I’ve tried mashing soap slivers, but Mr VOW has some kind of quirk that causes him to automatically pry the slivers apart.
Please don’t tell me to “talk to him.” I have to pick my battles. It is more important for me to scold him about the potato salad he’s sneaking into his diet than his soap-sliver-prying habit.
I’m frugal enough to afford the soap. I buy in bulk.
~VOW
I don’t even like to check my post office box at the post office on any day other than Sunday when parking is free because it stresses me to put a nickel in the parking meter. A nickel only gets you three minutes but you can make it work if you act efficiently. I have plenty of money but I hate to spend it. Some people have suggested there may be a correlation there.
I figured anyone who had an idea about tractors would know.My apologies.
StG
I tend to agree with that logic, and that’s why I hardly ever get the whopper meal. How can I justify spending money on a soft drink if it isn’t infinity times better than water?
I thought everybody added water to shampoo/conditioner bottles.
Last year I forgot my facial soap when we traveled, so I bought some at the destination. I’m not that fond of it, but I’m still using it, because I’m going to get my money’s worth.
I may not always scrimp, but I also don’t spend more money than necessary. And if I see 50% off on something that I will use, it’s getting in my shopping cart, even if I won’t use it for months.
Good for you! I like it.
But more importantly, if I see something 50% off and know I won’t use it, I don’t buy it just because it’s a good deal. That’s my sister’s downfall. “But it was such a good deal!”
StG
I don’t piggyback soap.
The new bar starts in the shower. When it gets too small for that it moves to the sink. At that time the one at the sink is usually small enough to fit in my shaving mug.
yeah, safety equipment isn’t something you want to scrimp on.
if you dig through the trash and get a half eaten bag of stale fries, Is a full bag of fresh new fries really infinitely better?
Yes, yes it is.
I consider myself ‘thrifty’.
That’s a good example of the flaw in that logic. Just because something doesn’t have the same bang for its buck that something more expensive might have, it doesn’t follow that the more expensive thing isn’t worth the extra money.
If you relentlessly apply that particular rubric (the whopper test), you’re just dooming yourself to a lifetime of cheap and/or substandard crap. You may save a few bucks doing that, but is it really worth it to get Busch beer instead of some craft brewery because the craft brew isn’t 6x better?
Right. But that “whopper test” doesn’t say that the more expensive thing isn’t worth the extra money. It asks you to consider whether the more expensive thing is worth the extra money.
That’s a question that each person has to answer for themselves. And the question isn’t really “is the craft brew 6x better?” It’s “Will I enjoy (or benefit from) the craft brew 6x as much?” (Or, “Will I enjoy it as much as the six Busches that I could have bought with the money instead?”) And for some people, in some situations, the answer will be yes.
A half-eaten bag of stale fries from the trash has negative value/utility for me, as evidenced by the fact that I wouldn’t eat them even if they were free. A full bag of fresh new fries has positive value/utility for me, but exactly how much value will depend on things like how hungry I am, how long it’s been since I’ve had some good fries, and how concerned I am about my health. On some days, that value is greater than or equal to what they’re charging for them, and I’ll buy some. Other days, it isn’t, and I won’t.
So says you. Personally I’ve realized that buying a new pack of gum for 25 cents is not infinitely better than eating used gum I find on the sidewalk for free, so as a slave to my logical arguments I’ve been doing that for the last 20 years.
It depends on the individual. Its not a law written in stone you’re never allowed to break, its a rule of thumb. Also the whopper test itself is flawed because you can buy about 10 meals worth of rice and pancakes for the same price as a whopper meal. Is the whopper meal really 10 times better?
It also depends on your income level. If you have a stable job and large amounts of disposable income you’d approach the subject differently than if you were a grad student or working poor.
I don’t see why I wouldn’t be willing to pay 6x more for something that is twice as good.
A $60 bottle of wine might be only be “twice as good” (whatever that means) as a $10 bottle. It might be only a little better than a $30 bottle. I would be happy to pay the extra most days, and have a bottle that I really liked.
But I may be an outlier. I don’t typically scrimp to save.
Seriously?
I’m considering anything whose value/utility to me is greater than zero to be infinitely better, mathematically, than something whose value is 0 or less.
The real equation is the relative value of money vs. time that people have- for some people it’s worth it to spend 5 minutes squeegeeing a half-ounce of conditioner out of a bottle to save fifty cents, and for some others, they’ll just eat that 50 cents and buy a new bottle- it’s not worth the time it takes to them.
For example, I could work on my own car if I felt like it, and do a lot of moderately involved car repairs and maintenance. But these days I don’t. Why? Because I value my time more than I value the money I spend to have someone else do that. Same thing with mowing my yard and mopping my own floors.
I imagine if I was in a position of having a lot of time, and not a lot of money, I’d value them differently and do all those things myself instead of paying to have them done.
But if you’re getting something you “really liked” from the $60 bottle that you wouldn’t have gotten from the $10 bottle, the difference is one of kind, not of degree. You’re getting something from that $60 bottle that you couldn’t get from the $10 wine even if you had six bottles of it.
I was in a documentary once about my spending habits.
