I don't mind, and am actually kind of proud if people comment that I am frugal. The people who ridicule frugality will reap what they sow.

 

[FurBall]

As a short person, I found a duct-taped computer card box (filled with old cards) was the perfect sized footrest.

I use last year's phone books now as a footrest. Duct taped to keep it closed.

 

[Khan]

I use last year's phone books now as a footrest. Duct taped to keep it closed.

Right now I am using an old decrepit briefcase (that I got for free ~20 years ago because I ran the office coffee club).