What's cheaper than cheap???

[FreshTressa]

Okay...I just found out that DH's grandma rinses and re-uses her dental floss.

I knew they were cheap, (they keep the TV unplugged because keeping it warm uses electricity) but that takes the cake to me.

My husband said he was only allowed 4 squares of TP for a "big" job at their house.

Know anyone cheap??

 

[aprilgail2]

That is SO bad...nothing bugs me more than cheap people LOL!! Limiting toilet paper is to much, I would have to bring my own when I visited!

 

[Marseeya]

I've never heard anyone doing that before. I've read on some frugal living boards where people do some really off-the-wall things (IMO).

 

[GoofieRuthie]

My grandparents were like that. My grandmother reused tin foil, zip lock bags, bread bags and ties. She even reused plastic forks and plates. If you walked out of the room for any reason you had to turn the tv and lights off. You had to eat every single bite of food on your plate whether you liked it or not. But the one that really sticks out in my mind.....I used to sleep with a fan on. She told me that I was not allowed to use a blanket if I was going to keep my little bedside fan on. She would come in and check on me and make sure that I was not under the blanket. I finally put the blanket at the bottom of the bed. I guess I somehow pulled it up over me while I was asleep. She came in and took the fan out. There are MANY more stories like this. I could call her something, but cheap wouldn't be it.......

 

[Mskanga]

One of our neighbors used to wash and re-use the plastic shopping bags , she used to get mad if someone would hang something to dry above her and it would drip onto her bags .....LOL

 

[Mermaid02]

Dental Floss???? That is disgusting and unsanitary.

 

[kejoda]

My fil complained one Christmas that the family used to much toilet paper. He nows gets that as a gift.

 

[lecach]

My Grandpas sister and her husband were VERY cheap. They only flushed the toilet once per day because water was so expensive (not). When visitors came over she'd run and flush the toilet but the bathroom always had an odor.

My Grandma (dads mom) was funny about some things. More from growing up in the depression and being taught not to throw anything away than from actually being cheap. She kept and reused old Cool Whip containers, frozen dinner trays, etc. She used an old can to cut biscuits - the can was at least 40 years old. Grandpa used to say that when she died he was going to back up the truck to the storage building and take all her Cool Whip containers to the dump. And he did.

My MIL is cheap but hers is more odd than anything. Before we got married she would see something like a shirt that she thought DH would like (not usually), buy it and then ask DH to pay for it. Luckily that stopped when we got married. She announced to my Mom when they met for the first time that since she and FIL had put SIL thru college and she was going to be making more than them that she could pay for her own wedding. Not a big deal but the way she announced it sounded so cheap. At holiday meals - such as Easter, Thanksgiving, etc. she will figure out the cost of the meal and make each family group pay their share. Even if we bring side dishes. When my family hosts a meal they pay for everything. Heck when we have our annual Chili dinner we supply everything.

 

[SC Minnie]

My Grandma (dads mom) was funny about some things. More from growing up in the depression and being taught not to throw anything away than from actually being cheap. She kept and reused old Cool Whip containers, frozen dinner trays, etc. She used an old can to cut biscuits - the can was at least 40 years old. Grandpa used to say that when she died he was going to back up the truck to the storage building and take all her Cool Whip containers to the dump. And he did.

My mother still does this . She uses the cool whip containers to send home leftovers when she has a meal at her house. She got tired of my exSIL taking her tupperware and not returning it. She still uses the old vienna sausage can she used whe I was growing up to cut biscuits. I never thought it was odd until now.

 

[RadioFanatic]

I love my dearly departed Mama (mom's mom) dearly but some things always made us giggle.

1. In restaurants, she would take all the extra jellies, syrups, butters (made good apple sauce with the syrup and butter!)
2. also took all of the extra napkins
3. had a grocery store in the basement b/c everytime something was on sale, she had to buy four of it.

I wish she was still around to take all of the jellies!

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

I knew someone who would buy 2 ply toilet paper and seperate the plys and make 2 rolls from the one.

 

[Stitchfans]

My mother still does this . She uses the cool whip containers to send home leftovers when she has a meal at her house. She got tired of my exSIL taking her tupperware and not returning it. She still uses the old vienna sausage can she used whe I was growing up to cut biscuits. I never thought it was odd until now.

I don't consider myself cheap, but I save Cool Whip containers for that exact reason. Butter containers also. This way no one has to worry about returning them to me.

reusing dental floss ewwwwwwwww that makes my stomach roll

 

[RitaZ.]

Okay...I just found out that DH's grandma rinses and re-uses her dental floss.

GROSSSSSS! I wish I hadn't opened this thread!

 

[kbkids]

My grandmother reused tin foil, zip lock bags, bread bags and ties. She even reused plastic forks and plates.

My mom does all of these things too. She gets so aggravated with me because I let the kids use zip lock bags to take sandwiches to school in. "You know they are just going to throw them away?" Uh, yeh - that's why I use them.

Anway, she also saves all the ketchup, mustard, etc. packets that she gets from restaurants (won't take extra - but does keep all that they give her) and has a big dish in the refrigerator that she puts them all in. I must say though, these do come in handy when I take sandwiches to Disney in my backpack for a quick meal. Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, huh?

 

[Zandy595]

Must be that generation. My grandmother saved every plastic container. She would take paper napkins, ketchup, sugar, and jelly packets from restaurants. She and my grandfather would wash and reuse paper plates and papertowels. They would also reuse plastic bread bags. Oh, I forgot about the plastic zip bags, those were always washed and reused until they fell apart.

I think my mom picked up on some of that. She saves her plastic containers too. Something else that really bothers me is she saves the plastic bags the newspaper comes in and sends home food in them when we go over for dinner. eeeww.

The only thing I save is the wire twist ties. I use them to reclose bags of frozen veggies when I don't use it all.

 

[hiwaygal]

I've known people who saved EVERYTHING (mostly grandmothers of mine or my friends or cousins, etc.)...my question is...WHERE THE HECK DID THEY KEEP IT ALL!?!?!?!

I have tried to save certain things (in the name of frugality) but, geez! I run out of space!!

 

[CapeCodTenor]

My Grandpas sister and her husband were VERY cheap. They only flushed the toilet once per day because water was so expensive (not). When visitors came over she'd run and flush the toilet but the bathroom always had an odor.

That's just plain gross. Not flushing but once a day? I can see using the cool whip, and butter containers...my wife and her family does this and it is handy for left overs. My memaw, Dads mom, lived through the great depression and she would save all the rubberbands from the news papers. When we went to clean out her house after she died we found rubberbands on all the door handles in the house...and I do mean all the door handles. Hotel soap. She and her second husband traveled all over the place and she would take the soap from the hotel rooms, I do this, but she wouldn't use it. She just kept in in a large box as a, just-in-case. We didn't know how big this box was until we cleaned. You know the size of the box that a case of paper comes in? Well, that was the box she used.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Reusing dental floss is plain old gross!

I think that most people have some frugal things that they do and other things that wouldn't work for them that works for others.

My mother did (and does) a lot of the things listed here. The thing that really bugs me is that she will make up dish water using a metal bowl. She'll wash the dirty dishes and save the water. Later when she's dirtied up more dishes she first heats the water (hence the metal bowl) on the stove. Totally grosses me out. What's the big deal about getting a little more water and dish soap? When I'm visiting I dump the water out.

We reuse ziplock bags. Not when they are in bad shape, but it takes little to rinse a bag out. I also save containers (ie, chinese take out plasic containers) to use for leftovers. I toss them when they are in bad shape or when I have science experiments in the fridge.

My mom also lived through the depression and I think that anyone who did has a different outlook on things and it's very hard to throw things away.

 

[BethanyF]

my grandparents did the toilet thing too....but only in the bathroom attached to their bedroom. Of course that was the only one they used, the bathroom in the hall was for guests. Oh, they also taught us 'is it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down' when we were little kids. gross
Part of their reasoning for not flushing too often is the fact that they were on a well that wasnt always in the best shape. My uncle would have to clean the filters (?) after they used a lot of water. So I think they were trying to avoid having my uncle come up and fix the well.

The only thing I really save and reuse is gift bags and nice store shopping bags (Bath & Body, Godiva, etc). I dont reuse them as gift bags unless they are in really good shape; but I will use them for taking lunch to work, carrying things, storage, etc.

 

[Shugardrawers]

I have never heard of anyone else but my daddy referring to #2 as "big job"

My grandma was a hoarder. Butter tubs, cool whip containers, foil, baggies you name it. Every single leftover bite of anything went in a carton in the freezer from which she made "soup". It had every imaginable veggie, pasta, meat etc. Didn't matter what sauce or seasonings it already had. I hated that stuff.

She also refused to buy trash can liners. We'd have to take the can outside, dump it and wash it out with the hose. Not just rinse but scrub! Even in the dead of winter. I hated that job!!!