Haircuts. With the exception of my husband we all get by with an occasional trimming at Grandma’s house. I’m sure a good stylist could make me look better, but I’m just not interested in the hassle of finding one and having to go pay for it every month or so.
**Kids’ clothes and shoes. ** If it’s not on sale at Target, we don’t get it, except for selected very special occasions. The $50 shoes from Nordstrom are going to be shredded just as fast as the $10 tennies from Target, which is to say in about 2 weeks of school. Ditto the clothes. My tennies come from Target, too, or Costco. They all look the same.
Geez, I can only think of two things I’m cheap about. I won’t buy alkaline batteries anywhere but the $ store, and I won’t buy name brand over the counter medication (i.e., Tylenol instead of acetaminophen, etc). That’s it.
I can’t believe so many people say they’re cheap about AC. I would cut off a toe if I could have air conditioning here. I would transform my sweltering apartment into a wintry wonderland. Alas, I do not that option.
I shop exclusively at Target and Old Navy and, even then, I hate paying full price. I’m all over the clearance racks. The few times I venture to Macy’s or Sears, I’ll stick to their clearance racks, too. I once found a suit (blazer with skirt) for $7.00 at Sears. If anyone compliments me on it, I always beam with pride when I tell them how much I paid. I’m always proud of my bargains.
Underwear: The packaged kind, if they have the hipster-type of style. I hate buying underwear that come on the little hangers. How can anyone spend $10 on one pair? It’s sheer insanity!
Haircuts: I go to Supercuts or Fantastic Sam’s. The one time I went to Penney’s because I was short on money and used my Penney’s card, I ended up paying about $30 and the cut was uneven. Never again!
Shoes: If Target, Walmart, Old Navy or Payless don’t sell 'em. I don’t buy 'em–especially if they’re over $20-25. I got a pair of sandals at Walmart for $3.00 last year!
Food, paper towels, OTC medicine: I tend to buy store brand most of the time, with the exception of spaghetti sauce (which has to be Villa Vilenti–a local brand) and peanut butter (which has to be Jif or Peter Pan). It tastes the same.
However, I refuse to wipe my “tender areas” with store brand toilet paper.
Souvenirs and refreshments at events. My mom never allowed things like popcorn at the movies, programs at the circus, little junkie toys at the fair, etc. I buy souvenirs when I travel, and at educational type events, but not at local entertainment. I don’t even like popcorn now.
I may try the dryer sheet thing. I didn’t use them at all until I got married and my husband was a “habitual user.”
I am also a huge fan of library book sales. I also spend plenty on new books though. The library book sale thing is more of an “Oooh, manna from heaven” thing than irrational cheapness.
And I think generic OTC meds is rational cheapness. Ironically, it seems like someone would be more likely to tamper with a name brand product that has its reputation on the line. There doesn’t seem like much motive to tamper with brand XYZ Ibuprofen.
Wine at restaurants. I won’t buy it because I * know * that I could buy an entire bottle for the same $5.00 or $7.00 that they want to charge me. I could easily afford it, but it offends me to pay it.
Meat at the grocery store. I usually buy fairly inexpensive cuts and ground beef, even though, on a per meal basis, even the more expensive cuts wouldn’t cost much more than I regularly pay for a sandwich at lunch. This may not be irrational, though, as I’m an indifferent cook who has been known to get caught up in a book while a steak turns to leather. Why subject a nice cut of meat to that treatment?
I don’t tear the dryer sheets in half, but I will use them twice. I also have no brand loyalty whatsoever for laundry detergent or cleaning supplies - whatever is on sale is what I buy.
I’m fairly cheap about clothes. I love shopping (re: hunting for bargains) at thrift stores, and I buy a lot of clothes at Target. I buy stuff like underwear and socks there, too. I buy Hanes undies in the 6-packs when it’s on sale.
Wal-Mart carries a brand of Lee pants that fit me really well; both jeans and dress pants.
I’ve recently developed a fondness for silk shirts, and have found a few at the thrift stores, but since I can save money buying basics at places like Target, I can splurge on things like nice shirts every once in a while.
I’m cheap about books, too. Thrift store, library sales, yard sales - you can find like-new books there for $1 or less. I will buy new, but since I like owning them, I also like buying on the cheap.
I also am irrationally cheap about OTC medicine. I always buy the store brand of cough syrup and pain relievers.
My neurologist recommended I take Advil Liqui-Gels (ibuprofen in a liquid gel pill) for my migraines (to head 'em off before I try my Rx meds), and I was thrilled to find that Safeway now makes its own brand of ibuprofen liqui-gel pills - about half the price of Advil. I hadn’t been able to find a generic of it before.
In the thread referenced in the OP, I mentioned that we run our AC freely in the summer. As a contrast, we’re crazy cheap with the heat. We bought a woodstove and scrounged up lots of free wood for heat. We have a ranch house (one floor, easy to heat) and never had to set the heat above 60° this past winter. Put on a sweater!
We just prefer cooler temps. My mother believes my husband and I were both polar bears in another life.
Electricity usage. I’m one of those people who goes around turning off lights. I always hang my washing out on the clothes line and rarely use the dryer. I don’t have heating or air-conditioning.
Dishwashers - a complete waste of *both * electricity and water.
Restaurant meals - I hate the feeling that I could be eating the exact same thing at home for 1/5th the price which is twice as good with superior ingredients.
Me and Cyn love to go out but can rarely afford it consistently…unless. We usually burn up about 3 entertainment books a year. $35 book and we prolly average $400 in discounts out of each one
Me, too. I have a “movie purse” that I use just for movies that I can take snacks and sodas in. It’s deceptively big. You’d never guess I can get two bottles of soda, a bottle of water and snacks for the kids all in it!
Medications. I have no health insurance, and spend several hundred bucks each month on prescriptions and OTCs. I get store-brand and generic when possible, and even get some from Canada (go ahead, throw me in jail). I’m cheap this way out of necessity; these meds are keeping me alive, and I can’t afford name-brands.
Hotel rooms. I hate paying for fancy when all we are going to do is sleep and watch TV. I had to bite my cheek when checking in on my honeymoon. We could have stayed for 2 weeks at an ok place for what we paid for 3 nights where we did stay. In the interests of remaining happily married, i kept my mouth shut.
See, prescriptions I just assume everyone gets the generics. For example, if my doctor writes down “Demerol”, the pharmacist will automatically give me meperidine.* The only time this isn’t the case here is when the doctor writes their secret code for “no substitutions.” I’m not using insurance when purchasing, so I don’t know it this is standard across Canada or just in my province.
*Just an example. I am not taking Demerol during pregnancy
A/C—I used A/C exactly once last year, and that’s when I had a fever.
Heating—not really “irrationally cheap,” it’s just that I enjoy keeping the thermostat at around 62F during the winter. I don’t see the need to be much warmer than this. Most of my friends find this bordering on “freezing.” Bunchapussies.
Clothes—I don’t really give a crap what I wear as long as its presentable.
Haircuts—I, too, don’t see why I need to spend more than ten bucks plus tip to get my hair hacked off. I only have about half of it left, anyway, and it requires no styling.
I used to just get the cheapest thing going and be happy with that. Then I started working for a luxury chain and learned I could sleep in a huge, comfortable bed and get 24 hour room service, and now I’m ruined. Luckily, my hubby still works for the company and we get a huge discount so it’s cheaper than a discount room at a fleabag motel. I just wish there were more locations.
[ul]
[li]soap- it’s usually what’s on sale or Suave[/li][li]toothbrushes- since I seem to go through them fast, why spend $$?[/li][li]OTC painkillers- they have to meet USP and FDA standards, so why buy Bayer?[/li][li]toilet paper. Apparently I have the Iron Anus.[/li][li]Ammunition. I tend to use milsurp or Wolf ammo because it’s real cheap. [/li][/ul]
