• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

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

I knew a guy who took pens, toilet paper and napkins from his company for decades, ketchup, salt, pepper and sugar from fast food joints. Bragged about how much he saved every year… Cheap as hell…
 
Guys from work would go out once a week and have a few beers. We’d get hungry and start ordering apps. One guy would bitch, “if we wait an hour, the apps are half off.” Always nickel and diming us about who had what drink and how much each of us owed. F that guy. I was done with his Scrooge like behavior
 
The lads at our hunt camp don't call me cheap - but they do throw out the term "thrifty" from time to time!
Deep pockets with T rex arms syndrome is what they call it! It happens everytime the waitress leaves the check! I tell my friends,i'm not cheap,i'm car poor!
 
I'm not cheap but,one time I went out to eat with a friend and his fat girlfriend,and they ordered over $100 worth of food,my food was $20. They pulled the old lets split the check thing on me. It was separate checks after that!
 
We used to meet up with a car group for dinner. One guy was notorious for neglecting to include tax & tip when he threw money in the pot to pay the bill. Then he'd walk away while the rest of us are counting it up and finding we're short.

My wife meets a friend for lunch once a month. The other gal always orders more expensive food and drinks than my wife then wants to split the bill. She has plenty of money.

Done with that BS. Separate checks is the only way.
 
ME!!! I confess am cheap, except for my house, my wife or spare parts, I just don't care the brand of clothing am wearing, or the shoes, i try to save my money, not that I don't care about me, but the luxuries are not important, a month ago buy solar panels for my house to save money.

IMG-20241003-WA0011.jpeg


IMG-20241003-WA0013.jpg


IMG-20241003-WA0014.jpg
 
I'm not cheap but,one time I went out to eat with a friend and his fat girlfriend,and they ordered over $100 worth of food,my food was $20. They pulled the old lets split the check thing on me. It was separate checks after that!
Years ago at a kids hockey tournament. We went out with a group of parents. Everyone is boozing big time. Me and the wife are being responsible (insert smart *** remarks here). Two plain salads and diet cokes. One parent says to me, “a hundred bucks per couple should cover it.” Lesson learned. Never happened again.
 
My parents lived through the depression and WW2 also, very frugal and nothing was wasted, my mother would not throw things like baggies away. she would wash and re-use them. If we had baked potatoes for dinner, we had to remove the aluminum foil carefully and fold it back up.
When it was "that time of the month" for my sister I could tell, she was only wearing one sock.
 
My parents lived through the depression and WW2 also, very frugal and nothing was wasted, my mother would not throw things like baggies away. she would wash and re-use them. If we had baked potatoes for dinner, we had to remove the aluminum foil carefully and fold it back up.
When it was "that time of the month" for my sister I could tell, she was only wearing one sock.
Is that where the phrase "sock it to me" originated?
 
My deceased uncle never used credit cards, always had $1k+ cash on him, was worth millions, was sharp enough to buy a boxcar of 20?lb cylinders of R-12 (that his son in law stole upon death before the executor was notified of the asset) was a bit cheap.
He had two Connecticut State Tax auditors do an in-depth business audit at his home office for a couple days (80's). At the end of the audit, they were packing up and tossed all their manual adding machine paper tape printouts in his trash can.
Before they departed he retrieved the adding machine tapes and started to roll them up.
The auditors became rather agitated and asked, what was he intending to do?
He responded, " will use the other side in my adding machine".

He did live thru the Great Depression. He was a coastal Blimp Submarine hunter Pilot in WW2.
 
I'm not cheap but,one time I went out to eat with a friend and his fat girlfriend,and they ordered over $100 worth of food,my food was $20. They pulled the old lets split the check thing on me. It was separate checks after that!
My response, "let's not"
 
Elderly neighbors who STILL have a mortgage can be explained. Saw them at Chiles and said to Linda, let’s buy their lunch. Jesus Chrysler. We spent around $43. They spent $74! Not complaining, wanted to do it. However, it helps explain the broke. Once you agree to pay, doesn’t matter if it’s 300. Seems like the poorer among us spend like hell. Like on the job, the Bum under the Train had Grey Goose in his pocket. My Vodka is about $10. For the big bottle.
 
I'm cheap... i grew up super poor and will end that way so i worry bout money all the time.. My issue right now is on my car it seems i am paying for **** 2-3 times.. sometimes due to changing my mind, but a lot due to bad parts out of the box.. I now have well over twice as much into a car than it's worth and haven't done a fresh motor yet.. cheap and broke are a bad combo :)
 
For the record IMO, I make a distinction between "cheap" and "frugal", cheap being one does not want to spend their money, frugal being one does not want to spend anybody's money.
 
I'm weird.. i won't spend money on myself but gladly give it to people that need it... My front tires are decades old.. but no dry rot.. good enough for now :)
 
Sometimes I am tempted to buy something but I have to weigh the gains that I would see from it to see if it makes sense.
I've wanted to switch to a lightweight Lithium battery for the red car. I have this interest in shedding weight (on the car) while not negatively affecting performance or comfort. A Lithium battery would be 7 lbs but cost just shy of $500 compared to $200 for a lead acid battery.
I've wanted to switch to Trick Flow heads but at $2000+, I wonder if they would deliver enough of a power increase to be worth it.
 
I once knew a guy that would put a pan under his leaking T-flite so he could pour it back in when it was low. My stalls at work are next to the used tire racks and I inspect the old ones to use on my daily driver. I haven't bought new tires for my DD in about 10 years.
Gus
 
I have a friend who is a Concrete Cutter by trade - self-employed and damn good at it. He regularly services his truck, cars and machines. I was over at this house a few years ago doing some work for him, and his wife was busy painting the fence (rural lifestyle property) with this really smelly black goo. I asked what it was that smelt so bad.
It turns out he has been painting the fences with the used engines oils from his vehicles - most are diesel. That might sound cheap, but it actually makes good sense.

Engine oil and diesel combined will preserve the wood, and stop the rot, as well as keeping away any bugs or mosquitos etc. His fences looked brand new. :)
 
Auto Transport Service
Back
Top