5 Breaches of Frugality: Do These and Consider Yourself Cheap
Posted on | January 24, 2010 | 2 Comments
fru⋅gal /ˈfrugəl/ [froo-guhl]: economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful
cheap [cheep]: stingy; miserly
Something that bothers me is when someone uses the word ‘cheap’ and ‘frugal’ interchangeably. I am a frugal person, and proudly so. I am not cheap, and when I sometimes cross the slim border between the two words (it does happen), I am not proud of myself.
There are things that cheap people do that I find unforgivable. I want to share a few of these to further express the difference between being frugal, or smart with your money, and being cheap, or stingy with your money. And yes, these are all real examples I have either read off of other people’s blogs, comments, or witnessed in real life.
- Submitting rebates for “full satisfaction guaranteed or your money back” products when you were completely satisfied by the product; this throws marketers and retailers off because they typically want to figure out what is wrong with their product, and use feedback (positive or negative) as a way to do this. Plus, it is just dishonest.
- Using a Buy-One-Get-One-Free meal coupon, and making the other person pay for their meal (i.e. you get your meal for free).
- Taking only half or less of the medication you are prescribed in order to save money (this one is courtesy of my late grandfather).
- Eating from the salad or soup bar in Whole Foods or any other store without paying for it (personally witnessed at Whole Foods).
- Sitting in a non-public location (like a Starbuck’s, McDonald’s, etc.) to use the internet without purchasing anything.
What do you find unforgivable?
Tags: being cheap > being frugal > difference between frugal and cheap > stingy
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January 25th, 2010 @ 9:29 am
how about people that, when in groups of people at a bar or restaurant, don’t put in their share of the money to cover their food and/or drinks plus tax & tip… leaving everyone looking around at each other until some nice person has to throw in more money to pay for whoever was too cheap to pay their share, yuck!
January 27th, 2010 @ 11:29 am
I think one of my biggest pet peeves is the people that surf all the freebie sites and grab everything whether they need it or not. I honestly won’t send for something I don’t need.
In the world of cheap, I have a “fan” website that is a hobby (I make no money), but once a year, I partner with an internet radio site for a “celebration” of the band. The more listeners he has, the more money he makes, so this one day a year is huge for him. We had giveaways throughout the day…and remarkably, I seemed to have more international winners than he did! I had to pay out more postage, yet I made no money that day! Speaking of cheap…GEEZ! Lesson learned…
/J