Silly Frugality?

[kcowan]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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.

 

[USGrant1962]

I see it as avoiding unnecessary brake wear. Same with looking ahead and planning turns on curvy roads, so you are not that guy/gal who rides their brakes around every turn.

When I'm following them I think "They are turning perfectly good gasoline into brake dust and heat! Global warming! Oh, the humanity!"

 

[NW-Bound]

When I'm following them I think "They are turning perfectly good gasoline into brake dust and heat! Global warming! Oh, the humanity!"

Well, they think that there's more where that came from.

 

[Milton]

I rarely fly business class; and unless I have a lot of bags, I will usually take public transit rather than taxis. While I could certainly afford the more expensive options, but I that there are better things to spend the money on.

I really don't know if these choices mean I am 'silly frugal' or not.

 

[FIREmenow]

I rarely fly business class; and unless I have a lot of bags, I will usually take public transit rather than taxis. While I could certainly afford the more expensive options, but I that there are better things to spend the money on.

I really don't know if these choices mean I am 'silly frugal' or not.

Frugal, just not "silly".
Nothing wrong with frugal.

 

[scrabbler1]

I rarely fly business class; and unless I have a lot of bags, I will usually take public transit rather than taxis. While I could certainly afford the more expensive options, but I that there are better things to spend the money on.

I really don't know if these choices mean I am 'silly frugal' or not.

I don't think this makes you silly frugal. When you often save enough money with the less expensive options, you don't sweat it when you need to use a more expensive option once in a while.

Back in 2014, when I went by train with my ladyfriend from NY to Louisville, Kentucky, to visit her family, the train went to Indianapolis on its way to Chicago. There is a bus connection to get from Indy to Louisville but we would have to wait about 9 hours in Indy for the ~$12 bus ride. I wanted no part of that overly long layover, so I rented a car and drove us there. [We knew this in advance and I had made the rental car arrangements before we left NY.] The car rental plus gas cost me about $130 but it was money well spent, and the drive was just under 2 hours and pretty easy on I-65.

 

[RobbieB]

It would make me silly frugal. I hate airplane rides. I'm 6-2 and my knees are on the seat back in front of me.

First class from now on. Turns something I hated into a mere meh.

Don't need to save dough, don't travel much.

 

[joeea]

Agree. I find restaurant portions to be disappointingly small. Maybe I'm a glutton. LOL.

That depends on the restaurant.

My late Mother-in-Law always talked about a particular Italian restaurant for weeks. Finally, we had the chance to take her.

It was terrible. But the portions were huge!

She raved to her family and friends for weeks afterward about how many meals she got out of that one order.

 

[joeea]

I sit here with the thermostat in my office set at 78. I like to be warm.

78? How do you stay awake?

 

[joeea]

I'm going to need a new computer soon.

I can't seem to convince myself to purchase what I really want (a Google Pixelbook at about $1000), instead of a Chromebook for about half the price.

I can easily afford it. My son just rolls his eyes at me.

I'm still working on making the decision as my current laptop slowly dies...

 

[medved]

These days, I do less "silly frugal" stuff -- I have worked hard and I try to make my life easier. But still, old habits die hard. So the other day, when I decided I wanted to spend a long weekend in Florida, I bought an ultra cheap ticket on Spirit airlines. Spirit is a miserable airline -- the closest one can find to a flying bus. But it was absurdly cheap. And a couple of hours of being not so comfortable won't kill me.