Are you too frugal? Crossing the line...

Do you think of yourself as frugal, spartan, parsimonious, penny-wise, prudent, economical and thrifty? Do you suspect others describe you instead as penny-pinching, scrimping, stingy, tight, cheap or miserly? At what point does saving money become a bad thing?

I’m sure there’s a millionaire’s daughter on Madison Avenue right now who is sure she is being frugal by limiting her spending this week to $1,000. In a suburb right now, a mother of three is proud of herself for reducing her grocery bill by $30 per week. A single middle-aged woman is taking pride in the fact that she hasn’t paid more than $5 for any single item of clothing in over three years. When you look at it this way, frugality is a relative term. And when it comes to how frugal you will become on any given money saving tip, it really comes down to convenience and tact. Look at these different perspectives on popular money saving tips and see how low you would go. 

How Much Inconvenience Will You Take On?

Toilet paper can get expensive when you add up the cost throughout the year, especially in large households. Some recommend buying two-ply toilet paper and then painstakingly pulling it apart to make two rolls of one-ply. Are you willing to go through all that effort? Other people say you should use rags as an eco-friendly alternative. Can you imagine the smell of those rags hanging around and the inconvenience of washing such icky items?

Unplugging appliances is a great way to save money on electricity, but I know few people with the patience or forethought to plan five minutes for unplugging every time they leave the house or go to bed.

I’ve seen some say you can use newspapers between your sheets and bedspread because they make a great insulator on cold nights. How much time is that going to take you, not to mention the black ink stains on your sheets?

Cutting your own hair is actually a tip I use myself, but it takes a lot of time. The real reason I don’t pay for a haircut: I haven’t found a stylist yet who does it the way I want it. 

How Tacky Are You Willing to Be?

These tips that are technically legal, but you would not want your friends to catch you doing. Some people grab handfuls of extra condiments at fast food restaurants and use them at home to save money on ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise. Yes, it will save you money and yes, it will be embarrassing if someone catches use doing it.

Avid readers have been known to teach themselves to speed read so they can read books free at the bookstore. Now, wouldn’t you just rather check them out at the library than get caught reading free on the store’s dime?

Many women do this next trick, but they would never admit it to their girlfriends. They order a large meal when out on a date and then take half home in a doggie bag. They get two meals for the price of one and a tacky way to eat a free meal. A similar tip bugs the heck out of waiters. People order glasses of water with lemon, squeeze the lemon into the glass and add sweetener for a free glass of lemonade.

This one is borderline criminal. You can go to your library and tell them you lost your umbrella. Describe it as small and black. They’ll almost always have one to give you. I hope you will feel bad for the poor sucker who won’t find the umbrella he lost after you took his. 

There’s no doubt that dumpster diving is bad form. Some people will paw through the neighbor’s trash once it’s out on the curb or go into the trash after moving day at a college campus. Yes, it’s public domain and free. It’s also embarrassing if you get caught at it. 

The last tacky tip I’ll share takes place at the grocery store. Instead of paying for the full head of broccoli or beats, snap off the greens, stalks and inedible parts before you bring them to the register. This way you only pay for the part you eat. Never mind that you’re leaving trash around for the employees to pick up!

There are endless ways to save money, depending on how low you’re willing to go. What’s interesting is that there we use many different adjectives to describe money savers that are not perceived as negative. But most of the nouns we use to describe frugal shoppers are unkind. We use words like miser, tightwad, skinflint, and cheapskate for people who try to save money all the time. Yet words like frugal, spartan, parsimonious, and penny-wise are terms we don’t mind. Maybe we can conclude that being frugal is a good thing, as long as you don’t go overboard.