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i think cheapness can be either cutting your nose to spite your face- like going out of your way to save 30 cents on something or refusing to by something you would really get a lot of hours of enjoyment of that you could easily afford. for example lots of people on here don't have cable. if you barely would watch it then I don't think it's cheap to not have it.
but if you make decent money and you really would enjoy watching an hour or two of tv on cable a day, or a few sports games a week and you don't get it you're just cheap. you're basically saying your entertainment isn't worth a dollar an hour which is silly.if you have a family it's even sillier bc now you're talking a quarter and hour or less.
as for returning stuff i very rarely do. i try not to buy crap but if i buy a bad apple or something im not gonna bother waiting in line and having to deal with a customer service rep over 50 cents.
i bought some really really cheap spoons once and one of them snapped when i was scooping ice cream out of the carton. i knew that were crap when i got them and just used the rest of them for soup or yogurt.
Last edited by bxlefty23; 10-24-2013 at 04:44 AM..
I guess I left this as kind of a vague topic. I know it's kind of morphed into returning defective merchandise and I guess though personally I generally find my time more valuable than returning a cheap item I bought I see the value of I want to get what I paid for and if I dont I shoudln't feel bad going back for a refund.
I guess I was also thinking of things that could be frugal or could be petty and cheap. I mean sometimes I see someone holding up the grocery store lines for like 10 minutes because they say they should have been charged 0.06 cents less on some item, liike give me a break, I wanna throw a quarter at them and tell them to move on. If their 10 minutes isn't worth 0.06 cents mine certainly is and they are holding me and other people up.
Something else comes to mind is people who pick all the grapes off the stems in store or husk corn in store because it adds weight thats not actual fruit or vegetables. Just stuff like that I ugess
those people are beyond inconsiderate and i've given them change a few times just to keep the line moving. if theyre on line with nobody behind them and they want to waste their own time that's their problem.
So, in order not to look "cheap", I should stand in the store and empty the carton of strawberries out and check them for mold? And, certainly any berry? Maybe empty those pre-cut salads out? I guess I could dump this stuff in the scales they have for weighing? Now, that would make me look like a fruit myself. I have found that if I get something bad like that where it was not noticeable until I opened it, if I call the store, they will tell me to bring it back the next time I come. If it like spoiled chicken, they usually tell me to just bring the receipt. I have taken back the spoiled chicken and they were at a loss of what to do with it at the customer service desk. We always live in smaller towns, right now I live a couple blocks from where I do most of my grocery shopping and Super Wal-Mart is about 10 minutes away and on my husband's way to work.
It does not embarrassment me to return something that is defective. Actually, very few things embarrassment me and for me, that came with maturity. Being frugal is something I am proud of. Debt-free, 10 plus years.
i really don't understand where people are getting all this bad fruit, spoiled chickens/milk cleaning products replaced with water etc on even a semi regular basis.i buy apple bananas oranages strawberries blue berries and grapes all the time and it has been years since any of them were bad, and i'm not nearly as strict at checking my fruit as most people here.if it doesnt look like it fell off the truck i buy it. i've never bought spoiled milk or chicken or a cleaning product that had been stolen/replaced.i doubt I'm just lucky and if it's really a constant issue then you should go to better stores.
A cheap person will only buy the cheapest or lowest price product. A frugal person will compare price per volume as well as quality. A cheap box of crackers looks like a bargain until you look at the weight on the box. Per ounce, you're saving by buying the name brand than the off brand. A cheap person wanting pizza will buy a generic version of Jino's or Totino's frozen pizza (horrible!). A frugal person will weigh the options available and decide which is the best value pizza for the taste (for us, Wal-Mart Deli Pizza). Being frugal means weighing options to decide what is the best value for your money. We have DirecTV for my wife's entertainment since her chronic spinal pain keeps her at home in recliner or bed. We trade off by not getting movie channels, no PPV, and no movie theaters. We rarely eat out. Antenna reception is great except for our local CBS station which is hit and miss. They cut cost by reducing power to their tower broadcast.
i really don't understand where people are getting all this bad fruit, spoiled chickens/milk cleaning products replaced with water etc on even a semi regular basis.i buy apple bananas oranages strawberries blue berries and grapes all the time and it has been years since any of them were bad, and i'm not nearly as strict at checking my fruit as most people here.if it doesnt look like it fell off the truck i buy it. i've never bought spoiled milk or chicken or a cleaning product that had been stolen/replaced.i doubt I'm just lucky and if it's really a constant issue then you should go to better stores.
This depends a lot on the part of the country where you are located. Here, produce is very limited and you have to take what you can get. Not a lot of stores in anything but the largest of towns in KS. Can't be frugal driving an 1 to 1 1/2 hours one way to get better produce on a weekly basis. Also, in hot weather, things spoil quickly if left sitting in the aisles very long or on the dock with a lot of people dealing with these items just not realizing it. The problem with both fruits and vegetables in bags is that once squished, they spoil quicker and "cut" lettuce browns much quicker than "torn" lettuce. Things covered in plastic draw moisture, add heat and you have mold. Chicken is really a problem in the summer in warm climates so I just don't buy it in the summer. We don't buy milk.
Finding a bargain on something I really want makes me feel good because I'm not just buying it because
it's cheap.. I don't feel I need to save on everything but I do try to be selective.
Definitely a difference between frugal and cheap.I consider a cheapness example: Couples go out to eat expensive restaurants.One couple only picks up the tab when it is breakfast. (under $10.00) They arethe wealthiest!. The expensive restaurants include $200 bottles of wine.Frugal is a choice between (I E) store brand cheese and name brand (same quality).
Something else comes to mind is people who pick all the grapes off the stems in store or husk corn in store because it adds weight thats not actual fruit or vegetables. Just stuff like that I ugess
I've never seen anyone pick the grapes off the stem before paying for them. I've never even heard of someone doing that before. It's a powerful image, though, so thank you. I live in a city where shucking ears of corn in the produce aisle is the norm. The stores provide a large, lined trash can. Nearly everyone does it. I'd never seen it before moving here. But you don't save money, as you're charged by the ear.
I rarely feel the need to return things, but for about six months last year, a lot of the onions I'd buy at my local were rotten inside (you couldn't see it from the outside at all). I never returned any of them. Who wants stinking rotten onion sitting around until my next trip to the store? What I did do was to e-mail the store to tell them about it. They sent me a $20 gift card in reparation. Nice.
Also, when you return stuff at the supermarket you should never do it at the cashier's station. Go to the Customer Service line.
Last edited by jay5835; 11-30-2013 at 08:54 AM..
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