Cheapskate stories

[magician5]

Last time we went on vacation with them (in which they will do NOTHING unless it is free) we had gone to a museum and they skipped it.  We met them for lunch.  When the check came FIL excused himself to go to the bathroom and MIL looked away.  Seriously.  DH waited for a few minutes to see if she would reach for the check....

My father used to get red-in-the-face angry (a rare thing) when thinking of the number of relatives he had invited for a weekend or a week at our beach cottage. "They brought a tiny bag of peaches for a gift, and when we'd go out to dinner and the check would come [the husband] would say 'I'll get it, pal, I'll get it' and his hand would ... neeever ... quiiiite get as far as his pocket. And then when we were out on our little boat, of course I'd pay for the gas, and once [the wife] would lay back on the front and say 'I wonder what the poor people are doing today' like it was a big joke." And the relatives wondered why they were never invited back. Dad worked an incredibly hard physical job and saved all his life for those things.

[Hillia]

Oh, and I wanted to chime in on the stuffed animals.  I used to go to Goodwill and buy stuffies by the barrel.  My dog's quirk was to destroy - no, anniliate - them down to little inch square pieces of fabric. 

I bought a used stuffie for the Cairn Terrorist - once. He started to rip at it, and then a look of sheer disgust came over his face, and he spit it out. I didn't know dogs could spit like that. Then he stalked away and sulked the rest of the day.

He most definitely did NOT approve of frugality when it came to his comforts.

We used to buy the 'dollar a bag' stuffed animals and use them for target practice.  Elmo was particularly satisfying to hit.

[weeblewobble]

When a bar of soap is too small to use, I wet both the old and the new soaps and stick them together to avoid throwing away the sliver of soap. I grew up thinking everyone did this. Please let me know if you think this is cheap?

No, that's frugal and smart.  Not using or not letting anyone else use new soap because you could possibly get some use out of the old bar, that's cheap.

[weeblewobble]

Oh, and I wanted to chime in on the stuffed animals.  I used to go to Goodwill and buy stuffies by the barrel.  My dog's quirk was to destroy - no, anniliate - them down to little inch square pieces of fabric. 

I bought a used stuffie for the Cairn Terrorist - once. He started to rip at it, and then a look of sheer disgust came over his face, and he spit it out. I didn't know dogs could spit like that. Then he stalked away and sulked the rest of the day.

He most definitely did NOT approve of frugality when it came to his comforts.

We used to buy the 'dollar a bag' stuffed animals and use them for target practice.  Elmo was particularly satisfying to hit.

Because of all the tickling?

[reflection5]

'I wonder what the poor people are doing today' like it was a big joke."

Sounds like something Leona Helmsley would say.

[rose red]

When ordering Chinese food, I'm disappointed if it comes in paper or styrofoam containers because then I don't get the plastic resusable ones.  I haven't brought lunch containers in years.

[CakeBeret]

I recently stayed in a hotel that promptly went on my "Didn't care for, won't revisit" list. (Didn't care for the level of cleanliness, food and service lacking etc.)

One quirk I did notice was that the hotel did offer complimentary shampoo and soap - but in large dispensers fastened to the wall of the shower. Perfectly hygienic and all, and no doubt cheaper than providing individually wrapped items, but I did find it a bit off putting in a stingy sort of way.
But I may be biased because by this time I was already less than impressed with the place.

I personally would love to see that in hotels. I find those little bottles so dang annoying. They have more shampoo than I need for one use, but not enough for two uses. Plus they're often difficult to get the product out of.

[wolfie]

No, no. Never, Wolfie.

I meant that running out to wash the car in the rain is not taking advantage of good manners but of nature. Taking advantage of the rain to wash the car.

Oh thank god I misunderstood you! I think I misread the quote tree.

I am wondering though - is there dirt and stuff in rain? So would you need to clean the car again afterwards? I hardly ever wash mine as it is.

[weeblewobble]

Almost forgot:  my DH's favorite one to tell.  It was our 25th anniversary.  Usually we just get a card from them, so here in our mail is a card and a gift card!  Wow.  But on closer inspection, it looked like a gift card but the large "$20" at the top had fine print under it that it was $20 off a purchase of $50 or more.  And it expired in 3 months.  So it really was a coupon.  But it was to our favorite store.  MIL called and asked if we got the gift card.  DH said she didn't sound happy when he corrected her and told her it was a coupon.

I think this is the crux of what bothers me about cheapskates' behavior: Treating me as if I am too stupid to recognize what they are doing.  Yes, I notice that you aren't reaching for the check.  Yes, I notice that you re-gifted me a bottle of lotion so old that it has crusted over the top and formed a sort of lotion-wax.   Yes, I notice that you served me expired food when I was a guest in your home. To pretend that I don't notice these things implies a pretty low opinion of my intelligence.

[RebeccainGA]

No, no. Never, Wolfie.

I meant that running out to wash the car in the rain is not taking advantage of good manners but of nature. Taking advantage of the rain to wash the car.

Oh thank god I misunderstood you! I think I misread the quote tree.

I am wondering though - is there dirt and stuff in rain? So would you need to clean the car again afterwards? I hardly ever wash mine as it is.

If you wash your car in the rain 1) the continued rain will keep the finish wet, so that when it stops, the finish will spot - thereby negating the washing you did and 2) if you do it in a rainstorm, you are adding surfactants (the stuff that breaks the surface tension of water, making it soak into your clothes/dirt/etc. better) to the ground at a time that there's a lot of water being added, making it more likely that the rain will soak down into the earth around you, making mud worse. It's not just cheap, but can be foolish (and you'd go through an awful lot of soap, since your rags would be constantly being rinsed out).

Now, if you want to go DANCE in the rain, that's a whole other thing. Nothing cheap about that - just good, free fun!

[weeblewobble]

My other aunt thinks dish detergent is too expensive (and not hygienic because she lets her dogs eat off the plates) so she washes her dishes with bleach. Unfortunately the bleach water that splashes onto her shirt ends up eating the shirts, so she has many, many shirts with holes worn in the lower abdomen area. She still wears them though, and won't let my mom toss them because they're "fine." She also reuses paper towels until they disintegrate.

Wasn't there a story here about a woman whose mother refused to put detergent in the dishwasher, so the plates just got "rinsed."  The first time the poster's husband ate at the in-laws house, he got sick as a dog from the leftover residue/germs on the plates?

[EmmaJ.]

Oh, and I wanted to chime in on the stuffed animals.  I used to go to Goodwill and buy stuffies by the barrel.  My dog's quirk was to destroy - no, anniliate - them down to little inch square pieces of fabric. 

I bought a used stuffie for the Cairn Terrorist - once. He started to rip at it, and then a look of sheer disgust came over his face, and he spit it out. I didn't know dogs could spit like that. Then he stalked away and sulked the rest of the day.

He most definitely did NOT approve of frugality when it came to his comforts.

Hahaha - I wonder where it had been!  I swear I washed and dried all the stuffies before giving them to Pooch!

[Twik]

At work we were collecting for a food drive at Christmas and someone donated swollen, rusted cans of food.  I was shocked.  Who does stuff like this?

Some are just mean people, but I think some are borderline hoarders. They can't put something in the garbage, because that's "wasteful". By giving it to charity, they reassure themselves that "maybe someone else can get some use out of it". Even if they learned the charity threw it out, they'd feel OK, because *they* didn't throw it out themselves.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of advice on frugality and/or waste reduction is harmful to the psyches of these people. I'm a bit of a hoarder myself, and sometimes I have to bite the bullet and say, "this may end up going to the dump, but that's better than sitting in my apartment, then going to the dump when I die."

[weeblewobble]

Oh, boy.


Recently, a relative gave my son a birthday gift. She used a typical girl baby gift bag--decorated in pink flowers and ribbons, and said "It's a Girl!" in big pink letters. Relative crossed out Girl, wrote Boy, and then wrote my son's name--misspelled--underneath. DH and I got a good laugh out of that one.

I will admit to keep an enormous tub of used gift bags in my garage, but I will not re-use them if they have someone's name written on them already, if they are in poor condition, or if they are inappropriate for the occasion. 

[gramma dishes]

...   Wasn't there a story here about a woman whose mother refused to put detergent in the dishwasher, so the plates just got "rinsed."  The first time the poster's husband ate at the in-laws house, he got sick as a dog from the leftover residue/germs on the plates?

Disgusting to be sure!   

But the water in a dishwasher is so incredibly hot and makes so much steam that it would seem that that alone should at least kill most of the germs. 

I think I'd almost take my chances on eating from one of her plates than what my MIL used to do.  She didn't have a dishwasher.  She did her dishes all by hand.  She would run out of whatever her current dishwashing liquid might be and instead of going to the store and buying a new bottle, she'd use Tide or some other laundry detergent.  Then she'd never rinse them off really thoroughly, so next time you ate off one of her plates, you got a little detergent with your green beans and mashed potatoes.  It did not enhance the flavor.