Cheapskate stories

[EmmaJ.]

My IL's, especially FIL, are very, very cheap.  It's actually kind of ruining DH's pleasure in buying our first home.  We have not told the ILs yet, and won't until we close and it's a done deal (Friday...yay!).  We paid a fair price for a property that we really like and are excited about moving in and making it our own.  However, DH is dreading the inevitable lecture from FIL about how he bought his property for $25k and it had more land with it and blah blah.  Well sure, but that was 25 years ago...the house was the manager's home on a now-abandoned oilfield...20 miles from a hazmat disposal site...in some of the ugliest, hottest, most barren territory you can imagine.

Congratulations on your new home!

[Hillia]

An interesting article on sample gluttony.  One man was actually arrested and charged with 3 misdemeanors for filling produce bags full of samples and freebies.  He did a year of probation but is now suing the store for violating his civil rights.

http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post.aspx?post=9bd235ea-6fe7-4486-89bf-30e6ce887e7d

[gramma dishes]

My IL's, especially FIL, are very, very cheap.  It's actually kind of ruining DH's pleasure in buying our first home.  We have not told the ILs yet, and won't until we close and it's a done deal (Friday...yay!).  We paid a fair price for a property that we really like and are excited about moving in and making it our own.  However, DH is dreading the inevitable lecture from FIL about how he bought his property for $25k and it had more land with it and blah blah.  Well sure, but that was 25 years ago...the house was the manager's home on a now-abandoned oilfield...20 miles from a hazmat disposal site...in some of the ugliest, hottest, most barren territory you can imagine.

Laughed at your post, but really -- why does FIL need to know how much (or little) you paid for your own house? 

[Hillia]

He doesn't, and we're practicing 'We paid a fair market price for the property we wanted'.  It's tough for DH to stand up to his family.

[I'mnotinsane]

If your FIL goes so far to look up the sale price in public records that phrase still works.

[VorFemme]

An interesting article on sample gluttony.  One man was actually arrested and charged with 3 misdemeanors for filling produce bags full of samples and freebies.  He did a year of probation but is now suing the store for violating his civil rights.

http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post.aspx?post=9bd235ea-6fe7-4486-89bf-30e6ce887e7d

Cheapskate and SS, textbook example, if you ask me.

[ladyknight1]

It is very easy and simple to find the purchase price and the appraised value in my area. All you need is the address.

[FauxFoodist]

When I'm tired and grumpy, I always find myself thinking "Man, I'd pay 10% more if I could only find all this stuff under one roof."

I'm like this, nowadays, too.  DH and I waited a few weeks until we had two 20% off coupons for BB&B so we could buy two sets of service for 8 flatware and save $40.  However, I didn't think to also bring in the 10% off coupon we had, and we also purchased some napkins and placemats at full price.  I thought about it briefly, realized that BB&B is nowhere we are normally and figured it wasn't worth saving about $2 to have to make another trip out there when, really, we'd been to BB&B around 3-4 times since we got together 4+ years ago.

However, years ago, I used to be the person who would do whatever I could to save money and spent lots of time "chasing the sales."  It really wore me out though.  I don't have the time or patience now (still want to save money, but I'm fine with paying a little more if everything I need is at one or two locations).  Still, for our wedding, I checked the cost of renting vs. purchasing several things, like table linens and chair covers and found, for most things, it was cheaper to buy what we needed.  We now have things like 100 chair covers (about 20 brand-new) and 100 chair sashes, but, sadly it would've cost us more to rent them.  I figure we'll try to sell them at some point, but I certainly wasn't going to pay more to rent them and have nothing to show for it at the end (we won't be giving them away either because we did pay something for them so I want to recoup some of our expenses).

This isn't quite a cheapskate story (unless the shop owner was the one to tell it), but my and DH's engagement and wedding rings, altogether, cost us around $300.  Neither of us are into jewelry, and I saw no point in spending lots of money on something, while meaningful in its symbolism, means nothing to me as far as precious metals are concerned.  The store owner, when we ordered our wedding bands, kept making cracks about us calling him to "upgrade" our rings to gold in a few years when we could afford it.  I finally got annoyed enough to shut him down and tell him, "I don't care about jewelry so this as good as it's going to get.  I received as my 'engagement gift' a nice car that I really needed, which is what I told DH I wanted, is parked outside and suits me much better."  Stupid man shut up but also cost himself any future business from us for intimating we were cheap or penniless or both (it was an Irish store, not a jewelry store -- we were ordering Celtic wedding bands from Ireland).  For the record (which I didn't tell the stupid man), DH wanted to buy me an expensive (for us) engagement ring.  I turned him down and said that if wanted to get me something "big" to get me a car as it was much more practical and something I needed...so he got me a car (I pointed out I couldn't very well drive a ring and would feel stupid riding around in public transportation because I couldn't afford a car yet was sporting an expensive ring).

[Outdoor Girl]

When a friend of mine and his wife were getting married, they were having a large outdoor casual ceremony.  They looked into renting chairs.  Then they looked into how much those plain white patio chairs would be.  It was about the same price.  So they bought the chairs and told everyone to take their chair home, if they wanted, as their favour.  Almost everyone did and a number of their friends and relatives are still using those chairs more than a decade later.

I like saving money.  But I like saving time as much or more.  So when the week's grocery flyers come in, I write down what is on special at each store that I'm potentially interested in.  Then I write my grocery list.  I'll go to the one store, or at most, two, that covers off most of my list.  And then just pay full price for whatever else I need.  I am not driving all over town, probably spending more in gas than I'm saving.

There are a bunch of different stores at the far end of town that I sometimes shop at.  But because it is the furthest away and it is a PITA traffic wise, I'll make one south end trip every couple of months, only.  Usually coinciding with Buy 3 get the 4th free sales at the book store.   

[MommyPenguin]

An interesting article on sample gluttony.  One man was actually arrested and charged with 3 misdemeanors for filling produce bags full of samples and freebies.  He did a year of probation but is now suing the store for violating his civil rights.

http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post.aspx?post=9bd235ea-6fe7-4486-89bf-30e6ce887e7d

Cheapskate and SS, textbook example, if you ask me.

My favorite quote, from the comments on another article about this guy, is somebody saying that it sounds like this guy needs a "free sample of our penal system."  Love it.

[CakeBeret]

An interesting article on sample gluttony.  One man was actually arrested and charged with 3 misdemeanors for filling produce bags full of samples and freebies.  He did a year of probation but is now suing the store for violating his civil rights.

http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post.aspx?post=9bd235ea-6fe7-4486-89bf-30e6ce887e7d

Cheapskate and SS, textbook example, if you ask me.

My favorite quote, from the comments on another article about this guy, is somebody saying that it sounds like this guy needs a "free sample of our penal system."  Love it.

Bahahaha. Fantastic. Yeah, IMO the line is when you are stuffing free samples into your pockets to take home. Eat it at the store? Okay. Deliberately make a full meal out of it? A little iffy, IMO, but as long as you're not violating store policy and the store doesn't ask you to stop, fine. Stuffing a pound and a half of sausage into your pants (heh heh) after receiving previous warnings? Not at all acceptable.

[cheyne]

As I have become older I have started to equate time with money.  My job pays $XX per hour.  If the task I am going to perform isn't going to save me $XX + per hour=it doesn't pay me to do the task.  For ziploc baggies, the cost to sort, wash, find a place to dry, and put away later is going to be over the per bag cost to me, so I don't bother.  However, I will use the same bag for several days if I am bringing crackers, cookies or chips to work-just fill up and take with.

I knew a man (Benny) that was the essence of cheap.  There are many small towns in the rural area I lived in.  Several of the towns had home/farm stores that would do a free hotdog and pop day, or local businesses that would have free coffee/a donut.  Ol' Benny would drive 30 miles (one way) to go to the store and get his free hotdog or donut.  He had an early '80's Lincoln that maybe got 15 miles to the gallon.  With gas at $2.50, he was spending $10. to get his "free" hotdog or donut.  He would brag about it, never understanding that he spent enough on gas to buy several packages of hotdogs and buns.

[weeblewobble]

When I'm tired and grumpy, I always find myself thinking "Man, I'd pay 10% more if I could only find all this stuff under one roof."

This isn't quite a cheapskate story (unless the shop owner was the one to tell it), but my and DH's engagement and wedding rings, altogether, cost us around $300.  Neither of us are into jewelry, and I saw no point in spending lots of money on something, while meaningful in its symbolism, means nothing to me as far as precious metals are concerned.  The store owner, when we ordered our wedding bands, kept making cracks about us calling him to "upgrade" our rings to gold in a few years when we could afford it.  I finally got annoyed enough to shut him down and tell him, "I don't care about jewelry so this as good as it's going to get.  I received as my 'engagement gift' a nice car that I really needed, which is what I told DH I wanted, is parked outside and suits me much better."  Stupid man shut up but also cost himself any future business from us for intimating we were cheap or penniless or both (it was an Irish store, not a jewelry store -- we were ordering Celtic wedding bands from Ireland).  For the record (which I didn't tell the stupid man), DH wanted to buy me an expensive (for us) engagement ring.  I turned him down and said that if wanted to get me something "big" to get me a car as it was much more practical and something I needed...so he got me a car (I pointed out I couldn't very well drive a ring and would feel stupid riding around in public transportation because I couldn't afford a car yet was sporting an expensive ring).

When my great-grandmother died, she left me a lovely large diamond solitaire pendant.  Now, I don't have great luck with pendants, for some reason I tend to break the chains and lose the charms.  And I couldn't imagine how devastated I would be if I lost great-grandma's pendant.  So I talked it over with my then-BF who was planning to propose in the near future and I offered the pendant to him to use the diamond as the stone in my engagement ring.  (I have much better luck caring for rings.)  I was sure to ask whether it made him feel awkward for me to contribute to my own engagement ring.  He said, no, it was pretty indicative of our relationship, a true partnership that breaks certain social norms.

Soon-to-be DH walked into a jewelers to discuss having the stone re-set.  When he said he needed to talk about engagement rings, the salesman seemed thrilled, was polite and enthusiastic.  But the moment DH mentioned having a stone re-set into a ring and presented the pendant, the salesman's enthusiasm died.  He scoffed at DH for being "stingy" and "making his girlfriend provide her own diamond."  He told DH that he didn't see the point of "re-gifting" a stone and this was going to bring down his sales commission (as opposed to the commission he would get if DH buying a ring with a stone).  He said he should charge DH a "handling fee" based on what the pendant was worth.  DH put the pendant back in his coat pocket and said, "Clearly you're not interested in my business." 

He walked out of the store and about a block down the street, where he found another jeweler who was MORE THAN HAPPY to re-set the stone into a ring and commended DH on the romantic gesture of making a family heirloom into a ring.  So the snotty salesman managed to cheat himself out of DH's business and the business of several of DH's coworkers (who were planning on proposing to their lady friends), whom DH referred to the second, more accommodating jeweler.

[ladyknight1]

As I have become older I have started to equate time with money.  My job pays $XX per hour.  If the task I am going to perform isn't going to save me $XX + per hour=it doesn't pay me to do the task.  For ziploc baggies, the cost to sort, wash, find a place to dry, and put away later is going to be over the per bag cost to me, so I don't bother.  However, I will use the same bag for several days if I am bringing crackers, cookies or chips to work-just fill up and take with.

I knew a man (Benny) that was the essence of cheap.  There are many small towns in the rural area I lived in.  Several of the towns had home/farm stores that would do a free hotdog and pop day, or local businesses that would have free coffee/a donut.  Ol' Benny would drive 30 miles (one way) to go to the store and get his free hotdog or donut.  He had an early '80's Lincoln that maybe got 15 miles to the gallon.  With gas at $2.50, he was spending $10. to get his "free" hotdog or donut.  He would brag about it, never understanding that he spent enough on gas to buy several packages of hotdogs and buns.

The bolded is what made me start taking the toll roads to and from work. 30 minute commute at $2.50 or 1 hour (with good traffic flow) and just as much paid in fuel. I also have a few minutes of "me" time before dealing with homework or family needs.

[Figgie]

My spouse's Aunt and Uncle would attend the funerals of total strangers and then go to the funeral luncheons.  This was their way of "eating out" without having to pay for anything. 

When someone confronted them about this, they were both upset with that person and said that it didn't make any difference whether or not they knew the deceased or the family, as they were there to offer their condolences to the family. 

Of course, they never sent a card or flowers to these families as they were far too cheap to spend that much money on someone they didn't know.

When my father-in-law died, the process at the small, rural Catholic church was for the wake to be held the day before the funeral.  It would start at around 4 p.m. and end around 8 p.m.  Since this was over the supper hour, the ladies of the church provided sandwiches, chips, bars and bottled water in the church basement for the immediate family.

So, the sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren who were in the funeral equivalent of a receiving line, would alternate taking breaks sometime during the wake to grab something to eat.  When my spouse took his break, he found his Aunt and Uncle sitting in the church basement eating the sandwiches and wrapping up what they saw as "extras" to take home with them.

He asked them what they were doing and his Uncle said angrily that they were eating because they were family.  My spouse pointed out that they weren't immediate family and that they weren't the ones standing greeting and thanking people who came to the wake.  He also told them that other family members had not eaten yet and that they needed to put back the food they were taking.

He stood and watched as they unloaded themselves of over a dozen bottles of bottled water, a couple dozen sandwiches, two bags of chips and what looked like an entire pan of bars.  After they had put it back (and he said they had steam coming out of their ears),  he told them not to come back down to the basement or touch any more of the food.

My spouse is the oldest son and the quiet one in his family.  He never raises his voice but when he says no, not one person in his family is going to be brave enough to argue with him.

By the way...his Aunt and Uncle were not poor people or starving people.  They had plenty of money but why spend it when they could get a free lunch just by attending the funeral of a total stranger!