# The "How Cheap Can You Get?" Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 2, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334 "2010-09-02T00:53:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/161 "2010-09-10T02:38:58Z")
I cloth nappy Baby From Mars - which is not that unusual, including using reusable cloth wipes (we use facewashers from Ikea). What I have heard of though which is beyond me, is adults using cloth wipes instead of toilet paper. I know it’s the same thing - but it’s not, you know?? ---
**Author:** ![Plan\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/162 "2010-09-10T02:42:20Z")
I took my son to an orthopedic surgeon and as we walked down the hall to an examining room we saw a creepy looking guy in one of the rooms washing a white plastic fork. It was the context, where you’re going to have to pay hundreds of dollars for a brief consultation, that made it much worse. The doctor turned out to be an idiot anyway. He lost my son’s file and his diagnosis was different than the second, third and fourth opinions and the MRI. So the lesson is to watch out for cheapskates. It may be indicative of a much bigger pattern. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/163 "2010-09-10T18:21:03Z")
The local supermarket has a device where you have to pay a quarter to get a shopping cart, and it gets returned when you return the shopping cart. If I see a shopping cart on the street with a quarter in it, I return it and keep the quarter. I also check the returned coin box on the Coinstar to see if there arre any coins in it. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/164 "2010-09-12T07:04:43Z")
> [@FrancisCastle](#): > > I know a few people who wash and reuse plastic cutlery. I do this; not to save money, but, it seems abhorent to me to throw away a perfectly machined, brand new looking…piece of cutlery! Just wash it off like it was metal! It doesn’t even have a scratch on it! It still has the original finish on it! Throw it away! Fie! Fie on the notion! Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/165 "2010-09-12T07:10:49Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > > [@Ponch8](#): > > > > I don’t see what’s so unusual about that. It’s not like he put USED toilet paper back. > > You must understand, once the toilet paper leaves the roll it is forever impure. It may not be returned to the sanctity of the unblemished roll. > > Ever. Oh, well said! Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/166 "2010-09-12T18:19:04Z")
> [@seanchai](#): > > - All soups were homemade, All stews etc were, as well. “Bought” soups and stews were terrible expensive and wasteful. I missed the first time – homemade soup and stew always taste better (my mother’s making beef stew even as I type this!). My sister has a recipe for potato soup that’s out of this world. ---
**Author:** ![Gruntled](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/34f0e0/32.png) [@Gruntled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gruntled)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/167 "2010-09-13T01:09:10Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I bring home clothes that I find on the road and wash and wear them I had a friend with some kind of bowel problem…when he had to go he had to GO. Sometimes this meant using some article of clothing as TP then leaving it on the side of the road. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/168 "2010-09-13T02:24:37Z")
> [@Gruntled](#): > > > [@Shodan](#): > > > > I bring home clothes that I find on the road and wash and wear them > > I had a friend with some kind of bowel problem…when he had to go he had to GO. Sometimes this meant using some article of clothing as TP then leaving it on the side of the road. :eek: So why didn’t he just plan ahead and bring TP with him? ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/169 "2010-09-13T04:14:26Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I also check the returned coin box on the Coinstar to see if there arre any coins in it. I do this as well, but mainly because the machines often reject pre-1965 coins made of actual silver. Joe ---
**Author:** ![JuliaSqueezer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JuliaSqueezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JuliaSqueezer)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/170 "2010-09-13T14:22:20Z")
Just thought about this one yesterday while cleaning out the fridge. Years ago I worked in a large office that had a kitchenette. The normal size refrigerator would get stuffed with lunches and leftovers, to the point where the admins (we called them “secretaries” back in those days) would post a notice that on the upcoming Friday, they were throwing out all of the old food. The amazing thing, at least to me, was the number those big, square styrofoam boxes that would be stashed in there with teeny weeny bits of food in them. Maybe one bite’s worth. The sad part was, I knew most of the folks who had put those boxes in the refrigerator. I’d often gone out to lunch with them, and watched as they asked for carry-out boxes and then deposited the little tiny bits of food into them, take them back to the office, put them in the fridge and forget about them. Maybe they had every intention of making that one bite their afternoon snack, but it still looked cheap to be so unable to waste such a tiny little portion of your lunch. I’m not going to even mention how that office fridge smelled. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/171 "2010-09-13T14:37:18Z")
I had some in laws- oh hell they were tight. They weren’t / aren’t poor. They live in a smallish rural town. They go to funerals of people they don’t know so they can get a free meal at the wake. There is more but that one amazed me. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/172 "2010-09-13T15:02:22Z")
> [@Mr.Accident](#): > > > [@Guinastasia](#): > > > > Dumpster diving for food – especially perishables – is disgusting. I’m sorry, but it is. > > /shrug. Beats starving. Or roadkill. Been a time or two I’ve had road kill stew. Nothing wrong with that if you’re prepared and - in this province - you have a permit. A friend and I came across a perfectly good elk which had suffered death by motorcycle this summer. I wasn’t willing to leave a dead animal in a car in bear country while we hiked all day, or hike in bear country with arms covered in blood, for that matter, but if you have the tools and something to put the pieces in and you aren’t leaving your car unattended all day so the bears have time to sniff it out, well, it’s elk stew tonight lads. It must be a somewhat common practice if permits for doing so exist. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/173 "2010-09-13T16:26:08Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > I had some in laws- oh hell they were tight. They weren’t / aren’t poor. > > They live in a smallish rural town. They go to funerals of people they don’t know so they can get a free meal at the wake. Bah – how can you live in a smallish rural town and not know everybody? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334/174 "2010-09-13T17:42:36Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > > [@Mr.Accident](#): > > > > /shrug. Beats starving. Or roadkill. Been a time or two I’ve had road kill stew. > > Nothing wrong with that if you’re prepared and - in this province - you have a permit. A friend and I came across a perfectly good elk which had suffered death by motorcycle this summer. I wasn’t willing to leave a dead animal in a car in bear country while we hiked all day, or hike in bear country with arms covered in blood, for that matter, but if you have the tools and something to put the pieces in and you aren’t leaving your car unattended all day so the bears have time to sniff it out, well, it’s elk stew tonight lads. It must be a somewhat common practice if permits for doing so exist. Whoa - death by _motorcycle?_ Did you also enjoy some long pig that evening? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-how-cheap-can-you-get-thread/552334.md?page=8)