Cheap or Thrifty?

Cheap or Thrifty?

  • Cheap

    Votes: 7 28.0%

  • Thrifty

    Votes: 18 72.0%
  • Total voters
    25
jkaduk said:
I gotta stop hitting the snack and soda machines. :(
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My experience is that they are generally made of some pretty solid metal. You can really hurt your hand doing that.
 
Here's another one that I use:
I have a 5% cash back American Express ( I have an 800-and-something credit score), and also a 2% cash back Visa. I make EVERY purchase/payment allowed on the American Express, and if they don't take American Express, then the Visa. I use it for EVERTHING, then pay it off every month. I probably get $600 or more a year back, free. Well, free for me, because somebody is paying it in the form of interest rates, just not me. ;)
 
tawood said:
Here's another one that I use:
I have a 5% cash back American Express ( I have an 800-and-something credit score), and also a 2% cash back Visa. I make EVERY purchase/payment allowed on the American Express, and if they don't take American Express, then the Visa. I use it for EVERTHING, then pay it off every month. I probably get $600 or more a year back, free. Well, free for me, because somebody is paying it in the form of interest rates, just not me. ;)
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It's debatable whether the interest pays for it or the fees to the business accepting the cards, which is passed on to you at higher sales prices anyway.

But it's impossible to buck that trend and you'd pay those higher prices anyway, even if you were handing them cash, so might as well get some of it back.

Best deal ever was when Amex had the airport self serve pumps listed as automotive fuel for a few years... Heh.

They finally wised up to that one and have an aviation fuel category in their internal systems now, and exclude those gas pumps from the deals on cash back for fuel. Oh well.

Fun while it lasted!

I'm currently plowing through a deal Amex offered to open a new card and get $300 back as a credit if a certain amount was spent on that card in the first 90 days.

Re-routed everything through that card and we'll have that one done in no time, and then move it all back to the Citi card that gives us a better deal on everything except grocery stores.

I think I also describe on here somewhere my recent trip to Costco to leave them, where I got a tank of gas and $370 to terminate my membership. Best Costco run I've ever made! LOL.

The Amex deal was prompted by them losing Costco. They wanted to keep us as a customer so bad they offered the $300 thing after about their fifth or sixth attempt at giving me a different Amex card. I waited as the deal got better and better.

Talking to one of their CSRs, apparently something postponed the Amex leaving Costco thing until mid-year. It was supposed to happen in March originally.
 
Cheap, if you're trying to save a few cents. Thrifty, if you don't like to waste soap.
 
If you aren't rinsing out your toilet paper and reusing it, you aren't even in the game.

Some stolen jokes:
Tighter than a duck's butt on ice.
Tighter than a bull's (rear) during fly season.
Tightwad likes to sit around the fire on a cold winter's night. If it's really bad, he'll even light it'.
You know its really cold when cheapskate puts his hands in his own pockets to stay warm.
So tight he had double glazing fitted so the kids couldn't hear the ice cream van.
He's so tight that if you shoved a lump of coal up his (ahem), within hours you'd have a diamond".
I saw tightwad stripping the wall paper the other day, I said 'Oh you're decorating' and he said 'no I'm moving house.
So cheap he can't even pay attention.
The grand canyon was made when he dropped a penny down a rabbit hole.
He's so tight, he needs dental floss to wipe.
 
tawood said:
Here's another one that I use:
I have a 5% cash back American Express ( I have an 800-and-something credit score), and also a 2% cash back Visa. I make EVERY purchase/payment allowed on the American Express, and if they don't take American Express, then the Visa. I use it for EVERTHING, then pay it off every month. I probably get $600 or more a year back, free. Well, free for me, because somebody is paying it in the form of interest rates, just not me. ;)
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I think in general they figure the average cardholder is going to pay back far more in interest than they will ever receive in rewards. That's why the Amex charge cards (Green, Gold, and Platinum... I don't know about the Black card because I never got that far) that don't offer financing also don't pay cash rewards.

In addition, Amex charges merchants absolutely ridiculous rates to accept their cards. Those fees are why almost no place around me accepts it anymore. The gas stations do, I think Price Chopper does, and maybe Dollar General does; but certainly none of the mom and pop shops accept it.

Rich
 
Gotta say, I'm enjoying this thread (probably because now I know I"m not bat-**** crazy for doing similar things).
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
Foolish.....it's not store brand. :confused:
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While not applicable to dish detergent, my main focus when shopping is length of time until expiration date, especially now that I'm single again.

The cheap stuff that expires in July is likely less economical than the brand name that expires in December.
 
Soap doesn't expire, it will always clean.

FDA requires an expiration date, which is usually how long they guarantee the seal to hold. At a previous job, we had to print expiration dates on plastic tubing, it was how long we guaranteed the sterile barrier to hold (FYI, 3 years). The product was good for years beyond that.
 
timwinters said:
One thing I've learned (the hard way) with generics/store brands is that many aren't concentrated and you'll use far more of it to get the job done. It winds up being more expensive, not less.

With dishwashing liquid, if the bottle doesn't say "concentrated" then it's not.
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i've found some things that say "concentrated" on the label, and they aren't. Most were off brands.
 
RJM62 said:
I say it's thrifty to let the last bit of dish washing detergent drip into the new jug. My daughter says it's just cheap. Am I cheap or thrifty?

Rich
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My ballot is marked "thrifty". Evidently she is not personally familiar with what is required to support an aviation habit these days?
 
GRG55 said:
My ballot is marked "thrifty". Evidently she is not personally familiar with what is required to support an aviation habit these days?
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I think she just likes making fun of me. She's actually pretty cheap thrifty herself.

Rich
 
In my case, I don't care about the half a cent of dishwashing detergent I'm saving, but it seems wasteful to throw it out. I throw out enough things, especially if they are perishable and I don't get around to using them.
 
Can't say I've ever dripped the last bits of a bottle into a new one. I just use it all and then throw the bottle away. Seems like a time consuming and unnecessary step.
 
RJM62 said:
I don't like using plastic for small purchases at local mom-and-pop stores because the banks' vig eats up their profits. At large chains, I couldn't care less. Last week I used a cash-back credit card at WalMart to pay for a $4.99 item.

Rich
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I earned 0.12 airline miles the other day when I used a credit card to buy a washer at Home Depot. :D
 
Drink water instead of coffee and save some more money. ;)
 
Mason said:
Does anyone else here re-use coffee grounds, or tea bags? I can't be the only one that "cheap."
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I will use a tea bag twice if I drink the second cup immediately after the first but I don't save them for use later. It's not about the money though since I can be an impulse buyer of the worst kind and give away plenty of newish things I didn't want as much as I thought I did.
 
Everskyward said:
I will use a tea bag twice if I drink the second cup immediately after the first but I don't save them for use later. It's not about the money though since I can be an impulse buyer of the worst kind and give away plenty of newish things I didn't want as much as I thought I did.
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Same here. But my impetus is more driven by a limited supply of bags of the kind of tea I want, vs. frugality.
 
I would just say plain smart!
 
The cash back card thread inspired me.

Our regular grocery store has an iPhone app. Every single manufacturers coupon that's active is available in it to "add to your loyalty card". I usually use the search while I'm walking in the front door of the place with the grocery list and add three or four coupons to my card before I make it back to the checkout. Those plus any regular weekly specials and I'm usually knocking off $10 here, $10 there. All for nothing more than changing my habits. The other habit I have is scanning UPCs with the Amazon app. If Amazon beats the price considerably on something and I don't need it "today", I just hit buy it now and it arrives on the doorstep in two days. I haven't messed with Amazon Pantry much yet but it looks promising for larger household product stocking and what not.

Buy all the airplane fuel on a cash back card too! That adds up fast. If your home 'drome gives any discounts for based aircraft, give them the cash back card to keep on file. Heh.

I love rebates. Can you tell? I won't do stuff that eats HUGE amounts of time for them, but firing up an app while walking into the store isn't very difficult.

Here's another fun one. Start looking at receipts. Dang near everywhere is giving away free stuff for doing reviews. If I like what I see for free on their receipt, I stuff it in my wallet and once a week I slam as fast as I can through all of the surveys. I really don't care about the survey and almost everywhere gets an "excellent" rating unless something was truly wrong with the visit. Write down the code on the receipt and free lunch or whatever. If you like McDs Egg McMuffins their receipts are the best. Buy one, get one. There are days when I feel like a couple of McMuffins and that'll cover lunch and breakfast since I'm trying to lower overall caloric intake (or I'll do the Sac thing and ditch half or all of the muffin). Take my own coffee from home and stop at the McDs on the way to work and $3-$4 later including tax, I'm munching a McMuffin. I could make one at home for less, but that'd take a half an hour.

Here's the fun part on theirs. When they ask if you want the receipt from the deal McMuffin, say yes. That one also has the survey code thing. You can just back to back them forever. If you have a buddy at work that likes McMuffins, have him give you $2 and give him the second one. (They also do Quarter Pounder with Cheese, but two of those is too much food for me and they don't keep well. I only do that if someone else wants one. No fries and often no drink, that's where they make back their money. There's diet cokes or diet pepsis in the mini fridge at work or the big fridge at home. Or I will "splurge" and spend an extra $1 on a large unsweetened iced tea.)

BK does either a free Whopper or a free Original Chicken sandwich. If I recall, theirs don't back to back, but why pay full price? Half price is great. You have a whole month to use the things usually. A couple of them stuffed in the wallet comes in handy on a busy day when you can't cook at home. There's usually two days a month where a half price chicken sandwich sounds good just to stuff something in my face while hauling butt to an after hours meeting or whatever.

Various other places do other deals. Start looking at those receipts. The surveys honestly take almost no time at all when you're not even paying attention to them and clicking "you did just faaaaantastic" on every question. Hahaha. So fantastic you give me stuff at half price. Thanks.

Back of the grocery store receipt is loaded with the things too, of course. Not always interesting but a BOGO on Subway was lunch the other day for two of us. 20% off dry cleaning came in handy last month, too. We pile it up and when we see one of those or we just don't want the bag getting any fuller, we take the stuff.

Marketing people are always giving away free stuff. Just have to look for it.

This thread is reminding me I should go buy that new album from the band I like with the half off iTunes gift card. I don't even remember how I got the half off. But here it is. Heh.

I'm not as good at being a cheapskate as Rich, but I do make an attempt. Heh.
 
RJM62 said:
I use them to fertilize the garden sometimes.

Rich
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Earthworms love coffee grounds and they make the soil even better by aerating and fertilizing. My mom has saved them, along with other composting scraps, and dug them into the garden, for as long as I can remember.
 
The Ajax is holding up well.

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Rich
 
RJM62 said:
I say it's thrifty to let the last bit of dish washing detergent drip into the new jug. My daughter says it's just cheap. Am I cheap or thrifty?

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Rich
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Just rinse it out with the dish water put it back into the sink. more better than throwing it away dirty.
 
RJM62 said:
I say it's thrifty to let the last bit of dish washing detergent drip into the new jug. My daughter says it's just cheap. Am I cheap or thrifty?

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Rich
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Do you recycle? If you do, (and you should) you should rinse out the recyclable anyway. So, I say, let it drip, it's the right thing to do.
 
GlennAB1 said:
Do you recycle? If you do, (and you should) you should rinse out the recyclable anyway. So, I say, let it drip, it's the right thing to do.
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Yep, I make at least a weekly run up to the Sparrow Fart transfer station with everything sorted to their liking.

Rich
 
It'd be cheap if you were watering it down to get every last drop out of it. To let it just drip in to the other bottle takes no effort and is just being thrifty.
 
I needed a new litterbox for my cat of unusual size, but new top-entry litterboxes were $30 on amazon. As it turns out, a 14 gallon rubbermaid roughneck does the job just fine if you slice the lid in half with an xacto, for $10 at my local hardware store.
 
When my vehicles get low on gas I just leave them wherever they are and buy new ones that have full tanks. Same with airplanes. It's only money. **** it, man, I'm a pilot!
 
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