My mother used to carry a slice of Kraft Cheese in her purse when going to Burger King. She'd then order a Whopper, but without cheese because they charge an additional 50 cents or so.

 

And she wonders why I'm such a tightwad today...

 

Love it! Growing up, on the occasional chance that we would eat out, my dad never ordered a meal for himself. He would sit there nursing his beer, all the time knowing that at least a few of his 6 kids had eyes bigger than their stomachs, and would start passing their half-eaten meal down the table to him. Funny thing is, I do that now with my own kids. I never order a meal for myself, and there is always plenty to eat!

I'd have to go with Dolomite on this one in that my post is 100% pure BS.

 

I know you were being flippant, but actually, depending on the age of your laptop and how cold it is where you keep it, leaving it on may not be a bad idea. Hard drives can be damaged during a "cold" boot, when a computer is turned on in a unheated room during the winter or rooms that are kept cold by air conditioning. Desktops are more susceptible, but I've seen it in laptops. In fact, when I instituted an "always on policy" at work, my hard drive failures dropped dramatically. And that's here in Florida.

We're not necessarily cheap, just lean to the frugal, and are patient. But if we want something we will find the best deal and buy it.

 

- Rasied 4 boys, so we used to, and still do, use coupons religiously. It's not as important now as it was then cause their all out of the house. Mrs C tracked it one year, our best year, our coupons savings totalled $2008.00. Basicly $40.00 a week.

 

- We never by anything when it first comes out. We wait, let the price drop, and shop around. Quite often, we buy 1 or 2 year old technology, but that's fine. We have Hi-def TVs. They're just not the newest or most expensive.

 

- Have never owned a car that didn't get to at least 150,000 miles, most of them 200,000 miles.

 

- Still do all of my own oil changes, tune-ups, brakes, belts, hoses. Take them for repairs immediately if it's anything else.

 

- We shop on line, but will offer a local business a chance to get close. I believe in supporting local businesses, but will not be gouged.

Edited March 7, 201115 yr by coldweatherfan

Here's a good one for you RM. My son is cheap.

 

I got him an I-touch for Christmas. Aparently there is an ap, textfree something or other, that you can load on your I-touch, that as long as you have wifi available, you can use it as a phone to talk or text, and it costs nothing. You even get your own number to use. He goes to UK, where everything is hot and his apartment is close enough to the UK library that he picks it up, if he's at our house it's wireless. So it is available to him probably 95% of the time. He let his cell phone contract run out and bought a Go phone just for emergencies.

There was a great show on a couple of weeks ago about extreme coupon(ing). Some people were using coupons (coupled with in store promotions, manufacturing specials, and double coupon days) to save hundreds of dollars. There was one person in the Florence area that would use his savings to give to the local foodbank. He worked the coupouns to get a pallet of cereal for free. It was an amazing thing to watch/

 

We have a friend in Chicago that is one of these. She a fanatic. She'll get things basically for free. I've tried but I guess the couponing and sales in Lexington are not good enough to do it very often.

 

She does it so much and has gotten so good at it, she goes to a flea market once a month and sells the stuff. She makes $1000 to $1500 each time.

 

I kid you not. She has basically turned her basement into a warehouse. She's proud of it and likes to send pictures of some of her deals. One week she sent me a picture. It was 180 twelve packs of coke products. She paid 50 cents each for them. Sold them for $3.00 each at the flea market. A 12 pack in Chicago is normally $4.99.

Well I am sorry I stole a .15 cent fountain drink a few times (less than 10) when I was struggling in college, I didn't know that would get so much criticism. Like I said earlier, I'm not proud of it but rather ashamed and it also happened during a portion of my life I am not happy about. If thats the worst I can say I did though, I'm sure its no where near as bad as what most of you have done in your life. Everyone makes mistakes. You can make me look bad about a .15 cent fountain drink all you want and act like I was out heisting cars and taking them to the chop shop for cash, but even though I'm not proud of it thats not nearly as bad as what most college kids do/have done and that includes everybody. Nobody's perfect.

Actually nobody is saying that though I believe you are conjuring this dramatic argument in your head.

 

I am not judging you at all. As I said, I too have skirted the issue at golf courses before and we have all been guilty of taking something (maybe $.15 worth) from time to time.... especially in our younger years. It all evens out in the end, everyone is just trying to distinguish that it does not fall under the purview of cheapness.

I think we are all cheap about certain things in life and there are varying degrees of cheapness. I know some at work that will only donate a $1 when the norm is $10, but that same person may spend $200 on a pocket knife or something I may find silly.

Actually nobody is saying that though I believe you are conjuring this dramatic argument in your head.

 

I am not judging you at all. As I said, I too have skirted the issue at golf courses before and we have all been guilty of taking something (maybe $.15 worth) from time to time.... especially in our younger years. It all evens out in the end, everyone is just trying to distinguish that it does not fall under the purview of cheapness.

 

I know, and I understand that now. Its funny how much you change just from being 20 years old, to say just 23. I just felt like everyone who commented was attacking me and trying to make me out to be something I'm not. That's the only problem I have with BGP's sometimes is that it feels like if some posters see an opportunity to put another poster down or make themselves look high and mighty they gladly do it hiding behind the safety of their username. I just felt all of the criticism over what amounts to less than three dollars of "theft" was un called for. One person pointing that out is fair, but all the others piling on to take jabs and try to make a big deal out of, I just didn't understand.

I got a 42 inch for $450. And yes you do NEED It. :lol:

 

I got a 50 inch from HH Gregg for $598 and a 32 inch that was a display for 278...two HD Tv's for less than $1000.

 

50 inch Samsung is in the living room, 32inch Panasonic is in the bedroom.

 

I am not cheap but try to bargain as much as possible. Went in to Lowes' the other day and got three cans of 10oz Lysol for $3.18 in the clearance aisle. :lol:

Can someone explain how the netflix works? Can you still get espn, nick and all that?

That's the only problem I have with BGP's sometimes is that it feels like if some posters see an opportunity to put another poster down or make themselves look high and mighty they gladly do it hiding behind the safety of their username.

Dolamite-- I 100% agree with you here. But don't get discouraged. I have not been here long, and I do enjoy being part of BGP. On several occasions I have also been "tromped on" for what I thought was my harmless personal opinion. So now when I do post, I am careful and cautious, and I reread it a couple of times before I hit "send". I ask myself, "Do I feel strong enough in my post so that I won't be bothered by other people's interpretations?" Kind of like looking both ways before you merge into the traffic. Even after all that, there still are those that have to put you down "to make themselves look high and mighty". It's a thing called life!

Can someone explain how the netflix works? Can you still get espn, nick and all that?

 

Netflix is a service that you get movie/tv show rentals from. I have the $10 plan in which I get 1 DVD at a time in the mail and have unlimited streaming capabilities. To stream you have to have high speed internet and a streaming capable device. You can buy a standalone device and it seems alot of the new blue ray players have the capability but something like a Wii or PS3 works. I use my PS3. You do not get any real time broadcast so no ESPN or Nick, but you can instantly stream just about every episode of spounge bob except for the current season though. The newest televison programing is from the previous season. Typically the newer released movies are DVD only but netflix is working on getting more out there. I love netflix and you will get to see movies that you wouldn't have otherwise seen based on your ratings of movies you have seen. Using your rankings they suggest movies to you and it has been pretty spot on with my taste thusfar. Hope that helps.

NEED? Come on. You're like my kids when I have to explain what the word means.

 

I knew you'd catch that.

 

Put it this way: If you want to have me over for a few beers to watch a game, then yes, you NEED an HDTV.

I knew you'd catch that.

 

Put it this way: If you want to have me over for a few beers to watch a game, then yes, you NEED an HDTV.

 

You know...that could be just the incentive he needs to keep from buying one for even longer. :lol:

I'm not very cheap myself. I LOVE HD television ! My Directtv bill is over $100. If we need it we will usually get it. The only thing I do that saves is bring my lunch from home.