What is the most cheapskate thing you have done?

[Anonymous]

The vast majority of my living and dining room furniture is from Craigslist sellers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom taught me to always put a little water in an "empty" spaghetti sauce jar and shake it to get all the sauce off, then add that to the already-poured-out sauce.

First time I did that with DH he was like WTF? Why are you watering down the sauce?

But I still obsessively do it.

I do this to make soup.

I don't do this, but I save all my vegetable peels in the freezer for making chicken broth when I have a leftover chicken carcass from a rotisserie. It's not cheap, it's gourmet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:-ask for a cup for water at Starbucks instead of buying a bottle
-mapping out the the guy comes to the parking meters so I don’t needlessly pay
-refusing to pay for garage parking on Sundays when street parking be is free. I’ll sit in my car at the end of the block and wait for someone to pull out.
-Taking home the food people bring to the office to share (bags of open chips leftover from the office party, opened 2L sodas etc).
-taking everyone’s cash contribution at dinner and putting the whole tab on my card so I get the points/miles
-not rounding up for the sitter (3 hours gets her $45, not $50)
-Made a challenge to myself to not buy kid clothes until elementary school. Every item is a hand me down except shoes.
-same with toys- all gifts or hand me downs or if I have store credit somewhere
-knowing the cheapest place to get gas (without having to drive far and waste gas)

Every item, including underwear?
Lady, you have a problem.

NP. I have 2 kids under 3. The only clothes I've purchased have been Halloween costumes (which I make), swimwear, and Easter outfits. Everything else has been a gift or a hand-me-down, mostly gifts from spendy grandmas. I will also let my kids wear whatever to bed. Why buy cute matchy pajamas when they can wear sweats and a t-shirt? It's essentially the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: The vast majority of my living and dining room furniture is from Craigslist sellers.

I used to do this out of necessity and I got one of my favorite pieces of furniture this way. It is a dining room sideboard that is still with me ten years later after moving across the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Took my kid to the ER in an Uber - and used UberPool instead of Uber X. We shared a ride with a young couple heading out to a restaurant on a date. The woman was rather concerned and offered to have the driver drop us off first.

Not as bad as it sounds: He needed stitches but wasn't in any pain; I knew we'd be waiting hours at the ER, so the extra few minutes didn't matter.

Ew.

Why would you do that to your kid and to someone else sharing a ride??!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why we can’t have nice things. There’s a difference between cheap and theft.

Came here to say just this. The worst part is, so many of these degenerates are *proud* of their actions.

How is it stealing when Five Guys' has their cajun spices pre-packed in individual containers to take home? Same with the hotel stuff: the last place i stayed, they literally kept refilling toiletries that weren't even used or open.

I used to take home the flavored creamers from restaurants to use in my awful instant coffee in my dorm room. Same with the little packets of jelly, sugar packets, instant tea bags and crackers. I could buy a loaf of cheap bread for under a buck and have toast and jam, coffee and tea all week long.

I take the hotel room toiletries and pens even now. Aren't those things covered in the price of the hotel room?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: The vast majority of my living and dining room furniture is from Craigslist sellers.

I used to do this out of necessity and I got one of my favorite pieces of furniture this way. It is a dining room sideboard that is still with me ten years later after moving across the country.

I once got dining room chairs that were set out on the curb for the trash truck. Brought them home, polished them up, did some minor repairs and we used those chairs for years. Actually wound up selling them for a profit.

Back when I was in college it was pretty standard to drive around on trash day to see if you could find carpets and other stuff for your dorm room.

[Anonymous]

Hotels want you to take the name-stamped pens and pads of paper. It's advertising for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hotels want you to take the name-stamped pens and pads of paper. It's advertising for them.

I'm sure that they also want you to send out the freebie postcards. They aren't in the room for you to look at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hotels want you to take the name-stamped pens and pads of paper. It's advertising for them.

This thread reminds me of this episode of Friends:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on2_ooaUc4Q

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:-ask for a cup for water at Starbucks instead of buying a bottle
-mapping out the the guy comes to the parking meters so I don’t needlessly pay
-refusing to pay for garage parking on Sundays when street parking be is free. I’ll sit in my car at the end of the block and wait for someone to pull out.
-Taking home the food people bring to the office to share (bags of open chips leftover from the office party, opened 2L sodas etc).
-taking everyone’s cash contribution at dinner and putting the whole tab on my card so I get the points/miles
-not rounding up for the sitter (3 hours gets her $45, not $50)
-Made a challenge to myself to not buy kid clothes until elementary school. Every item is a hand me down except shoes.
-same with toys- all gifts or hand me downs or if I have store credit somewhere
-knowing the cheapest place to get gas (without having to drive far and waste gas)

Every item, including underwear?
Lady, you have a problem.

Starbucks water is triple filtered so it is actually better water than the bottled water. I do this all the time.

[Anonymous]

I’m a total cheapskate in some ways.

We use rags instead of paper towels.
We mostly used cloth diapers.
I buy birthday party gifts from Amazon at Black Friday/Cyber Monday prices and dole them out year round.
We buy most clothes from thrift stores.
If I’m there and I see something high end in another size and sell it on eBay.
If people give me hand me downs I don’t like I sell them at consignment.
I buy items from consignment sales and resell them on eBay for higher prices after my kids wear them.
I buy lightly used shoes at the thrift store.

But some of these seem like stealing. Taking toilet paper and tampons from random businesses and people? Kinda like stealing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to swipe Tylenol tablets from my parents when I was in grad school because I literally could not afford to buy a bottle.

Why didn’t you take the whole bottle and tell your mom you couldn’t afford one? Why wouldn’t she be happy to help?

Nope. My loaded parents have never been happy to help anyone except themselves. Like some PPs' relatives above, they only give dollar store or Marshalls clearance sale gifts.

[Anonymous]

One of the cheapest thinks I tried: Reusing coffee filters

Verdict: Does not work. Don't do it.

[Anonymous]

Washing ziplock bags and reusing them.