Are You Frugal or Just Strange?

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Melissa Batai.  Melissa is a freelance writer who covers topics ranging from personal finance to business to organics to food.  She blogs at Mom’s Plans where she shares her family’s journey to healthier living and paying down debt.

Frugality is a much revered and time honored trait. Search the Internet and you’ll find quotes about frugality from greats such as Plato—“The greatest wealth is to live content with little,” or Warren Buffet—“Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving,” or Thomas Jefferson—“We make ourselves rich by making our wants few.”

Yet, if we’re to look at ourselves and our generation honestly, we aren’t not nearly as frugal as previous generations. I’m thinking of women during the Great Depression and earlier who used the material from feed sacks to make dresses, or the pioneers who threw nothing out and always found a use for everything. Use it up, was their motto.

Now, many of us struggle to implement frugality because we just don’t know how. We’re so used to our disposable society that many of the frugal skills of previous generations have slowly disappeared.

However, thanks to the recession a decade ago, frugality has made a comeback. It was during the recession that my husband and I learned many frugal techniques that we still use today.

My family and I do a lot to live a frugal lifestyle, including:

• rewashing sandwich and freezer baggies,
• hanging up clothes to dry on our indoor drying racks (yes, that we asked for as gifts for Christmas one year),
• cooking at home from scratch,
• owning just one car,
• using that car until it dies (our current vehicle is 11.5 years old and has 163,000 miles on it),
• keeping our heat on 63 and our air conditioning on 81,
• shopping for clothes at thrift stores and garage sales,
• making minor fixes to clothes such as replacing elastic waistbands and sewing knee patches so we can continue to wear them,
• making some homemade Christmas presents,
• buying discounted or clearance food at the grocery store,
• cutting our own hair,
• gardening,
• collecting rain water in buckets to use in the garden, etc.

A search for frugal living strategies on the Internet and Pinterest reveals that we’re doing most of the things people recommend. However, when I dig deeper into frugality, I find another frugal segment that doesn’t get much attention—the uberfrugal.

When I read about the uberfrugal and their techniques, I find myself wondering, are they clever and smart stewards of their money, or are they just. . .strange?

Many people believe that those who are uberfrugal are instead just cheap. But sometimes they’re also just called weird or gross. Consider these practices:

Using Family Cloth

Family cloth is a polite, albeit it misleading name, for using cloth, reusable toilet paper. People simply sew flannel squares of cloth (or recycle old t-shirts), use them, and then wash them in the laundry. The squeamish are grossed out just by the description, but the people who use family cloth insist it’s really no different than using cloth diapers and cloth wipes for babies.   In fact, they argue that family cloth is much gentler and better for your nether regions.

Only Flushing the Toilet Once a Day

I visited a family that had a pretty sign posted to the wall above the toilet bowl tank, which read, “Please, if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.” And that’s just what they did. The toilet was flushed only once at night if it was just full of, um, shall we say, liquid excrement.

Sure, they saved on their water bill, but I have to wonder how sanitary the routine was. And besides, by the end of the day, the bathroom smelled pretty ripe.

Canceling Garbage Service

Honestly, I didn’t even know this was possible until I read that one of my favorite bloggers is doing this. Her goal is to shave off extra expenses so she can pay down her house quicker, which is an admirable goal. She plans to reduce her garbage load by repurposing and reducing her waste creation—i.e. using recyclable bags at the grocery store, composting produce scraps, etc.

Still, she must be generating a small amount of garbage, and she hasn’t addressed what she plans to do with that. Use a neighbor’s garbage? Bring it to a public garbage can?

Eating Food Passed the Expiration Date

We all know that food that is marked “sold by” does not necessarily have to be eaten by that date. However, how loose are you willing to go with the “use by” date? Some frugal people will pay no heed to use by dates. Other people will eat leftovers that are over a week old, way passed what is generally considered safe to eat.

These people often remark, “I’ve never gotten sick eating food this old before. Why should I start now?”

Or, if they see a spot of mold, they’ll just cut it off or pluck it out and go on eating the food.

While I’m generally pretty frugal, I’m also very cautious about eating old food. The freezer is my friend, so if leftovers have been in the fridge for a few days, I put them in the freezer with a note to eat them the first day I thaw them just to be safe.

Dumpster Diving

People who dumpster dive target apartment, restaurant, or grocery store garbage bins, and, as the name implies, go into the dumpster looking for treasures. Those who dumpster dive claim that, for those who are brave enough to try, there is a bounty of goodies including unopened boxes and cans of food as well as other items that are still in their wrappers.

However, many others are grossed out completely by the idea of entering or even going near a dumpster with the idea of removing an item to use rather than putting something in the garbage. There is also a real concern that you could be threatening your own safety either due to sharp objects like broken glass or animals that may be in the dumpster looking for their own treasure, not to mention consuming food that has been in the dumpster.

Furnish Your Home with Curbside Treasures

Reportedly, if you live near a college campus and cruise by near the end of the semester, especially near the end of the academic year, you can find all sorts of furniture. Apparently, many college students who go home for the summer have to empty out their dorm rooms or apartments, and the quickest way is to toss everything to the curb.

Also, if a neighborhood is having a large trash pickup day, you can frequently find furniture and other home goods.

But would you take those items and bring them into your home? Many people do and claim that they are getting very high quality furniture for free.

Those who aren’t so frugal, including myself, worry about the sanitary issues. What if the furniture is infested with fleas, cockroaches, or bed bugs? True, you may be saving yourself a lot of money by not having to buy the furniture, but what if you bring home some nasty creature that you have to spend weeks trying to eradicate?

How about you all?  If you’re frugal, where is your line in the sand? What practices are too frugal for you and instead, just seem unsafe or unsanitary?

Share your experiences by commenting below.

***Photo courtesy https://pixabay.com/en/dumpster-trash-bin-garbage-trashcan-100909/