When are you too frugal? When it affects others. My wife's older sister and her husband are legends in the family with their frugal spending, and no one would mind if they didn't impose it on others.
They are very well off. He is a senior civil servant in the UK, with an official briefcase carrying the letters OHMS. (Although he tells us that it stands for "Only Holds My Sandwiches"
).
I could write pages of stories about them but will restrict myself to describing what visits to their house is like. Although their last name is Campbell and they live in Edinburgh, they are English, but behave very much in the stereotypical Scot's manner of frugality. (It is said in Scotland that when a census is taken, they just go to each street in a town, roll a coin down the middle and count the people as they come out of their houses
)
Even in the height of summer the outside temperature rarely climbs into the 70's (and never when we are there
). They keep the thermostat on the heating at 62 on those occaisions when they do actually turn it on. The hot water is only turned on when it is needed and is at a temperature just hot enough for a shower. Being early risers the morning routine is for one of us to get out of bed and run downstairs to turn on the hot water then scurry back up and under the bedclothes (wouldn't dare turn on the central heating that early in the morning which is on a timer). After 30 minutes we'll go to the bathroom. I'll shave while still wearing PJ's, socks and sometimes a sweater if it's really cold. The shower is warm enough, but getting dried and clothed before hyperthermia sets in is always a challenge
.
If it is dry outside then walking is a good way to warm up because it is very hilly and picturesque. When we were there in April this year for a wedding it was foggy and snowing, and also staying with us was his mother, a wonderful lady who we love dearly. Although she gives them a hard time they only make some concessions such as putting the heating on for the WHOLE day
(but the thermostat stays at 62). She even brings her own teabags and offers them around instead of the floorsweepings they use.
Each to his own I suppose.