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C H E A P People that you know...what are your stories of that person you knew that went overboard with their habits?

Chargerjase said:
My Grandmother lived through the war. When the bar of soap got down to a sliver, she would carefully graft it onto the new one avoiding any waste.
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My Grandparents did the same thing.

'Waste not, want not' was a popular phrase in the day.

My brother and I used to get hand-me-down clothes from older uncles. I hated that.
I don't make my kids wear anything used like that.
 
kiwigtx said:
My Grandparents did the same thing.

'Waste not, want not' was a popular phrase in the day.

My brother and I used to get hand-me-down clothes from older uncles. I hated that.
I don't make my kids wear anything used like that.
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We had waste not, want not fore sure..I would imagine you guys didn't have the luxuries we did in the prairies of Canada..which isn't saying much
 
I've had the habit of recycling my clothes...
I buy them new but once something gets a spot or stain on it, then it is relegated to use when working on cars or anything that could get me dirty.
Not related to being CHEAP but I try to be efficient with my moves. If I'm walking to the kitchen from another part of the house, I look to see if there is any trash laying around to dispose of at the trash can near the kitchen. That habit came from a boss that pushed efficiency when driving the forklift....never go anywhere with empty forks. (My ex wife followed that principle as it applied to chickens, pasta and potatoes)
When I was working, I'd have the wife make dinners that would also keep well for lunch at work the next day.
At work, I recycled more lumber than anyone. I'd pull nails out and cut off broken ends and use lumber that would have been thrown away otherwise. The guys that did side jobs and work on their own homes often developed a more efficient manner of material usage. I'd save cutoffs of lumber until I knew that I didn't need them.
I wash my cars and truck on the lawn instead of the driveway. We're often going between drought and heavy rain here so it doesn't hurt to be careful with the water.
 
You are a man after my own heart Kern. I do everything as efficiently as possible too. This trait was not instilled in me by a parent, but rather my very first supervisor where I worked part time in the school holidays. He was a tough character with a heart of gold, but a stickler for not wasting anything, especially your time. I am very thankful to him for gifting me that trait, whether he knew it or not.
 
Chargerjase said:
You are a man after my own heart Kern. I do everything as efficiently as possible too. This trait was not instilled in me by a parent, but rather my very first supervisor where I worked part time in the school holidays. He was a tough character with a heart of gold, but a stickler for not wasting anything, especially your time. I am very thankful to him for gifting me that trait, whether he knew it or not.
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I see no downside to being efficient.
If you are in the back yard heading indoors, is there anything that you can do to save a trip out later? Take the trash cans to the curb for pickup...pick up debris in the grass since you intend to mow the yard the next day, stuff like that.
When I'm out at the auto parts store or any other place, I think of other things that I might need. I'll call the wife to see if she wants me to get her a sandwich or if the dog food is getting low. I try to avoid single purpose trips if there are other things that will be needed soon.
I do run mid grade gas in the daily drivers even though 87 octane could work. Some say that the computers back off timing based on detonation and reduced timing makes the engine less efficient.
I run my tires until they reach the wear bars before replacement. Who doesn't ?
I used to have good luck at the county dump where they gave away chemicals that people disposed of....anti-freeze, oil, WD-40, spray paints, bug killer all of it new stuff. That seems to have really slowed down. I used to make great scores there but today I almost broke even on gas money for what I left with. I've seen people dispose of Drano. Yeah...they "recycled" something that you intentionally pour down the drain.
 
Going back war time folk. I worked with an old Dutch guy once (RIP) (I know they have a reputation anyway). He was a child in the Netherlands during world war II. I asked him once what was his most prominent memory of that time. The first thing he said was hunger. They were always hungry, as there was never enough food to go around. The German soldiers would sometimes pass out bread to the kids, but food was hard to get. To the day he died, he would never waste a morsal of food. He would cut the mouldy parts off bread, boil fish frames for stock, ladle the fat off things for cooking with. If he had any fat that was really past consumption, he would absorb it into paper towels and use them as fire starters. Those people understood what real hardship was.
 
Chargerjase said:
Going back war time folk. I worked with an old Dutch guy once (RIP) (I know they have a reputation anyway). He was a child in the Netherlands during world war II. I asked him once what was his most prominent memory of that time. The first thing he said was hunger. They were always hungry, as there was never enough food to go around. The German soldiers would sometimes pass out bread to the kids, but food was hard to get. To the day he died, he would never waste a morsal of food. He would cut the mouldy parts off bread, boil fish frames for stock, ladle the fat off things for cooking with. If he had any fat that was really past consumption, he would absorb it into paper towels and use them as fire starters. Those people understood what real hardship was.
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I used to work with a guy who grew up in Germany during WW2.
He would bring his lunch in a brown paper bag and re-use the bag for I don’t know how long. It would be all greasy haha.

When I was a teenager my dad had a retired home builder come help us build a big shed on his property. Well, we were the helpers. If he bent a nail he would pull it out and throw it in a coffee can. One of my jobs was to straighten the bent nails out with a hammer and block so we could use them again.

Both my parents grew up dirt poor; my mom was always very frugal.
My dad was in the computer business back when there was a lot of money in it so he made pretty good money, and he liked to spend it.

When I was 15-16 I went to camp for the summer for a couple months. I got homesick and called home a couple times. I was supposed to write home, and I did, but in one of her letters to me mom told me that the phone calls were too expensive.

Moms way rubbed off on me pretty good, a lot from necessity since my wife never really worked.

I’ve been known to buy used brake pads from the yard for $1 a set. Hell I just straightened out a bent pushrod and reinstalled it on my Charger this summer.

The one I’ve gotten the most grief for though is buying used tires. I put a set on my son’s car before he drove from Ohio to live in Colorado. He didn’t make it through Indiana before a belt broke and he had to buy a new set at Big O tire, who ripped him off on the deal. That just about put me off of used tires. Other than slicks. And snow tires sometimes. Dammit I guess I am a cheap ***.
 
kiwigtx said:
My Grandparents did the same thing.

'Waste not, want not' was a popular phrase in the day.

My brother and I used to get hand-me-down clothes from older uncles. I hated that.
I don't make my kids wear anything used like that.
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I used to get Hand me down clothes and shoes from my sister. That’s a tight wad for you. Them heels sucked. Lol
 
padam said:
I used to work with a guy who grew up in Germany during WW2.
He would bring his lunch in a brown paper bag and re-use the bag for I don’t know how long. It would be all greasy haha.

When I was a teenager my dad had a retired home builder come help us build a big shed on his property. Well, we were the helpers. If he bent a nail he would pull it out and throw it in a coffee can. One of my jobs was to straighten the bent nails out with a hammer and block so we could use them again.

Both my parents grew up dirt poor; my mom was always very frugal.
My dad was in the computer business back when there was a lot of money in it so he made pretty good money, and he liked to spend it.

When I was 15-16 I went to camp for the summer for a couple months. I got homesick and called home a couple times. I was supposed to write home, and I did, but in one of her letters to me mom told me that the phone calls were too expensive.

Moms way rubbed off on me pretty good, a lot from necessity since my wife never really worked.

I’ve been known to buy used brake pads from the yard for $1 a set. Hell I just straightened out a bent pushrod and reinstalled it on my Charger this summer.

The one I’ve gotten the most grief for though is buying used tires. I put a set on my son’s car before he drove from Ohio to live in Colorado. He didn’t make it through Indiana before a belt broke and he had to buy a new set at Big O tire, who ripped him off on the deal. That just about put me off of used tires. Other than slicks. And snow tires sometimes. Dammit I guess I am a cheap ***.
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Joy of joys…..now with the inventarion of the torx head screws, they can be used, and used again, which I always do.

I use the same containers for my lunch every day. I am famous for not buying my lunch…..ever. I don’t like fast food, and will never stop and buy anything to eat, no matter how hungry I am.

I save every nut and bolt from the cars I part out. I use them often, although not as often as a friend of mine, who spends hours at the Nats going through the swap area and buying hundreds of used fasteners.

I like the things that everybody else would not. I love the heel of the loaf of bread, more than the bread itself. I will use hotdog buns as bread well past their day because I don’t like to throw out food.

My brother is somewhat frugal, but he learned a valuable lesson and may have changed his ways. A buddy of ours was working on an old Packard, he had drained the old gas from the tank to drop it out, about 10 gallons. Instead of just recycling it, my brother decided to take it and use it in his plow truck. All 10 gallons at once! The truck has never run well ever since. We still joke about “Packard gas”. I would’ve saved it as bonfire starter.

Yes, I’m thrifty, and I’ll admit it.
 
I used to have a rule that any car I drove would be under a $1,000.
My wife always had a decent vehicle (minivan)
I bought a 1983 Plymouth gran fury with a slant six 225 for $700 with 78,000 miles on it.
It needed a brake line on the passenger side front wheel. I talked the guy into letting me fix it on his driveway.
It had new Michelen tires on the front halfway decent radials on the back and came with a set of snows.
The rear main leaked maybe 500 miles/quart. I never changed the oil. After about a year I'd start dumping used oil from my wife's car or the charger in it. I would take the used filter from the charger and put it on the 225. Kinda handy so I never had to return used oil.
I put 55,000 miles on it over 8 years using the tires it came with. I estimated that almost 40,000 were reimbursed at the IRS rate for work travel. So I started calling it my cash car since I made thousands driving it.

It was very good in the snow and I started it at -26 degrees one morning in Lowville NY.

My younger son cried when I junked it. He pryed off the emblem and it's in my barn today on the wall.
 
I work in engineering and engineers are notoriously cheap. I am frugal, but don't consider myself cheap. Mostly, I hate paying anyone to do things I can do myself. Often it's the only way we can afford to do things. Problem is that my wife gets impatient waiting for me to get to some projects.

When I started 30+ years ago, there were a lot of real cheapskates in the office. We called them "crafters" because they could squeeze a quarter until the eagle screamed and were always looking for the cheap way out. One of my early mentors used to say that crafters are so cheap that they'll line up for a free kick in the ***.

Most were middle-aged, single men who rarely bought new clothes despite their dress shirts being threadbare and having ring around the collar. If they had to wear a coat & tie for a big meeting, they'd pull out something from their college days. My wife wouldn't let me out of the house
They all drove old cars until the wheels fell off (guilty!).

In those days, the secretaries handed out the paychecks. There was one guy who would just throw it in his desk drawer where there were already several others that he hadn't deposited yet. Me? I had direct deposit because I couldn't afford delays in when the money showed up because it was usually going right back out.

My grandparents grew up during the Depression. My grandmother would clean and re-use aluminum foil until it crumbled from being folded so many times.
 
I have a friend we always bust his *** about being cheap. When we were coming back from Carlisle I was taking a piss and I noticed someone had thrown some change in the urinal. As I was leaving the bathroom,he was coming in to use it next. I said to him,there is some change in the urinal,and it still better be there when you come out! Lol I said I am going to check it when you come out!
 
padam said:
I used to work with a guy who grew up in Germany during WW2.
He would bring his lunch in a brown paper bag and re-use the bag for I don’t know how long. It would be all greasy haha.
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I used to do the same with my lunch. I'd re-use the same paper bag for a week. I still bring my lunch every day since it's a lot cheaper than buying it and more convenient, but use a reusable, insulated lunch box now.
 
My first house had nothing but dead grass in the backyard when we bought it. I noticed that when they sodded the yards of the houses we were building, they would leave a pallet in the street in front of the house with maybe 6 to 10 pieces of sod on them for the laborer to throw away, leftovers. I asked the superintendent if I could have them. Everyday that it was there, I would bring home the sod, clean the needed spot to lay it and bring the old dirt back and spread it out on a vacant lot. It took all summer and I ended up with a new yard.
 
Kern Dog said:
WE all know CHEAP people. Some of us are those people.
Sometimes they are really smart and just not being wasteful but sometimes their penny pinching ways are annoying.
Me? I can be cheap sometimes. It sometimes is motivated by money but other times I like a challenge to do more with less.
This car:

View attachment 1746834

Was put together with mostly used parts I saved over the years. Yeah, I could have opened the wallet and bought new things but it was fun to see what I could do with a tight budget. I have a running, driving ratty car for a total outlay of under $10,000.

What about the people that use single ply toilet paper or that recycle used engine oil to lubricate door hinges?
Who has stories of family members or friends that were so CHEAP that they annoyed the heck out of you?
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The lads at our hunt camp don't call me cheap - but they do throw out the term "thrifty" from time to time!
 
I had an Aunt and an Uncle who were super cheap. They had no children but did have a cabin on the rivrer and a boat. I could make a huge list but the thing that I remember most is going to their house and seeing tea bags hanging to dry, I don't know how many times they used them! I did do pretty good on my inheritance though! :thumbsup:
 
Longknife said:
I had an Aunt and an Uncle who were super cheap. They had no children but did have a cabin on the rivrer and a boat. I could make a huge list but the thing that I remember most is going to their house and seeing tea bags hanging to dry, I don't know how many times they used them! I did do pretty good on my inheritance though! :thumbsup:
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How many used tea bags did you inherit?
:lol:
 
Years ago we were sitting around drinking at my kitchen table,and my friend comes in with a pizza. He grabs a beer and starts eating the pizza. I notice my sister is salivatating over the pizza. She asks him if she can have a piece,he says sure for a dollar a slice! Pizza was about seven bucks back then,the cheap prick actually took her money! We still bust him about it to this day! His defense is she paid it!
 
My other friend used to save all the light bulbs out of the cars we parted out and reuse them in the cars he restored. I used to bust him about his cars having restored OEM lightbulbs!
 
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