The cheapest thing you have ever done.... come on now, admit it.

[flipstress]

"If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down."

We let the yellow mellow at night--the flushing is noisy--and often during the day on the weekends. I don't think it saves a lot of money but it seems wasteful to flush all that water everytime.

I soap and rinse plastic baggies if they haven't been used for meat.

There was a story in grade school back home that one of our national heroes was reputedly so poor when he was a child that he would switch his left and right slippers around to even out the wear. He did this despite the taunting of classmates. I tried to follow his frugal example at home (in private, not in public) when I was a kid but it felt too goofy and gave it up.

 

[runchman]

....smoking bong resin.

Hey that's not being cheap, that's just doing what you have to do under the circumstances

- John (who throws away paper towels and doesn't recycle his used toiletpaper. Will probably spend an extra $35 over my lifetime because of this)

 

[bright eyed]

I reuse paper towels. My son washes his hands a lot at the kitchen sink. It's not anything OCD-like, he just likes to wash after coming into the house, after working with anything. Sounds like a fine habit to me. But he uses TWO BOUNTY PAPER TOWELS everytime he dries his hands! So I've told him to leave those on the side counter for me and I reuse them for things like spots on the kitchen floor, cat throw-up, spills on the stove, spatters in the microwave, stuff like that. I wouldn't use them for things like wrapping food in the microwave, but I see nothing wrong with getting a 2nd use out of a fairly clean paper towel.

He thinks this is really cheap, but I think I'm thrifty! And he's not the one paying for the paper towels.

why not cloth towels? i bought like 20 kitchen towels and dinner napkins at a garage sale for $1 and now we use them instead of paper towels - except for the gross stuff - helps cut down on the paper towel bills and waste...it was like an epiphany since my family had always used and abused paper towels growing up...they also have some bargains on kitchen towels at tjmax etc...if you pick them up once in a while you will have a good collection...

 

[bright eyed]

We let the yellow mellow at night--the flushing is noisy--and often during the day on the weekends. I don't think it saves a lot of money but it seems wasteful to flush all that water everytime.

I soap and rinse plastic baggies if they haven't been used for meat.

There was a story in grade school back home that one of our national heroes was reputedly so poor when he was a child that he would switch his left and right slippers around to even out the wear. He did this despite the taunting of classmates. I tried to follow his frugal example at home (in private, not in public) when I was a kid but it felt too goofy and gave it up.

oh, my dad does that - he severely wears out the outer edges of all his shoes (due to how he walks) and one day i saw him wearing them on the opposite foot to wear out the other side...now i buy him new tennis shoes for xmas or bday, but he won't wear them until the old ones are worn out!!!

 

[calmloki]

....There was a story in grade school back home that one of our national heroes was reputedly so poor when he was a child that he would switch his left and right slippers around to even out the wear. He did this despite the taunting of classmates. I tried to follow his frugal example at home (in private, not in public) when I was a kid but it felt too goofy and gave it up.

No kind of hero, but I do swap my socks side for side when a wee hole at the big toe starts showing.

 

[Enuff2Eat]

i am having so much fun reading these post..

hey, how about those cheap skate that always showing up a party bringing a 2 liter bottle of coke or even worse, NOT bringing anything. and how about guys bringing a $20 gifts to a wedding where people have to pay $75-100/person to serve him and his date to dinner and drinks....

oh sorry my bad. i am just thankful that they are there.


enuff

 

[bssc]

I just need to figure out a way to get a cow to fly into one of my windows...

Red curtains waving in the wind.

 

[bssc]

Hosted the company Christmas party at our house instead of at a restaurant (they were cheap too) and kept the leftovers (it was catered). We had BBQ for about 2 weeks.

 

[Khan]

i am having so much fun reading these post..

hey, how about those cheap skate that always showing up a party bringing a 2 liter bottle of coke or even worse, NOT bringing anything. and how about guys bringing a $20 gifts to a wedding where people have to pay $75-100/person to serve him and his date to dinner and drinks....

oh sorry my bad. i am just thankful that they are there.


enuff

The price of a wedding gift is supposed to be predicated on the per person cost of the wedding?

How does one determine the PPC?

Is it printed on the invitation?

 

[clifp]

I thought I was pretty cheap, until I read this thread, you folks are scary.

 

[flipstress]

Nah, just cheaper than you...with different habits carried over from one's earlier years...

I remember at my first job in the Philippines, the accounting clerks reused the calculator paper rolls--reversed 'em and fed 'em in again. Paper was/is expensive. Even in school, almost all of our textbooks used newsprint paper; otherwise, not many could afford to buy them.

When I first came to computer school in the US, I was really impressed by the thick, white paper and color text books and the white print-out paper but I would just linefeed to print out my programs and try to save the paper. I was appalled to see my classmates do a whole page feed for a few lines of code.

Now, I'm more wasteful although I still find myself trying to use the front and back of paper and cutting them into fourths for scratch paper, grocery lists, etc.

I do like fancy stationery and have quite a lot but can't find the time to hand-write my letters as often as I did long ago.

 

[scubamonkey]

Eat at a $2.99 bufffet restaurant that had packets of lemon juice. I would order water and put in the lemon juice and equal and have lemonaide.

Buy huge packs of bacon (at discounted prices) and eat bacon sandwiches for weeks at a time.

I am still driving my 1991 Toyota pick-up.

Several years ago the long distance phone companies would pay you $50-$100 to switch phone services -sometimes they would negotiate for an extra $25. The more you switched the more offers you received.

My Aunt and Uncle were masters - they were mutimillionaires - but when I stayed there as a kid, they would tear one paper towel in three pieces for our dinner napkin! They would also use the paper grocery sacks as trash can liners - they would REUSE them until the bottom would not hold trash anymore.

 

[kat]

Nothing cheap, if keeping the thermostat low and keeping cars forever don't count.

And there's no tax on my favorite activity, hiking in the mountains.

 

[Khan]

Now, I'm more wasteful although I still find myself trying to use the front and back of paper and cutting them into fourths for scratch paper, grocery lists, etc.

The back of the grocery receipt makes a great grocery list.

I actually bought a calendar for 2007, first time in at least 10 years.

 

[JustCurious]

I would order water and put in the lemon juice and equal and have lemonaide.

LOL. My MIL does something very similar when we go out to eat...she orders water with "extra lemon on the side". Then she squeezes the lemon into the water along with some sugar and mixes her own lemonade!! I always tease her about it and refer to it as "cheapskate lemonade."

That also reminds me of something else that she does which I think crosses the line from frugal to cheapskate...she subtracts the tax from the dinner bill BEFORE calculating the tip. :

 

[runchman]

I thought I was pretty cheap, until I read this thread, you folks are scary.

Just don't have any of them over to your house - when they get back home they'll be giddy with excitement over the 8 squares of toilet paper they lifted from you....



- John

 

[runchman]

That also reminds me of something else that she does which I think crosses the line from frugal to cheapskate...she subtracts the tax from the dinner bill BEFORE calculating the tip. :

Hope she doesn't frequent the same restaurant often, or she might get some 'additions' to her food between the kitchen and the table

 

[JustCurious]

Hope she doesn't frequent the same restaurant often, or she might get some 'additions' to her food between the kitchen and the table

You're right. When I'm with her, I always make sure to make up the difference so that the server doesn't get jipped.

 

[savedapile]

Worked where they had lunch meetings on friday. People would drink the provided soda and throw the cans in the garbage for the cleaning lady to take. I saw her one friday and asked if she took them. She said no so I started to take them, rinse them out and bring them to the can place. They also used to throw out high quality deli sandwiches, cookies and all sorts of food. I had teenagers at the time so brought them home and of course they were gone pretty darn quick.

The worst was the week we had platters of bagels. There was a platter of poppy seed bagels that was unopened and they were going to throw the whole thing away. I took it home and scraped the seeds off, sliced them and froze them. The kids were impressed that I broke down and got the expensive bagels.

My son gets a prize though. When he graduated from college he had no loans and was adverse to debt. I gave him my old honda with 160,000 miles on it and bought a new one (standard of course, cheaper.)
He drove it to 225,000, and the airconditioning went out around 200,000 miles and he was living in Florida. Saved him a bundle on insurance and car payments.

I'm thinking of wearing the same dress to son #2's wedding that I wore to son #1's wedding three years ago. My sister is horrified but I've only worn it once.

 

[wallygator69]

HI,

Every other Saturday when I was a kid my Granparents would come over and we would sit around the salt and peper shakers and the sugar bowl, tearing open all the little packets and pouring them in. My Grandparetns were kleptos and would steal them by the pocket full wherever they could get em.

W

 

[TromboneAl]

There was a platter of poppy seed bagels that was unopened and they were going to throw the whole thing away. I took it home and scraped the seeds off, sliced them and froze them.

You must have good eyesight and a sharp knife, those seeds are small!

 

[Khan]

I'm cheap, but I don't steal.

My parents taught me that everything belongs to someone/something and permission must always be asked.

We asked neighbors if we could
gather apples from the orchard remnants on their property
harvest some asparagus growing wild
gather firewood
gather herbs
gather horse droppings (for compost)
cut a tree for Christmas.

We gave permission for a neighbor to hunt on our property (and he gave us a share pan ready).

 

[MikeD]

I take many meds and have a 4x/day pill sched which often means taking pills while not at home. I put the pills into baggies and bring the baggies home for re-use dozens of times.

Popeye's Fried Chicken used to have little packets of honey like the ketchup packets. I would always take a few of these home with me after each visit. I once used them in my tea on a cross country car trip. I brought tea bags with me and would go to McDonalds and ask for a free cup of hot water and make tea w/honey out in my car to stay awake. I didn't stay in any motels on the trip as I slept in my car at rest stops. I made it from VA to CA in 2.5 days. It took 3 days to come back. I was so screwed up that after the trip I was hallucinating.

I take paper napkins from restaurants for use at home. My wife hates it.

While in college I didn't have enough money for insulin or food (don't ask). I would take showers at the neighboring college THAT I WAS NOT ATTENDING to save money on hot water.

I used my friends' meal passes at the collage I was attending to get free meals (the food was horrible). (and the portions were so small)

I read an aniversay card to my wife while we were at Hallmark to save buying her one for our 25th anniversay.

I used to stop and pick up firewood lying on the side of the road.

I am less cheap now that I am older (I turned 53 yesterday).

Mike D.

 

[shiny]

I am less cheap now that I am older (I turned 53 yesterday).

Happy Birthday! I would get you a card, but instead why don't you just read one at the store!

 

[MikeD]

Thanks. I am so glad email is "all you can eat."

Mike D.