The article on the AOL Welcome Page titled "The Cheapest Person I Know" got me thinking. Here is my story:

I had a coworker that ate a Phily soft pretzel for lunch everyday. She would remove the salt before she ate the pretzel and save it everyday in a Ziploc baggy. Then, when it snowed outside she would use the pretzel salt she saved up as rock salt for her sidewalk!

I know we are all pretty frugal here on Mycoupons, but I always thought that was pretty extreme. What is your story?

Wow! How big was her sidewalk? I can't imagine even with a pretzel everyday that there would be that much salt.

My Grandma still refills her ketchup bottle from the little packets from restaurants....my Mom, Aunts and Uncles all save their packets for her. Don't think she's bought a new bottle for at least 25-30 years. I never understood it. I myself wouldn't have the patience to sit there and squeeze them into the bottle, I'd be crazy after a just a few

I think the most frugal thing I do, that my Dh hates is reuse ziploc bags, if they have had meat in them I don't, but if they had pretty much anything else in them I wash and dry them

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

Ok...I am NOT that cheap! I am frugal...not cheap. I won't take jellies or sugar at restaurants or horde rolls in my purse....although I know some who do

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

i'll take extra hot sauce from taco bell and use it at home.i've lightend up a lot on my cheapness. I reuse ziplocks and foil. I reuse all my plastic butter bowls etc... for my dh lunch. I reuse the back of paper instead of buying printer paper to print mystery shopping assignents and coupons. I make my own laundry detergents and cleaning solutions. I only rent movies free at the library or by taking a printer cartrige to our hollywood video. most of this was learned after the flood with a newborn and no belongings or place to live. You do what you gotta do to get by.. Now were doing a little better and I still practice the frugalness so we can get into a little bit bigger of a house.
What makes me laugh is my sister who constantly makes fun of me for some of the things I do just filed bankruptcy for the 2nd time! go ahead and laugh while working through your retirement..lol I'll be at the beach if ya need me!!

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Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

I dont do it but I have a friend who seperates the 2 ply bathroom tissue and makes 2 rolls out of it. Or rather makes to piles out of it. Its put into a 2 seperate food lion bags . THAT I refuse to do. lol. But i do wash out zip bags unless it had meat in it.

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My dad was so cheap we always said he squeeked. My favorite story about his cheapness is about the Christmas wrap. We had a place called 7 mile fair. It was a giant flea market. He found a roll of Christmas wrapping paper like the type they would use in a department store gift wrap center. He paid $5 for it (about 1975). All Christmas presents were wrapped in it for the next 10 years. I have 7 brothers and sisters. There were also a few grandchildren at this point.

um i know someone who drinks the coffee from the used coffee grounds, that starbucks gives away for your garden fertilizer

gross!!!

okay that is just nasty

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Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

I do not understand the separating the toilet paper thing. Wouldn't it be more money saving to just use a little less of the 2 ply paper at each sitting(heehee)than to separate the plys? Or better yet, use a coupon on the toilet paper in the first place to get it cheap, cheap, cheap and use it as is?

The ketchup packets story is nasty. That bottle has got to be nasty after all these years.


The used coffee grounds story is the GROSSEST thing I've heard in a long time! That story takes the cake!

I will reuse a baggie that had cookies or something similar in it. I leave them in my lunch carrier and refill them the next day with a similar thing. I'll reuse a piece of foil that I used to cover somthing with as long as it didn't get anything on it, but I'm not washing foil, baggies, etc.

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Jesus SAVES by shopping smartly and using double coupons!

We still use a roll of that my grandma bought in the 70's!!!! It lasts forever!

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

I'm sorry but *my* bottom deserves a soft touch...not sandpaper!

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

I thought I was cheap but after reading these posts, I guess I'm not!

I am not cheap I usually reuse, etc out of concern for wasted resources.

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

Since it's only one ply don't you have to use twice as much? If so defeats the purpose!!!

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

My husband would not go for that (not that I would even think of it lol) but while we were living in different states, I bought the cheap TP at Wal Mart ($1.12 for 6 rolls) and he insists on Charmin or something like that. I thought the cheap stuff was fine!

OK, that is disgusting! Now, I have gone out with my own family (dad/sister) and they might have a side or something they don't want and haven't touched, I will take it home to eat myself. They live far away so it would spoil before they got home. But never in a million years would I serve it to someone else or even take home friend's food. That's just gross.

I do ask for ketchup, etc. whenever I get carryout and keep the extras in the frig. I don't squeeze them into the bottle, just keep a container on the door and throw them in it. The only time I ever use the bottle is for cooking (meatloaf, etc.). I don't take a ton extra or empty out the jelly bins or anything, that's not right. Usually it's drive through and I just ask for a couple ketchups for the fries and they throw a bunch in themselves. Napkins, too!

I take all the shampoos, soap, lotions, etc. from hotels when we travel. Not the towels or anything, just the disposable stuff. I actually hide the soap we've opened and are using before the maids come because they always throw it out and leave a new one. What a waste, it's still a perfectly good bar of soap! My dh laughs because I use hotel toiletries at home all the time since we travel 3-4 times a year, I always have a stash.

Jenn

I keep the extra tarter/sauces/ketcups in the fridge to use for lunches, I don't just swipe them though...I try to use coupons and get deals, but I won't go to any extreme at all...
I had a friend, granted she was on a serious fixed income, older lady who every month when she paid her water bill she took a big purse to the county building and took 3 rolls of surplus paper they had...they always have about 6 rolls in ever stall..never have figured that one out...
I also take the soaps etc,. when we travel, use them for giving to the seniors etc. or if someone runs out of shampoo and don't want to just stop at the store for just that they know where my stash is...

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Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard

I don't consider myself frugal, however, I do rinse and reuse foil and baggies but not to save money....My family is just trying to live a GREENER life. When I use to work everyone thought I was a cheapskate because I brought in a garbage can for people to throw the soda cans and bottles in. They all thought I was doing it to make money y main reason was to recycle, the money was just a bonus. I would bring a bag home almost everyday!

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My brother-in-law wipes the crumbs off paper plates and reuses them (and we're talking the 250 ct for $1 white plates). He once offered to take me shopping to pick out my own Christmas gift - at the Salvation Army. He is the King of Cheap.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

some of these stories are too funny

i remember awhile back a similar post on this board and someone told about her grandma or great grandma in the country washing out and reusing tp, ok that was the grossest thing ever to me!! gaggg

i also remember someone on one of those trading spouses shows did that splitting tp thing...the lady who was a big couponer i think? she bought two ply tp, and unrolled it into two one ply packs. i don't get that either. seems like you would use the same amount!

I keep the packages of ketchup and taco sauce that we get through a drive thru, but I will only get what we need if eating inside. Often, we just get way too much through the drive thru, and I just can't throw it away. The taco sauce really comes in handy on taco night.

There is a restaurant that we go to that has really, really good seasoned salt. I will order the fries or tater chips with the salt on the side. The salt comes in a take home container, then we use the seasoned salt on the fries we buy from other restaurants and on the fries we make at home. I'm not sure if this is a case of cheapness or just that no one else has this seasoned salt.

At restaurants, my husband and I often order an extra salad and then split the entree. At Olive Garden, I usually get full on the salad, so the entree is lunch/dinner the next day. This gives me two meals for the price of one, plus, I just love their salads.

We knew my mom was cheap when we were kids....we would get only what we NEEDED at Christmas time, birthdays, etc and she would not buy us another thing no matter what. Some of you may think that is frugal, and it is, but my father was the chief engineer of a steel company.

I do some of the things many of you do, but last summer I noticed a couple set of my sheets were still good, but the elastic was not holding them on the mattress so I sewed new elastic on those sets of sheets. I also took my daughter's old t-shirts and made a quit for her from them.

I have a friend who saves her paper towels from when she dries her hands and then reuses them to clean with. The funny thing is she's a multi-millionare.

Personally I am too cheap to buy papertowels unless they are free after coupons and then I use them very sparingly.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

My grandfather god rest his soul was cheap, he would wash the paper plates after we used them and re-use them , he also re-used plastic baggies by washing them adn the twist ties that came with them back then, saved the bread bags too. He saved screws nuts and bolts from items that broke for just in case he needed them for something else, he did the same with ketchup bottles washed them out for re-use or re-filling with the packets from the fast food places, he brought home sugar packets from restaurants etc He was a big fisherman and he re-used the plastic ice-cream containers and sometimes the cardboard one to freeze his catch of the day this was back in the 70's !!! When he passed away in 1986 my father cleared things out he had cases upon of empty glass ketchup bottles and when he cleared the freezer out he found fish that I had caught when I was there the last time in 1981 ewww. Grandpa was a bit of a hoarder and tried to save things because he just knew it could be re-used, being born in 1899 and going through the depression kidn of made him save things for in case we need it.

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~ Christine ~
Grammie to Trinity Lorayne Jean Keens Born June 9, 2011 Loving my awesome guitar picking 100% Country Boy boyfriend Kenny !
RIP Daddy~ 01/24/1930-06/01/2007 I miss you !
Dont Think you Can .. know you can ~ Jeff Hardy

ok, here's mine-
unless it is really on sale, the only meat I buy for my family is from Harris Teeter, where I can find some awesome deals on short-dated meat. That includes lunch meat. I get boneless/skinless chicken breast for .99lb. chicken leg quarters for .35lb., ground beef and stew beef for less than a dollar per lb. , and cornish game hens for $1 each. I can get sirloin steak for about $1.50 per lb. as well. I have gotten whole turkeys for $3.00. When the lunchmeat is marked down, and hotdogs too, usually I can use coupons, and get it pretty cheap, if not free. Last week, I got several packages of sliced turkey for .45lb. The kids don't know the difference, and only one time have I had a problem w/ the meat being bad. I just throw it in the freezer and we use it as needed. And that's how I am cheap.

Lets see my grandma who is still trying to fix up pants shes had since the 60's no lie & she carries a clothes basket to the laundry matt a $3 clothes basket at that & its ducked taped together ROFL!! And she is not hurting & even if I bought her a new basket because we have bought her new clothes you would just never see them again they are her good stuff now that just sits in the closet. Then thiers my uncle he once drove 4hrs to get a DEAL on USED tires for his car OMG that was sooo funny my dad talked about it until the day he died my uncle is a real penney pincher.

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mom of 3 greats girls

I remember reading about terrible Christmas presents. It was a contest and people wrote essays about the worst presents they ever got. The person who won was given a gift card to a craft store. First of all, she never did crafts and everyone knew it. Second, when she went to the store to buy something, she decided to check the balance on the card. $40 was printed on the card but the balance was only like 80¢. So the cheap person who gave it to her had already used most of it.

It was a sad (but funny) story, because she then won several hundred dollars (I forget the details) for having the worst present in the contest.

Maybe your brother in law is related to this gift giver!

My husband is like this. Funny thing is that he can never find the crap he saved in his mess (the cellar/garage) and always has to go buy whatever it is he needs. Drives me crazy....


Funny story gianninaj! Giving a gift card with less than the face value...that's a winner!

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

Same exact thing at our house when we were growing up.And my dad was the repairman at the steel company that fixed all the machines when they broke down.Since I was the youngest out of all our relatives ,I got to wear my brothers and all my cousins hammydowns.And most of them all had these stupid looking patches in the most awkward places because grandma loved to sew.
I would say the cheapest I get is to wash all my freezer and sandwich bags over and over and reuse them.

Grandma never had a huge roll of wrapping paper but she certainly put last year's paper to good use! She had some wrapping paper that my mom and auntie swore she had been recycling for 30 years. Grandpa would go out on Christmas Eve and buy the Christmas tree... a live one... for 90% off -- they were always gorgeous and enormous!

A lot of what I do is more about recycling/reusing then about frugality -- although that does come into play a lot!... I don't like the waste of throwing away paper towels so I don't use them or a lot of other disposable goods...

I have lived in the desert for most of my life and backpacked in areas where water was incredibly scarce; and so it almost causes me physical pain when people waste water... I see lawns getting over-watered and the puddles on the street and I want to go scoop up the water and take it home so that it can be used to water my own yard!

I am a product of my upbringing -- the stories I could tell -- but I won't waste your time! It would be a novel!

We try to live a GREEN life without stressing out too much about it or judging others with regards to their choices in how they live (also a product of my upbringing!) -- but I do worry about our Earth.

[quote=flipper113;2881885]I have a friend who saves her paper towels from when she dries her hands and then reuses them to clean with.

The funny thing is she's a multi-millionare.

And now you know why!!!

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I forgot about the bread bags.....! My grandma always has a huge stash of these....


I was talking to my Mom about this thread, and she was telling me about Grandma also saving the dryer lint and using to stuff homemade pillows......no wonder when ever I get a pillow from her I can't stop sneezing!

And I'm with Addison on the paper towels I come close to having a metal breakdown if Idon't have at least 6 or 8 rolls stashed in my pantry (rest in the shed) We go through about a roll a day....I could not function without my paper towels.

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

I don't think I'd call myself cheap, and definitely NOT my DH. We are both pretty smart about our money. If we need it we buy it. We're not overly wasteful.

In a way, I wish I were cheap, but, I just have to have certain things a certain way.

I think a lot of older people do/did things because of the era they were raised in.

I don't think there is anything wrong with being frugal, you save money, resources, time,etc.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

OOOOh I am like Linnybop when it comes to meats if I dont buy them at Aldi I hit up my local Giant I know just about when they are marking them down and putting the coupons on them and I will stock up on short dated stuff too and put them in my big freezer my best buy ever was 45 cent Pork chops I think someone mis marked the packages I got 10 packages of them for 45 cents each. I have gotten chicken and other meats for aorund $1.50 a package and then paid for it all using my Paypal card which is money from Surveys and RPs so basically its free. We just got a new Harris Teeter a bit closer will have to check them out for short dated meats too.

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~ Christine ~
Grammie to Trinity Lorayne Jean Keens Born June 9, 2011 Loving my awesome guitar picking 100% Country Boy boyfriend Kenny !
RIP Daddy~ 01/24/1930-06/01/2007 I miss you !
Dont Think you Can .. know you can ~ Jeff Hardy

It's funny that this thread is on here. I just threw away a ziploc bag this morning and actually debated whether I should wash it out and reuse it. It only had watermelon in it and I have to buy those all the time. I don't think I'm very frugal, but I really need to be now that I'm not working. I'm still living as if we had my income, which is not going to work much longer!

I have a system for recycling ziplocs. For the ones that have been previously used, I wash them and they go in a small box under the sink to be used for non-food purposes only. This works great since my son and husband don't use up all of my "good" ziplocs for toys, interesting rocks, screws, etc.

I'm not cheap but I do like to find good deals and most of the time I do NOT pay full retail.

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TLJ ~ Women United in Spirit