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Being smart with money means knowing when to save and when to spend. Because if you cheap out on the wrong things, you might end up paying even more to fix the consequences.
No one learned that lesson better than these folks, whose extreme frugality came back to bite them. To avoid making the same mistakes, read their stories below and take note of what’s actually worth the splurge.
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#1
When I started university I had lots of money, I'd saved up when I was young, now I was getting lots in the forms of student loans and grants and whatnot. For my entire first year I was extremely frugal, rarely drinking, eating rice and vegetables every day, that sort of thing. I saved about 80% of the money that year, so much I didn't know what to do with it.
Then a close friend of mine was knocked off her motorbike by a texting driver. The car ran over her head, and shattered her thigh bone, fortunately she was wearing a helmet but she was in a coma for about 6 weeks. This was several years ago and she's still recovering from it now. She was 19 when she got hit. I ride too and it really made me think about how I'd had a fairly miserable first year so that I could afford a house I might never live to buy. The two years after that I spent all of my money, new computer, new motorbike (common sense be damned!), about a thousand dollars worth of safety clothing, limited edition books, three holidays, all sorts. Whenever I wanted something I bought it. Only this past year or so have I reeled it back in and started saving properly again, because I did live after all.
It's a difficult balance. I know if I'd saved that money I'd be able to afford a nicer place to live now, but at the same time I wouldn't own anything to put in it, and I would look back on university and remember using a s****y computer in a cold, boring room, never going anywhere. If you're saving to the point you can't enjoy your life you're doing it wrong, but if you're spending to the point where your future is uncertain, that's also doing it wrong. Doing it right is the tricky part.
PeepPeep the duck 10 months ago
I’ve been there. Depression made me spend 70k in three months from my payout when I got set on fire. Nothing to show for it but I had fun and learnt a lesson, especially since I don't come from money I didn't know how to manage it etc.
RELATED:
#2
I live in a remote area about 2.5 hours from the closest major city, but you can make it there solely by public transit if you time it correctly. When going to visit my family one Christmas, I decided to save some gas money and go this route to get to the airport. I was carrying one packed suitcase and a carry on, and traveled on 4 buses, a ferry, and a train to make it to the airport. Once I got to the airport, I had three flights and two layovers to look forward to before finally getting to my destination (hey, the price was right.) All in all, it came down to about 24 hours of travelling to get from one side of the US to the other. I saved MAYBE $50 or so. But looking back I'd pay the extra $50 next time to save my precious time. Woof.
Keith Lancaster 10 months ago
I was told years ago to look at how much money you would earn during something like this. At least you arrived safe.
Stace Kemp 10 months ago
I don't do that travelling from New Zealand hah.. Definitely spend the extra
#3
When I collapsed in the mall waiting lane. Turns out eating only noodles for months isn't enough to maintain a body. The more you know !
Jrog 10 months ago
Who could have thought that a low-protein, low-fiber, no-vitamin, high carb, high-sugar, sodium rich food would be bad for your health? Seriously though, the best it could happen is muscle weakness and constipation, but "eating noodles for months" can easily lead to hormonal imbalances and chronic heart damage.
Luis Hernandez Dauajare 10 months ago (edited)
When I was in college, I had a friend who did that for seven months. Then his teeth got loose, one fell out, and a very old scar on his arm opened again. Turns out he got scurvy. Doctors were perplexed he managed to catch a XVII century disease...
StrangeOne 10 months ago
Lived off Mr. Noodles for 3 days and ended up with a violent stomachache. Never again. I'd rather just eat peanutbutter and jam sandwiches or just regular soup.
Keith Lancaster 10 months ago
That is a pretty stupid thing to do. We have this thing called the net where you can search for information about all sorts of things, like nutrition.
AsylumWalker 10 months ago
If you dont have money, you eat what you can. You sound pretty stupid yourself
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#4
It was probably the time I was standing ankle deep in sewage in my basement trying to work my small, hardware store toilet snake. Sometimes its better to call a plumber. The really sad part? I finally did, and the plumber told me over the phone it was probably backflow due to a blockage in the city sewer and that I should call the city. I did, and the city fixed it for free.
Ladedah 10 months ago (edited)
My beloved huband once tried to wash some large paint brushes - covered in OIL-BASED paint - in the kitchen sink... which inevitably resulted in a fully clogged drain a couple months later. I tried Draino... it ate a hole in the tailpiece and didn't even touch the clog. So I bought a 50 ft music wire drain snake for $30 and ended up having to feed it all the way down my kitchen drain to the main sewer in order to clear it. Husband was on "coil it into the bucket" duty as I pulled it back out. He FAILED. Nothing quite like a 50 ft sewage slinky flying through your kitchen 🤮. Was worth the money (it did fix the problem), but if I ever need to do that again, I'm getting one that's enclosed in its own housing and doesn't require a separate bucket.
Evan Connolly 3 months ago
I live in an apartment complex. Something got clogged down the line and my kitchen sink backed up with other people's dirty dishwater, I even found the plastic handle from a knife. I had water on the floor, and the night before the plumber came was a bad one; I had to listen for the sink overflowing onto the floor.
Load More Replies... #5
I've been saving 40-50% over the last couple of years, pretty happy with it, and I easily have enough money to do something special for my mother who is getting older (she's always wanted to go to Italy) without really making much of a dent in my savings. So I've committed to traveling with her next year for a few weeks so she can do that (and paying for both of us), but I'm so used to being very careful with money that I'm feeling huge anxiety about the expenses constantly, even though I can actually afford it. I don't know if it's a hangover from growing up not wealthy and having to be careful or what, but I really need to learn to relax and enjoy some big things when they are worth it :/.
veirdbuttrue 10 months ago
Awwww. This is something you wont regret!!! Take the trip!!! When you are old and yr ma is gone you will be so happy you both did this!!!!
#6
Ugh, my inlaws are frugal in puzzling ways. They will inconvenience everyone around them to save a buck, yet blow money in stupid ways. For example, they are really opposed to paying for airport parking. It's $10 a night, not a huge sum. They'd rather I wake up at 4am to go take them to the airport, and then interrupt my toddler's nap/sleep schedule to have me come pick them up. If my toddler is still napping and I refuse to wake him to pick him up, they would rather hang out at the airport for an hour (usually eating something overpriced) instead of taking the $15 cab ride to my house where they leave their car. Sometimes time and convenience > money.
Jonathan Setter 10 months ago
where the hell is airport parking that cheap in the 21st century? Bangladesh?
Jan Moore 10 months ago
When we fly out of St. Louis, we go up the day before and spend the night at a hotel that lets us leave our car free for a week then it's something a lot lower each day after. We spend the night when we get back, then drive home (100 Miles south). It's really great for the very early flights and the hotel has a shuttle. It also has a restaurant.
trixiefly11 10 months ago
I had neighbors that were like this. They were super frugal in their food bill, like still eating depression food from when they were poor and young or using the food bank even though they were relatively wealthy. But then pay $1k for a fancy door to door vaccum they really didn't need. Or other status things they never used.
Keith Lancaster 10 months ago
This sounds more like taking advantage of people than being frugal, to be honest.
#7
Bought a $30 suit from goodwill, spent 200 getting it hemmed and fitted.
It still didn't look right. :/.
Jake Bertz 3 months ago
The trick to getting a suit to fit really well is start with a suit that fits pretty well.
#8
I once learned the hard way that nobody needs a quart of homemade mayonnaise.
Jonathan Setter 10 months ago
no, you learned that YOU don't need it. I am sure for a family of 20, a quart of homemade is a godsend.
Kalikima 10 months ago
A quart isn't that much, a family of 2 could eat that in a couple months..
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#9
When I accidentally dropped my plate of spaghetti on the carpet one night, and instead of making another dinner and be over budget, I picked it all up and ate it while picking out pieces of hair that has snucked in.
Jrog 10 months ago (edited)
C'mon, a whole box of spaghetti is like $2. Just make another one and account the $0,50c loss in your "budget".
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#10
I had to book a motel room for a wedding, but I noticed that as you drove further and further out of town the motels got cheaper. We figured it would be fine to go super-cheap because we'd only be coming back late and leaving early. We booked into the $25/night place, took our key and went on to the wedding without ever looking in the room. Coming back late at night and it was absolutely exactly what you'd expect from a low-budget horror movie. We spent the night sitting back to back on the vibrating (not vibrating; broken) bed staring out of the front and back windows looking for m**derers.
Jonathan Setter 10 months ago
and yet you worried for nothing because you were fine. You were fine because you were way out of town. Probably would have been robbed if you were in a nice place in town. You were a victim of your own prejudices.
Cydney Golden 10 months ago
So anyone who stays in a nice hotel gets robbed??
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Delicate Fcuking Flower 10 months ago
Why did my brain read "murder deer" instead of murderers?
Sven Grammersdorf 10 months ago (edited)
Take a gun with you if you're gonna be sleeping in the ghetto
#11
Dog poop bags at Dollar Tree, a lot of them weren't sealed shut at the bottom.
Earonn - 10 months ago
After the second you just return it to the shop and get another roll with good ones. What's the issue?
Binky Melnik 10 months ago
The issue is that OP didn’t simply get a faulty roll, but rather ALL (or most) of the bags are faulty because they’re just a dollar.
Load More Replies... #12
My main thing is that you skimp on the daily things so you can buy experiences with it. How much does that diet coke that costs $1.50 from the vending machine actually increase your enjoyment out of life? Not much. But that $100 you saved over three months because you didn't continually buy stupid things can be used for 2-3 days in a hotel.
I think a motto for frugal should be "experiences > stuff." That's the way I look at it.
Tiny Fox 10 months ago
I think a $1.50 Coke would add more joy to my life than three nights in a hotel that costs $33-$50 a night. Yeesh. Sounds murdery.
Lila Allen 10 months ago
I so love "murdery" laughing really hard over this.
Load More Replies... Kira Okah 10 months ago (edited)
You can pay the same amount for a bigger bottle from a shop that you can divide up over many days and still save money. Being frugal doesn't mean that you should stop having something that you enjoy for the chance of saving a bit, but being wiser wth how you spend it. If you enjoy your little bit of diet coke, buy bigger for less and use it over several days rather than smaller and more expensive. Make the coffee at home and put it in a thermos to take to work rather than pay per the cup from the coffee machine.
Jonathan Setter 10 months ago
lol what year did you write that, in what country? In Australia it is hard to get a hotel room under $200AU a night nowadays.
Charles McChristy 10 months ago
I don't think I'd want to stay in a hotel where 2 to 3 days costs only $100...
Rick Murray 10 months ago
The problem is you're buying coke from a vending machine. Spend twice that and you can get yourself a six pack of them. Or, better, buy a bottle (if we assume $1.50 is more or less €1.50 because I'm too lazy to look it up), you can get one of the big litre and a half bottles for that sort of price, to just pour out as you need. By contrast, over here cans are usually 330ml or a third of a litre, so that bottle - for the same price - is like four and a half cans.
#13
One time I bought the generic brand Q-tips...Never again.
Khavrinen 10 months ago
Oddly enough, I've found the Walmart store-brand to be better than the Target store-brand for these.
K Barnes 10 months ago
Honest question- no judgement. Is Target considered better quality than Walmart in the USA? I always thought they were comparable, kind of the same. I am not American so I'm curious!
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Jonathan Setter 10 months ago
We ONLY buy the generic brands... nothing wrong with them at all
K Barnes 10 months ago
Depends on the generic brand's quality for each item. It can be the same or much lower. It is often, but not always, the same.
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Tom De Paul 10 months ago
I bought generic nicotine patches years ago. They would fall off mid-day.
Orange Panda 10 months ago
I kept medical tape with me and tape them back on.
Load More Replies... Keith Lancaster 10 months ago
To be honest, they are likely to be all made in the same factory.
#14
Moved to a new city for grad school with my boyfriend, he was only able to get a s****y low paying job, and we had virtually no savings. I discovered couponing, which evolved (devolved?) into extreme couponing.
We didn't have a car, so we'd walk for miles to get to the stores (multiple) where I could stack the best deals.
No matter how much we were carrying or how bad the weather, I never wanted to spend money on the bus, even though it was less than $2 a ride. Sometimes I would give all the groceries to my boyfriend and put him on a bus by himself, and then I would walk home.
I spent pretty much all my downtime scouring circulars, coupon websites, and sorting my coupons. What started as a fun, frugal hobby turned into an obsession, to the point where I refused to buy basic things (milk, toilet paper, scouring pads) unless I knew I was getting an unbeatable deal.
My boyfriend was wonderfully patient with me, even though he hated it, at least in part because our weekly grocery bills were only $20 to $30 for the two of us, and often less than that. But we'd have like eight tubs of cream cheese, a carton of tomato paste, two dozen paper towels, etc. in our tiny one bedroom apartment.
I didn't care at all about nutritional value, either. Oh, and I was *that person* who would get into shouting matches with staff if the store wouldn't accept my coupon.
I kept going even after we became financially stable. It was never so bad that I had to pinch pennies to that extent to begin with.
The last year or so, I've been prioritizing healthy eating, which means I've almost completely tapered off couponing.
I guess if I had to do it over, I'd spend an extra $20 a week and buy ingredients for nutritious, frugal meals, instead of spending so much freaking time couponing and eating cheap processed c**p for 2+ years.
Pyla 10 months ago
So exhausting. If you search around YT you can find episodes from that old show about extreme couponing. I was revolted when I saw a guy with a PALET of toothpaste as tall as he was and it was ridiculous.
Kiss Army 10 months ago
I remember that show... That guy bought all that stuff to be donated. I don't mind it when people do it to donate to food pantries, homeless shelters, military care packages, etc... but I hate it when they feel the need to stockpile their homes with more than they need for their lifetimes.
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Hoi-Polloi 10 months ago
My wife used to be into aggressive couponing. When it got to the point where it seemed like she wasn't actually enjoying it anymore, I reminded her that her TIME has value, and she ought to calculate her hourly salary and see if the ROI on the coupons was positive. She dialed it way back after that (but still maintains an evil glee when she does luck into a good one).
K Barnes 10 months ago
What a great strategy! I'll tuck that suggestion into my back pocket. Luckily my obsessive price-comparing couponer has improved a lot on their own.
Load More Replies... Lila Allen 10 months ago
The OP might want to be seen by a professional. This behavior is not normal and might indicate untreated mental illness
K Barnes 10 months ago
I very much agree wth you. It's not one aspect, it's the many layers here, especially the sacrificing health (and taste), arguing with employees, and continuing when not needed.
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Tempest 10 months ago (edited)
I used to do something similar during my first few years of uni. The closest supermarket from my dorm was about 1 km away. I would walk/cycle there, do my grocery shopping for a month’s worth (if I visited too often I realised that I ended up making impulse purchases so limiting myself to only going once a month was my solution), and would walk/cycle back to the dorm carrying 10-15 kg of groceries on my back and both arms. I looked quite a scene and have been laughed at by some “friends” but I was broke and taking a taxi cost about half that of my monthly groceries (the traffic route wasn’t a direct 1 km between the dorm and supermarket). I had to stop this once they closed this supermarket and the next closest one was much further away. I switched to online shopping which actually turned out to be cheaper cause I would only search for items I need and buy them only instead of getting random things I would see. Looking back I don’t regret any of this cause it actually helped my finances at the time.
Melinda Flick 10 months ago
I’ve never done much couponing because they NEVER have any for what I like!
#15
I moved to a new place and didn't have bowls, plates, and utensils. I had some friends who had extra and we just needed to meet up and I could pick them up. Our schedules don't mesh and it takes a couple weeks before I can meet up with them. In the meantime I'm heating food in my pyrex measuring cup and using my measuring spoons as utensils.
Being able to eat out of a proper bowl and use a proper spoon was awesome. I should have just spent $20 and gone to Target to pick up some bowls, plates and utensils. I found out where the line crossed from being frugal to cheap was for me.
Auntriarch 10 months ago (edited)
Charity shops are your friend here. I bought a metal sieve for £1.75 that cost £20 new. And I bought a large pyrex bowl last week for £3.
Delicate Fcuking Flower 10 months ago
Nice! Across the pond high five! ✋🏻
Load More Replies... #16
After the fifth $1 pizza cutter.
Kira Okah 10 months ago (edited)
That is always the bit - cheap stuff can just break too easily, a slightly more expensive one can last forever. Learned that lesson with headphones, but I couldn't afford the more expensive ones that actually lasted until a pair were gifted to me. My current ones took some saving at £90, but my god are they worth it. Doesn't mean that the most expensive are the best mind you - tried the £300 headphones in the shop and they were as tinny as those value in ear things you can pick up at a supermarket for a couple of quid.
Jrog 10 months ago
Look at Raycon or Beats: they are super expensive but have the same exact quality as the $10 aliexpress ones
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WindySwede 10 months ago
I prefer Fiskars scissors. Finnish brand. Like €15.
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BookFanatic 10 months ago
Always buy the cheap version of something first. If you use it enough that it breaks, then go buy the best model you can afford. Good way to "test drive" gadgets that you want but aren't sure you'll actually use. Pizza cutters excepted, of course.
Damned_Cat 10 months ago
Right. If it's something you know you're really going to use a lot, buy the best you can afford.
#17
When I was sewing up my ripped underwear.
George Costanza 10 months ago
That's just being unwasteful. People used to fix garments all the time until it got cheaper to buy new ones than to have them fixed. You're just old-fashioned.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 10 months ago
Okay, to be fair, I have a pair of Star Wars undies that I love. The material is thin and satiny, so they wore thin and tore along the top seam (where the fabric meets the waistband.) Since I'm the only one who sees them and they make me happy, I sewed up the rip and kept the underwear XD I think it's fine to repair clothing, within reason, if you have the skills to do so!
Rachel Pelz 10 months ago
Wait, no one sees them...are you one those fortunate people whose mom didn't teach that "you always have to wear clean underwear because you might have an accident and then everyone (!!!) will see your underwear"?
Load More Replies... Rachel Pelz 10 months ago
Super expensive but delightful to wear: panty from 100% silk. Fabric is thin, so if they get a run...yes, I will fix it.
#18
I had these moments watching my parents. Both my parents are immigrants from Latin America to the USA. They had to be frugal to survive, and I am frugal as a result of watching them save up and, in fairness, do a lot of clever and cool tricks to save money. But I also learned not to take things too far like they did at times.
When my parents moved from one house to another when I was in college, I came back home to help them move. I knew it was going to be bad, as they were semi-hoarders, but nothing could prepare me for how bad it was. My mother had a spare refrigerator she got for free somehow in the basement. I never opened the fridge much, but I did use the freezer to store fish that I would catch out fishing and give to my parents.
Anyhow, I can't even recall all the contents of that damn basement fridge that I forced my mother to throw away. Jars and jars of jam and Miracle Whip she bought on clearance that were years past their date. Jars of old tea she didn't want to throw away so were "saved" for later--and forgotten. The worst part I will never forget was jar after jar after jar of pickle or jalapeno juice. That's right--old a*s brine. After my parents would finish either a jar of pickles or jalapenos, they would save the brine in jars. I asked my mother again and again why they would do this, and she either pretended not to hear me or would just tell me to shut up.
I have lots more stories, but this is the first one that popped into my head that sums up what absurd lengths my parents would go to save things and be cheap.
Oh, okay, one more one. My parents were too cheap to buy either good knives or good cutting boards to cook with. It was so hard to cook with dull knives on old, uneven wooden chopping blocks. So I bought them a nice knife sharpener and a nice chef knife after college. A few months later I noticed how worn out the sharpener was, and yet the nice chef knife had been blunted down. I figured out what was going on watching my father cook later on that day, watching him use the nice chef knife to chop through a whole chicken (bones and all) directly on a *marble* slab that I thought they were using as a place to put hot pans/pots.
I told my mother, and she said that my father did that all the time with all the knives, and then she would sharpen the knives in an idiotic, absurd cycle. I was so angry with my father I took the knife back, and to my surprise he didn't care because he said it got dull too quickly as opposed to the ancient, clunky meat cleaver they had. That god damn cleaver. I have clear memories of them using it when I was a child all the way up until I was out of university. The handle on it actually snapped clean off while I was in high school, but rather than buy a new one, they got a friend that did some metal work to weld it back together.
When your life becomes more difficult because of how cheap you are, it's time to re-evaluate things.
Binky Melnik 10 months ago
Pro tip: The very best potato salad you’ll ever eat is one in which the boiled potatoes were stored overnight in pickle juice. This article made me wonder whether the mom was saving her pickle juice for potato salad, but OP doesn’t mention her ever doing anything USEFUL with any of the stuff she hoarded. 😕
Evan Connolly 3 months ago
I used pickle brine and fried noodles in it. I called them 'briny noodles' and they were great!
ILoveMySon 10 months ago
Iirc, dull knives are more responsible for accidents than sharp knives .
#19
Our dryer was making horrible screeching sounds. I researched and watched videos, figured out it was a pulley, ordered the part and we fixed it ourselves! Then at the very end my husband noted the gas line shut off valve was no longer screwed to the floor. He put a screw right through the gas line. Ended up paying $385 for the plumber to come out and repair the line
#20
Buying cheap shoes. I pay for it with foot and knee pain.
Andrew Bridge 10 months ago
Shoes, bed, tyres. Never skimp on what's between you and the ground
Nope 10 months ago
"Buy a good pair of shoes and a good bed, you will be spending most of your life in one or the other" (is how I've heard it put). Think I like your version better.
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#21
When I skipped Christmas.
Evan Connolly 3 months ago
I now practically have to skip Christmas because my mother and sister moved to an area of British Columbia that is over 230 miles away. My dad lives 45 miles away, so I am usually alone on Christmas if I don't go to Vancouver. One year, a group of charity-minded people who knew that I was alone brought me some Christmas dinner and some gifts.
Samantha Morris 10 months ago
I'll stop spending money on Christmas presents. Buying presents is getting too expensive.
Jonathan Setter 10 months ago
Christmas is fine for a big extended family, where you can either spread the load, or if one branch is wealthier and can bare the brunt. But it is a waste of money for 1 or 2 people on a tight budget.
Rick Murray 10 months ago
The only thing Christmas means to me is a week off work in the freezing bloody cold dark ar$e end of the year. Oh, and every single shop playing like those same four or five songs on a loop that makes me wonder why the employees aren't in homicidal rage since they have to listen to it all shift every shift for months.
WindySwede 10 months ago
OP "Me too. Its just very stressful. And I have to do it, or I've done my mother a grave crime. So I get to spend more money than I should, feel really awful for a couple of weeks, then feel much better once its over. Food and company would be great. Thanksgiving is perfect."
Load More Replies... #22
. A few years ago I used about every liquid dollar I had to buy my first place, a fixer-upper.
I thought I was going to save a ton by using the handyman from my last apartment building as my “contractor” for real work (demo, electrical, plumbing)
That bought me six more weeks of not being able to move in and $8,000 just to undo the work he did.
Young people, do not be dumb like me. Home improvements can wait until you can actually afford a licensed individual/team to do the work.
Rick Murray 10 months ago
Some insurance can be invalidated by not using a licenced professional.
#23
I didn't have a vacuum, so I bought one at a thrift store (Hoover Windtunnel 2). Turns out that nobody sells bags for them anymore, so I spent 20 minutes cleaning out the old bag while I waited for the bags I bought on ebay to show up. I neglected to buy a filter. Still smells like wet dog whenever I vacuum.
Tim Douglass 10 months ago
I question this, since a quick search shows that Hoover, Amazon, and Walmart all sell bags for the Hoover Windtunnel 2. Filters are also readily available.
#24
Recently I moved and hired movers instead of moving myself. The price was so much cheaper than other companies. I found out why.
I didn’t read the fine print. I was responsible for renting a truck for them to use. They only moved the stuff.
So when they arrived I didn’t have a truck ready. I had to call around and find a place that had a truck available. Fortunately it wasn’t too hard and I found a truck quickly. It was a 20-minute drive to get there so I’m looking at close to an hour to get the truck. THEN when I get there I realized I left my wallet at home and I had to go back and get it.
Meanwhile I’m paying these guys by the hour. I ended up paying double what I would have spent if I had used a company that provided the truck.
Auntriarch 10 months ago (edited)
I've never heard of movers who don't have removal vans. Mind you, I've only just found out that a courtesy car from the garage can be a hire car that the garage then charges you for. Chuchuchanges...
veirdbuttrue 10 months ago
Yes, usually that's a small charge to cover insurance
Load More Replies... Amanda Hunter 10 months ago
I fell for a similar company on the recommendation of an in-law. Several boxes never arrived, and as there was no list, it was my word against theirs. I lost thousands.
#25
Probably when my wife started washing and rewashing Ziploc bags until they could no longer be used.
LB 10 months ago (edited)
I do this and I feel no shame. I freeze things like pieces of cake or lasagna, and then keep them in these bags. They don't get very dirty that way, and it feels weird not to re-use them.
Premislaus de Colo 10 months ago
I always wash and reuse ziploc bags. Frugality is one thing, but why produce so much waste when the product is still good, just dirty?
Ace 10 months ago
Everybody should do this. The art, of course, comes with defining the exact point at which they can no longer be used. Don't seal anymore? Still OK for smaller things, got a small air leak? Fine as long as it's not for liquids. Sort of thing. I still do this and it has nothing whatsoever to do with how much money I have/they cost.
Sue User 10 months ago
I find the slightly torn ones are great for cilantro. Oh, and i wash and bleach, and at a certain point, use for non food.
Load More Replies... George Costanza 10 months ago
I don't see how this is wrong. It's incredibly wasteful to use a perfectly good bag just once and throw it away. There is nothing about Ziploc bags that makes them unwashable or unable to be used more than once.
Firstname Lastname 10 months ago
If I'm packing the same snack all week I'll reuse the baggie because the crumbs match (not going to put some sweet cookies in a cheese cracker bag) but once the week is done and the seal is wearing down, I toss it.
Susan Reid Smith 10 months ago
I use and reuse ziplock bags for sewing and craft projects but will pass on washing them.
Orange Panda 10 months ago
Same. My current "craft bag" is hitting the end of it's life, and I know I need to set up another one (gallon size, packing tape in a couple layers on the bottom), I just don't want to admit defeat. It lasted 4 years and some change.
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trixiefly11 10 months ago
I had a coworker ask me if I rewashed ziplock bags. His wife did. And I have heard of people saving money this way, as they can be expensive. But I am just too lazy. I try reusable food storage containers, but even they just disappear, and they were more expensive.
#26
I called Comcast for a credit because my internet was out for a day.
Total refund: About tree fiddy.
Total time on the phone: 45 minutes.
Nils Skirnir 10 months ago
Not worth it on an hourly basis. Is worth it to hold company to account
Samantha Morris 10 months ago
My parents decided to change phone carriers and AT&T got too expensive to pay for it.
#27
When I turned my fridge off for two weeks when I was out of town. Turns out when you turn the lower part off, the freezer turns off too. Came home to some dead flies and live maggots. Cleaned it out, and still using it despite everyone telling me to get a new fridge.
Carla Pereira Chagas 10 months ago
This isn't being frugal... Is not understanding the basics of how a freezer works
Miriam Insidecor 10 months ago
This person sounds daft. How on earth did they think this was a good idea?
Load More Replies... Rachel Pelz 10 months ago
Was expecting to read...closed the door, came back to fridge being all moldy.
Jonathan Setter 10 months ago
I call bs on this one. There is no off switch for the fridge. You have to unplug it from the wall. Once it is unplugged it from the wall, why would you think the freezer kept running? BTW, the whole system is one, it just puts more cold air into the freezer than the fridge, that is how it works.
Tom De Paul 10 months ago
I can turn my fridge off. It will still be plugged in and the light will come on when I open the door. It just won't cool. Neither the fridge or freezer.
Load More Replies... Evan Connolly 3 months ago
I turn off the circuit breaker for the dishwasher and unplug the microwave oven when I am not using them. I like to keep a low carbon profile and not use standby power.
#28
Not really backfired, but got less than optimal results buying the generic chunk of Parmesan cheese. I don’t use it often, but shave it on the occasional pasta dish or salad. It took forever to use it up. When I needed a new chunk, I decided to splurge on one that was more mid-range price, and what a difference! When this is gone, I might actually buy the expensive one. I use a few cents worth of cheese each time, so it’s not really that much more money, and the taste is MUCH better.
Jrog 10 months ago
Maybe try buying the original one, not the knockoff... "Parmesan" is a brand name for a low quality cheese that mimics the original Parmigiano. Parmigiano production process follows a 9-centuries old recipe and has several provisions for ingredients and processes, all designed to maximize quality.
Ace 10 months ago
That would be illegal in Europe. The word Parmesan has the same protected status as Parmigiano Reggiano, i.e. it is the same thing. If it says Parmesan on the package then it must be real Parmesan inside it.
Load More Replies... Evan Connolly 3 months ago
I find that the best thing to use for pasta is the stuff you can get in bulk or in the can.
Cydney Golden 10 months ago
I buy good parmigiana and grate it. It last pretty long and tastes heavenly.
Tom De Paul 10 months ago
Some of the cheaper versions have a lot of flavor (Belgioioso). Others (Kroger Private Selection) have no taste at all. Amazon makes a good (and cheap) blend of shredded Italian cheeses.
#29
You need to read "die broke"
Frugality is great, but enjoying life before you die is greater still.
trixiefly11 10 months ago
I don't mind not leaving any money behind me, my children can support themselves. But I don't want to live broke in my last years or be a burden on my kids.
Binky Melnik 10 months ago
It says “DIE Broke,” not “LIVE Broke.” The idea is to use it up so you don’t leave any, meaning you needn’t be frugal in your last years. Sounds as if you oughtta read the book.
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Martin Johann Christian Lorentz 3 months ago
Live always first class, otherwise your heirs will so.
Blue Bunny of Happiness 10 months ago
My Dad always said, there’s no pockets in shrouds. Enjoy your money whilst you can.
#30
I drink a lot of pop/soda. I buy it in 2 liter bottles because it's the cheapest. But I live in California where I have to pay 10 cents a bottle for California Redemption Value. I collect two huge plastic bags worth of empty bottles and then take them to a recycling center to get my refund. It's crowded, dirty, smelly, and noisy. Usually I get at least a 5 dollar bill. This past time I only got $4.75. At that moment I reevaluated my life and decided it was no longer worth my time and effort.
Rali Meyer 10 months ago
Give the bottles to the resident "recyclers" (homeless). They appreciate the extra cash
Premislaus de Colo 10 months ago
Sorry, but again - I would recycle for the sake of recycling. Anyway I bought this thingy for making gassed water (don't want to use brands) and adapter for refilling the tanks from big CO2 tank. The cost for one bottle is just fraction of a cent + tap water. Plus you don't create waste - highly recommend
Sven Grammersdorf 10 months ago
Yeah, I don't get anything for my plastic or glass but I recycle it anyway
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Lauren T 10 months ago
Probably means the return rate dropped for the bottles.
Load More Replies... Rachel Pelz 10 months ago
In Germany, pretty much any store which sells non-reusable bottles, required refund 0.25 cent, had to take them back return the money to use. There usually are machines for that. Very small shops are exempt and of course you can give/leave it to people who collect them. BTW the 0.25 cent refund was introduced to make stores sell more reusable bottles but that didn't work.
Jrog 10 months ago (edited)
The Pfandsystem was made to improve the collection rates for reusable containers, and it works perfectly. Germany as a whole has a bottle return rate as high as 98%. Most of those glass bottles are reconditioned and reused, that is a lot more energy efficient than just collecting the glass and recycling it. Those single use containers are recovered with minimal cost, and even for the small part that is discarded in the environment by a******s, there is a strong incentive for low income people to retrieve them to get some money.
Load More Replies... Jonathan Setter 10 months ago
Same here in QLD Australia. We did it 3 or 4 times because the wife insisted. After that she couldn't be bothered anymore. Most of it was the bags of bottles taking up room everywhere, and averaging maybe $10AUS refund each visit every couple of months
Extinct Animal 10 months ago
Where I am atm general waste only gets picked up once every 3 weeks and recycling is once a week and god help you if they catch you accidentally mixing it up, you'll get a snotty letter from the council and then fined if "caught" again. Best thing about it is I have a good friend who works at the "Recycling" plant and on the bin lorries and he's told me that a good 90% of everything just goes into the incinerators all together anyway so I tend not to worry too much anymore.... Whatever rubbish I have gets triple bagged and tied so they can't see what's in it and they don't have the time to sit around opening 4 bags all triple layered...
#31
Not me, but my father in law. Bought a $600K house with cash. Didn’t want to “waste” $300 on a home inspection before closing. After closing, they found out the house was full of termites from top to bottom. Ended up having to tear down the whole house and build new on the plot.
Auntriarch 10 months ago
A friend of mine bought a Victorian house, had the inspection done. After purchase, it turned out the inspector was wrong, there was tens of thousands of pounds of work needed doing. And apparently this was my friends fault because they hadn't engaged a specialist old house inspector, and no insurance was forthcoming.
Grenelda Thurber 10 months ago
One of the benefits of financing a house is a mortgage company requires inspections and appraisals before they're willing to fork over the cash. A cash buyer with any brains would do the same, but there's no requirement.
#32
I am an electronics hobbyist. I've had some frugal successes such as building a quadcopter out of PVC (frame cost was about $0.25) but I have also wasted a *lot* of time trying to save money. Here's some tips:
* Unless it's an expensive through-hole part it's not worth desoldering *unless* you're just trying to practice desoldering. Worth it: Relays, big switches, speakers ('cuz they're easy), and rotary encoders.
* The only thing worth buying in bulk are passive components like resistors and capacitors and things that are so cheap it would be stupid to buy just one like buzzers (1 for $3 or 20 for $5). Everything else will sit in a drawer forever while rapidly becoming obsolete. Example: I have four laser diodes because I thought, " why get one for a dollar when I can get five for five dollars?" Hehe
* You don't need a ready stock of every size/kind of wire in every color. Ugh, why did I buy like 10 spools of 22awg in 10 different colors when all I really needed was red, black, and ?
* Tools are different: Why did I buy that "As seen on TV" wire stripper for $10 (which i knew would eventually break) when I could have bought the $25 one that will last forever? Get good tools that will last!
Jrog 10 months ago (edited)
This is seriously good advice for electronic hobbysts. Except the laser diode one, because heck, it's not like they expire, and when you factor in shipping is often better to buy a bunch of random cool, potentially useful stuff to reach the threshold for free shipping than to just pay for it.
Rick Murray 10 months ago
This. Getting free shipping was how I ended up with an ESP32. Got a couple more from the Bezos Tat Emporium and I'm finding weird little things to do with them. It's pretty cool to have a microcontroller that can hook into your WiFi and serve up a web page of whatever information the thing has. Fridge temperature? When the postbox was opened? And so on.
Load More Replies... #33
While planning my trip to Korea I spent 50+ hours figuring out the cheapest combinations of flights, which ended up saving three people going $30 each. Probably wasn't worth the time.
#34
About a month after my husband and I brought our dream home, we noticed the we had a leak. Called home warranty, they came out and it was discovered one of the pipes was plastic and a staple had gone through it. The staple rusted and fell out, leaving a hole. It was supposed to be a medium repair: cut out dry way to get to pipe, replace pipe and then repair drywall.
The guy who came out said paying in check for the call was fine, but we had to pay in cash for the actual job. Okay, no big deal. He fixed it, we paid. All was good.
Well…. That morning we are awoken by loud banging at our door. My husband jumped out of bed in a splash. There was water POURING out of our garage. It flooded the garage, our bedroom, bathroom and closet. We just moved in a month ago, so we still had a bunch of boxes of stuff in the closet. The closet is huge. It’s like a long room.
Long story short, there were tens of thousands in damages. The warranty company wasn’t going to pay at first because the guy fixed it on the side, not reporting the job to the company. But after my parents got through with them, they paid for all repairs, damage and then some.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 10 months ago
Your... parents fought with the warranty company for you and your husband instead of you or your husband doing it yourselves? XD
Jane Doe 10 months ago
Correction, her parents fought for her and husband to get insurance money because they didn't follow the rules and paid some scumbag cash to pretend to fix it. Either the parents had serious juice, and the insurance company (that regularly denies valid claims) had politcal reasons for bending to the parents or the parents were skilled lawyers and found some legal way "you had a criminal on the payroll who lied to policy holders and defrauded them" and the company decided paying the morons was cheaper than a lawsuit.
Load More Replies... #35
When you start thinking about homemade devices made out of coat hangars to fashion into a key to open the toilet paper dispensers to steal gas station 1 ply tp.
#36
I went to Starbucks with a friend and made "free" chocolate milk from the complimentary milk / chocolate powder / sweetener at the coffee bar.
Kira Okah 10 months ago
And the baristas absolutely hate your friend for this, most assuredly.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 10 months ago
OP is the one who did this, not the friend.
Load More Replies... MonsterMum 10 months ago
It complimentary if you buy a drink, if you didn't buy a drink, you are stealing.
#37
Was attending a Con and decided to save money by staying at a motel a mile away instead of at the hotel the was at. Turns out the motel was on the other side of a 6 lane highway that had no pedestrian crosswalks (I don't drive) Ended up having to sprint across said highway like a lunatic in order to get there and back.
Jrog 10 months ago
You were downvoted, but I remember being in Dubai years ago and having to cross Sheyk Zayed highway (that is 6 lanes *per direction*) on foot, because the other alternative was calling a cab... Thankfully nowadays they built bridges connecting to the metro system and you can use them to cross the road.
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#38
I once moved out to Oregon to get away from Tennessee. I lived with my brother for a few months before I had realized I made a terrible mistake. So all the flights back were quite a bit more expensive than a bus ticket. So I get on a greyhound for four days. The difference I saved from riding the bus I ended up spending on food.
While the bus ride was hell, looking back I did enjoy it!
Auntriarch 10 months ago (edited)
Ah, the bus, sorry I had visions of someone astride a sighthound
Evan Connolly 3 months ago
I used to take the Greyhound to Vancouver to visit my dad. Then Greyhound dropped its service in British Columbia. So I now use the West Coast Express. Not only is the fare cheaper than Greyhound, but it is more comfortable, and it can be reached by bus instead of having to pay for a taxi.
#39
I would say any time I've bought the "cheap" product thinking I was getting a good deal. Then it breaks, and you have to replace it. Buying slightly more expensive quality products that last is frugal.
trixiefly11 10 months ago
You really have to research everything you buy anymore.
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YakFactory 10 months ago
I was always taught to buy the best quality item that I could afford, and to look after it. I'm still using things my parents bought when I was a child, about 60 years ago.
#40
Not a huge backfire but I was down bad on Valentine’s Day trying to find a place to take my gf for dinner. Spent probably 2 hours sifting through menus til I found something I could afford. When we got the check I learned that they hadn’t updated their online menu in years and dinner ended up being more expensive than over half the places I looked at.
DeoManus Argentem 10 months ago
How does this happen? I know there are "classy" places without prices on "guest" menus (usually have prices on the menu given to the "host" though), but if you're ordering food without knowing the price, you know it ain't gonna be cheap. Unless you ordered and paid before being served... which is almost unheard of in places with table service, but in which case you just cancel the order?
#41
Buying a house that didn't check all the boxes. I really should have stretched the budget a bit more. The timing would have been perfect (pre-covid).
Now I'm "stuck" in a house I hate with a fantastically low mortgage.
#42
A dedicated tutor for my child. For the last two years, my daughter Fatima used to go to a private tuition center, run by a lady (at her home) in our neighborhood to have some help with her homework and test preparations. There she sat with about twenty other children and was taught/coached by that single respective tutor.
I’d admit it bugged me for several reasons like “she has to go to someone’s home for 2 hours daily” or “how helpful this tutoring actually is”. Things like that.
But I sucked it up considering this was better than nothing.
Since Fatima moved to third grade this year, she actively started complaining that her Madam does not give proper attention towards her or other kids. She just tells them to complete their school assignments and gets busy with her house chores or even better … take a nap.
I could see it was not working anymore. So about four months ago, I visited a few schools nearby and asked around to find a female teacher who could come to my home and assist my daughter with her school assignments. I talked with dozens of them in the span of a week and fortunately found one.
Though her fee is like 5 times of what I used to pay before, I am convinced. She is well educated and adequate for the job.
She comes to my home and teaches my daughter for two hours daily. We don’t have to take our daughter to tuition center and back. Fatima can have all the attention in the world she thinks she needs. And best of all, I see improvement in her grades.
She is happy, I don’t hear complaints now.
I am one contented father.
#43
When I rocked up to a family gathering with bandages to the balls of my feet.
"Eet," they said as they sat me down, "it's time we held an intervention. You do realise hospital bills, time off work etc. will end up costing you more than a pair of runners?"
So I bought a new pair. I still have to be forced to buy new trainers every once in a while. Old habits are hard to break I guess?
superfluous 10 months ago
I could see this working with duct tape but bandages? For about 5 minutes.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 10 months ago
I'm assuming they meant the bandages were on their feet and not on their shoes XD
Load More Replies... #44
>He continued to be frugal and work until he couldnt so that his wife and 2 kids would live good lives.
then
>I don't know the details, but I heard that his wife ended up remarrying her personal trainer not long after. I'm sure they are enjoying his hard earned money, basically none of which he enjoyed.
And *I'm* pretty sure they are using his hard earned money to raise the children he left behind. Jesus, what would you have her do? Remain single and depressed forever? NOT spend the money he left her? Did you give a single thought to what it must be like for a wife to watch her husband, the father of her two children slowly die over 3 years?
LakotaWolf (she/her) 10 months ago
This is in response to the two stories OP shared in the original Reddit post, if you're as confused as I was by this comment XD
trixiefly11 10 months ago
I mean, if it was immediately after he died that would suck, but if so, he probably spent all his time at work not with his wife so maybe she moved on fairly quickly. You have to learn to balance work and home life.
#46
Tried to replace iPhone battery, ended up ruining it and had to get a new phone.
#47
When you start doing anything that aligns with something you'd see on /r/Frugal_Jerk. For instance, lentil bread may be cheap, but seriously? Lentil bread?
#48
If you're working for a paycheck, you'd better cash in, 'cuz life's too short to never have lived. :).
LakotaWolf (she/her) 10 months ago
Spoken like someone who's never worked "for a paycheck" because all you have in the cupboard is ramen and rice :/ It's a nice concept in theory, but so many of us can't afford this attitude these days.
Ace 10 months ago
I don't even understand this one - are they just saying you should not have a job?
Jane Doe 10 months ago
I really don't know. Something like, don't be afraid to spend what you earn because you don't die with regrets. Which is a wonderful sentiment for a pillow in a Life Laugh Love themed family room. So yeah. It's a factor, but it is one of many factors people are using to make hard decisions everyday.
Load More Replies... #49
I'll never drive from NJ to FL and back again to save money vs flying. I've done it a number of times, but at this point I'd rather just fly and be there in a few hours.
trixiefly11 10 months ago
We did this going to Texas from Washington state. We debated between driving and flying and ended up driving. We did some sightseeing along the way, and we had to drop someone off in Utah (that is what actually ended up deciding it for us) but we also had our car to use while in Texas rather than worrying about renting a car or using ride shares. Everything I read about renting a car was stressful.
#50
Gardening. Nothing grew and we spent more on supplies and seeds than the produce would have cost. We lost a lot of time that we would have gotten back if we just didn't garden. My mom got a spider bite from gardening that not only cost money to treat but caused an infection and a lot of pain and suffering because the wound had to be dressed at least twice daily by another person because it was a large wound that was infected and it took weeks to fully heal.
Not to mention gardening usually involves getting way more of one crop than you will ever use.
We could have just bought the produce at the farmers market, spent less and not have had to gone through the trouble of gardening.
No more gardening. This is something to do as a hobby because you like it not to save money.
Undercover 10 months ago
You garden because the freshness of the veggies/salads/fruit you harvest. Imho gardening has much more to do with the quality of your food then the money you safe.
WindySwede 10 months ago
But when the tomatoes are eaten, the store bought ones taste nothing. And you end up not wanting to buy any more..
Load More Replies... Jenn Smith 10 months ago
Depends on climate and location. Every season, I enjoy my " volunteer" cherry tomatoes. Just from throwing old tomatoes outside. Sometimes I like to set out a few peppers and squash. Next to zero maintenance or care. ( yes I live in a hot sunny area, and lucky to have a little yard of my own)
WindySwede 10 months ago
Here we need to start tomatoes somewhere around 3 month before they are mildly risk free to take outside because of frost 😕
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Bleau 10 months ago
That an chickens. Unless you put up food and use the chickens for more than just eggs, but that's a different chicken. It takes one acre to grow enough food with fruit trees to feed one person a year. All these off gridders/end of the world peeps I've never seen grow more than a half dead plot
LakotaWolf (she/her) 10 months ago
Yep XD I've cut back recently, but I used to have a fairly impressive "container" garden in my backyard. I had three blueberry bushes, two boysenberry bushes, one massive blackberry tangle, and a ton of dwarf/container fruit trees: fig, loquat, calamondin orange, yuzu, lime, lemon, navel orange, pear, apple, plum, and persimmon. I also grew red potatoes in a SIP planter. The berries were massive producers, but even with all of those plants combined and producing, there's no way I could have sustained myself on it. I wasn't looking to "replace" buying produce - it was definitely a fun hobby for me with the side benefit of delicious fruits and berries! But, to grow enough food to truly subsist on, you have to have a LOT of room, several fields, crop rotations, crops that will be harvestable in each season, etc.
Load More Replies... #51
I was cutting dog treats in half with chicken shears. Went to cut raw chicken one day and realised I'd blunted them on the dog treats. Not a total fail as I can use a knife for the chicken and they still cut the treats well but still, not great.
WindySwede 10 months ago
Maybe they were not the * in the *, if you know what I mean.. 🙃
Load More Replies... #52
I bought an umbrella from the dollar tree and it broke within 30 seconds of me opening it due to wind
LakotaWolf (she/her) 10 months ago
Astoundingly, sometimes rain is accompanied by wind.
Load More Replies... #53
I bought a twin bed for myself instead of a double. I could not turn over or spread out. It was not meant to take the weight of an adult. I was so glad when I finally replaced it with a double.
Rosemary 10 months ago
"not meant to take the weight of an adult" That's a cheap bed problem, not a twin bed problem.
Lady Eowyn 10 months ago
I am a small adult and a twin bed is more than adequate for myself and my small dog.
trixiefly11 10 months ago
Sounds like a cheap mattress as well as being too small. A twin can take the weight of an adult. But a cheap thin twin won't. My daughter made the same mistake in her first apartment. She bought a double but only got a six-inch mattress because it was cheaper. If she would have talked to me, I would have told her not skimp on the mattress depth and at least get a 10 inch, nothing thinner. Now she either has to buy a different mattress and dispose of this one or pay almost as much for a decent topper.
#54
I once avoided charging my electric car during peak hours when it was low on miles. I ran out of charge going to pick up my daughter that resulted in a larger tow charge than having charged it during peak hours. Will never make that mistake again.
Earonn - 10 months ago
So, the error wasn't to charge when it was cheaper, but not to keep track when the car needed to be charged regardless of the price.
Jane Doe 10 months ago
He chose not to charge it when it needed charging because he thought he could get by till it was cheaper. He did keep track. His error was deciding it was close enough.
Load More Replies... Rali Meyer 10 months ago
I "love" it when people drive to the petrol station with half a tank because tomorrow price goes up by $0.20 per gallon. So you save, say, $2.00, but it costs you $1.00 for the drive. And your time!
Auntriarch 10 months ago
I never used to fill my tank unless I was going on a long journey, because you're carrying the weight of the fuel until you use it, which impacts your efficiency
Load More Replies... #55
Decided to build a fish tank stand instead of buying one
DeoManus Argentem 10 months ago
I think the point was that fish tanks, unless tiny, weigh a LOT once filled with water! I wouldn't trust my ability to build one, lol!
LakotaWolf (she/her) 10 months ago
Fish make excellent pets and can be very soothing and calming to watch. If someone saves up for a fish tank and cares for it well, it can be a good investment for one's happiness. There's nothing wrong with having a fish tank.
Load More Replies... #56
Buying second hand pants online. Second hand dresses online? Yes sure , because the size is more forgiving. Jeans? No way. They either fit or they don't. I keep forgetting that I need to try pants before buying. I have waster two or three pants. I could have bought a new one with that wasted money
Rali Meyer 10 months ago
I buy online often, but then I am a man. A size 34 means a size 34 fits!
Jane Doe 10 months ago
OP is talking about second hand pants, though. I agree a 34 is a 34, depending on how they were cared for, they could be loose, tight or just crappy. And they could be missing a label.
Load More Replies... #57
The moment my boyfriend asked me if I was re-using Ziplock bags, that I had used to hold toiletries on flights, for storing baby carrots. Okay, I guess I thought it was a good idea at first! I mean, they're perfectly clean!
#58
Yeah, I'm not much of a Bible-beater or anything, but this parable (Luke 12:16-20) hits a little too close to home.
> A rich man had some land that produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, "What should I do? I don't have space to store all my crops." Then he said, "Here's what I'll do. I'll replace my barns with larger ones, and then I'll store all my grain. And then I can finally say to myself, 'you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry!'" But God said to him, "You fool. This very night your life will be taken from you.".
LakotaWolf (she/her) 10 months ago
Ah, yes, religion, which demands tithes of its followers in order to build megachurches: the ULTIMATE frugality XD
Jane Doe 10 months ago
This post and #55 should get together and p!ss away all there paychecks, because "no reGERTS", right?
Load More Replies... #59
My goal right now is to be financially free by 40 years old; saving 50% or more of my income is crucial for this. Happiness is not attained by buying things you don't need, it is about having experiences with the people you love.
So what if I die earlier than I expect with a lot of money? I still would have lived a wonderful life without the hyper-consumer nonsense.
Earonn - 10 months ago
Sounds as if OP is already quite well off, if they can save half of their income. I couldn't save half of it if I didn't buy anything, neither luxuries, nor necessities, nor food....
Sue User 10 months ago
Yeah, hate these type. They have no clue how most people struggle. I had a financial planner tell me i should save x amount for retirement. It was 40 percent paycheck.
Load More Replies... #60
I bought a container of generic Dijon mustard from Walmart.
It was the worst mustard I've ever had.
Ace 10 months ago
Well, Dijon mustard must, by definition, be from Dijon, just as Scotch whisky must be Scottish, yes. But other types of mustard exist and can be very good too. Colmans English Mustard will blow your head off compared to Dijon, for example, and in the right dish it's just perfect.
Load More Replies... #61
I live in tropic climate, SEA,
my first house is heavily shaded and almost no windows, the bedroom is located at the most inner part of the house, no sunlight, it needs lots of lighting and heatpump, fan to circulate the air and cool the house, and without heatpump cooling, it felt like sauna, but I can't smell smoke, I can't hear anything.
I decided to built my current house with good cross ventilation lots of sunlight, problem is I can smell smoke from trash burning from 100 meters away, there are lot more dust, I can also hear music playing from 100meters away.
the electricity consumption decrease from 1800 kwh to 1000kwh a month, but at what cost?
btw the location of both house is 40meter away. the size of the house is almost equal.
#62
Bought an upright carpet cleaner. Bad idea-it has to be stored and there is never time to even vacuum, let alone wash the carpeting. Better to rent one..
#63
I know someone who got colon cancer from years of eating cheap processed foods even though she couldn’t afford a better diet
Tyranamar Seuss 10 months ago
You don’t actually know that’s why they got colon CA. Plenty of health nuts with colon cancer. Plenty of junk food addicts without it.
Rali Meyer 10 months ago
She got cancer from becoming sick. No proof it was from processes food
Earonn - 10 months ago
While UPF->cancer would be impossible to prove in an individual case, the effects of UPF on human and animal bodies HAS been researched - and it doesn't look good. Personally, I liked the book by Chris van Tulleken, but everyone can find their own source.
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Earonn - 10 months ago
I always wondered why people like you go out of their way and disagree with actual experts, just so they can feel superior to someone else suffering something bad.
Load More Replies... #64
I got out of a cab at 4:00AM 1km from my house, to save 3-4 dollars.
I walked the rest of the way with a two inch gash on my leg, spewing out blood. Unsure as to wether I had severed an artery or anything else major.
Every step squelched as my right shoe was literally filled with blood. I received 15 stitches later that day.
At the time, I had close to $1000 dollars cash in my wallet and waited for the change from the cab driver.
I'm sure I spent in excess of $150 dollars that night on alcohol, food, friends and gambling.
It is important not to confuse being frugal, with being cheap.
superfluous 10 months ago (edited)
I see a bigger problem than being frugal. Why was (s)he going home with a 2" gash (possibly a severed artery???)?
Steve 10 months ago
Screw that. If he lives in the US, the ambulance bill would be astronomical. Take an Uber instead.
Load More Replies... Evan Connolly 3 months ago
If you actually had severed an artery, you would not have survived.
#65
When I read the end of Scrooge McDuck's youth.
You know, when he spends Christmas all alone in his fancy mansion, crying.
#66
Instead of spending an extra $50 bucks on a later flight out, I bought an earlier flight that went out at 7am. My boyfriend at the time had to take me to the airport on a Monday before work. We left his place around 5:30am. For some background information, we were long distance and I was in town visiting him, he wouldn’t have to be into the office until around 11am, even later if he chose, but he isn’t a morning person, so it was rough on him. Two weeks later he broke up with me; having to take me to the airport that morning was one of the reasons that influenced his decision.
Rali Meyer 10 months ago
It wasn't the early morning experience, it was your desire to save and as such compromise on life
#67
Books. As Mark Twain said, “the man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.”
Travel. From low budget road trips across the U.S. to Bora Bora and snorkeling, or car racing in Saudi Arabia, it really expands your world perspective.
Condoms.
Experiences.
Good food.
#68
Refusing to use the heaters when the temperature is -10° and end up having swollen digits due to chilblains for the rest of winter. Didn't have to go to the doctor (there wasn't much to do about it anyway), but soon figured out that my fellow housemates have been living in a 'tropical' environment in their rooms to the point where they roam around topless.
I'm in a share house, and we spilt the rent.
TLDR: Tried to save money on heating, end up with painful chilblains; and paying for housemates 'tropical' getaway.
*Edit, I still don't use the heaters (I don't know why, but I just refuse to).
Jenn Smith 10 months ago
This one is just sad! I hope you find somewhere more comfortable and healthy for you, soon!
#69
I realize this somewhat goes against the spirit of this subreddit, but sometimes it's important to remind ourselves that we should spend some of our money "guilt free" since we can't take our savings to the grave.
My two contributions:
I had a college friend who became an investment banker. He was an early immigrant from India so he was extremely frugal throughout life. He was the rice+lentils kind of guy, camped in the airport overnight for the first AM flight out since the bus stopped running at 11pm, wore the same sh*tty shoes all the time - even though we later found out, he had been working since he was a kid and already had close to 6 figures in savings by the time he finished college.
He worked himself to death, but had amassed over 2 million in assets by his mid 30s. Unfortunately he was diagnosed with porphyria. He continued to be frugal and work until he couldnt so that his wife and 2 kids would live good lives. He died a ~3 years after diagnosis.
I don't know the details, but I heard that his wife ended up remarrying her personal trainer not long after. I'm sure they are enjoying his hard earned money, basically none of which he enjoyed.
2) A family friend of mine is american born asian. His dad emigrated here and was the stereotypical frugal/cheap asian. He married an asian american born in the US. Unfortunately his frugality DID NOT translate to his wife, my friend, or his sister. In fact, they downright loathed him and his cheapness.
I am not sure why they hated him so much. He provided them with new clothes from the Gap, they always had enough to eat, he paid for the 3 of them to go on vacations 2x/year (he stayed to work,rarely joined them). He even bought my friend a new honda accord when he graduated high school. He paid for their college education. As far as I could tell, he wasn't beating them or anything, yet my friend would always complain about how he didn't have this and that.
Same story, the dad worked his rear off, wore the same crappy clothes at work (he owned a bunch of restaurants), barely spent a dime on himself. He died in a robbery from a gun shot wound, probably wearing the same crappy grease-covered jeans and khaki shirt he did for the better part of the decade before that.
My friend and his family sold all the restaurants and the strip mall since they didn't really want to manage it (understandable, none of them knew anything about the businesses nor cared to be involved).
They went on a spending spree RIGHT AFTER, it was sick. My friend bought a condo in NYC with cash (he couldn't stop bragging about how he bought it with his own hard earned cash...). Unfortunately, he lost his job during the .com bust, wouldn't settle for something "beneath him," He couldn't keep up with the HOA fees, ended up extracting equity. He no longer owns the condo.
Sad story, the dad spent decades building his fortunes from scratch, and it was essentially all blown away within a decade. They aren't poor by any means now (the both have 6 figure jobs). I have no idea how much money they inherited, it had to be at least 3 million since they each bought 3 condos in NYC, Boston. The sister as far as I know still owns the condo she bought with the inheritance. She did also marry a rich Wall St guy as well (they are both Wall St yuppies making more money than 10 of us put together). So I guess in the end, the dad was successful in that he raised 2 financially well off kids, but unfortunately didn't seem to get to enjoy the fruits if his own labor.
Story #1 was what hit me the hardest since he was my age. I had a 1 hour long phone conversation with my friend, and while I encouraged him to quit his job and spend some of his money before he died, he ultimately didn't. It was then, I realized if I don't spend my money, someone else will if I die early, and I will end up regretting not enjoying the fruits of my labor.
I stopped "hyper saving" and made a conscious decision to go out more, work less, eat better food,
Jane Doe 10 months ago
"I knew two guys who died in early middle age. One had a blood disorder. The other was shot in a hold up in his own restaurant. Their wives and children inherited their wealth and when on to live relatively functional and financially successful lives. Now I try to enjoy my money.
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What do you think ?
kzys59pcrp 10 months ago
Don’t save everything for later. I saved all I could in my 20s and 30s and now here I am at 43 with a terminal illness. It’s better to “waste” your money than to waste your life.
Binky Melnik 10 months ago
Aw, c**p; I’m really sorry it worked out that way, Kzys. I hope you manage to find marvelous, entertaining, and fulfilling ways to spend it all before you go! Best of luck to you, bud; I hope you manage to go at least as peacefully as Gene Hackman! (Either that or in a delightfully noisy way that leaves a mark!) ❌⭕️❌⭕️❌
Load More Replies... DeoManus Argentem 10 months ago
I posted this once before, but it fits - I had a good friend growing up whose father took the light bulbs out of their refrigerators to save on electricity. They had battery-powered flashlights next to them... The father wasn't poor or uneducated (a pediatrician in the US with three kids in $35k/year private middle/high school) - certainly better off, at least by some measure, than my family. He was an immigrant from Mexico, so I don't know how it works there, but I asked my friend if his dad knew the lights turn off when the door is shut - he just shrugged.
Little Bit 10 months ago
Buying a fixer-upper house to live in. Don't even think about it unless you have a bottomless pit of money and the patience of a Saint. We thought we'd got a bargain but there were far more problems than we initially anticipated, one job always turns into ten jobs and £1000 goes nowhere when you're renovating. Tradespeople who actually turn up when they say they're going to or don't clear off halfway through a job are like hen's teeth. The renovation costs put me in debt and nearly 20 years on its still nowhere near finished. We can't afford to move. One way or another it will be the death of me.
veirdbuttrue 10 months ago
Yep, My house is small fortunately but 20 years later I still haven't finished decorating it. Not enough close.
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SkyyCaramba 10 months ago
I wish I could afford a nicer double bass, b/c the one that i'm renting sucks a*s.
kzys59pcrp 10 months ago
Don’t save everything for later. I saved all I could in my 20s and 30s and now here I am at 43 with a terminal illness. It’s better to “waste” your money than to waste your life.
Binky Melnik 10 months ago
Aw, c**p; I’m really sorry it worked out that way, Kzys. I hope you manage to find marvelous, entertaining, and fulfilling ways to spend it all before you go! Best of luck to you, bud; I hope you manage to go at least as peacefully as Gene Hackman! (Either that or in a delightfully noisy way that leaves a mark!) ❌⭕️❌⭕️❌
Load More Replies... DeoManus Argentem 10 months ago
I posted this once before, but it fits - I had a good friend growing up whose father took the light bulbs out of their refrigerators to save on electricity. They had battery-powered flashlights next to them... The father wasn't poor or uneducated (a pediatrician in the US with three kids in $35k/year private middle/high school) - certainly better off, at least by some measure, than my family. He was an immigrant from Mexico, so I don't know how it works there, but I asked my friend if his dad knew the lights turn off when the door is shut - he just shrugged.
Little Bit 10 months ago
Buying a fixer-upper house to live in. Don't even think about it unless you have a bottomless pit of money and the patience of a Saint. We thought we'd got a bargain but there were far more problems than we initially anticipated, one job always turns into ten jobs and £1000 goes nowhere when you're renovating. Tradespeople who actually turn up when they say they're going to or don't clear off halfway through a job are like hen's teeth. The renovation costs put me in debt and nearly 20 years on its still nowhere near finished. We can't afford to move. One way or another it will be the death of me.
veirdbuttrue 10 months ago
Yep, My house is small fortunately but 20 years later I still haven't finished decorating it. Not enough close.
Load More Replies... SkyyCaramba 10 months ago
I wish I could afford a nicer double bass, b/c the one that i'm renting sucks a*s.
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