Cheapskate stories

[Bluenomi]

[...] or buy travel health insurance. [...]

On a tangent, I never buy travel health insurance, as my credit card covers medical emergencies. Most international credit cards do when you charge the plane ticket but many people don't know this. Most credit cards also have rental car insurance (if you pay with it) so I also never get insurance when renting. Of course, check the rules on your credit cards and see if their insurance meets your needs.

Just my cheapskate advice for the day.

When Hurricane Sandy devastated the east cost of the us i was halfway through a trip to Europe. On the way back I was in line to check in and started talking to the person behind me. She was supposed to fly back either the day Sandy hit or the day after but because of the hurricane the first flight back she could get was 5 days later. Trip insurance paid for the hotel, meals, and transportation - she got almost another full week of vacation for free. 

I never got trip insurance before but after talking to her I am thinking it might be worth it.

My grandmother broke her hip traveling in Europe. Her travel insurance paid for: her surgery and rehabilitation, my aunt's ticket out and back, my aunt's hotel room for two weeks, my grandmother's ticket back upgraded to first class (for more space), a private nurse to fly first class next to her, and a limo (also more spacious) for the two hour drive back to my grandmother's home.

This is why I get travel insurance whenever I travel o/s
http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/the-most-costly-travel-insurance-claims/story-e6frfq80-1226549460166

You never know when something will go wrong and it's a relatively cheap insurance..

A friend of mine's husband had a heart attack at the beach in Fiji. Her insurance paid for a medical crew to fly out of Darwin to Fiji (who unfortuantly didn't make it in time to save him) and all the costs of getting the family back to Australia as well as the massive phone bill she racked up getting everything sorted. Horrid thing to go through but they really did their best to make everything go as smoothly as possible.

[Twik]

I had a medical thing happen to me while travelling in the US (I'm Canadian). I was in a *lot* of pain, and I really should have gone to the ER, because I didn't know what exactly was wrong with me. But I wasn't sure if my work insurance would cover me, so I stuck it out in my hotel room.

Oh, and I wasn't sure how they'd react to a Canadian showing up in ER screaming "I'm in PAIN! GIVE ME DRUGS!"

[Outdoor Girl]

The last time I went to visit friends in California, I didn't bother with medical insurance.  I was helping my friend with some gardening and fell, hitting my head.  Based on my symptoms, I'm positive I had a concussion (I've had a couple before) but I decided not to go to an ER because I didn't want it to cost me thousands of dollars.

I won't make that mistake again.

[CakeBeret]

2. My father was convinced when we bought our house that the $99K it cost was ridiculous, that we were stupid fools for paying that much, and that our bank must be staffed by idiots to agree to a mortgage because and I quote, "No normal house is worth $99K. Sure, a mansion  maybe. But a regular house? NO regular house costs more than $25K." When my mother then showed hiim the Sunday paper listings for houses, he blustered and flustered and insisted that the listed prices were "inflated" and "any fool" could dicker ANY house down to no more than $25K. Because that is what they'd paid for their house when they'd bought it 20 years before.

Sounds much like my grandfather-in-law.

He bought a 650sqft house on an acre for $7000 about 45 years ago. This is his entire basis for his opinion on home prices.

When we bought our first house, home prices in the area looked like this:

$25-40k for a house that requires significant rehab (I'm talking months of work and $20k+ to rehab)
$50-80k for an older house that needed some work
$80-130k for a house in decent shape, possibly older and/or ugly, but usually move-in ready
$130-200k for a nice, new, move-in-ready house

Our house was only 5 years old, budget-built (no walk-in closets, only about 900sqft) but had the garage of my dreams and a nice kitchen, a big yard, basically everything that was important to us. It was also move-in ready; we both work full time and had neither the time nor the skills for renovation projects. Our house cost $101k and we were perfectly happy with that figure.

We refused to talk about how much we paid, but somehow GFIL got wind of the purchase price. He came to our open house and spent the ENTIRE TIME muttering under his breath about "can't believe anyone would pay 100k, my entire house only cost $7000, ridiculous amount of money, can't believe it, absurd amount of money, blah blah blah..."

[CakeBeret]

Regarding  a not so much cheap skate friend: When in high school I had a group of friends and we would go to the diner near our high school and dump all of our change in the middle of the table and figure out what we had enough money to buy. It was usually a plate or two of fries to share and a soda for each person.  As we left, we would check our pockets for more money and leave it as a tip.

Years later, one of those friends looked me up and took me out to lunch, refusing to let me pay or leave a tip and his reason for that was, drumroll, please: Dave (not his real name) said that all those years ago, when we all pooled our money, I would slip him some coins to throw in. I helped him save face and he wanted to thank me for it. Well, yes, but I was the only one that knew what his family situation was.  Dave's money went to buy food as his father drank up most of his own paycheck. Having my own family issues, I wanted him to be able to be with us and it was worth it to have him there.

I tried to explain that to him and he just kept saying, "The way I kept my own dignity was to to tell myself that 'Someday I will repay her!' "

Which he did in that one meal, at a swanky place, when inflation had really made a meal expensive! So, sometimes, the bread of the waters comes back in a delightful way.

This story made me tear up a little. Dave sounds like a wonderful guy and you sound like a great friend.

[nutraxfornerves]

Another travel cheapskate-ism I've seen that doesn't work (I'm talking about people who deliberately plan to do this, not people who have bad luck):

I'll buy a one-way ticket to X. I'll stay until my money runs out, then my embassy will have to fly me home, so I can avoid paying for a round trip ticket.

That's when they find out that the embassy won't do that. Depending on the country,the embassy may say "tough luck," or may offer to help you contact friends or family who can send you money. The US, in the worst case, will loan you the money for a plane ticket, then confiscate your passport and bill you for the cost. You won't get the passport back until you pay up.

[wolfie]

Another travel cheapskate-ism I've seen that doesn't work (I'm talking about people who deliberately plan to do this, not people who have bad luck):

I'll buy a one-way ticket to X. I'll stay until my money runs out, then my embassy will have to fly me home, so I can avoid paying for a round trip ticket.

That's when they find out that the embassy won't do that. Depending on the country,the embassy may say "tough luck," or may offer to help you contact friends or family who can send you money. The US, in the worst case, will loan you the money for a plane ticket, then confiscate your passport and bill you for the cost. You won't get the passport back until you pay up.

That is weird because many times a round trip is cheaper then a 1 way! I remember when I went to Canada with the intent to drive back to the US. It ended up being cheaper by a few hundred to get the round trip and then dump the return ticket then do a one way! Maybe times have changed...

[gramma dishes]

...    He came to our open house and spent the ENTIRE TIME muttering under his breath about "can't believe anyone would pay 100k, my entire house only cost $7000, ridiculous amount of money, can't believe it, absurd amount of money, blah blah blah..."

I wonder if he'll still feel that way when the time comes that he wants/needs to sell his house!   

[rose red]

...    He came to our open house and spent the ENTIRE TIME muttering under his breath about "can't believe anyone would pay 100k, my entire house only cost $7000, ridiculous amount of money, can't believe it, absurd amount of money, blah blah blah..."

I wonder if he'll still feel that way when the time comes that he wants/needs to sell his house!   

I was just about to say the same thing!  Please give me his name and I'll make him a fair, er...excellent, yeah, excellent's the word I'm looking for, offer .

[siamesecat2965]

...    He came to our open house and spent the ENTIRE TIME muttering under his breath about "can't believe anyone would pay 100k, my entire house only cost $7000, ridiculous amount of money, can't believe it, absurd amount of money, blah blah blah..."

I wonder if he'll still feel that way when the time comes that he wants/needs to sell his house!   

Hahaha - like my parents when they sold their house in NJ. They, however, were not cheapskates, and as they had already found their new house, made an offer etc. they were not going to hold out for top dollar. Of course, they sold in 2005, when the market was still good.

Bought in 1975 for 65K, sold in 2005 for 765K (totally not worth that, but due to location, location, location, and the market they did WELL). House was listed but not available for viewing for a week. Sat house hit the viewing market, open house Sunday, Monday 2 offers and a contract.

They most certainly could have held out for more, but figured we have an offer, it’s more than fair and we are making a huge profit (house had been paid off several years before)

[siamesecat2965]

My story is not so much cheapskate as illogical.  I have relatives who will drive miles to get the cheapest gas, but the gas is maybe only one or two cents cheaper than a much closer gas station.  I never did the calculations, but I wouldn't be surprised if they spent more money traveling to the farther gas station than to get the more expensive gas.

 

I've actually done the calculations. My car, and my last one, both had 18.5 gallon tanks. I generally try and fill up weekly, to stay on budget, so figure 8-9 gallons. if you save .3 per gallon by driving out of your way, that's a whopping total of .27 PER WEEK, and just over $14 a YEAR. Yeah, my time is too valuable to be traipsing all over eternity and back to save that little.

I will say for me sometimes, its a mental thing. I won't go too far out of my way, but will wait, if gas is .10 more a gallon. still not a huge savings, but its the idea of it, for me.

Thankfully last summer they added gas at my local Costco, which is right by where I go weekly to grocery and other shop, so I just swing by, and fill up. And if I'm not up that way, and need gas, I just go wherever its convenient.

[ica171]

snip

People want to buy a car for a trip and figure $700 would be a good price. (They are usually quite disheartened to find out that it is not easy to buy a car in the US if you don't have a US address. And even more disheartened when people laugh at the $700.)

snip

Yeah, I would think having to get insurance would make that plan not very feasible. However, from what Top Gear has taught me, and what I've heard from friends who've gone traveling in England (not sure about the U.K. as a whole), that is an option and it can be cheaper than renting a car. A friend went to visit relatives in England and buying a car was something like half the price of renting. So she bought a cheap car and gave it to her niece before they left. I think her price was $700 or less, too, and it was a nice car.

The stories about people being cheap because they think the prices are too high reminds me of me. I wear lots of T-shirts because they're cheap, cheaper than nice shirts. I have money in the monthly budget that's supposed to go toward my clothes but I never spend it. When I do go clothes shopping I usually come home with nothing. $10 for a plain T-shirt? $40 for jeans? No thanks. I saw a pair of shorts online for $50 the other day, and I can't even fathom shopping at a place like Anthropologie, where a shirt can be close to $100.

I'm only 30, but I remember when you could buy a decent house for less than $50k. I definitely get nostalgic when I look at prices these days. We just had a guy out to look at our foundation and he had recently been on vacation to California. He was talking about house prices with a friend who lived there and said our modest 4-bed 1.5-bath 1300 square foot house would go for upwards of $700k there. It's on the market now for $115k.

[HenrysMom]

Re the above house stories, my parents paid $10,500 for their 900 sq. ft. house in 1952, it sold for $444K in 2005.  That's living in the Bay Area for you.

It puts me in mind of the time DH was the youngest member of a pastor search committee back in the 90's.  The other members had either paid off their homes or had much smaller mortgage payments.  When it came time to determine the new pastor's housing allowance, all the other members wanted to give him about $250/month (in the SF Bay Area - really?!?).  DH was incredulous and asked them, "Do you realize how much homes costs nowadays?"  They wouldn't budge even when DH brought our mortgage payment book ($1300/month) and a copy of a real estate magazine to a meeting as proof.  Finally the association and the seminary contacts had to tell them the facts of life.

[StuffedGrapeLeaves]

Re the above house stories, my parents paid $10,500 for their 900 sq. ft. house in 1952, it sold for $444K in 2005.  That's living in the Bay Area for you.

It puts me in mind of the time DH was the youngest member of a pastor search committee back in the 90's.  The other members had either paid off their homes or had much smaller mortgage payments.  When it came time to determine the new pastor's housing allowance, all the other members wanted to give him about $250/month (in the SF Bay Area - really?!?).  DH was incredulous and asked them, "Do you realize how much homes costs nowadays?"  They wouldn't budge even when DH brought our mortgage payment book ($1300/month) and a copy of a real estate magazine to a meeting as proof.  Finally the association and the seminary contacts had to tell them the facts of life.

$250/month for the SF/Bay Area?  You can't even get a closet for that.

[HenrysMom]

Re the above house stories, my parents paid $10,500 for their 900 sq. ft. house in 1952, it sold for $444K in 2005.  That's living in the Bay Area for you.

It puts me in mind of the time DH was the youngest member of a pastor search committee back in the 90's.  The other members had either paid off their homes or had much smaller mortgage payments.  When it came time to determine the new pastor's housing allowance, all the other members wanted to give him about $250/month (in the SF Bay Area - really?!?).  DH was incredulous and asked them, "Do you realize how much homes costs nowadays?"  They wouldn't budge even when DH brought our mortgage payment book ($1300/month) and a copy of a real estate magazine to a meeting as proof.  Finally the association and the seminary contacts had to tell them the facts of life.

$250/month for the SF/Bay Area?  You can't even get a closet for that.

Yup.  The chairwoman of the committee was paying $250/month on the mortgage for the house she purchased in 1968.  So she thought that was a reasonable amount, never mind that little thing called "inflation" over 20+ years.  The rest were retired people around my parents' age who paid off their houses years ago.