Are you frugal or a cheap b@$t@rd?

[CompoundInterestFan]

CB: Asking your friend for a ride to the airport ... when your flight leaves at 6:30am.

 

[BigBob]

Frugal
- Mowing your own lawn
- Doing some of your auto maintenance (with all of the information available online)
- Fixing/maintaining your household appliances as much as possible (again, info online)
CB
- Dumpster diving when you have plenty of $$. (expired food, nonetheless)
- Hiding your kids under blankets in the car so you don't have to pay for them (was one of those kids).

 

[Coach]

Uh, sorry but that is ultra-CB! You don't want the gift? It's cluttering up your space? Toss it! Don't pass it along to another with the intention that it become clutter/junk to them.

I think you're made a bad assumption, youbet. A gift that may not suit me might be great for somebody else. Re-gifting seems better than tossing it (or even giving it to Goodwill) and getting something else.

Re-gifting just to get rid of stuff is CB, but I don't do that.

Coach

 

[Andre1969]

6. Buying whatever beer/wine/pop is on sale not because you like it, but because it's cheap (don't try to lie to yourself on this one)

I'll admit that I do this one to a degree. For instance, I'll buy the cheapest beer that I can still enjoy, rather than an expensive beer. Now I won't go so far as to buy some nasty swill that I have to concentrate to keep from spitting back up, but I guess my tastebuds just aren't that sophisticated.

Sometimes I'll do it with soda, too. Usually I'll just buy whatever's on sale that week; the Pepsi products or the Coke products. But often when it comes to stuff like orange soda, root beer, lemonaide, etc, I can't taste the difference with the no-name stuff.

Oh, as for re-gifting, I guess if I had a gift that someone gave me that I couldn't use, and I knew someone else would have a use for it, I'd give it to them. For instance, this past Christmas, my Mom gave me a bathrobe. I never use bathrobes in the first place, but to top it off, it was this pale blue/lavender color, like what you used to be able to get on Plymouth/Dodge Neons back in the 90's. I would've just donated it or something, but instead I gave it to one of my roommates.

Maybe that's not really "re-gifting", though. He knew where it came from. I guess it would've been different if I had put it away somewhere and later on wrapped it up and given it to him as a gift the following Christmas!

 

[Eyerishgold]

I'm not sure where this falls but on the rare occasions where my wife and I go to a fast food restaurant one of us orders a "value meal" complete with fries and a drink and the other just orders a sandwich and we split the fries and the drink.

Frugal or CB?

 

[Fireup2020]

Frugal Eyerishgold

 

[Cbear1883]

I'm not sure where this falls but on the rare occasions where my wife and I go to a fast food restaurant one of us orders a "value meal" complete with fries and a drink and the other just orders a sandwich and we split the fries and the drink.

Frugal or CB?

Ok, considering the size of the average "value meal" I'd just call that smart. Noone needs a gallon of soda and a half pound of fries for themselves!

 

[happy2bretired]

CB = eating only marked down grocery store finds

Frugal = eating healthy food, even at full price, to protect future health

 

[Texas Proud]

I'm not sure where this falls but on the rare occasions where my wife and I go to a fast food restaurant one of us orders a "value meal" complete with fries and a drink and the other just orders a sandwich and we split the fries and the drink.

Frugal or CB?

Do you supersize

 

[citrine]

I have started to make my lunch more and bringing it to work.
Instead of paying for the leave in conditioner.....I buy a huge bottle of conditioner and mix it with water.
I try to give something away before I buy anything else (furniture, clothes, books, etc.)
I definitely re-gift, especially if I know that the other person will appreciate it more than me.


Cheap Bastard:

I still use my school id to get in for the lower price.....I graduated 2 years ago!
I pack up the extra food from business meetings and take it for dinner and/or lunch for the next day.

 

[maddythebeagle]

Frugal = Packing a lunch...
CB = Stealing your co-workers lunch....

 

[Culture]

Uh, sorry but that is ultra-CB! You don't want the gift? It's cluttering up your space? Toss it! Don't pass it along to another with the intention that it become clutter/junk to them.

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree here. My brother and his wife received a set of henckel professional cutlery from his SIL (street value $350-$400). They already had a set and regifted it to us. I hardly think this was tacky.

 

[Texas Proud]

I have started to make my lunch more and bringing it to work.
Instead of paying for the leave in conditioner.....I buy a huge bottle of conditioner and mix it with water.
I try to give something away before I buy anything else (furniture, clothes, books, etc.)
I definitely re-gift, especially if I know that the other person will appreciate it more than me.


Cheap Bastard:

I still use my school id to get in for the lower price.....I graduated 2 years ago!
I pack up the extra food from business meetings and take it for dinner and/or lunch for the next day.

I would have to agree with you CB on company food.. unless you are the low paid clerk or someone else down there... we let all the admins have at anything that is left as we are paid well compared to them.

 

[citrine]

Well, on behalf of all the low paid admins.....a great big thanks!

 

[FinanceDude]

Frugal: Not having cable.........

Cheap bastard: Stealing cable from a neighbor by using a splitter...........

 

[semtex]

Talking about beer, I stick to Yuengling.

 

[Khan]

I do not give or receive gifts, so no worries about regifting.

 

[Martha]

My thoughts on regifting:

1. It is fine when you tell the recipient exactly what you are doing. I often would offer my sibs freebie stuff I would get from one place or another.

2. It feels tacky to wrap up a gift you got and give it to someone else as a holiday present. Though maybe it may be a gray area if the gift is just perfect for that person.


Kind of off the topic, but the whole holiday gift thing is just a big economic waste. So much money is spent on things that people don't want or don't need. People put themselves in difficult financial positions in order to comply with some unwritten rule regarding gifts. More than one Christmas present for each kid. Gifts to other relatives. Secret Santa at work. Decoration madness. Kid parties with gifts expected. Etc. Back when I used to see the bankruptcy filers many many had huge credit card bills resulting from gifts to relatives, mostly their children.

 

[CuppaJoe]

Re-gifting is rather tacky in my opinion, but it does depend on the situation and the original source of the gift.

Maybe re-gifting is frugal if you ask someone if they can use it and CB if you re-wrap it in a box from an expensive store. My boss asked if I knew someone who could use a paperweight he didn't like because it screamed the wrong kind of politics; I said I knew just the right person; it was me and I kept it even thou I also didn't like the sentiment but I really did like the client. Yeah, the source is everything.

 

[NotSoonEnough]

Kind of off the topic, but the whole holiday gift thing is just a big economic waste.

Thanks Martha, I could not agree more. Oh sure, it is one thing to get Christmas and B-day presents for kids, but when your 50-something siblings are still insisting on exchanging gifts it is just plain silly. All it really means is that we swap money twice a year, it is insane. I told them this year that if they were going to insist on getting me a gift that I wanted them to take me out to dinner at one of the local brewpubs...at least that would be fun. And wouldn't you know it, they got in an argument about how much each one owed when the bill came...ugh!

Sorry, I am ranting, and perhaps this makes me a CB...

 

[Khan]

My experience is that once you stop giving gifts, eventually you stop getting them. (It should be announced in advance.)

 

[Grizz]

I remember a couple of years ago, my wife and I went to an all you can eat pizza buffet with her aunt and uncle. After we were all done eating, her aunt went back up to the buffet, brought back at least 5 pieces of pizza, wrapped them in some napkins, and put them in her purse. Another time, we went skiing with them and had the breakfast buffet at the hotel. She said that she wasn't hungry so she only ordered water, but then proceeded to request her husband bring back specific pastries, some fruit, and an extra glass of orange juice. Ruined the meal for me. Not that it should matter but their combined incomes are about 115K and apart from the dining issues, nice folks. I could have said something, but that wasn't the cross I wanted to die on. For ANY of you out there who do stuff like this and think that it is alright...it isn't, you aren't impressing anyone, you are most assuredly a cheap bastard, and yes, people will be embarassed to be seen with you in public.

 

[W2R]

My experience is that once you stop giving gifts, eventually you stop getting them. (It should be announced in advance.)

That was my experience too, but it doesn't bother me.

I don't send gifts, either, though I send my twenty-nine year old daughter a check for her birthday and Christmas. She usually sends me something I would like (like last year, she sent me a calendar that she personally made using my favorites of her own digital photos, that I really love). But I do not get or send gifts to anybody else, any more.

I agree with Martha. The whole holiday gift thing has become so commercial and meaningless. I am not religious, and I do not decorate the house or buy a Christmas tree either (though I would, if I wanted one, and might some day; this is not about self-deprivation).

At Christmas time I usually buy myself something that I actually DO want and would have to buy anyway later on. That way I don't feel too forlorn despite Madison Avenue's attempts at manipulating the nation's holiday attitudes. Frank and I do not exchange gifts, but he usually takes me out at night to drive around and look at the Christmas lights. I like that.

Maybe my lack of "doing Christmas" makes me a cb, though I don't think so. I am able to focus more on what Christmas means to me - - love, joy, beauty, and the miracles of life, birth, and childhood come to mind. Selfless expressions of love and caring are a lot easier when money is not involved at all.

Frugal: Not having cable.........

Cheap bastard: Stealing cable from a neighbor by using a splitter...........

No no no! Here's how that goes:

Having "bare bones basic" cable: .......................Frugal.
Not having cable: ...........................................CB
Stealing cable from a neighbor by using a splitter: Future jailbird.

 

[bpp3]

Talking about beer, I stick to Yuengling.

Was introduced to that recently. Not bad for the price.

 

[FinanceDude]

Having "bare bones basic" cable: .......................Frugal.
Not having cable: ...........................................CB
Stealing cable from a neighbor by using a splitter: Future jailbird.

Darn, no cable,I must be a CB. Oh well, I just celebrated my 20-year hiatus from cable in May........ I kept my last cable bill, it was $19 a month for all the channels? I suppose today that would be $80 a month??