She’s a Ukrainian immigrant to Canada and always insists, “Lifetime guarantee means lifetime guarantee.”
I feel bad for Sears because our family is notoriously long-lived (her father lived until 104). I sometimes think that maybe this is why Sears is doing so poorly: a ton of cheap old women cashing in on their lifetime guarantees. 8.
My Dad’s Budget Home Became a Renovation Adventure
u/InVultusSolis: My father is pathologically cheap. I have tons of stories, but I’ll share the biggest. My dad only looks at the dollar amount and nothing else.
If he sees a six-pack of toilet paper for $5 and a twelve-pack for $7, he’ll buy the $5 pack every time, guaranteed. So you can already imagine how any major purchase goes with him. When I was about eight, he decided to buy a house.
One could buy something relatively decent in my area for $110k back then. We’re talking newer cabinets, floors, interior appointments like trim, newer doors, windows, etc. He ended up buying a low-quality house for $89k.
It had been built in 1947. The guy who built the place was just as cheap as my dad. All of the windows and doors were original.
It still had its original asbestos siding. On the inside, there was no trim. No interior doors except the bathroom door, which itself had no knob.
No kitchen cabinets or counters. The living room floor was bare plywood, and the ground floor bedroom had linoleum haphazardly unrolled onto it. So essentially, my dad “saved” 21k when buying the house but has had to put way more than that into it over the years.
9. Beating the Heat on a Budget
u/cerem86: I’m from Georgia, the land of humidity and heat. My dad wouldn’t turn the AC on until the temperature exceeded 100F.
He bought these styrofoam pads that were metallic foil on one end. We had to shove those into all the windows and exiting doorways when we had the AC on the “keep the heat out” and save on the AC. Also, our city has a natural spring.
The water is drinkable and free. So let me set this scene – There is a line in front of it. Kids wanting cold water on a hot day, moms with a pitcher to get some, maybe a guy with an empty milk jug, and my dad with THIRTY-TWO 5-gallon bottles filling them all up “in case the spring dries up tomorrow.”
10.
Gift card
u/deleted user: My grandpa was the stingiest man in the world. After he passed away, I inherited a $30 gift card. I was going to give it away, but for some reason, I decided to use it.
My life split into ‘before’ and ‘after’ that moment. The cashier’s face went pale when I handed her the card. Cashier: This can’t be, where did you get this??
Me: Uh… It was my grandpa’s. Cashier: ‘STOP EVERYONE! IN FRONT OF US we have the winner of our store’s decade-long hidden sweepstakes!’ The cashier excitedly explained that the gift card was a special promotional item with a million-dollar prize, unclaimed for years.
I stood there, stunned, as the store manager came over to confirm the unbelievable news. Suddenly, my grandpa’s ‘stingy’ gift transformed into a life-changing fortune, rewriting my future in an instant. 11.
How We Ended Up Having Noodles with a Flavor Packet Collection
u/forgno: My dad eats ramen noodles but seasons it with other things, so he keeps the flavor packets in an overflowing Ziploc bag. I swear we have 100 of those things. It does come in handy when you run out of your favorite ramen flavor!
My dad saves every sauce packet we get from fast food places. There’s a bag of them in the fridge, and we use them occasionally. 12.
My Dad’s Brick Legacy That Stands the Test of Time
u/sp3ctr41: When we demolished our brick garage, my dad made us clean every one of those bricks and lined them up around our house for future use. They are still there eight years later. All $500, one-year time, and back-breaking effort were worth it.
Our cars are worth $2000. My dad buys identical cars and dismantles them for parts. When you think he’s done scrapping, he lifts the engines out of them and stacks them underneath the carport.
They have 300,000 kilometers on them. We sit on these around the dinner table. Our TVs are 20″ in size to save on power.
Most of our furniture is stuff people throw out on the street. We use soap for shaving cream and shampoo. Our Granny flat has cupboards and couches stacked on each other to the ceiling; you have to shimmy through everything; the weight is so heavy the ground has settled, and cracks have started to appear everywhere.
I tried reasoning that the space could be better utilized by renting it out, but apparently, it’s more important to keep faulty treadmills, lawnmowers, fridges, ovens, and washing machines for spare parts. 13. How We Reused Bathwater to Save on Water and Gas Bills
u/[deleted]: We shared bathwater.
My brother would get in first, then me, and then mum or dad would be last. It’s pretty gross thinking about it now, but at the time, my parents did it to save money on the water and gas bills because they were on really low incomes. 14.
Dog Bed vs. Baby Crib
u/whatitdowhatitbee: My dad is cheap, but my mom isn’t, so it balanced out, but this story always makes me laugh. When I was born, my dad wanted to get me a dog bed instead of a crib or bed for a toddler or whatnot.
15. Here Comes the Cheap Christmas Wrapping Paper
u/Jade_GL: I used to think that Christmas wrapping paper was always printed funny, like a cheap 3D picture. All of the Santa faces were a half centimeter or more off their faces.
I later realized that my mom always bought misprinted discounted wrapping paper. The thing is, when I see really nice paper now, it doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. The cheap, misprinted paper is more Christmasy to me, even 30 years later.
Similarly, my parents and aunt would count the boxes they used to wrap gifts in before Christmas morning. So, if my aunt brought 16 gifts that required the shirt/clothes boxes you would get at Sears/JC Penney, she would start Christmas morning by saying, “I came here with 16 boxes and I am leaving with 16 boxes!”
The funny thing is, back then, you would get the boxes free with your purchase, unlike today, where you usually have to buy the boxes. So, my parents and aunt were hung up on boxes they got for free.
We still have boxes with ancient tape on them, and they’re starting to fall apart, but now my family is more likely to say that throwing them out is okay. Back then, you box them up for next year and tape the major rips. We even had an old box from a store called Structure that lasted years and years longer than the actual store did.
16. My Dad’s ‘Perfect Bed’ for My Newborn Daughter Turned To Be a Toy Crib
u/InnanasPocket: My dad tried to give me the “perfect bed” for my newborn daughter so I “didn’t have to buy a crib.” It was the bed from my childhood doll, which had been sitting in their garage for 20+ years and would not have worked, even if that wasn’t a wildly unsafe idea. 17.
Mom’s Magic
u/choadspanker: My mom adds water to condiments to make them last longer. Sometimes, it feels like eating ketchup-flavored water. It’s funny and a bit strange.
In our house, every drop counts; she turns meals into moments of simple, “thrifty love.”
18. Poor girl
u/deleted user: While my parents lived in luxury, I had nothing. They deceitfully stole my inheritance after my grandmother’s death.
A 50 dollar Walmart gift card each year is all I get from them. I live so poorly that I don’t even have a phone. They buy themselves several luxury cars each year and fly off for vacations in the Maldives.
But one day everything changed. While my parents were on a cruise, I received a letter. It was written on it ‘Do not open when they are around.’
I looked around and immediately tore open the envelope and began to read.
‘Hey Mary, this is your real father. I’ve been looking for you for years. Your grandmother left you a substantial inheritance, which I’ve been fighting to recover for you.
Meet me at the address enclosed; it’s time to claim what’s rightfully yours and turn your life around. What are your thoughts on this? Please SHARE this article with your family and friends on Facebook.
