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Originally Posted by GRU
Yes, i wouldn't call myself cheap because i will blow money like i'm rich if it's something i really want. Cheap is when you have money but "cheap out" and decide not to replace your bald tires on your family car.
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I make a distinction between being frugal and being cheap, and your example is a pretty good one. Someone who is cheap eschews spending any money out of habit, to the point of it being detrimental in the long run.
It's a very thin line between practicality or utility and obsession. It's all too easy to cross over the line into OCD behavior. The frugal person is not wasteful, but uses (or consumes) when necessary. As I tell my wife and daughter when I turn off appliances that are not in use, I'm all for usage (or enjoyment of resources) but very much against wastefulness. The cheap person (as opposed to one who is frugal) has a different motive, usually based upon habit, ideology or irrational belief.
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Using less everyday is something everyone should do. it's the only thing that will keep us (humans) alive because we just can't keep going down the same road. Not only is it good for the earth but all the things an average person buys goes in the garbage and doesn't make anyone happy, it just uses energy, polutes, wastes our time and piles up at a landfill.
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That is an ideology based upon a belief, not a fact. If you want to be frugal, fine. It is a personal choice that is logical, it will benefit you personally economically, and that has a basis of a measurable result. The idea that if everyone were to use little or less it would somehow benefit all of humanity is an assumption and a form of propaganda that is pervasive and spread through the media. What are we 'saving' everything for? I heard a radio commercial today for plant food and the hook was "If we can just save one veggie it will be worth it." Save one veggie
from what? (Save the forests, save the whales, save the [fill in the blank]...)
Saving (or hoarding) can be a compulsion that is the opposite extreme of wastefulness, and neither is a rational or balanced outlook. There is often a very thin line between rational and irrational behavior.