Frugal or a cheapskate, you decide

[Brew_Dude41]

Before I go further, yes I look to find ways to save a few dollars here and there (saving bottles, reusing yeast, DYI almost everything), but I caught my wife doing something that made me shake my head and state 'we can go to the store for more if you like.' That being said...
While doing our Saturday morning cleaning around the house, I turn the corner into the kitchen to find my wife sitting at the table fiddling with something. I think nothing of it and continue to the sink to rinse out a sippy cup for our daughter when my wife asks me to hand her a funnel. Funnel?! As I do so, she hands me an empty bottle of Soy Sauce "can you get the plastic thing out too?" I then notice that she has a bajillion individual packets of soy sauce from about 20 years of hoarding them (sadly it is only 4 or 5 months worth) from all of the Chinese take out we get.
Yes, I actually have to see this for myself to believe she is doing this: She puts the funnel in the bottle and proceeds to cut each packet open individually and squeeze out every drop she can. I am not sure if I am ashamed that my wife feels compelled to do this rather spend $2 for a new bottle or disappointed that i didn't think of it.
So frugal or a cheapskate?
And for the sake of discussion, what are some other ways that you pinch a penny or two?

 

[mongoose33]

If she has nothing else to do, why not? You have to earn more than $2 to buy it at the store, after taxes and whatnot. But you never pay taxes on money saved. It's already been paid!

Teaching children to be frugal is often difficult, but if parents model frugality, it can be easier.

I do want to ask this: did she clean and sanitize the bottle before using it?

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What other ways to save or be frugal? Pack a lunch instead of buying it. Give up your daily Latte or Cappuccino or whatever and bring a thermos with home-brewed coffee. Buy a car at the end of the model year when they're being discounted. Buy a late model used car where depreciation has already been taken off, and there are still many, many good miles to go.

Do NOT buy the "extended warranty" package offered by retailers when you buy a TV or appliance. Warranty them yourself--you'll save big bucks in the long run, as if they're going to go bad, it'll happen early in the warranty--or not at all. (Exceptions occur, but it's not the way to bet).

Use coupons on things you were going to buy anyway. Comparison shop--the internet is great for that. Buy long-term subscriptions instead of choosing the shortest, "cheapest" term, when you get a break for longer subscriptions.

Treat each dollar like it's a torture to pull it out of your wallet, and you want no more pain than is necessary.

If you can find a way to save just $5/day, and put aside the savings, after a year you'll have over $1800--just by being a little careful. That's the kind of money you can use to purchase longer, cheaper subscriptions, to buy in bulk when things go on sale, to be able to pull the trigger when you find an exceptional deal.

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We once refinanced our home mortgage where it saved us, after fees and so on, a grand total of $39/month. Someone asked me why I'd do that when the return was so "minimal." My response was that over the 10 years it was in force, we'd save $468/year, and $4680 over a 10-year period of time. Since it took me a grand total of 3 hours of time to do the paperwork and meet w/ the mortgage officer, who in their right mind wouldn't do that?

This is how you get ahead. $39/month here. $4 each workday for cappuccino there. Saved 30 cents a day here by paying for a longer subscription. It all adds up.

 

[DarkStarNJ]

Hah, my wife caught me doing the same thing and had your reaction. All though in all fairness I only bother when we are actually out of Soy Souce. (We usually buy the low sodium version)

 

[LLBeanJ]

I actually do this!!! It's not the money, it's the waste that bothers me. I just can't bring myself to throw away perfectly good packets of soy sauce. I squeeze 'em in to a Pyrex measuring cup then pour it into the soy sauce bottle. No funnel needed.

 

[Sammy86]

It's brilliant if you ask me...to save money in my house which is about to get bigger in August (our first born will be joining us) we do a lot of coupon shopping...we also buy in bulk when we can and make extra dinners for lunch/dinner the next night.

We also grow our own herbs in the garden...basil, chive, dill just to name a few.

We also save during the summer when the cherry tomatoes and cucumbers come in.

 

[IslandLizard]

If she has nothing more urgent to do, why not? I hope she also works on improving her efficiency of transferring those, I'd probably squeeze them out in a Pyrex measuring cup, and cut the tops of 4 or 5 of those packets all in one time with scissors. I'd hate tearing each one of them, getting sauce all over the place.

Think about it, how much time is wasted with frivolous things, like playing online games (e.g., Farmville, Candy Crush).

We buy soy sauce in quart plastic jugs from the Asian market because they taste better and there's more variety. I've always added a little boiled water to the "sludge" on the bottom when it runs out, although the newer containers seem to have way less sludge than the ones from say, 20-30 years ago. We don't buy as much take out as we used too, yet, we still use our little soy take out packets here and there, and thinning down the much thicker sauce from the plastic jugs. I also use the duck sauce they always give us in a ginger sauce I make.

I have not found a use for their packets of mustard yet. Anyone?

If you can't tell yet, I hate waste, wastefulness, and that includes over-packaged products. If everyone got on that bandwagon we could make for a better world perhaps?

 

[SharonaZamboni]

At least she's consolidating the packets into one bottle. I just hoard the packets, even though I've got a couple bottles of soy sauce already in the fridge.

 

[Zuljin]

Did she save the empty packets to refill with condiments for yalls luch boxes?

 

[jschein]

Cheapskake

 

[Brew_Dude41]

Teaching children to be frugal is often difficult, but if parents model frugality, it can be easier.

I do want to ask this: did she clean and sanitize the bottle before using it?

She did not, it was not quite empty yet.
Well I see that she is not the only one doing this, but I am kinda surprised someone didn't come out with 'I am rinsing out my paper towels and the hanging them out to dry...'

 

[Cyclman]

Labor time has a value to it...I don't see this is a high ROI activity, but there is a certain aspect of not wasting something of use I appreciate here.

 

[Michigan_Wolfman]

Cheapskate would be washing paper plates and hanging them out on a clothesline to dry so you can reuse them. When I was younger, I had a crazy neighbor who would do that.

 

[BisonHeadBrewery]

Interesting discussion. If you were in my household I would scold you for buying take out food you could have cooked for yourself. I would then encourage your wife to continue to resist throwing anything out that could still be used.

You see, my parents lived through the depression and two world wars. I still remember opening up tubes of toothpaste to use up the last little bit. When my mother was finished scraping out a peanut butter jar it was so clean it hardly needed to be washed before it was ready for re-use. I could offer many more such examples, but the point is that we had nothing extravagant when I was growing up but yet my parents had a very comfortable retirement, complete with international travel, and some left over at the end. All of this was made possible by their steadfast refusal to buy unnecessary things or to throw out something that was potentially useful.

In my own case, I followed suit - somewhat. Nevertheless, I managed to retire at age 57 with a full pension and sufficient resources to be very comfortable and secure. I always packed a lunch for work, seldom ate out, baked my own bread, etc., etc., and yadda, yadda,... But, you get the picture. I also managed to see quite a bit of the world, but I always made certain that my trip was fully paid for before leaving home. I never traveled on credit.

It is not my position to give advice, although the majority of you are probably younger than I am. Let me just say it is best to pay yourselves first, and delayed gratification can be the best.

Cheers to you all

 

[kh54s10]

If you already have the packets why the F#*k not use them. It it is more convenient to use the bottle, a little time funneling them into the bottle is time well spent.....

Besides that they were either free, or already paid for, depending on your point of view.

 

[Homercidal]

I would have given her the $2 and told her she could do something more reproductive with her time!

 

[mongoose33]

I would have given her the $2 and told her she could do something more reproductive with her time!

I suspect that's the cause of her being so frugal!

 

[DarkStarNJ]

I suspect that's the cause of her being so frugal!

If I could like this post 100 times I would.. I'll have to settle for a like and a quote.

Well done sir

 

[Scout]

I used to spend $5/day in the cafeteria at work. Then the prices went up, then they changed the way they charge, now it an actual cafeteria, and that $5 blows up to $10. Now that I'm married, I bring last night's leftovers in for lunch, plus some snacks and things that are cheaper to buy bulk rather than from a vending machine. (I will say that our vending machine company gives us pretty good prices, usually better than gas stations, grocery stores, etc.) I also drink only water while at work. That's $50-$60 ech week I don't spend.

We also shop at Costco and Sam's club. (First one, then the other, had to try them both) Single me would spend $80-$100 a week in groceries at Meijer or Walmart, now married me with two kids (2 years and 4 months) spends about $300 (maybe less) a month at Sam's club.

I can keep going on.

 

[BadLiver]

I would say that's frugal? If she's ok spending the time it takes to fill the bottle vs spending the money, I guess it's all good.

 

[Accidic]

I would say cheapskate but only because she was using it to refill a bottle. If she used the packs in lieu of the bottle since you had leftover packs from earlier orders I would say frugal. And yes, I do occasionally do the latter.

Besides, pouring back into the bottle always increases the chance of contamination. If you create your own Jam or Jelly they say it's only good for a year or something but I can name people who still use preserved jelly that's over 10yrs old and it is good stuff still. Once you eliminate that seal though all bets are off.