question time: where does frugality end and being tight begin?
An end of the bread sandwich. Tight or frugal?
Hi folks,
Just a short one today as have been tight on time recently (been off all of last week yet still no free time to blog… how does that work!?). And as the title suggests its more of an open question to you guys.
Obviously there is a spectrum of frugality that spans from totally OK and I would argue normal things like:
- Tracking your spending and/or running a budget so you know where your money is going each month
- Re-assessing your bills yearly to see if you have the cheapest deal available
- Not buying a new car every few years on finance
To things more on the “extreme” end of the scale such as:
- Living in a tent
- Roadkill for dinner
- Not owning a TV (jokes! 😉 )
But there is a grey area in the middle where some people do things that others would think are crazy, yet to other it just seems like totally normal frugal behaviour. This sort of behaviour might be thought of as “tight” which I would define as any or a combination of the following:
- Trying to save a small amount of money where the time or monetary investment is overly large. E.g. driving 20 miles to pick up an item you bought that cost say £5 less than one that was around the corner.
- Being bothered at all about saving extremely small amount of money E.g. a coupon for 10p off, or picking up pennies off the street (no offence J$!)
- Saving (or making) money at the expense of others, E.g. Turning up to a “BYOB” party without any booze and then drinking other peoples stash
Now I’m not judging here, but I would say that the first of those I just find pointless, the middle one is fine I think if you personally think it’s worth it, and the last one kind of boils my blood a bit. However, I am pretty sure I’ve flirted with it myself and again it can be a grey area.
I think about this sort of thing more than is probably healthy, and it came to my attention again the other day when listening to The MadFIentist podcast. He was interviewing Mrs Frugalwoods 1 (from The Frugalwoods, obvs) and there was a section about her stashing loads of buns or something like that from the breakfast buffet so she could eat them for lunch later on. The MadFIentist came down later and there were none left for him so he had to go hungry. I would definitely say this falls into section 3 above.
Again… I am not judging Mrs Frugalwoods here and I have definitely done this before so please don’t think I’m having a go.
But it made me think how fine the lines are here.
In this sort of situation it might help to weigh up more than just “There are free buns at breakfast” and weigh into account:
- How many buns are left?
- Am I on of the earliest people to go to breakfast?
- Therefore what are the chances of them running out?
Obviously if you are one of the last people in the room and you pretty much know they are going to be launched anyway, then have at your buns I say, I hate food waste as much as the next eco warrior! As I say I think these tiny changes in scenario and mindset make a big difference here.
There was one other aspect about this which I also don’t wholly agree with the mindset and that was doing the same sort of thing whilst travelling around Europe on holiday. Look, if you are a student doing a gap year or summer travelling around on a shoestring budget, again this is all great. You can’t get by without doing things like stashing the buns for lunch.
But if you are someone saving for Financial Independence and are therefore by definition probably quite well off maybe you should think twice about that sort of thing? You’ve travelled to that country to see it’s beauty, why not give something back to the local economy by spending a bit of money, otherwise it might not be able to remain so nice for future visitors/generations.
Besides, one of the best things about going to foreign places is trying out the food there… live a little FFS! 🙂
This is starting to sound a bit ranty now, which was not intended, so I will end by saying yet again I am not having a pop at Mrs Frugalwoods at all here and it was just the catalyst to get me thinking about it, and I wanted to also throw it out there to get your thoughts…
- Have you ever seen or heard someone do something to save money that you thought was bordering crazy or just plain tight?
- What is the tightest thing you’ve done that you may have regretted afterwards?
- And obviously, what are your thoughts on free breakfast bun snatching!? 🙂
Notes:
- Great interview, definitely listen to it if you haven’t done so already! ↩
Place a monetary value on each unit of your time. If the activity will earn (or save) more than this then do it. If not, there are better things you could be doing.
Generally I’d say if something makes you happy, and doesn’t hurt anyone else, then go for it.
So under that approach making your family use asphalt consistency toilet paper because it was on special fails the second element of the test. So does not letting your kid play sports or go on school camp because the fees are expensive.
Renegotiating an insurance premium or mobile phone tariff are usually worthwhile because it passes both tests.
For mine stealing all the buffet breakfast ventures firmly into being a dickhead territory, hurts others (the skint backpacker relying on the included breakfast for example).
Haha, well you definitely don’t waste your time mincing your words Slow Dad 🙂
Thanks for input as always!
I saw a blog post the other day where someone valued an hour of their time at like $200 or something like that. Think that sounds a bit ridiculously high and will surely end up with people making lot’s of excuses on why they are not going to paint their own house, or do any of the other things that are sensible and would make or save you money.
You also need to factor in if there is anything better you could be doing, if not then doing something for minimal savings might be worth it anyway (especially if you get a buzz out of making such minimal savings which I think many do).
I do take a piece of fruit from a hotel breakfast buffet for later, more for convenience than to save money.
Yep, done that many a time! 🙂
Waiting over half an hour for a store to reduce their discounted stuff (further). It was shortly after that point that I realised I wasn’t valuing my own time enough – especially for food that often went a bit manky a few days later.
I don’t pick up pennies anymore for a similar reason. If someone offered me a job picking up pennies – say one every 10 seconds – the hourly rate wouldn’t even make minimum wage and I’d probably do my back in after an hour.
Hah, that is fairly extreme especially if the savings were minimal.
I dunno, I do get the whole picking up the pennies thing. It’s like a freebie, you were already walking along anyway so why not pick one up, it would cost you about 2 seconds in actual time lost. And you rarely see them so no need to worry about the back situation. Having said that I think my minimum would be 10p nowadays. What a flash git I am eh 🙂
Here is mine. When my wife and I dine out in another city we always split an entree. Not mainly to save money but because serving sizes are twice what we need. We also ask for extra bread and for a carry out box for it. I love bread for snacks and we’ve already paid for it. But it probably looks weird to the wait staff. However since we are sharing an entree I tip 30 percent so the tip is the same as if we both had gotten a full meal. It is just as much work to serve two people regardless of how much food we order so I don’t want my frugality to cost the wait staff money.
Hi Steve,
Looks like you are based in America so that would be very feasible in most restaurants from my experiences! 🙂
We also pull this trick from time to time especially when we’re not hungry. We’ve recently started to sometimes just order two adult meals and give some to the kid rather than ordering a separate kids meal as well. Don’t save much but it saves on food waste, she is a small 2 year old and does not eat anywhere near what most kids meal sizes are.
I don’t see anything wrong with that really, there is no rule that you have to have one meal per person is there. The extra tip is a nice touch though, will have to remember that one in future.
Cheers!
Ok I’ll admit that my partner and I often splash out on fancy hotel breakfast buffets, and we’ll make it a game to see how many extra croissants we can take home with us. To be fair, the hotel puts out waaaay too much food that will be chucked out anyway, so really we are doing the planet a favour. Not going to the buffet in the first place would be the more frugal choice though!
Haha, I love this!
Yea agreed, if you can tell there is way too much then it’s totally fair game. I haaaaate food waste!!!
“An end of the bread sandwich. Tight or frugal?” Neither. The crusts are the tastiest parts.
“…picking up pennies off the street.” I do that.
“…a coupon for 10p off.” I do that.
“Turning up to a “BYOB” party without any booze and then drinking other peoples stash.” That isn’t grey. That’s theft.
I love cheese on toast crusts, the sandwich wasn’t bad but wouldn’t say its the tastiest part haha.
Nowt wrong with the top 2 as I said, was just trying to think of examples really. I also use any coupons I get!
Yes agreed that is theft if you are taking it literally, but it’s a grey area in terms of if you are friends with the people at the party which I assume most people would be. So you could have a friend that asks if you mind them drinking a couple of your beers, obviously you are going to say no. Not theft, and if a one off then also fine IMHO. But if it’s a repeat offence, then you’re firmly in tight git territory.
I’ve definitely turned up to peoples houses before thinking I wouldn’t drink (or as much) and then ended up quaffing a few mates beers before, but then obviously would extend the same to them whenever they are at mine. I just wonder sometimes if certain people view that as tight or not…? I don’t think it is as mates should be comfortable sharing and know that what goes around comes around, but I think some people can’t see the bigger picture and only see the people taking off them side of things (and so think you are tight) rather than when the boot is on the other foot (I don’t really hang out with people like that either any more for obvious reasons, but did used to know a few).
I’m with RIT on the bread thing. When on my own I can pretty much make a medium loaf of shop bought bread last 2 weeks. I put it in the fridge the second week. If it looks a little stale I toast it. Sandwich toaster is great for that. I only chuck it out if there is visible mold on it. I don’t buy that £1.50 bagged salad stuff now as it goes to compost after 2days. I buy a lettuce for about 40 pence and put it in a pot of water on my kitchen windowsill and take leaves off as required. Maybe I am mad.
Hi Bill,
Not mad! As I say I hate food waste and hate it when people chuck away food prematurely. We’ve started just freezing sliced bread, it seems to defrost very well nowadays especially for toast. So very rarely will waste any bread, or anything else for that matter.
Cheers!
I still pick up pennies and use money off coupons. I don’t do the driving miles to pick up something cheaper thing, unless I was driving there in the first place. I would never dream of turning up at a BYOB party empty handed. If I did, I would give money to the host/hostess so I could share some of their stash! Re breakfast buffet, I would generally take a piece of fruit and maybe what I wasn’t able to eat but which was already on my plate, eg bread roll, unopened butter etc.
I will also take any freebies in the hotel, eg shampoo, shower gel etc but I’d never take stuff like towels, bathrobes etc.
Haha… reminds me of the Friends episode where Ross and Chandler take all the stuff from the hotel… 🙂
I’ll happily take a bottle of shampoo or a shower cap from a hotel room yea… it’s included in the price whether you use it or not in the actual room is neither here not there is it?
I should clarify neither of those items is for me of course… no need for either nowadays… haha!
What Weenie said! Literally that is me to a tee. Although breakfast buffet all I tend to take is a piece of fruit, only cos I worry about being seen taking anything more 🙂
In the past I have done more silly things like hanging around waiting for reduced items to be further reduced or driving out of my way for a bargain. I once drove 20 mile round trip to pick up a bag of apples offered free on freecycle – doh! Took my 24 hours to realise that wasn’t a bargain. I don’t do this any longer as per comments above, I value my time and my diesel too much!
That is the only frustrating thing about Freecycle and especially the food waste reducing website/app Olio: what’s the point in saving the food if people are going around doing loads of wasted journeys just to get the food. The chances of something going to waste and round the corner from you seem quite minimal. So not exactly saving the planet much is it!!!!
Hopefully people who use those apps are well into their cycling etc but I fear most people are only on it to get the freebies.
Taking all the nice teas when Mrs YFG and I are staying in a facing hotel. I love a good tea – especially when it’s free!
Also +1 with RIT, that is theft. There’s a special place in hell for those people (along with the ones who never buy a round). If you can’t be generous with your friends who can you be generous with?
Hehe, don’t blame you for that one YFI Guy!
Yes I have had quite a few “friends” in the past who were very late getting their wallets out for a round (like… after everyone had gone home late). I’d also find that these were the people that would have a brand new designer shirt on every weekend and complain they were skint. I find that sort of thing the ultimate in tightness. Having enough money to blow on some shit for yourself then short changing other people, even worse if it’s your mates.
Brilliantly timed post as we are currently on holiday with a free breakfast! So far no bun snatching and I agree that when you’re on holiday eating the local food is part of the fun! We’ve kept costs down (and any weight gain!) by not having extra snacks and mostly sharing desserts. Lots of activities so far have been cheap or free – hiking, cycling, using the hotel pool and spa – and we’re having a great time!
Great to hear you are having a lovely and frugal time!
+1 for sharing deserts, I’m normally stuffed after main and only really want a couple of spoonfuls of it just to say I tried it 🙂
You can never be too rich to pick up a penny in my opinion. If it takes you 3 seconds to pick up a penny then you’re making around £12 an hour after tax so it’s not a terrible deal 😉
I hate it when people give lifts to friends- to a festival or to the movies- and say for example the petrol cost £10 between the driver and two friends, the driver will charge them £5 each and not chip in their fair share, essentially getting the trip for free. I see that quite a lot and always call it out- but maybe that’s super cheap of me to deny them the extra cash…after all they did drive. Shit.
Interesting to see your different calculation on the economics of picking up pennies compared to Chris above. I wonder if anyone has actually done a proper study on this? 🙂
Oooh. Have to disagree with you on the driving thing there. They are saving you a huge taxi fair or ballache of public transport, so it’s a bloody good deal for you to relax in their car and they get the stress of driving. Looks like you already realised that while you were writing the comment though haha.
Cheers!
What Weenie and Tupenny said. I worried about gifts when invited round, when we were cutting costs and couldn’t just pick up a bottle of wine on the way. Nowadays I tend to take something like a home-made cake or wine bought in advance on offer.
Home made cakes are very welcome in the TFS household. Come round any time you’d like and don’t worry about bringing wine 🙂
Well obviously I think no TV is awesome and the way to live.
My line is do no harm and don’t waste time…… being the freeloader friend is not cool, neither is emptying buffets and being greedy.
And since noone uses cash anymore, I can’t remember the last time I’ve even seen coins on the ground.
That’s a short and catchy way to put it Ms ZiYou, nice one!
I still see quite a lot of coins on the ground considering. Or actually, maybe I’m thinking about my own house as TFS Jr likes to empty our penny jar onto the floor regularly 😀
I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. Not the putting a value on my time bit – been doing that for years – but the being frugal vs, being tight. I hate spending money and will often ‘make do’ but I also miss out sometimes because I don’t want to spend (never at the expense of other people though). It’s a difficult one to juggle.
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