5 Breaches of Frugality: Do These and Consider Yourself Cheap

Posted on | January 24, 2010 | 5 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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).
  3. Taking only half or less of the medication you are prescribed in order to save money (this one is courtesy of my late grandfather).
  4. Eating from the salad or soup bar in Whole Foods or any other store without paying for it (personally witnessed at Whole Foods).
  5. 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?

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Comments

5 Responses to “5 Breaches of Frugality: Do These and Consider Yourself Cheap”

  1. Aurora
    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!

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  2. Momma J
    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

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  3. Debbie
    May 16th, 2010 @ 12:41 pm

    I draw the line as being frugal for yourself, and being cheap to others. For example, I would never attend a wedding without giving a gift – even if it means I need to budget more tightly that month to afford the gift. I had plenty of people attend my wedding without giving any gifts – including a few cousins I considered “good friends,” who got married less than a year before me, and received a sizeable gift from me (even though I was just a single student at the time). Their family is also considered “well off” by others.. Meanwhile, a different branch of cousins, who are certainly NOT “well off,” all gave me a gift.

    It’s not that I need their gifts, but it’s pretty rude to receive a nice gift then attend the giver’s wedding a few months later and not even leave the standard serving dish.

    Cheap isn’t about how much money you have – it’s about your attitude toward other people, IMO.

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  4. Amanda L. Grossman
    May 16th, 2010 @ 4:27 pm

    Hello Debbie!

    I completely agree with you–and we just got married one month ago tomorrow..and the same thing happened to us! Several people did not give gifts, even though we gave them gifts at their graduations and a baby shower not one year ago…it was like we were getting married and then buying them a gift (a really nice dinner:)).

    Thanks for your comment!

    [Reply]

  5. Frugal Confessions
    August 2nd, 2010 @ 8:04 am

    [...] I started to think about the negative externalities associated with frugality, things that I have seen develop in other frugal people who have danced along the line of being frugal and b…—putting money above all else. In a perfectly frugal world, we would not see these externalities [...]

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