by ButtLight 53 Replies latest jw friends
I'm cheap in some ways but not others. I won't hesitate to buy new technology even if it costs me thousands of dollars, but I won't buy new socks or underwear until my current ones are almost unrecognizable as clothing. I also cut my own hair, and don't care if it looks like shit.
W
Or some people wash out their ziplock bags and re-use them. Wash plastic utinsils.
My mother in law did that. I always thought it was because of the era she grew up in, Depression, etc. Plastic bags were a real novelty so she used them as much as possible. When we moved her out of her home, we found boxes of plastic bags under the house, that were from grocery stores and the bakery where she worked.
She wasn't cheap................very generous actually, just loved those plastic bags.
I have known cheap people though.............always waiting for someone else to pay a tab, or offer to buy something for them. They would order something minor at a restaurant, saying they didn't have enough money, so someone there would say they were paying. Of course they had the money, just didn't want to pay it.
Some friends of ours were terrible tippers too. Never more than 10%, if that much. Embarrassing. We usually made up the difference, so our portion of a tip was pretty big.
but I won't buy new socks or underwear
Nothing wrong with that unless your going to say you wear them inside out to save on washing them!!!!!
Not quite "cheap" but definitely some issues with money....
This family owns a janitorial business (big surprise) and the comment made by the boss/POelder was "it's disgusting how much money we're making" Nice.
~merfi
Nothing wrong with that unless your going to say you wear them inside out to save on washing them!!!!!
Damn, you're good! Thanks for the idea!
W
What I find cheap is people waiting in line for gasoline, knowing it will go up 5 cents in an hour. So they wait half an hour in line...lol So after saving 15 cents of gasoline, they go and pay inside the gas station and then they buy 20 bucks of lottery tickets...lol
Yes, and they are all over on LDH's "wedding thread" espousing the benefits of 2 dollar wedding meals!!! LOL.....sorry guys, could'nt resist !!!
My ex father in law would leave a $4 tip for a $70 meal. Every time we went out with him for dinner, we would wait until he turned to leave the restaurant and make up the difference.
My mother does that too. I started to volunteer to leave the tip and she got the hint. She now asks if $X is enough. It's sad because she used to be a waitress, so you'd think she'd at least tip 15%. And she's not poor. I have a lot of stories about Mom & Dad's frugality. Mom used to water down frozen orange juice concentrate, using double the amount of water. They also used to buy the damaged goods at the grocery store, not being overly concerned if there were weevils burrowing in the flour, or botulism lurking in the dinged cans. My father also timed my showers and shut off the water supply if I exceeded 5 minutes. He also tried to ration toilet paper-either one square or three. My mom was cheap with everyone and just about everything. My dad was cheap with everyone else, but himself.
I think it's important to distinguish between someone who is frugal, appreciates a bargain or good value, and someone who is moocher. A cheap person isn't always a moocher. And moocher's aren't cheap/frugal in all areas.
I appreciate a bargain and good value, but I don't sponge off others. I also skimp in some areas, but spend freely in others. My biggest extravagances are restaurants and travel. However, I add water to empty bottles of liquid soap, shampoo and detergent to get the last bit of soap out. I insist that lights are turned out when we leave a room. I turned the water heater to the lowest setting. I also group errands so I only have to take the car out once. The last three items I do for the environment, as well as to save money.
I was a pretty cheap Witness at the end...
I'd calculate the distance I travel to go to the hall and back, and all the mileage I did with my car in the field service and going to assemblies out of town, add that up, add the cost of all my JW clothes, and every penny it cost me to be a JW....
I decided that it was too expensive and started missing a few meetings and assemblies, calculating how much I saved
Reminds me of a brother™ I knew much of my JW life. His name is Scott which eventually because of his miserly ways was nicked Scotch.
He always got someone else to pay for him and his family no matter where we went with him/them. Oh he would kick in a small amount of the bill at the restaurant but not all that was due him. He and family would show up to gatherings without any food and mooch off everyone else.
He would bring his motorcycle to the sand dunes without gas and various other bike parts ie; spark plugs and such and borrow from the guys. Same for the river trips, he would show up with half the gear and borrow the rest, he always needed gas money to get home and gas for his jet ski or boat. He always had the toys everyone else had and was a darn good mechanic to have around so I think because of his mechanic skills the guys would basically cut him some slack.
His wife and girls were awesome people I loved them and she was many times embarrassed about their plight or hubby's cheap ways. It was a long standing joke but they took it well. When the girls got older she started working and they weren't such mooches. I never minded it because I love their company, Scott was a lot of fun and added a lot of life to an other wise boring outing. His wife was also very generous with what ever she had that she could share with others. Some people couldn't stand them being around but I always looked forward to seeing them.
I used to work for a very wealthy Jewish couple at their vacation home in a resort town. Every time I cleaned there after they had visited the kitchen had used paper towels laid out all over the counters even on the light fixtures drying to be reused. The first time I gathered them all up and threw them away, boy did I get chewed out!!!! They also only used soap that they got from Hotels they've stayed at, they had shoe boxes full of it under the bathroom sink.
Oh and they also saved ziplock bags and reused them, I never saw a box of ziplock bags just the reused ones stored in the pantry, weird.
They were so wealthy but these quirky spendthrift ways made me wonder if that was how they accumulated their wealth.......I still dry my paper towels....waiting for the savings to kick in any time and I'll be rich! LOL
