Extreme Cheapskates

I suppose this could go in the entertainment section or the spouse house section, but I think it works here, but if not, mods, feel free to move it.

Has anyone seen this show?

I mean I've heard of being frugal and I've heard of being cheap, but I do not understand this show.

A man just took out the trash, cleaned the tanning beds, and swept the floor of a hair salon to receive a $25.00 hair cut.

Another man sang opera and gave a cake baker two tickets to an opera show in order to receive a free cake for his engagement party.

A woman uses cloth towels because she refuses to buy toilet paper. Even the guests have to use cloth towels and then they throw them in a bucket that sits next to the toilet.

A man who was celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary went dumpster diving to find his wife a present. He came back with pink roses and a teapot. He went to a liquidation store to "spring" on a gift for her and bought animal crackers, a bottle of water, and a skull that when squeezed the eyes bulged out, all for $1.68 (and then he complained because it was more than he wanted to spend). And to top it off, when they went to eat, he went around to all the patrons and asked if he could take their leftovers - scraping them all into a styrofoam box while the people were still sitting there, watching.

I find this whole concept strange. 

Oh boy, if I could swap cleaning for a haircut right now, I'd be thrilled. Of course, that's because I'm not working and while my husband would happily pay the fee, it would feel great to earn it. And even with a job, $25 x 10 per year is $250. Multiply that by ten years and add some interest, and you've got an amazing vacation coming your way!

I would not ask strangers for their leftovers, that would be a last resort. However, it breaks my heart when people don't take doggie bags. I think the best bit of eating out is having a great lunch the next day!

As for the no tp... ewww. I think if you balance the cost of tp against the cost of the cloths, the bleach, and running the washer you are probably not saving anything, and not helping the environment. However, I changed from paper napkins to cloth and dish towels and it felt great to only use one roll of paper towels a month. That seemed like a fair thing to do.

Dumpster diving is a mixed bag. Some people can find real treasures. I, however, wouldn't have the stomach for it. But if I were super broke, who knows. When I was in college my grandfather had a friend who was dialed in on the super market throw away days, and he would pass the expired products onto others, including me. I got a lot of those refrigerator packs of tortellini -- which was great because you can freeze them for a long time. I was living on less than $10K a year, so that really helped!

I guess that's the amazing thing about humans - we always find a way. Things you might not dream of can become a great solution if things are hard enough. Of course, I didn't see the tv show, but being tv I am sure the picked the craziest people who had no need to be as intense about cutting corners as they were.

I would not ask strangers for their leftovers, that would be a last resort. However, it breaks my heart when people don't take doggie bags. I think the best bit of eating out is having a great lunch the next day!

This is obviously only my personal experience, but you may be disappointed in the UK re: doggie bags.  I have never (again only my experience) seen a person leave a restaurant here with a doggie bag/box.  My friend once asked for one when she was here and the waitress looked at her like she'd cut her arm off. She finally came back with some kind of makeshift box with a plastic bag lining it so my friend could take her leftovers with her, but clearly was not used to being asked for such a thing.

This is obviously only my personal experience, but you may be disappointed in the UK re: doggie bags.  I have never (again only my experience) seen a person leave a restaurant here with a doggie bag/box.  My friend once asked for one when she was here and the waitress looked at her like she'd cut her arm off. She finally came back with some kind of makeshift box with a plastic bag lining it so my friend could take her leftovers with her, but clearly was not used to being asked for such a thing.

Some places do let you take your food home with you, but not many at all... doggie bags (along with free refills) are definitely not the norm in the UK.

My brother once decided he would see if Wetherspoons would let him take the rest of his Sunday Roast home with him... the bartender went to get the manager, who then explained that they weren't allowed to give my brother a doggie bag in case he got food poisoning from re-heating it at home and tried to sue them  !

My brother once decided he would see if Wetherspoons would let him take the rest of his Sunday Roast home with him... the bartender went to get the manager, who then explained that they weren't allowed to give my brother a doggie bag in case he got food poisoning from re-heating it at home and tried to sue them  !

Nice!

We struggled once to get food "to go" from BF's mum's local pub. We were going to go there for lunch anyway, but she wasn't feeling well so we wanted to just go get food and take it back to her. They were quite hesitant to do it, and after they agreed (based on her being only 1/4 mile away and a regular) I understood why - they gave us a tray with full cutlery/dishes/etc (basically what they would have served us at a table in the pub). They clearly weren't set up to provide portable food. It worked out fine since we were so close, but BF had to run the supplies back in a bit of a downpour.

A woman uses cloth towels because she refuses to buy toilet paper. Even the guests have to use cloth towels and then they throw them in a bucket that sits next to the toilet.

This is not any different than cloth nappies (diapers).   

Ever heard the saying, "See a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck"? I think this might be from Grease, but the people on this show were of course taking it to the extreme (hence the name of the show).

A man went into a restaurant, not to eat, but to sit at all the empty booths and look for change.

These people aren't poor, just extremely cheap. For instance, like the man, who after his wedding picked up the rice that people had thrown and took it home and cooked it. 

Ha, the no doggie bags makes discussion makes me giggle - especially the part about food poisoning that ksand mentioned, because I'm a weird eater. My husband and his family always tell me that I'm going to get sick because I'll eat half of my plate, set it on the counter, and then come back to it hours later (I like cold food). And after I cook, my husband always tells me that I need to let the food cool down before putting it in the fridge, that hot food should never be put in the fridge. I've always put hot leftover in the fridge, never gotten sick before. Is this a UK/US difference or am I the only one who does this? 

Oh and the cloth towels bit - I completely understand using cloth diapers, and maybe even cloth towels for your family, but when you ask guests to use cloth towels - the same ones that your family uses - and then put then in a bucket next to the toilet, I find that a bit extreme.

Ever heard the saying, "See a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck"? I think this might be from Grease,

I'm pretty sure that saying pre-dates 'Grease'!    and Ben Franklin said, 'A penny saved is a penny earned' more than 200 years ago.

But there is also a saying, 'Penny-wise, but pound-poor'.
 

A man just took out the trash, cleaned the tanning beds, and swept the floor of a hair salon to receive a $25.00 hair cut.

That doesn't seem extreme to me, I'd do it!

And after I cook, my husband always tells me that I need to let the food cool down before putting it in the fridge, that hot food should never be put in the fridge. I've always put hot leftover in the fridge, never gotten sick before. Is this a UK/US difference or am I the only one who does this? 

I let the food cool quite a bit before wrapping it up and putting it in the fridge.  I've not gotten sick before, so I'm not sure exactly which is right/wrong.

As for the other things...more power to them, but I could never (probably unless I really had no choice)...never the towels thing, though.

I let the food cool quite a bit before wrapping it up and putting it in the fridge.  I've not gotten sick before, so I'm not sure exactly which is right/wrong.

I think the letting food cool a bit before putting in the fridge is more because of possibility of heating up the other food already in there. And making the fridge work harder to cool everything down again.

I've never dug in skips but will very often peruse the recycling at the town dump. Found a few good things: scratching post for the cat, some wood TV tables, odd bits of crockery including a cute candy bowl in the shape of a penguin!

I'll stick with toilet paper too, thanks.

I remember a few months ago there was a story on BBC or someplace about how the UK does not do doggie bags... and they did point out that it was a shame to waste good food. So far, we are always able to get carry home bags, but the only places that serve so much are the Indian and the Chinese restaurants we like. Since they already do a carry out, oh, excuse me, take away business, it doesn't seem to be a problem for them. So far, no other restaurant has given me a dinner so big that I needed to take the rest home... But I would, by gum, I would!

Ha, the no doggie bags makes discussion makes me giggle - especially the part about food poisoning that ksand mentioned, because I'm a weird eater. My husband and his family always tell me that I'm going to get sick because I'll eat half of my plate, set it on the counter, and then come back to it hours later (I like cold food). And after I cook, my husband always tells me that I need to let the food cool down before putting it in the fridge, that hot food should never be put in the fridge. I've always put hot leftover in the fridge, never gotten sick before. Is this a UK/US difference or am I the only one who does this? 

I've never left food on the counter for hours, because of fear of food poisoning. I've always worried about it, but several years ago I took a Serve Safe course and learned all sorts of things to worry about with food safety. I was terrified to eat for two weeks after taking it, with all the new info swirling around in my head.    MIL will leave things out longer than I would be comfortable with. There have been two times she has picked up meat for us, and carried it around for 5+ hours in a bag before giving it to us. 

I think the letting food cool a bit before putting in the fridge is more because of possibility of heating up the other food already in there. And making the fridge work harder to cool everything down again.

Yep. That is one of the things they preached at the Serve Safe course, to let food cool before putting it in the fridge, so it didn't heat up the food already in there, but to cool it safely as quickly as possible.

The thing is, I used to do all the things you weren't supposed to do, leave rice for a couple of days, leave food out, put hot food in the fridge. Use the same chopping boards blah blah blah. (Student!)

THEN...I got ecoli (albeit at a music festival from contaminated water *ugh*) trust me, you never ever ever ever EVER want to have food poisoning, nothing in the world is worth risking getting it. 
Not gippy tummy but proper full on food poisoning. It was one of the worst experience of my life and I've had cancer!

Even though I never got sick from any of those things in my house, the *idea* that I could is enough to keep me from doing it. It's not worth the risk! You could be fine a thousand times, then boom. You don't want to know the kind of things that happened to me, at the festival, at hospital  & in my own house. I was proper sick for two weeks and it took months to recover.

THEN...I got ecoli (albeit at a music festival from contaminated water *ugh*) trust me, you never ever ever ever EVER want to have food poisoning, nothing in the world is worth risking getting it. 
Not gippy tummy but proper full on food poisoning. It was one of the worst experience of my life and I've had cancer!

Even though I never got sick from any of those things in my house, the *idea* that I could is enough to keep me from doing it. It's not worth the risk! You could be fine a thousand times, then boom. You don't want to know the kind of things that happened to me, at the festival, at hospital  & in my own house. I was proper sick for two weeks and it took months to recover.

Nothing like sitting on the toilet, trash can in you lap, praying for death, huh? I've had food poisoning once and that was enough for me. I got it from a fast food restaurant. I think having it makes a person more careful than necessary, but when you've had it once you never want it again. Before I had it, I always imagined it to be a day or two of tummy troubles then it was over. I never imagined the fatigue, sore muscles and everything else that goes with it, or how long it actually takes to get over.

I'm not above shopping in charity shops either!  Over the years have found several goodies -- take 'em home and wash 'em, change buttons or minor mending and there you go!  I'm not proud