Cheapness... What people would and won't do to save a few bucks...

Originally Posted by bullethead

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One night I was drinking with some guys at pj clarkes. We knew the bartender and he gave us a favorable check, so naturally, we tipped heavy. One guy-who has more money than anyone in the group-decides to stay for one more to talk to this woman. As we walked out the door, my friend looked back and saw this guy peel two twenties off of the pile and put them in his pocket. What a fat ****.

I really hope you guys turned around and called him out on it (or administered a beating)

Originally Posted by Runningman411

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Let's think about this another way. If you were invited by some super high net worth individual on his private jet to spend a week on his own private island, what would you be able to afford to return the favor? A $300 bottle of scotch may be considered cheap to him considering that your trip might have been worth $10,000.

It likely would not be considered "cheap", but "inexpensive" in the eyes of the "super high net worth individual". That said, if this person has an iota of tact and humility they would realize that the $300 bottle of scotch may be a stretch for the gift-giver and should appreciate it accordingly.

Originally Posted by otc

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There is restaurant.com in the US...lets you buy a $25 (usually off 50 minimum) certificate for $10 to a bunch of restaurants. This is not a great deal by itself *BUT* it frequently shows up on slickdeals.net with an 80% (sometimes only 60%) coupon code letting you buy a $25 certificate for $2. Sometimes cheaper restaurants do $10 which comes to 80 cents.

I believe the coupon code BONUS is currently active. I feel a little funky using them but I have never been turned down. I know that some people will pay cash when they use them...just stick the printout in with the recipt and appropriate amount of cash and walk away so they can't complain.

yeah I bought $200 worth of restaurant.com gift cards for $20. Now I just need to apply the restaurant.com gift cards again with the 60% discount they use to get a coupon. So in reality, I paid like $0.50 for a $10 off. Not a bad exchange IMO.


Restaurants with a large group of friends, I often end up throwing out than I need to just so I don't have to be involved in the deliberation of how to split. Nowadays, there aren't too many squabbles just because most of us have jobs but in the past, I've ended up paying double what I should be paying just so people will stop squabbling.

Originally Posted by JohnGalt

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I really hope you guys turned around and called him out on it (or administered a beating)

+1

Originally Posted by Gradstudent78

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My roommate wants me to pay more on the heating bill because I spend more time at home then she does. Seems a little cheap to me, as I've always split bills down the middle with roommates.

does seem cheap IMO but not unjustified. Definitely a grey area. I probably would have just let it go unless you were using ridiculous amounts of utilities.

Originally Posted by EMY

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a guy i know asked if he can share with someone else at a buffet.

my house mate asked me to split the cost of detergent with him. $2, are you serious?!

Wow cheap, one of my suite mates senior year of college refused to pick up anything communal. The rest of us just gave up since whenever we asked her to pick up anything, she would just keep putting it off until one of us gave in. She was a complete ***** too, left her garbage all over the suite, left her **** all over the suite, used our personal stuff without permission and didn't even take care of it (aka left my tv on all night, never washed the pots and dishes she used), slept on the communal couch instead of her bed so none of us could ever really use it. We ended up filing so many complaints with the college housing board that they eventually were like there's nothing we can do, please stop sending us complaints. Turns out college housing boards have no more power than the rest of us.

Pretty much suite mate from hell.

Originally Posted by bubbleboys

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Wow cheap, one of my suite mates senior year of college refused to pick up anything communal. The rest of us just gave up since whenever we asked her to pick up anything, she would just keep putting it off until one of us gave in. She was a complete ***** too, left her garbage all over the suite, left her **** all over the suite, used our personal stuff without permission and didn't even take care of it (aka left my tv on all night, never washed the pots and dishes she used), slept on the communal couch instead of her bed so none of us could ever really use it. We ended up filing so many complaints with the college housing board that they eventually were like there's nothing we can do, please stop sending us complaints. Turns out college housing boards have no more power than the rest of us.

Pretty much suite mate from hell.

...way back when I was a freshman in college we had a roommate like that. We complained a bit, but there was not much that could be done. One day he came back from class and all his **** was out in the hallway. That was the end of that.

I disagree about the utilities thing being a grey area. Even if the other roomate isn't at home as much to use them, you still need utilities to run a house and each roomate has the same oppurtunity to use it. You can't choose to never use them. The only area where i see this being ok to not split down the middle is if your roomate openly doesn't want to ever use the internet/tv and not split it. Then i'd be pretty pissed if he/she tried to watch tv or use the internet on occasion (even if rarely) because it's an all or nothing kind of thing. Lots of roomates in college spend a majority of their time at class/part time job and then remaining time at a girlfriend/boyfriend's apartment. But you can't skimp on your utilities like that. Just move in with the other person and have your roomate rent your room out if that's the case.

Exception case: My buddy had a roommate who started a business out of their house and started not only using a ton more utilities, but had people in and out, commandeered the garage and spare room, etc. Then on top of everything else tried to tax deduct the rent and utilities without sharing the benefit.

Needless to say him and his business soon relocated.

K

Originally Posted by chronoaug

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I disagree about the utilities thing being a grey area. Even if the other roomate isn't at home as much to use them, you still need utilities to run a house and each roomate has the same oppurtunity to use it. You can't choose to never use them. The only area where i see this being ok to not split down the middle is if your roomate openly doesn't want to ever use the internet/tv and not split it. Then i'd be pretty pissed if he/she tried to watch tv or use the internet on occasion (even if rarely) because it's an all or nothing kind of thing. Lots of roomates in college spend a majority of their time at class/part time job and then remaining time at a girlfriend/boyfriend's apartment. But you can't skimp on your utilities like that. Just move in with the other person and have your roomate rent your room out if that's the case.

what I meant when I was writing "grey area" was that without more information we couldn't make a judgement call on that (not that it's our place to make one).

I'd agree with you for the most part, mainly just because utilities in my experience never added up to a particularly huge expense so if one person used a lot of electricity, it wasn't that much more per person and it wasn't worth the trouble of bringing it up.

Originally Posted by JohnGalt

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...way back when I was a freshman in college we had a roommate like that. We complained a bit, but there was not much that could be done. One day he came back from class and all his **** was out in the hallway. That was the end of that.

we seriously considered it but we pretty much didn't because she was a girl and it would look so bad for us if we did that to her. If it was a dude, oh his ****'s gone after the first week.

Originally Posted by Listi

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I hate it when people are cheap. It's so embarrassing in my mind to care so much about so little that you'd go to the lenghts of inconveniencing yourself and others to save a few dollars. Nothing wrong with trying to get a good deal or buying things on sale etc. But I find that if you pay for your friends things, they tend to pay for things for you the next time. If they don't, then find new friends.

I'll come back from the bar with 3 beers for friends and I, and when my friend goes up to get another drink, he'll surely come back with one for me. That's the way things should work. I'm pretty sure I would call out any peer of mine if they were being too cheap.

If you have no money, don't go out. Unless someone else is willing to help you out, but pay your tips and don't argue about stupid ****.

I completely agree. I've dropped quite a few friends for being inconsiderate, cheap, and unappreciative.

Originally Posted by JohnGalt

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It likely would not be considered "cheap", but "inexpensive" in the eyes of the "super high net worth individual". That said, if this person has an iota of tact and humility they would realize that the $300 bottle of scotch may be a stretch for the gift-giver and should appreciate it accordingly.

That would require that person to actually consider the resources of that friend and decide whether or not the $300 bottle was a stretch or within his means. Nobody does that. What I've noticed is that someone is always "cheap" if they're more frugal than you. Reminds me of driving. Everyone that is going faster than you is a reckless speed demon while everyone going slower is a lane hogging slow poke.

Originally Posted by jobro

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Well in my defense, I have bought their stainless steal model ('dishwasher safe') which gained severe rust from going through a dishwasher cycle, which I kept and did not return.

Freud

Originally Posted by chronoaug

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I disagree about the utilities thing being a grey area. Even if the other roomate isn't at home as much to use them, you still need utilities to run a house and each roomate has the same oppurtunity to use it. You can't choose to never use them. The only area where i see this being ok to not split down the middle is if your roomate openly doesn't want to ever use the internet/tv and not split it. Then i'd be pretty pissed if he/she tried to watch tv or use the internet on occasion (even if rarely) because it's an all or nothing kind of thing. Lots of roomates in college spend a majority of their time at class/part time job and then remaining time at a girlfriend/boyfriend's apartment. But you can't skimp on your utilities like that. Just move in with the other person and have your roomate rent your room out if that's the case.

Utilities should definitely be split evenly...espcially considering you can't just cut off heat when you aren't in the place...takes more energy to get a 50 degree room back up to temp than to just keep it a bit higher all day. The only time this becomes a problem if someone is abusing the utilities...if you have individual heaters and your roommate wants to be able to walk around in their underwear when it is 15 degrees outside...they are being a wasteful douche, but you will have to talk with them about having more reasonable practices because splitting it funny doesn't work well. Same goes for the guy who keeps his window AC going to 65 degrees on a 100 degree day when nobody else in the place has AC.