BigMoneyJim said:
Eating around the glass shards in a dropped jar of peanut butter is too frugal.
Man, that peanut butter post was a spine-chilling classic. I don't know which scared me more-- conceiving the idea, spending all that time heating/straining the peanut butter to "remove" the glass, or sending a blissfully-ignorant spouse to work carrying a peanut-butter sandwich. We should probably copy it from their board and add it to this "Best of the Boards" as a shining example of how not to ER.
setab said:
Any chance we are being a little like the farmer? To turn the stock question here on its ear, "How little is too little?"
Here's some ways to tell if you're being too frugal:
- If you're reading
Amy Dacyczyn's books and thinking to yourself "What a wimp!".
- If you're spending more gas & time shopping for bargains than you're saving on them.
- If it costs more to grow/harvest/prepare/serve the food than you could spend at the grocery store (or maybe you're possibly being too foodie).
- If you're suffering from vitamin, diet, hygiene, or sanitation deficiencies.
- If you're deferring medical care or physical rehab.
- If your entire house is warmer than 90 degrees in summer or colder than 65 degrees in winter. (Average human skin temperature is about 77 degrees.)
- If you hate what you're eating but you got a really really good deal on it.
- When the difference between completing the deal and walking away from it is less than 1%. Maybe when it's less than 5%.
- If you're not having kids or pets solely because they're too expensive.
- Re-using dental floss for
any reason.
- When a fraction of a used dryer sheet becomes
toilet paper (and you're holding a pair of scissors while thinking to yourself, "Yeah, but that part of it over there is still clean...")
- If you feel deprived instead of freed, then you're definitely being too frugal.
On the other side of the spectrum, here's signs that you could be more frugal. I'm not saying that they're mandates, but opportunity is knocking on the door.
- Paying monthly interest on a credit-card balance
- Feeling a sense of "That's it? That's all there is?!?" when you haul your wallet out.
- Feeling the same sense after the experience you just paid for.
- Spending more than 40% of your take-home pay on non-discretionary purchases (food, shelter, transportation).
- Saving less than 10% of your take-home pay.
- Eating out more than a couple times a week (and I'm including breakfasts, lunches, & snacks in this category).
- Disposing of possessions when they have more than half of their life left, especially if the disposal is because they're "out of style". This is especially true if the possessions are pets or other family members. In-laws are borderline.
- Not being able to recall where the money went.
- Spending more than $5/day on the same experience-- coffee, snacks, cigarettes, booze. I'm still trying to decide if sex fits in this category but I think I need to do more research.
- Not knowing how to complete a transaction at eBay, FreeCycle, or Craigslist. (No, not that part of Craigslist, we're done talking about sex now.)