Are you cheap in MOST all you do?

[larrybuck]

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???

[Ryland]

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.

[Piwoslaw]

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

Originally Posted by larrybuck

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

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

Originally Posted by larrybuck

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?

Is there any other way to wash dishes?

[skyking]

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.

[theycallmeebryan]

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.

[MetroMPG]

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.

[JacobAziza]

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

[Daox]

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'.

[jamesqf]

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:

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

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.

[euromodder]

Being cheap ?
Dude, I drive a Volvo !



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.