Do you consider yourself to be frugal or cheap?

I consider "frugal" to be an adjective that cheap people use to sound better. I am he furthest thing from cheap and most cheap people drive me nuts and get on my nerves. They usually spend more money buying crap because they have to keep replacing it over and over and if they hadn't been so "frugal," they would've saved a ton of money as well as time, by buying the better product from the beginning.

 

I'd say that I was somewhat frugal, but not through any methodical system, like looking at offers and things such as that. I mean, if an item is too much for my liking, then I'll obviously notice and not buy it, or be less likely to buy it. But it more stems from the fact that even though I am earning more money than previously, I am still not rich. I think that even if I was to become rich I'd still be very careful with my money.

 

I think there’s a difference between frugal and cheap, but there’s a fine line and there may even be some overlap. Something my mother frequently complains about is the fact that my father will repurpose things that make my family home look… well, crude, and not in a charming way. Whereas he could find something similar for a fairly low price, but he just doesn’t want to shell out a few bucks even though he can still afford it. Nor will he bother to make things look nice, that’s just not how he works. And that’s where the line is for me.

Don’t get me wrong, repurposing is great. I do it a lot too, but they’re either nice-looking items that have an alternate use, or it’s something I trust myself to up-cycle with my limited DIY skills. But if I can’t do that, I swallow my pride and try to find a cost-effective solution for whatever I need. So I’d say I’m more frugal than cheap.

 

Putting extra care on how you spend your money that you have worked hard to possess is really something not to be ashamed with. I don't see why people would label others as "cheap" if all they do is putting extra care. I would really like to know how their overly-spending lives look like.... and if they're cautious at all...

 

I am frugal, in that I will always try my best to save money wherever I can, but at the same time I also know that life is too short, so if I want to do something that costs money I will do it, even though it might seem like quite a lot at the time that it happens. I lead an interesting life, and wouldn't be able to do that if I never spent any money at all, so it is something that I like to do from time to time, but I am of course still always on the look-out for offers that I can make the most of whenever possible.

 

I'm not sure I'd describe myself as either, to be honest. I'm definitely FAR from being cheap. I'm probably a lot more frugal than cheap. I'd say I'm probably somewhere between frugal and extravagant, which is probably a good place to be. There are times when I really just want to splash out without worrying about how much I'm spending (once in a while). But for the most part, I make sure that I know exactly how much I have in the bank and how much I can afford to spend. I'm also very good at scaling right back on spending when money is tight.

 

I consider myself to be frugal, I purchase things of value at a good price. Cheap in my mind has no value, cheap things can be purchased at a low price and thrown away without concern, items of value will last a long time and will still have value.

 

I agree. Frugal is like buying cheaper toilet paper that doesn't fall apart, while cheap is like trying to recycle the toilet paper, or having an exact number of squares you can use for different needs. My in laws were like that. It doesn't take more than 3 or 4 squares, unless its under certain other circumstances.