Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Cheap is the group of people who go out to eat and then haggle over who owes what (penny by penny) and then the hagglers leave 50 cent tips ( if that)...... So I round up and leave the waitress 20% to make up for the idiots. ( They work on tips; I did it when I was in college!)
I just want to know how to get cable for 10 dollars?!!!!!
Please, people are always calling me cheap because I don't spend every penny of my salary on useless bullsh*t. But you know what? With the money I save not buying artarded consumables, I take really fancy 5 star trips, drive a 100k car, and just bought a huge house. So they can suck it.
Cheap people are cheap all the time with everything, because they are in a constant worry about money and where it goes. They are willing to forgo quality and durability for price.
Cheap people cheapness affects those around them. Frugal people frugality affects themselves.
Cheap people don’t value time. They will spend 5 hours to save 2$.
I know someone who spend evenings unrolling and separating two ply toilet paper and re-rolling into one ply rolls!!!
Hi, This is a very interesting question. I think of frugal as being financially responsible and making informed decisions about how one uses/save his or her money. I think of cheap as a personality characteristic.
I know many people who are "well off" and all of them fit the spectrum between those two. I even knew a woman who worked with my mother. She was easily a millionaire several times over. However, she carried a huge purse and would steal all the sugar and salt packets, bread from the bread baskets and leftover napkins after eating in a restaurant. We all pay for that kind of theft.
I had a neighbor who is very cheap, almost bordering on what seems to be some kind of mental issue. Seriously, I asked her to borrow a can of soup for a recipe and I didn't have time to run out to the store in the snow with two small children. She brought it to me and had dinner with us that night (and almost every night because she invited herself over). The next week we were out running errands and she said "you owe me $0.59 for that can of soup last week." Another time I she stopped by BK for me and said I didn't give her enough money. She wanted me to repay her $0.16. In another incident, she brought something to my house and asked me to try it. I did NOT ask for it and did not care for it so I didn't want any more. She demanded that I pay her for it because she bought it with me in mind. I didn't and told her she could consume it so she did not lose any money. Don't misunderstand. I don't expect her to give me things for free, but she was ridiculous. She would come to my house around mealtime ALL THE TIME. It didn't work to not answer the door because she would just stand there calling from her cell phone or banging on the door and look in the windows. She NEVER treated when we went shopping, but almost always asked me to buy her food when I bought something for my children. She is the extreme of what I consider to be cheap, though. The kicker is she does not consider other people to have a "limit" and often put things in my cart that I did not ask for or want (e.g. chemical laden treats for the children or something for her) and just expected me to pay for it. However, it never worked in reverse. Oh, here's the funniest part. She helped me pack for our move and she would pocket any loose change she found around MY house.
Sorry if that was long and drawn out, but I definitely distinguish between being "frugal" and being "cheap."
Last edited by mjd07; 06-14-2010 at 12:00 AM..
Reason: Fixed typo, added detail for clarification
Oh, I just recalled something I read several years ago. There was a woman who was well known on the streets as a "homeless" person. She ate in soup kitchens, wore rags, etc. When she passed away, it was found that she had a huge sum of cash sewn in the lining of her tattered coat.
I'm not suggesting that people should spend every dime as that's not responsible either. However, depriving oneself of basic necessities when one can afford them seems to be something else altogether. I'm not a psychoanalyst, but it seems that has to fall into some category of mental illness.
I make almost 6 figures a year but I clip coupons and read grocery ads for sales on essentials and I stock up when I find a good deal. People accuse me of being "cheap" but I personally do not see it.
This doesn't sound as bad as some of the stories here, however, my boyfriend in college seemed to be cheap (to me), and I always wondered about the difference between cheap and frugal.
Some of the examples I remember.....
He cooked fish for dinner, but the fish had scrambled eggs all over it, so I did not want to eat it. When I asked him why he had egg all over it, he said "because I did not want to waste the egg" (well, now you've wasted the fish too....lol!). He would eat the scraps of my plate in public so that the scraps would not go to waste, like if small pieces of tomato and lettuce fell out of my sandwich, he would eat them. Also, when we went shopping, he would buy the cheapest things possible, even if it made a difference (we were buying tomato soup, and I liked a brand that was 3 CENTS more than another brand, and he would not buy the more expensive one....I was not picky about most things, I just remember I did not like tomato soup until I tried the better brand). I pitched in for things and/or bought stuff as well.
Oh, and I just remembered, another friend in college would eat until he was sick when we went to buffets. He said he wanted to get his money's worth (and then he would have to lie around all day feeling lousy, so waste a day to maximize your dollars value,.,.....did not make sense to me). I guess this fits with the post that talked about wasting time to same money as a form of cheapness.
Last edited by Reneeme; 06-14-2010 at 07:25 AM..
Reason: addition
Cheap is the group of people who go out to eat and then haggle over who owes what (penny by penny) and then the hagglers leave 50 cent tips ( if that)...... So I round up and leave the waitress 20% to make up for the idiots. ( They work on tips; I did it when I was in college!)
I hate when cheap people insist on going over the check and then figuring out exactly what they owe. And it has nothing to do with them scrimping on the tip. (And to be fair, I find that the "cheap" people who insist on paying their share - but only their share - do in fact leave an adequate tip.) I just hate the whole process of "who had an appetizer?" "who had the diet coke?" etc. In fact, I refuse to participate in the process. If they want to go over the bill item by item, so be it. I just take out a credit card and pay for the whole thing and just collect without counting whatever money has been contributed by the others.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
