Cheap vs. Thrifty

The other day I was watching the show Extreme Cheapskate on TLC.  The show is about people who are extremely cheap and how they have found ways to save money.  One lady bought expired food and made her own reusable toilet paper.  Another lady looked for food in the garbage cans outside of upscale grocery stores and washed her clothes while she showered.  There were people peeing in jars, using yogurt cups as glasses to drink from, making condiments from restaurants and digging through dumpsters for furniture.  I was sitting there watching this thinking, “that’s beyond cheap, that’s just weird”.  These people think that they’re saving so much money, but they’re going about it all wrong.  I might be tight with money, but I’m not going to stop buying toilet paper to save a few bucks.

Lately, my husband and I have fallen under some criticism for the way we save money.  It recently happened because of our decision to get rid of our cable.  I never realized how much of a touchy subject this would be.  Personally, I am fine without cable.  It’s been over a week and we are doing just fine.  We have an antenna for all the local channels and we are testing out Netflix and some other services to see which one we will go with.  Besides watching the latest episodes of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, I don’t miss it at all.  I feel like our family and friends are treating us like we are “extreme cheapskate” or something like that, because of our financial decisions.

Here is the thing, people keep telling us, “you have to enjoy life and have fun”.  Our response to this is, we do.  I mean, this is why I created this blog.  I want to share with readers that you can live a fulfilling life and still save money.  My husband and I do all the things that other couples our age do to have fun.  We go out to eat, we buy clothes, we go to the movies, we go on vacation and yes, believe it or not, we still watch TV, even without cable.  We are not going to be flushing our toilet once a week or taking ketchup packets from a restaurant to refill our bottle at home, to save a few bucks.

So here are just a few examples of how we save on everyday activities.

Eating out- We go out to eat once or twice a week.  When we do, we look for local bars and restaurants with good specials.  We have one restaurant near us with a Wednesday night pizza special.  $5 Pizza and half off premium beer.  Our bill is usually around $10.  That’s not a bad price for 2 people.  We also use coupons and reward programs at other restaurants.  And since we are thrifty, not cheap, we always still tip 20% on the original price of the food.

Movies- I’ve never been that big on going to the movies, but my Kevin likes to go.  So, when there is something good out that we want to see, we make it a date and go.  What we do is go to a matinee and skip the popcorn.  There is no reason to spend money on concessions at the movies.  They are overpriced and besides that, who needs to consume that many calories while watching a movie?

Shopping- I think I touch on this topic enough in this blog, but basically, I try not to pay full price for anything.  I also try to limit my shopping.  I used to shop a lot more.  Having a full-time job helps keep me out of stores.  I really don’t have time to shop, but I still get it in when I can, because what girl doesn’t love to shop?

Vacations- We try to go on 2 big vacations every year.  Yes, being married to an airline pilot is helpful in saving money on vacations.  The free airline travel is definitely a wonderful benefit, but even if my husband didn’t work for an airline, we would still budget out a big vacation, because they are important to us.  We are planning a cruise to the Caribbean soon.  Cruises are nice because you get to see a lot, there is great entertainment and your food is included.  We usually try to do all-inclusive trips, because they help you plan out your expenses ahead of time.  Also, we have found that it’s best to go during the off-season.  Don’t try to book a trip anywhere during Christmas, Easter or most of the summer.

Having fun, should not mean spending tons of money and saving money, should not mean you can’t enjoy life. You need to be thrifty with your money, not cheap!