The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Book Contest

I love to thrift store (we use that term as a verb in my house) and I know that eventually, much of what I need will find its way to me via thrift stores. You can pick up great battery operated toys at goodwills and they are easier to clean than say stuffed animals which I rarely buy used. I have gotten $50 toys for $4. I usually pick up at least one or two children’s books for less than a dollar (sometimes for pennies) when I go and my 3yo daughter has a few hundred books by now, so we always lots to choose from at reading time. The ONE book I paid full price for, she tore to shreds.

We grew up pretty poor and my mother worked in a shirt factory that made oxford style shirts. She had access to the shirts that were damaged and shirts really damaged, with say a knife cut down the front, would sell for about 25 cents. A shirt with a knife cut where it would tuck under pants was usually still a few $$. We would wear these with vests and sweaters and no one ever knew that they were sliced up underneath and patched with iron on patches. I had about 70 “expensive” oxford shirts by the time I graduated from college.

- I have a car potty seat that the absorbant bags for which cost $1 ea. I found that a hefty’s scrap bag fit the potty and use a generic maxi pad to absorb the urine – for about 15 cents a go. Although finally getting my daughter to go in the public bathrooms saves me even that

- Since my daughter is still pretty young, I rarely buy her her own meal in restaurants (only when I want something spicy for myself), I always ask for an empty plate and tell the waitress that I am sharing with her – I have never had a problem with this – the wait staff is always happy to oblige.

I love clearance racks too, but have begun to fully realize the value of quality. For instance, I won’t pay more than 3 dollars (which seems to be their bottom clearance price) for any clothes at walmart because the quality is so low. A garment looks years old after just a few washes, and usually doesn’t stay in my closet for more than a few months – so that is not value.

I have to agree that some of these ideas waste too much time for too little payoff to be considered frugal. I have had some of my rubbermaid containers for 15 years so I think I have gotten my money’s worth out of them and try to use them instead of disposable bags most of the time. But I use bags and throw them away when I need to.

And finally, I would like to say to the ramen noodle crowd: Please buy fresh fruits and vegetables as often as possible. What you are saving now will likely cost you in medications later. My husband has diabetes and we have spent thousands on his care. Your health is worth the expense. Love.

My father was extraordinarily cheap. The son of Russian immigrants, he was raised in poverty and, although no longer so poor in adulthood, our family lived in near destitution because my father would buy nothing unless it was absolutely essential. The only thing had in abundance in our home was children – the older kids joked that it was because our father would not spend money on any sort of birth control.

There was always just one bar of soap for the entire family of nine – we washed our hair with it because my father would not buy shampoo, and he complained if it was used to fast. He shaved with plain water and soap as he would not buy shaving cream, and used the same razor until it rusted. He would not buy milk, eggs, boxed cereal, or anything but flour, oatmeal, and other cheap food staples. Our garden was our only source of fresh food, and since we had no refridgerator or freezer (my father refused to pay for the electricity to run them), we had very little fresh food in winter. We kids survived largely off school lunches, which my mother insisted that he pay for.

I remember when I was in sixth grade, I had not had a new pair of shoes in over a year and the shoes I wore were literally falling to pieces. It was October and I had no coat. We could afford these things, of course, but my father would not even permit my mother to take us kids to the thrift store for clothing, except once a year. One day at school a brand new coat and a new pair of shoes were sitting on my desk after afternoon recess; I am sure they were from the new student teacher. I was so ashamed, and afraid to explain to my father where they came from. He was pleased, it turned out, because it meant he did not have to buy them and they could be passed down to the younger kids when I grew out of them. All three of my younger sisters wore that coat over the next ten years.

My father did not subscribe to the newspaper. He would wait until the other men at the factory where he worked had thrown away their newspapers and then fish one out of the trash, or he would take our neighbors’ papers from the trash. He brought a large thermos to work and filled it with the coffee from the break room on the sly and that would be our family’s coffee for breakfast the next day, with only sugar taken from the break room and no milk.

My father wouldn’t let us have any pets because he refused to buy pet food. He wore the same clothes for decades; in pictures of him taken in 1971 and 1999, he is wearing the shirt. When my brother broke his arm, my father waited two days to take him to a doctor, until my mother threatened to take him herself. My mother died of cancer, and only two weeks before she died did my father finally take her to the hospital. He himself died of untreated cancer. Ironically, he had health insurance throughout this.

When my father died a few years ago, there was over seventy thousand dollars saved in his bank account. He also owed the IRS unpaid taxes.