When Does “Frugal” Cross the Line to “Cheapskate”?

When do you become a cheapskate instead of just frugal?! 

We all want to be frugal (or at least I do!), but no one wants to be cheap! So, how do you know when you crossed the line?

Cheap Date

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“I offered to cook for a date once if he brought beer, and that dude brought 3 cans of Coors Light in a grocery bag, and I thought that was bad.”

Paper Towels for Napkins

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“My grandpa will buy a roll of paper towels (like the cheapest single roll you can get) and then have my grandma rip off each sheet and cut that into fourths for “napkins” Napkins that are already napkins cost like…. 5 cents more than the roll of paper towels. It takes her like 2 hours because she’s becoming arthritic.”

Too Cheap To Pay for Trash Service

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“I have a relative who is too cheap to pay for trash service or to buy a dryer, so she takes all of her trash and wet clothes over to her father’s house. This is a woman with a family and a house, not a starving student or something.”

Only Buy From Costco

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“My wife refused for years to buy a Costco membership while simultaneously forbidding me from buying things like bread and milk from anywhere but Costco. She’d insist that I ask a friend with a membership every time we needed the smallest things. Her mom started gifting her a membership every year for Christmas so she’d stop demanding her to take her to Costco twice a week.”

Extremely Frugal Roommate

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“I had a roommate who was very practical. She picked up any change she found, even just pennies. She opted for cheaper options on anything that didn’t significantly diminish the quality. She even built a tiny house because she didn’t believe that she really needed to spend much on a place to live. It worked well for her.”

Time vs. Money

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“When the time you waste or the quality of life you lose are worth more than you save in money.”

Cheap vs. Frugal

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“Frugal is compromising and cutting out extra things in your life. Cheapskate is squeezing pennies on things you actually need. For example, washing all of your clothes at once, maybe once or twice a week, and using a dollar store detergent is frugal. Wearing your clothes into the shower to wash them and you at the same time is cheapskate.”

Does Your Frugality Burden Those Around You?

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“Frugal people don’t save money by burdening the people around them with their expenses. Cheap people have no problem doing that.”

Do You Try To Avoid Paying For Things?

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“My take is that frugal is refraining from a purchase to save money. Cheapskate is trying to avoid paying for something.”

Splitting the Bill Unfairly

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“Cheapskate: Ordering expensive things on the menu when I order cheap, then suggesting we just “split the bill down the middle.”

When You Endanger Your Workers

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“When you own a restaurant and refuse to buy a knife sharpener or working air conditioner, and your employees pass out from heat stroke and almost cut their fingers off cutting raw fish.”

Trying to Refund a 5 Cent Charge

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“This was when our city was transitioning out of plastic bags, and so getting a plastic bag was 5¢. She bought something and asked for a plastic bag with it. Upon checking the receipt, she noticed the 5¢ charge. This was outrageous! So she lined up at customer service for 20 minutes to “refund” the plastic bag.”

Overly Researching New Purchases

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“Frugal is doing a year’s worth of research to buy the best-priced, longest-lasting air conditioning unit available to the average consumer. Cheapskate is not letting anyone actually use it. In Texas. In the summer. Dad, please, I don’t want to die of heatstroke at 20 years old.”

Spend More on Gas Than You Save

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“Frugal is finding the things you want on sale at one store. Cheap is finding the things you want on sale at 15 stores. You waste way more gas than the $.50 you saved on pasta, Nancy!”

People Who Grew Up Poor Share The 20 Ultimate “Poor” People Hacks

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Life’s thrown us a curveball, and our bank accounts might be staging a rebellion, but fear not! We’ve got something up our sleeves- a treasure trove of tips and tricks that will have you grinning ear to ear as you outsmart the very concept of scarcity. Being broke? It’s not a limitation; it’s a canvas for creativity!

People Who Grew up Poor Share the 20 Ultimate “Poor” People Hacks

20 Of The Worst Mistakes You Can Make In Your Life

Computer stress, night office or man with crypto finance crisis, bitcoin stock market crash or NFT investment mistake..
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Life is like a roller coaster- it’s filled with exhilarating highs, nerve-wracking lows, and unexpected twists that can leave us hanging upside down. We all make mistakes along the way, right? Because at the end of the day, we are only human!

20 Of The Worst Mistakes You Can Make in Your Life 

15 Tips For Frugal Living On A Tight Budget

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If you are looking for tips for frugal living on a tight budget, this post is for you. 

Being on a tight budget means looking for even the slightest opportunity to save money. It could be saving to clear your loans, for a bigger purchase, or even for early retirement. 

15 Tips for Frugal Living on a Tight Budget 

12 Frugal Hacks That Make All The Difference

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A Reddit user who started the frugal journey with his wife a couple of years ago wanted to know the frugal hacks people had that made all the difference.

According to the OP, shopping grocery sales every week and planning their meals helped cut their bill from $250 to $100 per week. Other users shared their stories about frugal hacks they had that made some difference in their lives. Here are some of the best ones.

12 Frugal Hacks That Make All The Difference

14 Frugal Living Tips To Learn From Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway is interviewed after the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting held at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Neb. on Saturday, May 2, 2015.
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Legendary investor Warren Buffett is one of the wealthiest people in the world and, for a time, was the wealthiest. It might surprise you, then, to learn that Buffett is a proponent and practitioner of frugal living and always has been.

14 Frugal Living Tips To Learn From Warren Buffett 
 

 

This article was produced and syndicated by A Dime Saved.

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