The Official BITOG Cheapskate Thread

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: 97f150
When my cell phone needs charging while at home, I take it out to my truck to charge it.


Electricity from the truck is ~10x as expensive as from the grid.

Though if you elmininate, say, the ashtray light, that would compensate.


The dome light stays off. Almost every time I drive the truck my company pays for it, so I never noticed.
 
Originally Posted By: Pablo
I charge my cell at work. Is that stealing? No because I'm stinking on call 24/7.

Does your work pay for your cell?
 
Negative, my work provides a cell for me the 2 weeks a month I am at work. Although I am not on 24h call the two weeks a month I am home I do have the option of making OT. My wifes car is what we run errands in, etc. being that it gets over double the mileage of what my truck gets. Very rarely do I use my truck just to run to the corner store when I am at home, therefore 98% of the time it is started up, it is for company business.
 
Originally Posted By: 97f150
I cant stand the exhaust fan in the bathroom being on all the time, it should only stay on for the life of the dump, my wife thinks it needs to run 24/7.


I replaced our crapper fan switches with timers that mount just like switches. About $20 IIRC.

The max amount of time you can make one stay on is one hour. I would have preferred a 15 minute max timer, but didn't see any locally. I just give the one hour max timer a 5 to 15 minute twist, depending on how much damage I have done.

I'm sure I will never get my $20 back, but it's nice to not have the fan stay on all the time. Sometimes the illusion of being a cheapskate is enough
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Originally Posted By: Spitty
Does anyone else here re-direct post paid mail envelopes?


Reminds me of an old Ramparts magazine article (February 1971?) titled IIRC "America On $0 A Day" where they suggested doing this with your prior week's garbage attached to it. Hilarious article if you ever get the chance to read it although the info is largely outdated (and in some cases illegal)...
 
I just bought a wireless G usb for an old pentium 2 computer. but I don't have wireless internet. I'm getting reception from one of unprotected apartment neighbors. 800kbps according to cnet.com
 
How does a person get i-net access from a unprotected network??

How do they get in, etc??
 
Originally Posted By: tpitcher
How does a person get i-net access from a unprotected network??

How do they get in, etc??

It will show up as an "unsecured" network. You can just connect to it.
 
Originally Posted By: Pablo
I got a brand new Sharp Microwave for $44 at Target. I just asked for a discount. I'm serious. It was on clearance and the last one. The box was a bit beat, so I asked the manager. I was expecting 0-10% but off she took off 30%!


That trick works well on clothes. Find what you want and find the tiniest flaw in it. When you go to pay for it point it out and ask if there is a discount for such items. The little woman just got a sweater for 50% off using this trick! That's my girl!

Clark
 
Time to resurrect this one.

My claims to the cheapo hall o fame:

Only internet access we had for 2 years was using my work laptop to catch the wireless from the neighbors unsecured network. Darn them for finally securing it! Now I pay $39 month to Verizon for Fios.

Have Dish network $50/month- have the middle plan, I just call every year and tell them I'm switching to Direct TV if they can't lower my rate (have 2 kids that would revolt if we had rabbit ears / we had rabbit ears for over a year)

The warm bathwater has stayed in the tub until room temp since I was a kid.

My kids flinch when I come down the steps in the morning, I can almost see my daughters brain working...did I turn off my cd player, did I close my blinds, oh lord please don't tell me I forgot to turn off my light! Thats right daddy does a quick energy audit (10 seconds) thru each kids room before I leave for work, if they fail I tell them they are killing the trees and animals. I have pretty good compliance since they are little animal lovin kids and don't want to have a dead squirrel on their consciounce.

When my grandma passed away we were going thru her house and found an old picnic basket totally filled with pre-wrapped plastic utensils, must have been saving them from Hardee's for years. I still use her TV (only thing I got when she passed) its now 19 years old.

Only use rechargeable batteries, if it can't be recharged it is not purchased ...period. (my wife rarely breaks this rule)

I buy a lot of things on EBAY for cheap. Razor blade refills for my Quattro are less than 1/2 the cost that walmart sells for.

Dog eats Ol Roy (walmart house brand) and rarely goes to the vet. Biggest mistake my vet made was telling me that she is the healthiest 10 yr old dog he'd ever seen. I said well I've been feeding her the ol roy that you told me not to feed her, so I guess I'll be back in another decade to get another clean bill of health. (I did just splurge and buy her a bag of ol roy milk bone knock offs since they were $1.14 and I feel bad for leaving her out in the back yard all day when its over 100 degrees, yes she has plenty of fresh water and shade)

A bag of coffee happens to find its way from my work to my home from time to time

when my work comes out with promo items its like christmas morning at home, hey kids look at these here fancy alarm clocks, keychains, and stress balls!!!! If I gave this [censored] out to my customers they would cancel service.

Clothing is never purchased, my inlaws start to feel bad about me dressing poorly and buy me nice stuff for christmas. My wife said I need new boxers and I told her that will be my christmas present, she's good with that.
 
Originally Posted By: moribundman
I wear papier-mâché hats and shoes cobbled together from old car tires. Beat that!


I'm surprised you don't have paper mache teeth.
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