Silly Frugality?

[harllee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha When I read these dispiriting posts, I wonder if there is any purpose to amassing all this money?

What is dispiriting about taking home half of a too large meal from a restaurant to eat later? If I ate all the food I am served in restaurants in my area I would gain weight and my cholesterol would be through the roof. It is nice to save money by taking food home but I mainly do it for my health.

[W2R]

OK, this isn't that chicken pita but I browsed through my old photos and found this one, which shows my 1/2 of a grilled chicken sandwich that we split back in 2011. For me, this was more than enough for lunch and it was about the size we expected.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by harllee What is dispiriting about taking home half of a too large meal from a restaurant to eat later? If I ate all the food I am served in restaurants in my area I would gain weight and my cholesterol would be through the roof. It is nice to save money by taking food home but I mainly do it for my health.

We eat lunch out every day, and it is our largest meal of the day. If I ate an entire meal by myself each day, I would weight 600 lbs. As it is, I am too overweight and most of the time I try to combat that by choosing a small side salad for my lunch or else a cup of soup.

The 1/2 sandwich I showed in my last post cost $6 including tax and tip. So was that 1/2 chicken pita I mentioned in my post before that one. I could easily afford $12 for lunch, but the calories are the limiting factor, not cost. Really this is not due to frugality so much as health concerns. Guess I am guilty of thread drift, sorry!

[Idnar7]

A neighbor of mine told me her husband is so frugal he brings individually-packed slices of cheese to McDonalds to put on his hamburger to save the 10 cent or whatever upcharge.

[Music Lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Idnar7 A neighbor of mine told me her husband is so frugal he brings individually-packed slices of cheese to McDonalds to put on his hamburger to save the 10 cent or whatever upcharge.

I'm guilty of that...except I rarely go to McDonald's and won't do that in the restaraunt. The burger places I like usually charge 50¢ to $1 more for cheese. I get the burger to go and add a slice of cheese at home.

[kcowan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha When I read these dispiriting posts, I wonder if there is any purpose to amassing all this money?

I think it is that old habits die hard. But we do splurge on eating out and travel.

[Meadbh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha When I read these dispiriting posts, I wonder if there is any purpose to amassing all this money?

I’m relentlessly frugal in everyday life. But I love to spend it on high quality travel experiences and I give generous gifts for special occasions like weddings. My spending profile reflects what I value.

[athena53]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meadbh I’m relentlessly frugal in everyday life. But I love to spend it on high quality travel experiences and I give generous gifts for special occasions like weddings. My spending profile reflects what I value.

Totally agreed. The money I save by cutting out things I don't miss (the cable package, an unlimited-data phone plan, frequent smartphone upgrades) go to things that would raise others' eyebrows (blowing $50+ for a one-day pass to an airline club when I have a long layover). Each of us makes different trade-offs.

[Katsmeow]

It is interesting that this started out as a thread on silly frugality, but has mostly morphed into a thread of just regular frugal things that people do.

Now, I've mostly stayed out of it as I don't consider myself particularly frugal. To me, though, silly frugality is different from regular frugality. Something is "silly" if the amount of money it saves you is not worth your time (as you judge it) or if the frugality negatively impacts your quality of life.

I sit here with the thermostat in my office set at 78. I like to be warm. I recently visited my very frugal mom and had to beg her to put her thermostat up to 60. I was miserable the entire time I was in her house (yes, I had a jacket on and blankets on my legs). It is not worth it to me to set my thermostat down as it would negatively impact my quality of life. (As others have mentioned, I save on the flip side. I don't like cold AC in the summer).

As far as leftovers. Eating leftovers is fine. I am sure most people do it at times. There are two times when I think the frugality is silly. First, from a calorie standpoint. Sometimes I go out and eat a high calorie meal. I can afford to eat a normal size portion of that meal. But, if I bring home the leftovers then I end up spending more on the meal than I wanted to spend -- that is spend more calories which was just as important for me to watch as money.

The other times eating leftovers are silly is when you don't want to eat them. If I feel that I have to eat the chicken that I have leftover from a previous meal but I didn't actually like the meal then it is silly for me to eat it.

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katsmeow The other times eating leftovers are silly is when you don't want to eat them. If I feel that I have to eat the chicken that I have leftover from a previous meal but I didn't actually like the meal then it is silly for me to eat it.

We eat leftovers all the time....if we liked it today we'll like it tomorrow. If, however, we didn't like it today it wouldn't be leftovers tomorrow....it'd be garbage.

[Katsmeow]

Another issue that sometimes comes up is when I liked something for a particular meal but then I'm just not in the mood for it later on. Now, sometimes I will save it for a later meal. But, if it gets to a point of either eat what I am not in the mood for or throw it out...well, I will usually throw it out (sometimes it can be frozen which is fine but not always).

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meadbh I learnt how to make pizza. I can make two 15” pizzas, loaded, for about $10 Canadian.

We made pizza last week, and thanks to you guys we're going to make it again this week:



No meat, generally gives us four meals.

[kcowan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemo2 We made pizza last week, and thanks to you guys we're going to make it again this week No meat, generally gives us four meals.

PINO (pizza in name only)!

[Sunset]

Silly frugality:

I only rent redbox movies when they send me a code to save $1.25 , if I wastefully spent my money I'd probably rent 30 movies without a code which would cost me $37.50 per year extra. Sometimes I wait a week so I can save the $1.25.

I was also thinking of canceling our netflix when we go spend a month in Europe this year, that way I can save $10.99 and maybe get a free month when I re-sign up upon return. Of course I'll have to spend 30 minutes adding back in all the selected shows we have right now. It would subsidize our trip expenses by about 1/1,000th

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha When I read these dispiriting posts, I wonder if there is any purpose to amassing all this money?

I spend on what I want, and am generally cheap/frugal so unless I really want something I won't spend.

The silliest example was my Mother, who would put back on the butter dish, butter she had not used, which would be about 1/2 a teaspoon worth.
This was born of living through the depression, and WWII with ration cards.
What made it silly to me, is she would do this, and then pay $$$ to some fellow to do menial work I could do for her. The amount she paid him was equal to 30 lbs of butter per hour, which negated years of saving butter.

[Koogie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset The silliest example was my Mother, who would put back on the butter dish, butter she had not used, which would be about 1/2 a teaspoon worth.

ahem...

does doing that with margarine count..

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcowan PINO (pizza in name only)!

Overall it fits the definition I believe.....although I neglected to say that we do put cheese on it, (mozzarella, feta, and blue)....just no processed 'meat products'.

[ohyes]

About a year ago, i started saving the perfume catalog inserts in our newspaper - usually found before Christmas, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. Almost always, they are from Dillards department store.

I peel back the adhesive and rub the perfumed strip on wrists, etc. as I would if I actually were using a bottle of perfume. Each insert has about twenty fragrances. I try to do this in secret because DH makes fun of me for it.

You are the only folks, besides DH, who know this about me.

[Amethyst]

There is nothing remotely silly about this, especially if you get 20 different fragrances. The strips I get, have one or two scents apiece and I use each one once. Also, I use them as the advertiser intended...to decide if I actually want to buy the perfume. Although I love perfume, I rarely buy a bottle because there are so few places to wear it, other than at home. People seem to be very "anti-fragrance" these days.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ohyes I peel back the adhesive and rub the perfumed strip on wrists, etc. as I would if I actually were using a bottle of perfume. Each insert has about twenty fragrances. e.

[athena53]

I use perfume inserts, too! They tend to be more subtle than the liquids in the bottles.