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When have you taken frugality too far?

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AUTHOR: Jonathan Clements on 6/05/2024
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Ken Stack
4 months ago

Inspired by my practical grandfather I’d occasionally rip paper towels neatly in half after calculating I did not need to full surface area for the clean up job at hand.

He committed further with a pile of neatly folded and ripped paper towels in a bowl ready for use.

Getting a few big financial decisions right is of far more value than a mentality of frugality or yes, true cheapness on smaller stuff especially when it pertains to how we treat others and make them feel with gifts and acts of kindness.

Kari Lorch
4 months ago

Our family has traveled quite a bit over the years. This has always meant looking for deals, usually for lodging. I knew it went too far when we stayed in a motel just outside of Chicago in a sketchy area, and were afraid to even get under the covers of the bed! All I could think was this was a rent by the hour place and who knows what was left behind, ugggh. To be fair it was a late night find and we were just exhausted and needed a quick layover. From then on though my kids were always interested in the places I booked, and quick to give me an earful if it was too cheap. These days I’m far more particular.

Michael Werner
4 months ago
Reply to  Kari Lorch

My wife or I could have written the exact same post about a trip nearly 40 years ago to a metro Chicago Zoo. We were very young, but my wife wisely insisted after that, no more fleabags.

Catherine
4 months ago

My granddaughter borrowed a cooler from the basement for a work picnic. She returned it with half a handle. It had busted under the weight of sodas she’d been carrying. I bought it 30 years ago when her dad was active in sports and scouting. I’ve yet to throw it out, since the “cooler” part is still functional, so conceptually it’s still useable for a road trip but not a picnic where it’d need to be carried, full. It’s sitting by the front door, not returned to the basement. My “more rationally frugal” outcome would place it in a trash can. I don’t want my family to be stuck someday clearing a basement of decades of broken but still slightly useable stuff… My alternative “overly frugal” idea is to use it on my next trip to my tin casita in AZ that has no basement to collect such things. If that’s handy, it could give the cooler a second chance. I find it hard to throw things away, even items too worn out to donate to charity.

John Yeigh
5 months ago

I suspect my frugal nature is well aligned with much of Humble Dollar’s readership. Here are a few areas where I may have taken frugality a bit too far: shoe gluing the soles of old Teva’s and Merrell’s, duct taping broken sunglasses, saving 30-year-old tattered jeans and t-shirts for painting, packing our used hotel soap bars so they don’t get tossed, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches whenever traveling, and too much commerce on EBay, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Duct tape, adhesives and paint are a cheapskate’s best friend.

Dan Smith
5 months ago

OMG, I use Google Shop to find the best deal on cat litter

smr1082
5 months ago

We used to reuse bottles of jelly jam to store other things in them. Each one was different. Finally got rid of them.

Mark Eckman
5 months ago

I am a retired CPA. Depending on who you ask it means different things. To the state regulators it means Certified Public Accountant, to my kids growing up it meant Cheapest Person Around. The issue is not taking frugality too far, but ensuring everyone knew the priorities of what and why we did or did not spend money on various things. I did not start that discussion with my children early enough.

Dan Smith
5 months ago
Reply to  Mark Eckman

My wife is a retired admin manager for a big accounting firm. She told me CPA stands for Constant Pain in the Ass.

Mark Eckman
5 months ago
Reply to  Dan Smith

That was my wife’s definition <g>

Jeff Bond
5 months ago

I think that’s a mental health question as well as a financial question. Are you being frugal to the point of not getting enough nourishment from your meals? Do you set the thermostat to uncomfortable levels? Are they set to too low a temperature during the cold months or to too high a temperature during the hot months? Are you scrimping on adequate clothing, sacrificing needed repairs on your automobile, isolating yourself from your social network, postponing needed medical care, avoiding needed maintenance on your residence, stiffing your favorite charities, or cheating service people who are dependent on tips? If you answer “yes” to any of these, and you can afford them but don’t want to address them, then you probably have taken frugality too far.  

Jeff
5 months ago

Buying a second hand tuxedo at a thrift store, then being too cheap to get the pants tailored. I stapled the hems, which became undone during the event I was attending!

Ken Begley
5 months ago

My wife and I had five kids and we have at times struggled, as most people will, with financial bumps in the road. It made me extremely frugal to the point that I couldn’t even take the family out to eat at McDonald’s without feelings of regret and feeling almost physically sick whenever I spent money. I thought for awhile “Am I ever going to be able to spend money without feeling like this???” It became a real concern that I wasn’t ever going to be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor. It wasn’t until the frugality paid off with a comfortable retirement that these feelings of guilt for spending left me. Also, 2 of my brothers died before they reached 70. I know I’m not going to live forever. Now I can buy things for my kids, take them and their families on vacation, buy real meals out for my family and not feel bad about it.

steve abramowitz
5 months ago

My frugality—a euphemism for cheapness—comes out a lot in my reluctance to take care of myself. I tell my dentist I don’t really need that mouth guard. The brown belt is all I need, why buy a black one to alternate. I’m 79 and already have enough shirts, why buy any more? Years ago, I was proud of my little tire trick. When my tire tread would get low, instead of buying a new tire, I would instruct the employee to use my spare as the “new” one and use the old one as the spare. Now my wife and I are squabbling about how much we should spend on our gravesite, but that’s another story altogether!

R Quinn
5 months ago

My wife may have a few ideas on that. I do have a 30 year old pair of dress shoes, however.

Andrew Forsythe
5 months ago

I can identify with the comments below, and like Mike, I tend to see getting the best deal as a competitive game and so at times spend an inordinate amount of time to obtain a very modest benefit. On the other hand, the reason we play games is because they’re fun!

DrLefty
5 months ago

About ten years ago, I went to an academic conference in Portland, Oregon. Instead of taking a cab from the airport (Uber wasn’t a thing yet), I took the light rail into town…but then I got hopelessly lost trying to find my hotel from the light rail station. I wandered around town for over an hour as it got dark, dragging eight days worth of luggage, through some really gritty parts of town. I finally ended up in front of the Moda Center, where the NBA team plays, and found a cab to take me to the hotel. The stupid thing was that my employer would have let me expense a cab ride, no problem. I wasn’t even being frugal with my OWN money. I had to promise my husband I’d never do anything like that again!

Jeff
5 months ago
Reply to  DrLefty

I had a similar experience during a conference in Amsterdam. I will always remember (cherish?) the feeling of pulling a suitcase in the red light district.

Mike Zaccardi
5 months ago

My favorite restaurant is a Brazilian steakhouse. The joint often has promotions and discounted gift cards available, so I naturally seek to double-up on the deal when possible.

I admit to occasionally asking the staff annoying questions about the offers when I should just enjoy the meal and hospitality, particularly when I dine with others. What’s $10 give or take? Hardly anything.

My problem is not the money, but rather treating getting good deals like it’s a game. I end up, sometimes, taking the game too seriously.

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