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Old 07-12-2009, 08:36 AM   #21
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Maybe we should start a thread on what each of us specifically consider frugal vs tight. Has it been done (recently)?
The was a Boglehead thread (sort of) about this:
Bogleheads :: View topic - That Frugal Thing You Do
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Old 07-12-2009, 09:42 AM   #22
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I can relate to the part below. Our TV does a flickery thing occasionally, and when it does, I'm hoping it will fail completely. This has been going on for about eight years.


Poster "mwz_2410" yearns for a flat-screen TV, for example, and briefly rejoiced when the sound went out on a 27-inch monolith purchased a decade ago.

"I was thinking to myself, 'Woo hoo! I can get a new TV and not feel guilty,'" mwz_2410 wrote, "but then my BF (boyfriend) came up to visit me, smacked the TV on its side and it worked again . . . still have that stinking TV."
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Old 07-12-2009, 12:01 PM   #23
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My mother liked to say "careful." She felt "cheap" and "tight" were insults, and "frugality" was the result of desperate financial need and was to be avoided. Frugality involved things which she knew something about, from her Depression youth, like eating kinds of food that you hate, because they are cheap to buy and will sustain life. Or maybe wearing hand-me-down shoes that don't fit, and hurt your feet.

"Careful" implied buying only after you have thought carefully about your needs and how much you can afford.
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Old 07-12-2009, 12:08 PM   #24
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Originally Posted by Amethyst View Post
My mother liked to say "careful." She felt "cheap" and "tight" were insults, and "frugality" was the result of desperate financial need and was to be avoided.
Some Texas oldtimers I knew-(past tense because most of them are dead) used the term "short". It took me a while to figure out what they meant, as they would refer to some 6 foot guy as short. It meant what many of us mean by "tight"someone who is happy to let you pick up the tab, but somehow never reciprocates. Clearly the only people who fit this desription were in-laws or family members, as everyone else had been banished.

Hey Texans, is this term still used?

Ha
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Old 07-12-2009, 12:14 PM   #25
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Our Krups coffemaker is just about right for us - no clock, no doodads, stainless pot (i have a penchant for breaking glass pots as i rinse them, swirling out the water in a cast iron sink). A couple years ago the plastic handle broke at the upper connection point. Priced a new carafe ($38+), looked for a replacement coffeemaker that was the equal of the Krups, and repaired the handle. My repair failed a couple months ago and we went through the same exercise with the same result - another invisible repair. Is that frugal or tight?

Last night we were watching an ad for answers via cellphone - "is there a stupider mascot than the Ardvark?" - at $0.99 per answer! Neither of us would think of using that service - or paying for ringtones or horrorscopes delivered to our cellphones. It's only $0.99!

When leaping up and down in the apartment dumpsters to compact the trash and keep it looking good i often remove towels & clothes & launder and reuse - if nothing else as cleaning rags. Bulky broken wood furniture gets cut up and burned in our stove. Increases the room in the dumpster, makes the dumpster area look better, and heats our home.
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Old 07-12-2009, 12:22 PM   #26
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I like Nords definitions of frugal and extreme frugality. To add some more variations, I think of cheap as not being thoughtful where frugality is thoughtful. For example, do the colonscopy at 50 to save yourself cancer is frugal vs. don't do the colonscopy because a future insurance company might find out about the test or because your share of the payment might be $200 is short sighted.

I think of stingy as related to lack of generosity and the stingy person might even go so far as to take some advantage of others to satisfy his cheapness. Stingy people leave small tips or no tips.
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Old 07-12-2009, 12:23 PM   #27
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Hey Texans, is this term still used?
I've never heard it.
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Old 07-12-2009, 12:27 PM   #28
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Hey Texans, is this term still used?Ha
I know this term very well. I grew up in MO, but have sweltered in TX for the past 15 years.
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Old 07-12-2009, 12:31 PM   #29
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Originally Posted by haha View Post
Some Texas oldtimers I knew-(past tense because most of them are dead) used the term "short". It took me a while to figure out what they meant, as they would refer to some 6 foot guy as short. It meant what many of us mean by "tight"someone who is happy to let you pick up the tab, but somehow never reciprocates. Clearly the only people who fit this desription were in-laws or family members, as everyone else had been banished.

Hey Texans, is this term still used?

Ha
I am a native Texan and have never heard the term, so I am thinking that it is a west Texas saying.
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Old 07-12-2009, 01:12 PM   #30
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I am a native Texan and have never heard the term, so I am thinking that it is a west Texas saying.
Maybe? I have not heard that expression before. My Depression-era parents didn't use "cheap", "tight", or "short"... they said such a person was smart with their money.
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Old 07-12-2009, 01:32 PM   #31
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Calmloki, to me these are all mindful/careful/practical measures. (Translation: I'd do the same in your shoes )

Note: If one is able to make sound repairs to an item he enjoys using, that is a fine, practical talent and is part of being careful. If it's only possible to make shaky, unreliable repairs (e.g. if the coffeepot handle is wobbly after being "fixed"), then throw out the broken item and buy a new one already...one is now being cheap.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by calmloki View Post
Our Krups coffemaker is just about right for us - no clock, no doodads, stainless pot (i have a penchant for breaking glass pots as i rinse them, swirling out the water in a cast iron sink). A couple years ago the plastic handle broke at the upper connection point. Priced a new carafe ($38+), looked for a replacement coffeemaker that was the equal of the Krups, and repaired the handle. My repair failed a couple months ago and we went through the same exercise with the same result - another invisible repair. Is that frugal or tight?

Last night we were watching an ad for answers via cellphone - "is there a stupider mascot than the Ardvark?" - at $0.99 per answer! Neither of us would think of using that service - or paying for ringtones or horrorscopes delivered to our cellphones. It's only $0.99!

When leaping up and down in the apartment dumpsters to compact the trash and keep it looking good i often remove towels & clothes & launder and reuse - if nothing else as cleaning rags. Bulky broken wood furniture gets cut up and burned in our stove. Increases the room in the dumpster, makes the dumpster area look better, and heats our home.
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Old 07-12-2009, 02:06 PM   #32
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"Frugal" is when you're saving money so that you can spend it on something you want more. The "something" for a lot of people on this board could be financial independence that allows you to retire.

"Tight" is when you're saving money so it can pile up, and you can count it, but you will never enjoy it.
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Old 07-12-2009, 04:42 PM   #33
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for family who have youngins, do you guys enroll your kids to sports and pay 1200 hefty fees.
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Old 07-12-2009, 05:57 PM   #34
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'Frugal' only affects me.
'Tight' would be affecting other people.

This past winter I had to force myself to turn on lights and radio to get out of SAD.
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Old 07-12-2009, 06:00 PM   #35
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for family who have youngins, do you guys enroll your kids to sports and pay 1200 hefty fees.
Consider that my son is 22 years old now, but I don't remember paying $1200 fees for any sport (if that's what you're asking; not quite sure). He always played baseball (from t-ball up), had swim lessons, and basketball, and there were fees involved but the cost of none of these was prohibitive. In fact, I figured it was cheaper to keep him involved in sports than some other activities he could have been involved with.
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Old 07-12-2009, 07:37 PM   #36
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for family who have youngins, do you guys enroll your kids to sports and pay 1200 hefty fees.
Our taekwondo dojang just raised its monthly fee to that level, so I guess we're in that category now.

When she was aged 3-13 everything was through the YMCA or a community league-- relatively cheap. Dressage lessons weren't expensive but holy crap the gear and the show fees were larcenous. She's been doing taekwondo for five years now so we've been spending on the family/annual plans at a bit less than $100/month.

I think it was all worth every penny. She got to try a lot of different activities, develop some basic skills, and decide what she wanted to focus on. When the alternatives would have been hanging out on the street or at the mall, the sports fees have been downright cheap.
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Old 07-12-2009, 07:45 PM   #37
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Nords, I think steve88 meant $1,200 per season (soccer, baseball and such) not per year.

(If that's your family rate, that is pretty good - but then I'm a New Yorker )

ta,
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Old 07-12-2009, 08:39 PM   #38
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(If that's your family rate, that is pretty good - but then I'm a New Yorker )
Each of us is paying $920/year for all the taekwondo we can handle.

Tournaments run about $50-$75 once or twice a year, doboks about $75 (every 2-3 years since she's finally stopped growing), maybe another $50 of pads every year or two, and $250 each if we take our 2nd dan belt tests next spring...
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Old 07-13-2009, 12:58 PM   #39
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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...
sooo you are saying that being frugal is dependant on your own thoughts, preferances, and desires but being tight is decided by what other people think about how you should spend your money. given those definitions a person could be both at the same time. sounds like, by your definition, to not be tight a person would need to play the "keeping up with the jones' game" and therefore that definition of tight would probably make every LBYM person tight because someone would think they should spend more on something.
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Old 07-13-2009, 01:03 PM   #40
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'Frugal' only affects me.
'Tight' would be affecting other people.

This past winter I had to force myself to turn on lights and radio to get out of SAD.
If you are sitting in the dark, in silence, not because you want to or can't afford not to, then that would be across the line, IMHO.
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