Do very rich, I mean old money like the Rockefellers and such, use common brand stuff like dial soap etc?
I’m not talking about the dot commers, but inherited money.
Anybody know? I sure don’t. 
Peace,
mangeorge
In his own day, John D. Rockefeller was actually quite the skinflint. He wore the same old suits til they became so shiny they had to be replaced; one of his favorite dishes remained bread & milk; and after a prominent businessman visited for six weeks, at John D.'s invitation, he was presented with a bill of $600 from Rockefeller for board.
I have no idea whether this penury is an inherited trait, however. But it can’t all be paté of peacock tongue and shampoo distilled from Unicorn tears at chez Rockefeller, can it?
Well, I’m very rich (I have almost two thousand dollars) and I don’t even use soap!
Ok, I just did an ineventory;
Bath soap: Lever 2000, Dial.
Toothpaste: Colgate
Toothbrush: I forgot the brand, but it was on sale, I bet
Deoderant:: Mennen
Shampoo: H&S
Aspirin: Generic
Cereal: Shredded Wheat, spoon size
Frozen dinners: Mostly Marie Callender’s
Coffee: Peets $10.25/lb. Gotta splurge somewhere. 
Clothes: Levy, etc
Car: Ford Windstar
But I’m mostly wondering about soap and such. Boring stuff. Expensive stuff is better, generally.
I know that the rich do drink good scotch. And wine.
peepthis, folks like John D are the exception.
And friedo, you don’t even count. Ask Leona H.
Don’t any super rich post on message boards?
Peace,
mangeorge
Whoosh! (Can the SDMB make a smiley for that?) I was just adding an anecdote since you mentioned John D. In some article I read years ago, millionaires were asked how they became so filthy rich. Everyday thriftiness was cited as the top factor. But I guess they don’t count as old money.
FWIW, I have one friend who comes from old money (owns huge tracts of land that used to be a plantation in the Deep South, pedigree back to Scottish aristocracy, etc.) and every time I’ve been at his place I’ve never noticed lots of gourmet stuff. Not generic stuff either though. But he knows how to enjoy the “finer things”, always top quality when it comes to wine, clothes, hotels, and dining out.
Your launudry-list hijack of your own thread tells me this train is headed directly to MPSIMS.
I’m not in the wealthy stratosphere like you’re talking about, but have had various contact with some during an 8 year investment banking stint.
Money is simply immaterial and does not enter into the equation. They buy what they want (or more accurately, other people buy most things for them) and cost is never part of the decision. Now if they like McD’s for lunch, that’s what they eat, ditto if they want a fois gras sandwich with fresh truffles prepared by a cordon blue chef flown in on a private jet and served by trained albino chimpanzees. Decide they want to go to the Super bowl the day before, then a flunky get’s it arranged no matter what the cost is or how “impossible” the situation.
The few that I knew were a mixed breed between very professional, dictatorial, mean bastards, extremely generous, etc. I can not stereotype any of the ones in my experience, except to say that they didn’t worry about money. Most were quite professional about their investments and investment losses.
I have a book on the different classes in the United States. It seems that we are a nation that prides itself on being above such a thing and at the same time a society of many classes.
One thing that I learned from a roommate in college, was that women in upper class never wear any color of undies besides white.
The book confirmed that and also that the upper class look down on any clothes containing man-made fibers. Carolyn Kennendy’s roommates claim she never wore anything but natural fibers while at college.
Owning a Jaguar is great because they break down a lot and therefore it shows that you have enough money not to worry about it.
Rich people do not pay their bills on time, since you should be glad that they are dealing with you.
They eat very late, sometimes as late as midnight. The help of course eats very early.
Worth magasine, which seems to devote a lot of space to just this kind of subject (maybe it’s envy from the poor editors, who knows), says this about life in the chi-chi Upper East Side.
I have worked for a couple of seriously wealthy people, 2nd-3rd generation Asian financiers. One was fairly normal, so we’ll forget him. The other guy was quite amazing…
He never washed his own hair, or even (I’m 90% sure) shaved himself - it seems a barber did it daily. He had a weekly manicure/pedicure, and a weekly haircut. He invested in property a lot and would only buy luxury apartments on the top floor of a block - he couldn’t handle the idea of someone living above him. He would only stay in the most expensive hotel in any given city - his wife wondered what their “friends” would say if they stayed elsewhere. (She also refused to touch money that had already been used by someone else - not that folding cash was something she bothered with much. ) And don’t get me started on their kids…
He paid well, though.
Read Paul Fussell’s book Class for a detailed look at the habits of each class. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671792253/ref=bxgy_sr_text_a/102-0570892-0622527
Warning: Take this book with a grain of salt. It’s usually classed under “humor”, and its author conveniently creates a new class outside the lower-middle-upper class scheme into which – fortuitiously – he can fit authors who write about Class!
Well, in the UK, companies whose products are used by the Queen get to put a royal crest on the product. So you get jars of jam, washing machines and so on with this heraldic device on them.
Stop laughing, you Yanks! It’s true. It may be ridiculous, but there it is.
[grumble]I hate being a subject. Have to lick the Queen’s backside every time I want to send a letter.:([/grumble]
read “the Millionare Next Door”
amazing insights: the rich buy their cars by the pound. the authors have amazing credentials too.
Clark Howard is a radio talk show host based out of Atlanta. I don’t think he is filthy rich, but he sold a chain of travel agencies in the 80s (he was in his early 30s at the time) which made him several million dollars. He calls himself one of the cheapest people in the world. Apparently he always rents subcompact cars on business trips, loves using coupons, eats simple cheap fast food, buy his shirts at discount stores (I remember hearing him once talk with glee about the special he saw on shirts for $2 at a sub-discount store and bought several of them and said he was set for the year with shirts).
http://www.clarkhoward.com is his site.
Phouchg
Lovable Rogue
Take the Kennedy family-they have had serious money for around 4 generations now…but they are only “middling” millionaires. they have some interesting habits…like they NEVER carry money, OR EVER PICK UP A CHECK! That’s for the “little” people (us).Ted Kennedy (senior senator from MA, and full-time drunk)wears suits that are falling apart, shoes worn down at the heels, and drive old oldsmobiles (note to attractive women-NEVER accept a ride from Sen. Kennedy). A few years back I heard another story concerning the clan…a friend of mine’s grandfather owned a tailor shop in Boston. One day, old Joe Kennedy came in with a coat so decrepit that it should have been thrown away (he wanted it rewoven). The tailor explained to him that the repair wasn’t worth doing… the old man got mad, and told him he’d take it to someone else! How’s that for cheap!
Phouchg although very interesting, your guy doesn’t fit the OP requirement of someone whose family has had money for several generations.
Another thing about these people is that they do not want to seem to have to work for a living. Senator Kennedy is doing a service to his country, not working as a lawyer. It of course doesn’t matter where all the money came from. Joe made his smuggling Scotch during Prohibition.
A million dollars is not rich anymore you need at least 10 million to be rich. You can live modestly off of the income from $1,000,000. But that is not rich. You can live pretty well off of the income from $10,000,000. But not really extravagantly.
What about the Pope? He isn’t just rich, he is a spiritual leader. Does he use regular toothpaste? regular undies? does he use disosable razors to shave, or does he have some kind of gold plated papal razor?
Really, I am not trying to be disrespectful, it is just something that I have always wondered.
An interesting book about the everyday lives of presidents is Upstairs in the White House. The book was written by the cheif usher. It isn’t a scandelous tell-all as much as a good overview of how the White House was run through five administrations. Presidents seem pretty normal as far as the products they use. Granted presidents arn’t neccesarily rich, and certainly not super rich.
Well, that’s not quite the whole truth, kniz. Check out what the Master has to say about the source of Joe Kennedy’s wealth. Quite a savvy, albeit somewhat shady, businessman.
Makes me glad I’m a nice simple middle-class girl. Because damn I like my funky undies. =)
I know this book! It’s fascinating reading, although much of what he says seems less applicable to Southern California. There was a two-hour documentary on A&E on this very subject, and much of its content seemed to have been drawn from the book. Paul Fussell himself appeared at one point, and, interestingly, he looked very much like his own caricature of the “thick-necked prole”.