Living the frugal lifestyle is a great way to free up extra money each month. After all, it’s important to build an emergency fund of a few months’ worth of expenses to give yourself a cushion if any large unexpected charges come in, a lowes build and grow, or being able to float yourself for a few months in case of a sudden job loss, not to mention save for retirement, which will come quickly and you don’t want to be unprepared. There is a line to cross though from being frugal, to well, just being cheap.
Have Proper Tipping Etiquette
If you have been out with a group for dinner and drinks and you just decide to split up the bill evenly, there always comes to a point where you are still short when factoring in a tip, where one or two always short money for a tip and others have to throw in a few extra dollars to make up for it. Unless service was just terrible I can see dropping down what you were going to leave, but otherwise it should be standard to leave at least 20%, otherwise maybe you shouldn’t be going out.
Keep the Free Samples to a Minimum
Going to places like Costco where they have free samples available in virtually every aisle on the weekends takes the burden away of going shopping and fighting crowds a little, but there those that crowd around the toaster oven waiting for the fresh batch to come out, and when they do, basically take the whole tray back for them and their mooching family members as well. Be cautious, grab one and keep shopping, they are samples for you to try, not providing a substitute for buying lunch. After all, it is to entice you to buy the product.
Cutting the Cord but “Borrowing” Passwords
With the price of cable continuing to go up every year, not to mention if you really sit back and think about the number of channels you actually do watch in a given day, probably doesn’t add up for the need to continue to pay a couple hundred dollars a month so you may decide to cut the cord. While that is all good, you should still buy an HD antenna to get local channels and then subscribe to the many $10 a month streaming services, but it is those that cancel cable and borrow your Netflix password that it crosses from being frugal to being very cheap.
Regifting
As you get older it really does provide more satisfaction to give someone a gift instead of receiving one, and I’m finding myself putting more thought into gifts each year and gone are the days of gift cards. What is annoying those are the clear regifted items that just make you cheap. I think of the movie Old School where Frank keeps trying to give away his bread maker that he got as a wedding gift. It’s probably better to not give a gift at all instead of one day being caught for regifting.
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