Although many households put together a budget, the important thing is managing it: setting financial goals and a plan to take you there. Which, as one Reddit thread shows us, can make some family members unhappy.
Started by platform user Steinenhoot, it asked "Children of cheapskates, what are some of the ridiculous things your parent/s have done to save a couple of bucks?"
And it took off. From toilet paper rations to dating only rich people, here are some of the most upvoted entries from the 4,500 entries the question has received.
I've been getting re-gifted present for Christmas since I was a kid. And not like presents from other people that were then given to me. No. We're talking my favorite jacket goes missing for 6 months only to be found under the tree as one of my presents. Just had my 30th birthday- gifted a Swiss Army knife I had when I was a kid.Mom would date richer guys around the holidays so we could have Christmas presents to open. My ex step-mother was like every Disney step mother ever. She was loaded but was super stingy, when we all stayed at her house she made my dad bring our own food every time. One time we forgot, and she fed us 65c tinned tomatoes. My mother tried to convince ticket seller that I was 6 years old (actually 12) and my brother 12 years old (actually 19) to save 6 bucks for a hop in hop off bus ticket. Needless to say my mother did not get the reduced price. Especially because of the reason my brother was smoking a cigarette. When dial up came out we got a free months trial CD. We used it for almost 10 years by frequently setting the date back on the computer. my mom used to tell me that peanut butter and tortillas are what jesus ate My parents don't understand the "invest a few more dollars for a much better quality product" thing, so when I was in high school or just starting uni and they bought me clothing, it would be a $20 pair of jeans from JayJays that would last just a few weeks because of thunder thighs wearing them down as I wore them daily, and then we'd have to buy another pair. They'd buy one pair of $5 shoes from Kmart because they were the cheapest, but they were also the most uncomfortable and - again - I'd wear them on a daily basis so they wore down within a month and we had to buy more.
I'm in my early 20s now and teaching myself the concept of "bigger price tag is better quality" - I bought myself a pair of Dr Martens in 2015, and my parents almost fell out of their chairs when I said they cost $180. Except I've worn them practically every single day since I bought them - whether to uni or work (hospitality), and they're still solid and in good shape. Best investment of my life tbh.
(Edit:) yes yes yes, I know, *a bigger price tag doesn't always mean better quality*. I mean this in terms of what I have talked about in this post - good quality, comfortable shoes and clothing. My parents taught me never to buy drinks or dessert or snacks when going out. Those things are much cheaper at the grocery store in bulk, and you just have to wait until you get home to enjoy them.
I miss my parents.
Bonus: uncle would put drumsticks in shrink wrap and hide them in his pockets to take to the movies. Then again, our family still has a picture of him from college in the 1960s, a new immigrant to the US, holding a bag of coins at the pay phone, with a huge smile on his face. His dorm mates surprised him at Christmas with the bag of coins so he could call his parents overseas, just for a few minutes. Thank you, Baylor University.When my parents had the family home refurbished, Pa would carefully extract the nails from the ripped-out woodwork with a claw hammer, and then hammer them straight again and put them in tins for re-use along with unused nails.
For years afterwards, every third or fourth nail you used from his workshop would bend like a banana on first wallop from a hammer and you'd hit your thumb.Parents would pick a place when going out that had some sort of "Kids under X years old are free" and I had to be 3-4 years younger than I am for the dayI got a Twinkie with a candle instead of a birthday cake one year.When my dad moved into his house, he had a guy come over to do a free demonstration for a water filter that goes under a sink. The guy used a bar of soap for his demonstration and left it when he was done. My dad called at least 4 other companies for a free demonstration just to keep the free bar of soap, and never intended to have a water filter installed.
He does things like this, and it gets worse as he gets older. But I just let him do his thing.My mum would wait up to an hour for the bus that cost 5 pence less. She lived in a house worth nearly a million pounds.My dad wouldn't let us eat on Sundays, we had to fill up on free samples from Sam's Club. It was humiliating. He isn't even hurting for money, he's just selfish with it and spends hundreds on himself (computer parts, games, in-game purchasing.. Ect)When I was a child my grandparents had an apartment at the seaside and every summer we would go to spend a month there, meeting other families that were coming on vacation from all around the country. My parents became friends with a couple, they had two children and the eldest girl was my age.
Probably due to the husband having gambling problems in his youth, the wife was the worst cheapskate I've ever met, even if they had a pretty generous income.
When we were out of the house, the husband was "in control" of the finances, being the main bread-winner of the family. So we would go to the restaurant all together, eat fish, spend the equivalent of 50 Euros per person (we didn't have Euros back then) and he'd have no problem putting out this amount of money.
In the house, though, the wife was the queen. So they'd have no hand soap in the bathroom, because it was a waste of money. When I was visiting, she would get a jar of Nutella from the top drawer and spread the tiniest amount of it in an almost invisible film on the cheapest bread. Her children's faces told me that when they had no guests, the Nutella would not even come out of that drawer.
The pinnacle was when one time they invited us at their place for dinner and they served a main course of... ONE PIGEON for 4 adults and 3 kids.
My parents' response, as a good Italian family, was simply inviting them to dinner for the next week and preparing a f*****g huge and delicious dinner. They willingly exaggerated the size of the dinner, we ate leftovers for days.
I'm friends with their son and daughter on Facebook. He still is the golden child (good guy, did nothing wrong, but their parents always preferred him to his sister), she got out of home and is working in beautiful beaches in summer, and ski schools in winter, all around Europe. Good for her.
EDIT: for all the "wtf pigeon meat" comments: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squab_as_foodMy father would drive literally across town, several miles out of the way to save 2 or 3 cents per gallon of gas.
He would also drive 60 miles to the casinos for a "free" meal but was too cheap to go a restaurant and buy one.My girlfriend's parents went to McDonalds on their first date and used a coupon.Share bathwater. My brother would get in first, then me and then mum or dad would be last. It's pretty gross thinking about it now but at the time my parents did it to save money on the water bill and gas bill because they were on really low incomes. My dad always refused to buy me a fish supper from the chip shop. Said it cost too much, and I could have fritters instead. Not really a big deal. Until a stray cat moves in to his house, he decides to keep it, and regularly treats it to fish suppers.
EDIT: My Dad and I regularly joke about this now. He says I was a fussy eater and would have never ate a fish supper. I make up for it by drinking all his beer when I visit him now.The exterior of our family minivan must have been 70% duct tape by the time it was retired. It was a running joke that we'd put fresh patches on before a big event like a wedding or prom.Ex-wife was a frugal spender and always tried to save money or make extra money where she could. After our divorce, my family would still gift our children clothes on the holidays and their birthdays, until I found her selling the clothes on Craigslist and then go to the goodwill to get cheaper clothes for them.
Now my family makes sure I get the clothes. They go stay with her with what they were sent with.My MIL has inherited her fathers war effort frugality. She once asked if she could get a happy meal cheaper if they didn't have the toy. Her husband was in hospital and he asked her to bring him tissues for his nose as the tissue paper was rough, she just took in toilet paper but folded into a tissue box.
She took back a single tin of macaroni to the store beside it wasn't the right one (it cost like 48p)
She gets shoes off her daughter but they are slightly too small so she cuts to toe of the shoe so her big toes just hang out.
She will ask he husband for £50 for shopping but then give him back the change! They have been married for 37 years. Like can't she just keep the few coins.
She only buys sale clothes (always the wrong size) with the intent to sew them into something new.
So mny things that don't make sense for someone who is effectively a millionaire.
Edit: more things I have thought of
They now stay in there sons old room where the wallpaper has been up since the day he was born. As a teen does he covers said cloud covered wallpaper with posters, early 20s he moves out. Parents move into room because it's quieter.
To get rid of the marks holes made by the posters she took a sample to the diy store had paint matched and painted each dot individually. Hundreds of them.
There are other things. What tops it off is that her husband spends money like water on "his rooms" while she is fitting her own carpet tiles so they fit around the rugs.When I was 15, my father was out of a job and we relied on welfare and Medicaid. I had braces outfitted by an orthodontist who has practiced since the 1940s. My braces were an eccentric old-fashioned type. No headgear, but weird brackets. A year later, my father got hired and stopped Medicaid. He wasn't happy with the expense to maintain my braces, and took me to another orthodontist. While the orthodontist examined me, my father complained how much more expensive the other doctor was. He said this loudly. The reception could hear us. The orthodontist was confused by my brackets. He said he'd never seen brackets like mine before. My father went on about the cost. The orthodontist felt he wasn't comfortable giving me new brackets without understanding how mine were functioning already. My father wouldn't have it. The cost! The cost! The orthodontist had enough. He lectured my father that he should consider my safety above all else. My father quieted down after. It was embarrassing to have a doctor tell my father my safety was more important than saving a few bucks.My dad returned a video game i got on my bday so he could buy it cheaper from the middle east (there was arabic language option). So after playing a little bit on my birthday i had to wait another week until it was delivered. My grandma would try and buy me second hand underwear from value village.. put a stop to that pretty quick.
My mom would (and still does) strategically pick a fight with me 2 days before my birthday giving her the perfect excuse not to buy me a gift. When I was in high school, I took Taekwondo classes a couple times a week. My folks had instilled in me never start something I cannot finish. I worked up to the belt before a black belt, but the black belt test was about $300. They convinced me to stop Taekwondo.someday my kids will be in this post, talking about their old cheapskate mom lol, I make my own laundry soap.. can make 8 gallons for like $2.50 a batch.... when my bath towels get holes, I cut them up and use them in the kitchen.... buy meats on clearance. when they are on the last day they can be sold... yep, my kids will be traumatizedOne time I wanted to buy this girl a bouquet of flowers to show that I cared for her. My mother said that the shop was shut (I knew it wasn't) and she went to the supermarket and bought her a sandwich instead.
F*****g absurd present really, but she did like it at least. It was ham and mustard.My mom would shove salad into an "empty" salad dressing bottle, shake it up, then fish out the slightly dressed salad.Buy s****y things that would break or wear out quickly, requiring us to buy more s****y things shortly thereafter to get by.
I didn't realize this was an issue until i dated a girl who came from an upper middle class family. They bought things that were high quality. I'm talking shoes. Coffee makers. Lawn chairs. And their stuff was both better than mine, and lasted far longer.
Nowadays, I drop more cash on brands i know are worth it. For example, I wear Chaco sandals. Even though theey cost $90, they outlast any other SHOE (let alone sandal) i have ever purchased, can be resoled for cheap, and are comfy to boot.
TLDR: my parents were cheapskates and bought cheap c**p that ended up costing us more in the long run.My mother put strict rations on toilet paper.
Yes, she was an a*****e.Water in my cereal instead of milk.. I honestly don't know if we were that poor or if she was lazy and didn't want to load up 4 kids in a vehicle and take them to the store.I used to get ants in my cereal boxes and my mom would still make me eat it. They don't do that anymore but it made me realize how financially stressed my parents were until 10 years ago, because now they waste more food than I do.I remember my mum would fill up the name branded cereal box with a cheap alternative every weekWhen my Grandmother and Grandfather got married they did their gift registry with Sears; that was back in the day (Late 1940's) when they had a 'lifetime guarantee' on almost everything they sold. My Grandmother has moved house almost 10 times since then, but she has kept every single flattened box and warranty for every appliance she got when she was married.
About two years ago I drove her to Sears to get her iron replaced, she brought all of the boxing, and paperwork from all the way back in the 1940's to get a new one. They actually did fulfil the guarantee and gave her a new iron!
I think it's hilarious, but she literally hasn't had to pay for a new appliance in over 60 years because she's so cheap! She's a Ukrainian immigrant to Canada, and she always insists 'Lifetime guarantee means lifetime guarantee' I kind of feel bad for Sears because our family are notoriously long lived (her father lived until 104). I sometimes think that maybe this is the reason why Sears is doing so poorly, a ton of cheap old women cashing in on their lifetime guarantees. This happened last summer when I visited my dad. My glasses broke and on the account of me being blind without them, he bought a cheap plastic eye frame and got a new pair of glasses made that were too big for my head. They would keep sliding down to the tip of my nose every 30 seconds and when I asked him for a new pair, he proceeded to perform a rather hilarious looking yet ingenious hack. He pulled his lighter out of his pocket and lit the flame, and with his other hand he bent the glasses at the center where the small hyphen that connects the two lenses is situated and held it above the flame. As it melted he formed a pronounced U-shape out of the joint so that the width between the lenses shortens, hence making the glasses fit relatively more snug. The plastic did not look burnt because it was of a deep mahogany color to begin with. I wonder how he thought of that so fast. My dad would always go under the speed limit on the highway. Going around 80-90kph maximized fuel efficiency so that's how fast he would go.
We also drove a car until it was literally falling apart from rust. Had about 400k kilometres on it and just about everything was breaking or had broken. Constant check engine light, bad breaks, no horn or emergency break. It took a cop pulling him over and deeming the car non roadworthy. Two come to mind -
I used to think that Christmas wrapping paper was always printed funny, like a cheap 3D picture. All of the Santa faces were a half centimeter or more off of their faces, stuff like that. I later realized that my mom always bought discounted wrapping paper that was misprinted. The thing is, when I see really nice paper now, it doesn't feel like Christmas to me. The cheap, misprinted paper is more Christmasy to me even 30 years later.
In the same vein, my parents and aunt would count the boxes that they used to wrap gifts in before Christmas morning. So, if my aunt brought 16 gifts that required the shirt/clothes boxes you would get at Sears/JC Penney, she would start Christmas morning by saying "I came here with 16 boxes and I am leaving with 16 boxes!" Funny thing is, back then you would get the boxes free with your purchase, not like today where you have to buy the boxes usually. So, my parents and aunt were hung up on boxes they got for free. We still have boxes that have ancient tape on them and they're starting to fall apart, but now my family is more likely to say that it's okay to throw them out. Back then you box them up for next year and tape up the major rips. We even had an old box from a store called Structure that lasted years and years longer than the actual store did. :DWhen I was in the thrid grade I accidentally threw a shovel at my older sister like a javelin. Unfortunately for her it hit right between the eyes and went down to the bone. Instead of going to the hospital my parents decided they were could do it themselves (both have PhDs btw) to save money. So me and my dad went to Walgreens to pick up supplies and when we got back my mom stitched up my sister. Ten years later and her scar is almost completely gone, no lasting damage, and I have a great story to tell so I guess it worked. When I was younger I had this old handheld game my uncle gave me that took 2 watch batteries. Those batteries died and asked my dad if he could get me some next time he went to Radio Shack. Instead he took the game and spliced one of those multiple voltage plugs then soldered it into the battery port. He blew the game by putting too much power to it.
All that to save $10 if not less on batteries... So f*****g cheap! You have no idea how mad I was at him for not just ruining my game but to do something so stupid like that...My dad strains cereal milk back in the bottle. It's disgusting. My mom hates it, but he still does it when she's not around and there's milk left in our bowls. The worst was my aunt. She was driving to see us and within my family is known as aunt cheapness. She drove with her husband (now ex) for 12 hours. Normally the trip should've taken 6-7, but she drove extra slow to "save gas." The crazy thing was keeping all but the front windows shut and no AC the entire ride. It was the start of a heat wave and when they pulled into our driveway it was over 100 degrees. My 3 cousins were drenched with sweat when I saw them climb out of the car, and I rushed them into the house for water and air conditioning stat. I think my dad had a talk with her later because that's the sort of thing that gets kids killed. She has gotten much better since then, but I will never forget that story. My dad once sent me a raccoon skull and an old had that he got off a friend as a Christmas present. The skull still had some flesh on it.When I got my first Playstation, my dad decided to only buy me copied games. This was before broadband had even hit the streets here, so you needed to know a guy who would solder a chip in the PSX in the back of his workshop. They always overpriced it, and then "needed to fix something else" which would cost extra.
And you couldn't do anything about it because it was illegal to begin with. Not sure how strictly illegal it was to solder a chip in a PSX at the time, but my dad believed it and by extension so did I.
But not every copied game worked with every chip. About half of the games I got, I could never play. The rest would have quirks like not being able to save the game, or it crashing randomly or after a set amount of time.
Not only did I only get copied games, but I got the weirdest games and never well reviewed or popular games. The closest I got to a known game was Fifa '97 and my parents were well aware how much I hated soccer.
This is the same dad that has always proclaimed that "if you don't want to spend money on quality, you're an idiot". Except when he wasn't buying things for himself, since he cheaped out for presents for my mother too.When my boss's kids turned 14 he had the talk with them. He let them know he was responsible for food and basic clothes. Anything goes above that, he would buy but they had to pay him back when they graduated college. When his kids graduated college, he gave each one a bill...every prom dress, any stylish clothes or money spent going out to eat with friends was meticulously detailed with date, cost and most of the receipts. When he told me about it, I thought it was a joke. The kids knew that was the deal and each one paid him back before they bought new cars or houses. He also made/taught them to put together a business case/ROI if they wanted a new TV, exercise equipment or things shared by the family. The kids are brilliant, well rounded and conservative with their money, they enjoy great vacations and have the freedom to do anything.
The amount of discipline and commitment to stick with it and then give them the bill is amazing. Though interest didn't start until graduation, so he was pretty lenient by banking standards.
Boss billed his kids for anything above basic food and clothes starting when they turned 14. Gave them an itemized bill the day they graduated college. Interested started accruing that day. Kids payed him back within 3 years. Has amazing family.
Bought a car for my son, pay for his insurance, phone and gas because I grew up poor and didn't want him to work as hard as I did growing up. He's selfish, self absorbed and refuses to work a normal high school job. FML. My dad hoards his paper towels. To this day he still expects me ask permission to use them (I'm 21) because, he doesn't want me wasting them. I remember growing up thinking that it was a $100 bucks for a roll because he was so concerned about me wasting them. He is a cheapskate and spends twice as much money on everything because he only gets the cheapest thing that breaks or doesn't work as well.
Side note: While my girlfriend and I were at his house, I dropped a gallon of milk and it went everywhere. She immediately grabbed paper towels and began using the whole roll to soak up the mess. I felt so sinful helping her but the look on my dad's face when he found out we used a whole roll was priceless. I knew he wouldn't yell at us because he is to polite to yell in front of my gf. But, he was visibly holding back his pain, anger, and heart break over the "wasted" roll.My SO's dad is hilariously tight in weird ways. He taped a button over on their $900 vacuum so you couldn't use it on the max setting...it's got a full rechargeable battery, but you can't use it on MAX because it will...use more power to charge?My mom once gave me a little pillow for my birthday with a sausage print.
I was like uhhh thanks that's interesting.
She said yea well, I actually bought it for the cat, but you know she got run over, so now you get it.When using a pay phone I had to call my folks collect and tell them what I wanted really fast during the "Say your name" thing. This thread turned into stories of abusive parents very quickly... I can stop being mad at my parents for never buying me video games now.My mom adds water to condiments to make them last longer. It gets to the point where you're eating vaguely ketchupy waterIn 6th grade, I went to magnet school (kids with high test scores get bussed to inner city schools). On "dress like a scientist" day I wanted to be [Michio Kaku.](https://www.google.com/search?q=michio+kaku&client=ms-android-att-us&prmd=nvi&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiBqtvnss7RAhWBeCYKHXbXC1kQ_AUICSgD&biw=360&bih=560)
Instead of buying me a wig, we cut up a white pillowcase and I wore it on my head. I was asked to remove my "hair" because I looked like a Klan member.Oh my god, dads are terrible. Mine hates paying for electricity, so he hangs his clothes up outside, which would be fine if he didn't do it year round even when it's below freezing.
Whenever my sisters or I would clean our rooms he would go through our trash looking for "valuables" we had thrown away (money or recyclables).
He's obsessed with gas prices and I once sat in the car with him as he drove around town for half an hour searching for the cheapest gas.
When he wants to drive down a hill he literally puts his car in neutral, opens the door, and pushes himself down the hill with his foot.
One time we went to a Burger King and I was only allowed chicken fries because a burger was "too expensive ."When we demolished our brick garage, my dad made us clean every one of those bricks [which looked like this](http://previews.123rf.com/images/thesnake19/thesnake191311/thesnake19131100134/23783828-demolished-brick-wall-Stock-Photo.jpg) with a pickaxe and line them up around our house for future use. They are still there 8 years later. All $500 and one-year time and back breaking effort worth.
Our cars are worth $2000. He buys identical cars and dismantles them for parts. Just when you think hes done scrapping, he lifts the engines out of them and stacks them underneath the carport. They have 300,000KM on them.
We sit on [these](http://atomictoasters.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Blue_Milk_Crate.jpg) around the dinner table.
Our TVs are 20" in size to save on power.
Dad saves candy wrappers because they may be useful.
Most of our furniture is stuff people threw out on the street.
We use soap for shaving cream and shampoo.
Our Granny flat has cupboards and couches stacked ontop of each other to the cieling you have to shimmy through everything, the weight is so heavy the ground has settled and cracks have started to appear everywhere. I tried reasoning that the space could be better utilized by renting it out, but apparently its more important to keep faulty treadmills, lawnmowers, fridges, ovens and washing machines for spare parts...
Many more examples of stupid s**t because he doesn't understand the value of time and space :/...Oh I might be able to win this thread, but it wasn't my parents, it was an SO's dad. He would only let them run hot water from the kitchen sink because the water heater was closest to the kitchen, so it would have taken a few extra seconds of _wasted_ water for it to get hot in other rooms. No showers, and if you wanted hot water in your bath, you had to run it into a pot in the kitchen sink and fill the tub with multiple trips.
Edit: additional info: It was both wasted water and wasted energy to heat it. I said that the bathtub part really didn't make sense to me, because you're not wasting any water. The response was that there was leftover heated water left in the pipes.I posted this before and eventually had people telling me that I'll never have money because I'm not this crazy frugal:
My grandmother found out that the late fee on her water bill was less than the cost of a stamp. For years and years she would skip every other water bill and just pay both bills at once. It wasn't that she didn't have the money, it was that once she found out about the slight difference her cheapness took over.My mom thinks she is saving a few quid by completely raiding the 'reduced' section at the supermarket. Reality is she still buys everything she normally would with the added cost of the reduced items due to go mouldy in 24 hours. Most of it gets thrown out.Stopped insuring me and taking me to the doctor because I was a hypochondriac and it was expensive. Actually had ulcers.
After those got diagnosed she made me tell the doctor the meds were great because they were the cheapest on the market. Actually were killing people. (Propulsid)
Also refused to bring me to the dentist. Ever. My parents find the cheapest meal out possible and then gloat about it later. I don't understand, they're just eating s**t.My parents, and especially my dad, were frugal, but I wouldn't call them cheapskates.
However they were always advocating forgoing pleasures in the now for future pleasure/security. While I don't completely disagree with this philosophy, my dad developed a debilitating (but non-life-threatening) illness so he's unable to really enjoy the fruits of his frugality.
This lead me to moderate my own saving habits - I do save, but I also make it a point to enjoy life as it comes too.Snowing outside? You don't need snow boots- take these used bread loaf bags, slide them over your socks, and slide another pair of socks over that. You can wear any shoes you want!
Confession- I may or may not still do this even wearing my snow boots...My grandfather Bulk ordered some apple bins in 1970. There was about 2000. The Bussiness is still going through them I don't think half of them have been used. They're still wrapped in the plastic they came in on a pallet outside the factory.
He doesn't like spending money so he goes to those cheap bulk stores and buys his groceries from there. So each week is different. My parents weren't really cheap. They were just frugal. They'd spend money on nice things; but couldn't stand the idea of wasting any.
We had a pool, plenty of electronics, and typical middle-class luxuries--but cut our own hair and made our own toothpaste. That sort of situation. My dad would spend 2 hours fixing a $5 pizza cutter, but we had a boat.
Anyway, when I was in middle school, a few friends and I built a fort in my backyard. We mostly used cardboard but also tarps and whatever we could find. We held it all together with duct tape.
My dad thought it was great, but when we were done, my friends went home, and it was time to take down the fort, my dad says, "make sure you save all the tape that's still sticky."
He seriously had me make a "role" of used duct tape that he would suggest I "use first" before using any new duct tape. Not too long after that, the battery cover to my electronic football game broke and I made it stay on using used duct tape.
