Are you really frugal?

[kmw229]

Funny article from [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]


Ways to know if you're really frugal
You know you're frugal when you...
... go window shopping at the thrift store.

...keep trying to reuse that glob of sticky stuff with which the fake credit card was attached to the sales material.

...take the long way through the parking lot back to the car in hopes that you'll find money on the ground.

...try to find ways to "make do" until the next sale on toilet paper.

...estimate how long you'll be gone from a room so you'll know whether it's cheaper to turn out the light or leave it on to avoid a spike in electric consumption.

...lightly use the eraser on your pencil so you won't use it up before the pencil is used up.

...refuse to resharpen a pencil until the lead wears almost to the wood.

...save the elastic from your old underwear to use on your new (homemade) underwear.

...take your shoes off when you come into the house for the purpose of saving wear on them.

...save thread from the seams of clothes you're cutting up for rags - to darn your socks.

...use saved fast food ketchup to flavor soup, and put a little water in the package to get the last of it out.

...save the salt in the bottom of pretzel bags to reuse.

...won't take a shower when it's dark to save on the electricity it takes to light the bathroom.

...go to bed an hour early to save on electricity.

...you rejoice when the electric blanket goes out because now you have all that wire to tie up tomatoes or make a mini clothesline. (Of course you remove it carefully; you'll still use the blanket to keep warm.)

...plan your children to be born after Christmas and before New Year's so you can take the full deduction for them for that year without having the expense.

Are you really frugal?

[whitequeen96]

Not me, but my husband sure is! (He's an immigrant, so that has a lot to do with it.) He always has a bowl of old-fashioned oatmeal and a cup of instant coffee for breakfast. One morning, I noticed the coffee was missing, although I could still smell it. It turns out, he had used the water and coffee crystals to mix into the dry oatmeal, thereby saving water and the gas needed to heat up the coffee! (Yes, I think he's NUTS!) I convinced him that it wasn't necesary to go to that extreme, and he was relieved, 'cause he thought it tasted terrible!

[Debbie42]

Originally Posted by whitequeen96

Not me, but my husband sure is! (He's an immigrant, so that has a lot to do with it.) He always has a bowl of old-fashioned oatmeal and a cup of instant coffee for breakfast. One morning, I noticed the coffee was missing, although I could still smell it. It turns out, he had used the water and coffee crystals to mix into the dry oatmeal, thereby saving water and the gas needed to heat up the coffee! (Yes, I think he's NUTS!) I convinced him that it wasn't necesary to go to that extreme, and he was relieved, 'cause he thought it tasted terrible!

That is so funny I am glad you convinced him he could have his coffee and oatmeal too.

[lookin4delz]

Very funny I guess I'm not as frugal as I thought!

[katlnhats]

Frugal??? Well, I "thought" I was till I read this! ROFL!

Kat

[whitequeen96]

Oh, my husband is famous for being cheap! When I'm finished ironing, he runs to the ironing board screaming, "Free heat! Free heat!" Then he uses the last bit of heat left in the iron to do some touch-up ironing.

Also, I like to make Irish stew. But I hate to lift the lid of the pot and find tons of other food simmering in with my stew ingredients! I'll find extra vegetables, eggs in their shell, wontons, and other stuff thrown in there, that he plans to take out before my stew is finished cooking. It adds flavor that doesn't go well with my stew! But he's "saving gas." (I guess I should just be grateful that he's not doing his laundry in it!)

He also hates to run the heater. (We live in the Los Angeles area, so it's not too terrible.) I try to be understanding, but once I had a cold that just would not go away, so I finally had to go to a doctor. I had her write me a prescription for "turning on the heater," just so I didn't have to hear the complaining when I did just that. (But he still whined about it, LOL!)

I get mad at him when he goes through the trash to see what I'm "wasting." He used to pick out Post-It notes (the small ones!) and brings them back to me, complaining that I only used one side! He finally stopped doing that when I would just pick up a pen and make a check-mark on the back, saying, "There! I used both sides!" He just walked away, muttering to himself...

I'm pretty frugal myself, but not like he is! Now and then, he'll get on my nerves so much that I just have to torture him. Our guest bathroom is located so that the toilet paper dispenser is on the wall between the bathroom and the den. Our couch is right up against that wall. So sometimes I'll use that bathrooom and start spinning the T.P. roll, on and on, just to hear him scream! "What?!! Why you use so much paper?!! You're killing me; you're giving me a heart attack!" LOL (with an evil grin...)

It's a good thing we can laugh about this! (Oh, wait, I thought he was laughing until he cried, but ..... those are REAL tears!)

[tlspiegel]

LOL... great thread. I try to be as frugal as sanity permits. lol

[mcgibbonx]

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]oh wow, that is totally my fathers side of the family. hardcore depression era uprbringing will do that to ya!
funny stuff.

[luckyme123]

Originally Posted by mcgibbonx

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]oh wow, that is totally my fathers side of the family. hardcore depression era uprbringing will do that to ya!
funny stuff.

OH YES. My elderly mother was raised in the Great Depression and you won't believe some of her so called thrifty ideas.

Sure some are really very useful ideas but others are just plain..well not for me!

I am cost efficient, very much so, but I don't have a cow over a pitching out a tablespoon of leftovers.

I don't consider my Goodwill browseing as being cost efficinet, I consider it relaxing.

[whitequeen96]

Considering the cost of physical and psychological therapy, luckyme123, your Goodwill browsing is certainly THRIFTY relaxation! (And I do it too!)