The stories shared by Reddit users offer a fascinating look into the world of extreme frugality and the lengths some individuals will go to save money.
From clever tactics to downright eccentric behavior, these anecdotes highlight the different ways people navigate their financial situations. While some may find humor in these stories, they also highlight the potential impact of extreme tinkering on personal relationships and overall quality of life. As we delve into these stories, it is important to consider the wider implications of such behavior and reflect on our own attitudes towards money and spending.
different people have different opinions when it comes to money. Some people live frugally and think they should save money for rainy days, while others want to live every day as if it were their last and spend money on nice things and luxuries.
Of course, not having a big budget is not a bad thing, but being a cheap person actually lowers the quality of life – not only for themselves but also for their family.
No matter how small or unimportant the item may be, cheap skaters often find happiness in receiving free items.
If you’re lucky enough not to have experienced what it’s like to live on the cheap, check out the following stories from Reddit users to see what wild adventures they’ve had.
1. How this dad used a smart move to get a free bar of soap
u/[deleted]: My dad invited a man to do a free demonstration of a water filter that fits under the sink once he moved into his new home. After performing his demonstration with a bar of soap, he left.
My dad never intended to have a water filter installed; he called at least four other companies for a free sample just to keep the free soap. He acts like that and as he gets older it gets worse. But I just let him do his thing.
2. Bond’s Dad has paper towels
TheCommonStew: Dad saves all his paper towels. He doesn’t want me to waste them, so even at 21 he still wants me to get permission before using them.
His anxiety that I might waste them made me think I was paying $100 for a roll.
He only buys the cheapest stuff that breaks or doesn’t work as well, making him a cheap pet who spends twice as much on everything. I spilled a gallon of milk all over his house when my girlfriend and I were there. She reached for a roll of paper towels and used them all to wipe up the mess.
Even though I felt really bad for helping her, the look on my dad’s face when he realized we used the whole roll was funny. Since he was too polite to yell in front of my fiancee, I knew he wasn’t going to yell at us. However, it was clear that he suppressed his pain, anger, and sadness over the “wasted” roll.
3. What a creative method to save every penny
u/notronbro: Dads, god, you’re the worst.
Mine hangs his laundry outside, which would be fine if he didn’t do it year-round – even in sub-freezing temperatures – because he hates having to pay for electricity.
He sifted through our trash looking for “valuables” (money or recyclables) that we threw away whenever my sisters and I cleaned our rooms. I once stayed in the car with him as he drove around town for thirty minutes looking for the cheapest gas because he was obsessed with gas prices.
He literally puts his car in neutral, opens the door, and when he wants to go, he uses his foot to propel himself down the hill. I was only allowed to have chicken fries at Burger King once because the burger was “too expensive”.
4. See Maestro of Return Policy
u/halfadash6: My father abused Costco’s return policy to the max. We had an outdoor furniture set that he returned after about eight years. It was weather-worn, with a few chips. They took it and he used the money to pay for most of the new patio set from Costco.
Incredible.
5. Revealing my grandmother’s economic triumphs
Acetylen: One of my summer jobs as a little kid was setting the table every night before dinner at my grandparents’ house. I’ve been told to use “good napkins” whenever we have dinner guests.
This involved the napkins, which lacked the printed restaurant brand. My grandmother felt she could win the business, and there were many ways to do it, so we only went to restaurants when she thought she could.
Of course, she clipped coupons, but those were things for kids. She always asked someone to take her out to dinner as a way of “returning the favor” when he did something for her. She carried a huge purse that was usually filled with food and napkins from the buffet.
If a restaurant didn’t have a salad bar, she didn’t see much value in going there. One year when my mother and I decided to treat her to a birthday dinner, we had to travel over an hour to get to Sizzler, which she wasn’t allowed to go to.
6. Adding up your savings
u/Real_Askin Questions: My dad moved us to where they sell the huge industrial rolls you see in certain retail complexes. It looks like one huge roll that holds about three or four regular rolls of toilet paper. I’ve never felt so embarrassed inviting friends before.
7. My Grandma’s Unbeatable Sears Lifetime Warranty!
u/stone_opera: In the late 1940s when Sears offered a “lifetime warranty” on almost everything they sold, my grandparents used them for their gift list when they were married.
Since then, the grandmother has moved almost ten times, yet she kept the warranty on every appliance and flattened the box from the wedding.
About two years ago I took her to Sears to have her iron replaced. To get a new one, she brought all the documentation and the box from the 1940s. Remarkably, they kept their promise and provided her with new iron!
She is so frugal that she hasn’t had to pay for a new appliance in over 60 years, which makes me laugh! Her constant insistence is, “Lifetime warranty means lifetime warranty.” She immigrated to Canada from Ukraine.
Given our family’s reputation for longevity—her father lived to be 104—I feel terrible for Sears. Sometimes I wonder if all these cheap old ladies cashing in on lifetime promises is why Sears is doing so badly.
8. My dad’s cheap house turned into an exciting renovation project
u/InVultusSolis: My dad is on a pathological budget. I will present the most important story of my many stories. My dad doesn’t consider anything but the amount of money. They will always buy a $5 pack of toilet paper if it is offered along with a $7 twelve pack.
So you can already imagine how any major purchase would go with him. I think he bought the house when I was about eight. Back then, you could get something pretty decent for $110,000 in my region. We discuss updated floors, cabinets, and interior features such as trim, doors, windows, and more.
He ended up spending $89,000 on a shoddy house. It was built in 1947. The man who built the house was as thrifty as my father. The windows and doors were original. The original asbestos siding was still present.
The interior was unlined. There were no interior doors except the bathroom door, which was missing a handle. There are no worktops or cabinets in the kitchen.
The linoleum in the downstairs bedroom had been carelessly unrolled onto the bare plywood floor of the living room. So my dad “saved” twenty-one thousand dollars when he bought the house, but he had to invest a lot more over the years.
9. Keeping cool on a budget
u/cerem86: Georgia, the land of heat and humidity, is where I’m from. My dad didn’t turn on the air conditioner until the temperature got above 100F.
Bought these styrofoam mats with a metal foil end.
When we had the air conditioner set to “no heat” to save money on energy, we had to stuff it into every window and entry leading outside. We also have a natural spring in our town. It’s free and safe to drink.
So let me set the scene: There’s a line in front of her. Children asking for cold water on hot days, mothers carrying a pitcher to fetch it, maybe a man carrying an empty milk jug, and my father loading TWENTY-TWO five-gallon jugs “in case the spring dries up tomorrow.”
10. Presentation card
u/deleted user: The most frugal man in the world was my grandfather. After he died, he left me a $30 gift card. I decided to use it even though I was planning to donate it.
My life was divided into two periods: “before” and “after”. When I gave the card to the cashier, her face went pale. Cashier: How is that possible? where did you get it?
Me: Oh, I see. My grandfather owned it. Cashier: “PLEASE, EVERYONE! Here is the winner of our store’s 10-year secret sweepstakes! The gift card was a unique promotional item with a million-dollar prize that had gone unclaimed for years,” the cashier revealed excitedly.
The store manager came over to confirm the incredible news and I stood there stunned. Grandpa’s “lacquered” gift suddenly became the opportunity of a lifetime that completely changed my future.
11. How we came to noodles with a collection of flavors
u/forgno: My dad puts flavor packets in an oversized Ziploc bag because he spices ramen noodles differently than I do. We have a hundred of these, I swear. This will come in handy when you run out of your preferred ramen flavor!
Every packet of sauce we get from fast food restaurants is saved by my dad. We use them sometimes and there is a bag in the fridge.
12. The Timeless Brick Legacy Left by My Dad
u/sp3ctr41: My dad made us clean every brick when we tore down our brick garage and lined them up around our house for later use. Eight years later, they’re still there. It was all worth the $500, the year, and the work.
The value of our cars is $2000. My dad buys the same cars and takes them apart. He lifts the engines off of them and stacks them under the carport just when you think he’s done scrapping. They have 300,000 kilometers on them.
We sit on them around the dining table. To save electricity, our TVs are 20″. Most of our furniture is made from things people throw away on the street. Shampoo and shaving cream are made from soap.
In our granny flat, you have to go through everything because the sofas and wardrobes are piled up to the ceiling. The weight was so great that the ground shifted and cracks began to form everywhere.
I tried to reason that renting a room would make more sense, but obviously, it’s more important to keep broken treadmills, lawnmowers, refrigerators, ovens, and washing machines for spare parts.
13. How we reduced our water and gas bills by reusing bathwater
u/[deleted]: Our bath water was shared. My parents or my brother entered first and I followed them. Looking back, it’s pretty disgusting, but my parents did it because they were very poor at the time and wanted to save money on gas and water bills.
14. Cot vs. bed for dog
Whatitdowhatitbee / u: I always giggle at this story, but it balances out because my mom isn’t cheap and my dad is. My dad intended to get me a dog bed when I was born instead of a crib or toddler bed or something like that.
15. Cheap Christmas wrapping paper is coming
u/Jade_GL: Christmas wrapping paper always seemed to me to be printed in a fun way, almost like a cheap 3D image. Each face of Santa Claus had a gap of at least half an inch between them. My mom always bought the discounted wrapping paper with the error, I found out later.
The problem is that I no longer feel like it’s Christmas when I see extremely beautiful paper.
Even after thirty years, I find cheap, poorly printed paper more festive.
In a similar spirit, before Christmas morning, dad and Aunt counted the boxes in which they wrapped presents. As a result, my aunt declared, “I came here with 16 boxes and I’m leaving with 16 boxes!” on Christmas morning if she brought 16 gifts that needed the shirt/clothing boxes you would get at Sears or JC Penney.
It’s weird because in the past you could get free boxes with a purchase; nowadays you usually have to buy the boxes. My aunt and parents were therefore fixated on the boxes they received for free.
Even though our boxes are falling apart and still have the old tapes on them, my family is now more than okay with throwing them away.
That’s when you patched up the big tears and packed them away for next year. We even have a vintage box from the store called Structure that has outlived the store for many years.
16. My newborn daughter thought her dad’s “perfect bed” was a crib.
InnanasPocket: In an effort to save me from buying a crib, my dad tried to get me the “perfect bed” for my newborn daughter. Even if it wasn’t an extremely risky plan, my childhood doll bed—which had been stored in their garage for over 20 years—wouldn’t have worked.
17. Mother’s spell
u/choadspanker: To extend the shelf life of spices, my mother adds water to them.
It can sometimes feel like drinking ketchup-flavored water. It’s kind of weird and funny.
In our household, every drop counts; and transforms meals into examples of straightforward “thrifty love.”
18. Okay, poor thing
deleted user: I had nothing and my parents had everything. After my grandmother died, they dishonestly stole my property. I get a $50 Walmart gift card from them every year. I don’t even own a phone because I live in such poverty.
Every year they treat themselves to several expensive cars and go on holiday to the Maldives. However, everything changed one day.
I got the letter while my folks were on the cruise. “Don’t open when they’re around!” was scribbled on it.
I quickly opened the cover and started reading after taking a quick look around. This is your real father, Mary, say hello. I spent years looking for you. I fought to get back the great legacy your grandmother left you. It’s time to take back what is truly yours and make a change in your life. Meet me at the address provided.
Stories shared by various Reddit users shed light on diverse experiences and perspectives on frugality and extreme tinkering. From humorous anecdotes to more concerning stories, these narratives illustrate the lengths some individuals will go to save money, often at the expense of their own comfort or the well-being of their loved ones. While some cases may elicit laughter or disbelief, others reveal deeper issues such as financial strain, family discord, or even manipulation. These stories ultimately serve as a reminder of the importance of balance and moderation when managing finances, as well as the importance of considering the wider consequences of your actions on yourself and those around you.