I’m sure most of you know what a cheapskate is. Some take offence to it, some take pride in them. Whatever it is, being a cheapskate has its pros and cons. Before that, for those who are unsure as to what cheapskate means, it’s basically describing a stingy person.
So, what is the benefit of being a stingy person? Well, you definitely can save so much money. People complain that they have not much money and to survive is difficult. Well, adapting to a cheapskate lifestyle may just solve your financial problems. Plus, you get to learn more about financial lessons daily, what it means to acquire a dollar in your hands and never take life for granted.
When you’re a stingy person, there’s bound to be a number of obstacles that you need not face with yourself but also with your closest family and friend. You’ll end up being a pain in the a** for your friends whenever they’re planning on spending a little dough on the latest hangout spots. By being a cheapskate, you’ll be bound to prohibit yourself from things that used to make you happy. For example, having Maggi mee so you can save up further than eating steak on a rare occasion. Your taste buds surely would suffer.
This is me 😛
To be honest, there have been times I may be guilty of living the cheap lifestyle when my finances weren’t so great. I used to fill up my almost finished shampoo with water so it adds up, applying lotion and perfume samples in beauty shops so I don’t need to spend money on it (I know most of you does this!), as well as wearing hand-me-downs. I mean why spend on clothes when you can have it for free? #Malaysian
It was not until I watched TLC’s Extreme Cheapskates that I realized I was living the frugal life instead of the extreme cheapskate lifestyle. Oh boy, if you’ve not watched the show, let me enlighten you of the world’s worst cheapskates ever known.
Dumpster diving
Nas Daily is a respectable videomaker that features video that breaks stereotypes and shows the people in that particular country. About three months ago, Nas Daily featured a Singaporean man who is a freegan. What this means is he gets his food for free. He eats other people’s unfinished food in restaurants, take leftover food from his neighbours and dumpster dive at night with his friends. Though many people may not see eye to eye on this matter, in the video, he reveals luxurious stuff he found while dumpster diving, such as PlayStation, watches, and even good quality speakers.
Living in New York City is not the smartest idea for a frugal person let alone a cheapskate. Kate Hashimoto is a certified public accountant with a good paying job. Despite her financial stability, she survives by dumpster diving from Upper West Side restaurants, scrounging free toiletry samples, and sleeps on discarded yoga mats. It’s true that maybe money doesn’t make the world go round.
Extreme Couponing
How does a parent with five children only manage to spend just $350 (RM1,466) a month on food and cleaning products? Arizona man Steve Economides and his wife make it work with finding coupons and exchanging them for free stuff. They go on eBay and Craiglist to hunt for more bargains. Same like how we see the best deals on Fave, Lazada or Eatigo.
Example of another extreme couponing from a 15-year-old boy!
One of their favourite tactics is buying meat that’s at its expiration date, because “restaurants charge premium prices for aged beef.” Smart move. You could see from this show that getting a load amount of coupon is never easy. Sometimes you need to spend time researching for the coupons, clipping coupons in piles, and even going house-to-house to collect inserts and sheets of coupons. Coupons may help you with saving up money for food but it’s like they always say, “good things never come easy”.
Recycling
Yes, they say recycling is an act of saving the environment but what do you do when you see someone pushing the gesture of recycling a little too far than any human can compensate? Meet Stephanie, featured on TLC’s Extreme Cheapskates who is so concern about the rise of their water bills, she expects her boyfriend to take a two-minute shower and reuses the water she boils spaghetti in. Plus, uneaten spaghetti sauce is spooned back into the jar.
Jeff Yeager is another example of an extreme cheapskate. He embodies the recycling cheapskates lifestyle so much so that he wipes his butt with cloth toilet paper that he washes and re-uses.
Here’s another cheapskate Christmas story for you;
There is plenty of other cheapskates method that people do to survive. Though some of you still can’t accept the fact of how cheapskates live their life (I can’t get over the reusable toilet paper), they are surprisingly having a happy life-saving money. At the end of the day, it’s the inner joy that counts, right?