Are you cheap in MOST all you do?
 

For example: If you are just drying your washed hands w a paper towel,

w no residue on it, would you lay it aside to dry?

In what I would call desert wash, (not much water around) would you stand at the sink, and wash yourself in sections (like a large car?) with the hot water barely on, maybe all off during rinse wipe?....instead of a conventional shower???

And use the thinnest wash cloth possible for quicker soap gone rinsing?

When cooking, do you do anticiple cooking ( like a car coasting ) where you turn a burner off early just enough by practice?

Do you use timers for your heat at home?

Young single guys usually do smell tests before committing to laundry?

If no women were around; what would you set a thermostat at?

Do you live in a situation w a woman where you almost have to go around in the place w little on because SHE must have Roast?

Does anybody manually wash dishes w an available dish washer standing by, and leave pots or other recently washed items out on a counter to air dry?

Do you keep a place so cold that nothing almost would air dry?

Just wondered!

PS... Is anyone willing to watch a smaller TV because it costs less, AND
uses less Juice???

Who drys their hands at home with a paper towel? I do at work because that is all that is there and I do hang those up to dry to use later, but we ran out of paper towels two months ago at home and when we did have some, I only used them for wiping crusty stuff out of the frying pan or sticky spots off the floor.
Most of the time tho, I opt for quality, I buy clothing based on how long it will last, food on how good it tastes and it's quality, and I turn the lights off when I leave the room because I'm no longer in that room! I do laundry at the laundromat once a month so if I have a shirt that I like to wear I hang it back up so it can air out and I can wear it again in a few days, to me it's not so much about being cheap, it's about not wasting the hard work that it took to get the things you have! I don't buy cheep plastic junk because I don't enjoy it and I really don't enjoy replacing it, my job takes me in to the houses of some people who make ten times the amount of money I make in a year and I look around their houses and realize that I'm do pretty well for my self.

Who dries their hands? I shake most of the water off of mine, after that they are dry within a minute.

I still do smell tests, and so does the wife. Unfortunately, her testing apparatus is much more sensitive than mine:(

Is there any other way to wash dishes?

I like doing dishes, so our dishwasher is a drying rack. I do re-use paper towels progressively, from almost clean to final use picking up oil spills.
We camp so a frugal shower is a common practice.
I have no problem with the power bill so we keep ourselves comfortable.

Very Cheap.

I hate throwing away food, even if its a little past the "expiration" date.

I hate using paper towels. A dish cloth is reusable and washable.

I wear nice clothes twice or three times over before washing them. I even have a system where i hang my shirts on the hanger a certain way to indicate how many times I've worn it since the last time it was washed. For clothes worn just around the house, I wear them many times over.

I've taken showers before by filling a large pot with hot water and using a cup to pour the water over my body. Its amazing how little water you really need to properly shower.

I always try to fix things instead of buying replacements.

For food and beverage, I usually always try to make my own and prevent myself from eating/drinking out.

Billionaire investing guru Warren Buffett reportedly once rebuffed a comment about his penny-pinching ways with this statement:

"I’m not cheap. I’m working my way up to cheap." (link and link)

I use that line occasionally. :)

All of you should check out Mr Money Mustache

You will love it.

I know I do. He used a middle class income combined with moderately high frugality to become financially independent by around (iirc) age 30. Now he has a very entertaining blog, as well as a very active forum (the only one I am on regularly)

In answer to the original questions:
I use cloth napkins
I shower, but I have an instant water heater and low flow faucet
I use a loofa
I use a pressure cooker (which is meant to be turned off early), and even before I got it I always turned off the heat in advance
I used to have the heat on a timer, but I haven't turned on the heat or A/C for 2 years now
I'm middle aged and live with my girlfriend, but I still smell test laundry
Live with girlfriend, no heat
We have one bowl and one plate each, so the dishes never pile up (we keep spares in storage for company)
I only plug in the TV when we are actually going to watch something - and it turns out when we have to take the effort to walk across the room to plug it in, we are almost never motivated to watch it! We went from several hours a day to several hours a month.

Not only do you save money by being "cheap" (most of us prefer the term frugal, or efficient, or just "not excessively wasteful"), but you massively reduce your environmental impact as well.
I wrote an instructable about it! http://www.instructables.com/id/Not-...e-use-less-en/

And it doesn't just save a little money, you can literally get rich by spending a fraction of your income and investing the difference Mr. Money Mustache | Early Retirement through Badassity

I agree with JacobAziza. I wouldn't really say I'm cheap. When I do buy things I buy quality stuff like Ryland says so I do spend money on things I think are worth it which ends up being most things I do buy. I simply don't buy many things I don't think aren't quality items. With few exceptions (ex: paper towel) I really don't like the disposable mentality that has been created. I cringe when people mention 'just buy the cheap one and throw it away when you're done'.

Yes, no, maybe, and does not apply, depending on the question.

Paper towels - don't use them at home much at all. I think the current roll has lasted about 5 years.

Cooking - yes, but a lot of that is just better cooking,

Timers for heat - no, I just throw a few logs in the wood stove before bed. I'm perfectly comfortable in the mid-60s.

Dishwashing - I've never used the dishwasher in my place. With one or two people, it's quicker to wash by hand than to stack things in a dishwasher until I have enough for a load.

And of course the crucial one: There are no circumstances in which I'm willing to watch TV.

I do agree about frugality, which isn't at all the same as being cheap. Most people seem to spend simply for the thrill of spending, or because they think it enhances their status or something (look up potlatch). I spend on things that I think will improve my quality of life, so if I need something, I will often buy a more expensive item of better quality - that is, best value rather than lowest price.

Being cheap ?
Dude, I drive a Volvo ! :rolleyes:

:)

While I don't mind paying for quality, I detest paying for rubbish !

I've only recently gone cheap on maintaining Hägar because the expensive maintenance wasn't paying off, so I feel it's no longer worthwhile.


I use 1 paper towel instead of 2 at work, as 1 will do the job (though barely).

A good, well filled dishwasher uses less water than doing the dishes manually.


Working at a chemical plant, I try to run the place more energy-efficient, as it's a very power hungry beast .
We go through more gas in a few hours than most households use in a year.
That's the place to make a marked difference, energy wise.

I'll second a recommendation for checking out Mr Money Mustache. Very entertaining, informative & encouraging site.

He also has quite a few good posts about cars & driving: vehicular efficiency; choosing a car; the insanity of commuting; hypermiling; when buying a hybrid makes financial sense; why everyone should drive manual shift, etc. etc.

I may be frugal and/or inexpensive, but I don't do CHEAP. :)

I love VMaxs- my badass bike (Velocity Maximum) and VMax as personal budget philosophy (Value Maximizing).

Right now I'm enjoying a succulent steak dinner courtesy of my gambling friend and the local casino. He gets perks including free dinners quite a bit, for which I'm invited to partake quite often in exchange for the "free" mechanic work I do for him. I always order steak and shrimp and while waiting for it I pretty much destroy their most excellent salad bar. I'm so stuffed by the time the actual entree shows up that I box it all up (and throw another trip from the salad bar on top of it)- good for 2 or 3 more meals at home AND I make sure to get everyone else at the table's trimmings for the cat, which the cat really loves! :thumbup: The casino staff doesn't seem to care; they throw away more food in 3 minutes from slobs that don't eat what they take than any amount I'll ever be able to abscond with.

My greatgrandmother would say that she's too poor to waste money on cheap things.

That's true only if you leave the faucet running while doing dishes manually. Apparently whoever does those studies thinks that's the normal way to do dishes.

I see it done that way often enough- along with leaving the faucet on for brushing teeth, shaving, etc. Yet another thing people do that makes me wonder what's going on upstairs. :rolleyes:

I've recycled 600,000 pounds of cars (200 rebuilt since 1973), and those were the ones that were made roadworthy again. Probably another 300k pounds that were given to me when they were just worn out and we put them on a lift and completely diasaasembled them in 2 days. Stored the parts in the attic for future use. The local govt asked me how much I recycled and I think they thought I was crazy when I answered in tons. Also used waste oil for heat, probably close to a thousand gallons a season. They are probably still selling some of those parts 12 years after I sold the shop.

regards
Mech

I give you The King
 

I like to say Innovative in all I do!

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.

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.

That's exaclty what i do. I work for a trucking company so i make decisions which truck goes where so i always do the math to have the truck run the least amount of miles with minimum idling. In the office i reuse both sides of paper becuase we go through about 400 pieces per day. I also try to email as much as possible insted of faxing.

My actions at work impact the world much much more than at home.
Sorry to change the subject to work life but it's the same as home life but it benefits the company

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.

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]...) :rolleyes:

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.

I agree with spending a little extra money to buy high quality stuff that will last. Other than that I like to purchase things that allow me to save money later on, like tools for example. I probably have 3-4 thousand dollars worth of tools including my tool box, but I also don't recall the last time I had to pay someone to work on anything of mine. I probably don't do laundry as much as most people, and when I do, I try to use as little detergent as possible and use the setting for a small loud even for big loads, it seems to work fine. I don't have much clothing, but wonder, if I did have more, and thus needed to do laundry less often, would it be more efficient.

my dad used to say" it isn't what you make, it's what you keep that counts." when I eat out, I order the cheapest item on the menu. If I eat at taco bell, my entire meal costs around $2.25, which includes free refills. I am good at haggling when it comes to buying something used. my wife cuts my hair. I shop online for most items because I can get the best deal. I have never bought a new car. who needs a big tv? I don't even own a flat screen. don't need a thermostat since we burn wood , which I cut myself. some people may say I am cheap, I prefer to think I am just trying to hang on to what I make.

oh yeah, and also: I live in an RV, and my truck is from 1983
and I'm a hauler, so instead of getting stuff for free, people pay me to take it from them.

Thats how I got my TV, DVD player, RePlay (like Tivo, but needs no subscription), printer/scanner, router, sofa, bookshelf, dresser... and many more... (and thats just the stuff I keep)

I've really enjoyed the responses to this thread!

I should have said "economical" instead of cheap! I didn't mean for it to refer to
like gross "cheep" where too hopeful people will like buy a $1 plastic nozzle for their hose, and expect it not to leak, last a long time, or perform like a brass one does.

I think its super important to buy a car that is a good enough brand, so that you don't have to live w a "loser car"!

But isn't it incredible how American's as a whole got into the whole Mini Storage
life style!

I'm not knocking common sense usage; but we all probably know someone who
is making monthly payments on junk they don't even use ( still referring to mini storage, but it can apply generally too) , and in many cases have forgotten what half the stuff in there even is, and would have to drive miles just to look at it!

After a couple of decades at least now; look at how much literal plastic is STILL
being used to simply house store products, and then added to the landfills.

How about inventing a plastic looking product that would dissolve in heavy rain,
or immersed in water. I'm thinking along the lines of the edible rice paper that comes w some foods.

No chemical nightmares; just packaging GONE!!!

The real dilemma:

White Refugees: Humans: An Endangered Species: [I] The Power of Compound Population & Economic Growth

Most of the packaging we are subjected to ("sealed for your protection") is the result of tort law claims filed by trial lawyers to win settlements for their clients. Often the protections (plastic packaging) and package warnings are there for the legal protection of the manufacturers to ward off such lawsuits.

Actually most plastics will degrade over time, especially if subjected to constant exposure from UV radiation (sunlight). Mandatory recycling is commonplace in most cities today, and it is often a revenue enhancer for the local government - so landfills filled with plastic are hardly much of a concern in recent years.

Yeah, that's true. So does rock: Decomposed granite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The question is just how much time? And what the plastic might be doing while it's degrading: World News - Study: Plastic in 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' increases 100-fold

.

You piqued my curiosity on this one. Care to share your methods?

--

I can credit my 9th grade global studies teacher with teaching me to close the faucet between rinses, while brushing my teeth. Been doing it ever since. Can't remember how we started talking about dental hygiene, but it has saved us plenty of water.

I'm big on closing lights when not in use, and find myself constantly closing lights that were left on by accident.

I wear clothes 2-3 times as well. I just hang the used ones on the other side of the empty hangers in the closet. Left side = clean, empty hangers in the middle, used clothes on the right. I look on the used side first for what to wear and if I don't find what I want, then I look to the clean side.

You outlook is common, but there are some problems with it.
More than anything, being wasteful doesn't actually increase your quality of life nearly as much as you think it does. In fact, it likely dimensions it. Forget environmentalism, by looking at just gratifying your immediate desires, you are setting your own self back.
That's too big to get into, but read Mr Money Mustache and you will see what I mean.

Now back to environmentalism. You may be too young to remember things like lead paint or asbestos or CFCs, may never have heard of the Cuyahoga River or London Smog Disaster, but regardless of your personal ignorance, environmental destruction is not just some liberal conspiracy.

And finally: the Earth is not finite? You obviously do not know what the word "finite" actually means. You are saying you believe the Earth is infinite. So, in other words, it is not actually a sphere in space, (and all space travel was faked), because the Earth goes on in every direction forever - is that what you are saying? Because there are only two possible choices: finite, and infinite.
There is a certain amount of land on the planet, and a certain amount of minerals and soil on the land. There is a certain amount oil and coal and uranium, and a certain amount of the gallium arsenide, copper indium diselenide, and cadmium sulfide that are used to make solar panels.
Human technology has not been around for billions of years. Life has been around for about 4 billion years, but multi-cellular life only about a quarter of that. Animals for 500 million. Mammals for 200 million. Human-ish hominids for 200,000. Homo-sapiens about 12,000. And modern technology? About 200 years.
That's about as far as possible from your implication that we have been using resources at the same rate for "billions of years".
Your absolute confidence that we could never run out of resources is based on the last 0.000005% of history.

You can be as wasteful and selfish as you want, but you should not talk with confidence on subjects you are clearly ignorant of.

I admit to a certain puzzlement here: it's good that you learned (and you've proved that you CAN learn, unlike some people), but I don't understand why you'd have to. I mean, isn't that just the normal way a person would do things?

You'd be surprised james. Shocked, actually. And appalled too.

Why? I can't see it myself. Eating out means spending lots of time driving to a restaurant, reading menus, waiting for the waitron to take your order & bring food, etc. Now if it's a social occasion, sure, but just for a meal alone? Far easier to cook.

Likewise with electricity, why do you love using it? Does it give you a thrill? Me, I like some of the things that are achieved via electricity, but just using it doesn't improve my quality of life at all. And I do like the way the pennies I save mount up. I live as comfortably as my neighbors, if not more so, but have a power bill that runs at least $50/month less. That's money I can spend on things that give me more enjoyment.

I think it pees on electric fences for thrills.

Neither you nor your buddies (check out the backslapping 'thanks' of the usual regulars that are the 'amen chorus' in this thread) can see it. They think it's cool to deride it.

The guy likes to eat out. So what? There could be many reasons for his wanting to do so. He need not explain himself to you for doing so. Is he doing any harm to anyone by it? What are you putting him on the defensive for?

If the administration of this list is going to allow goading, jeering and provocation, I will insist that they permit a civil response to it.

Who are you to dictate to anyone what they should enjoy in life? You mention the "waitron"? I grew up in a world where there were waiters and waitresses. In the real world, they still are that. But then, I'm not into political correctness jargon, nor the politics of the guilt mongering of the leftist nanny state.
Try living without electric power for a while, then you will appreciate your quality of life issue. Will that "give you a thrill"? He said he enjoys "use", and he isn't advocating abuse or waste.

Good for you. Everyone is entitled to enjoyment of life without browbeating others or dictating to them how to live as they prefer. But if you were truly liberal, an advocate of freedom, rather than a politically correct, so called Liberal, you would live and let live.

Everything we need to know about Frank is summed up in this one sophomoric comment.

Be that as it may, Frank has been Frank for as long as this board has been around, and he has contributed plenty of actual content within his sarcastic one liners. Plus he's just so damn entertaining!

As to your comments on Jamessqf's comments... well, you may have some valid points, but your basic premise of live and let live - when you knowingly waste resources on a finite planet, that actually affects everyone. The sort of attitude that Why? displayed is literally damaging the lives of real people, and is likely to do much worse in the future. He literally said that the earths resources are infinite, and therefor there is no reason not to waste then.
Like I said before, environmentalism is not just some conspiracy made up by "liberals".

You seem to find it offensive that people are saying mean things to Why?, but remember that his only contribution to this thread was to tell us all that we lack "common sense" unlike himself. In fact, it appears that he may have signed up for the forum for the sole purpose of insulting "lefties".