CHEAP ALERT

Ok, I am a big fan of Michelle Singletary's The Color of Money column that runs in the Washington Post and Miami Herald. On Sunday, she wrote about Jeff Yeager, author of
The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches: A Practical (and Fun) Guide to Enjoying Life More by Spending Less. Yeager is one of those WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY cheap people. Trust.

This is lifted directly from his website, ulimatecheapskate.com :

I only buy my clothes at stores where I can also buy pork chops, in bulk.  I also "recant" (as opposed to "decant") the liquor I serve my guests, pouring cheap brands into empty premium brand bottles that I keep on hand, a practice that has never, ever been questioned by my fawning guests.  I use my salad spinner to quick dry paper towels and plastic bags for reuse, and I even inject leftover jelly into day-old donuts, if the plain ones are the only kind the bakery has on sale.

Yikes. Let's be clear, I won't be going to his house for dinner and most certainly not for drinks. Replacing Patron with a garbage tequila would be cause for a rumble, right there in his living room.  I've sent back many a glass of Riesling when bartenders thought I wouldn't notice they served me Chardonnay. But I digress. I posted about him because his mantra is to spend less but live well, something I think is awesome. If I spent less, I wouldn't worry about having enough saved up for the present/future. Talk about the good life. Yeager is in his 40s and is retired. He works when he wants to. Yeager doesn't work because he HAS to.

How could spending less help you live well? And is Yeager out of control with his tactics?

Comments

[Angulo in Miami]

Activities like those described by Mr. Yeager are not only gross,but stupid if someone considers their time as valuable as money..The amount of time spent injecting jelly into a donut....then cleaning the probable mess caused...is the satisfaction worth it?...could one be doing a more time/cost effective activity
instead of that?..unless you are bored stiff by having so much available time.
Tight-wadding eccentricities as those(ever heard the one about people who re-use dental floss?) is what gives people who are actually
living below their means a bad reputation and
sets them up for ridicule by the rest of the population.
Of course,Mr. Yeager needs to sell books,so
he probably has to be extreme to have something to write about.
I will never do ridiculous things like those described by Mr. Yeager,but I do live below my means...
By my spending less...no car payments,no credit cards,no eating out..no paying ridiculous amounts to watch grown men play with balls..I am able to save over 30% of my gross income for emergencies and retirement..Sure..I drive a ten year old car,
live in a working class neighborhood and have a 19" TV set..but just knowing that in a few years I won't have to work unless I want to..is
priceless.
I just don't have what I don't really want.

[Greg]

This dude is living the good life but is not living the good life. I will never replace Patron for some cheap knock off. You only live once. Yes he is retired, but what is he retiring to? A life of knock offs?

[Tianna]

Natalie,

I am not a proponent of going to the extreme to save money. Time is money, the time spent funneling cheap alcohol into the premium bottle is not worth the pennies it will save, not to mention the feeling of being dishonest to your guests. So I agree with the poster above. But, I must mention again that I am a proponent of some of Dave Ramsey's concepts on money management. One of his slogans is "Live like no one else so that in the future you can live like no one else." I agree. For the last few years, I have been eating out for lunch practically everyday even though my firm offers free lunch in the office. I go out on the weekends and blow money on drinks and appetizers and dinner. Well, being a part of the crowd is fun to a certain extent. But, worrying about what about tomorrow or a rainy day or wondering what happened to my money is not worth it. So, I say that although I don't encourage the tight wad tactics Yeager allegedly subscribes to, I would dare say thinking outside of the box and not following the crowd on purchases and how you spend your money is definitely something to give serious consideration. So, don't go back to looking like a caterpillar with NEVER getting your eyebrows done- get them done once every couple of months and maintain with the aghhh- TWEEZERS. Skip the weekly or biweekly manicure and do it on a monthly basis. Get you a bottle of OPI neutral color to apply yourself. Go out for drinks with friends, start the night with one one alcoholic beverage and once that is gone, switch to sparkling water with lime. (that helps keep the pounds off too). Anyway, the life of excess has had negative impacts on more than just my pocketbook, so I am enjoying being a cheapskate, frugal, "not as much fun as I used to be." I am living like no one else around me so that one day in the next couple of years I can live like no one else in my circle- WITHOUT DEBT!

[Frugalista]

Tianna,

You hit it on the head: Think outside the box. For me, I've felt pressure to be normal or mainstream about a lot of things, and it can be costly. People love you when you are just like them, and it can mean more money out of your pockets. I had a big problem with people who thought I was a weirdo for going without cable for years. But I never had the appetite for cable. Some people don't even want to visit your home if you don't have cable. Yes, I had a guy I was dating tell me that's why he wouldn't visit me because of that. But, why should I force myself to have that bill? I have cable now, but I only got it as part of a bundling process. I pay the same amount for cable, phone and internet as I would for phone and internet.
That makes sense to me.

I don't think I will ever be miserly like Yeager. But, since I started eating at home more, I've realized this is the best way to be. This past week, my bank account is flatlined. To many, that may not seem impressive, but it's the first time I don't have daily drops in my account balance.

Greg: You speak the truth

Angulo: Eww. Dental floss. Eww. BTW, my t.v. is a 19 inch too. I bought it in the parking lot of the Miami Herald, USED for $19. I love it.

[Mary Sue]

I won't be going to his house for dinner and most certainly not for drinks. Replacing Patron with a garbage tequila would be cause for a rumble, right there in his living room.

I'd be right there with you, taking off my shoes and diving into the fray. I'd rather have one shot of Patron a year than 25 shots of yucky tequila. Quality trumps quantity in my life, but I personally think that's the key to being frugal in the first place, making sure what you buy is going to cost less per use than the other options (like, you know, using a $0.49 cotton dish towel for five years to mop up spills in the kitchen rather than hemorraghing money on paper towels).

[Coco]

Pardon my pastry ignorance, but what is "leftover jelly" and how do you inject it into a donut? A used syringe?

Yeager is definitely next level - A level I hope I never see. But he reminds me that I have got too far away from my thrifty ways since my years immediately following college (I saved $6K of my $24K salary my 1st year out) I NEVER felt deprived back then. I often went out for drinks, but it was during happy hour. When I was partying late-night, I'd have friends over for cocktails beforehand.

I moved away from the college scene and adopted a "oh well, it costs what it costs" attitude along with a little more pretension (but not the kind that would drive me to put Georgi in to a Grey Goose bottle - that's just WRONG) This non-spending experiment has me thinking more about balance.

I'm not drinking rail liquor, but any grossly popular drink in a tall frosty bottle (or a cute short one with a rounded cork top) is probably overpriced. I'll buy you a chilled Sauza shot March 1st! You can get the next round of Absolut for me.

[David]

Here's the key: Sunrises and sunsets are beautiful. Both are free. But, for most people, sunrises are more trouble than they are worth. Saving money enriches your life if you find ways to do it that don't cost you more in the end. It's just the flip side of spending money to enrich your life. Don't buy stuff that makes your life harder. For instance, never buy exercise equipment. Never buy anything that is a "kit." Never buy the extended warranty: you won't want to come back HERE for service.

[Christine]

Fruga, i agree with alot of what the other posters are saying...but...you have to live. I'm all about saving money, but what's the point if you are missing out on life?

[bison]

I'm with Angulo. I bought my house in a rough neighborhood right before it flipped into being a desirable one. Now, five years later, there are all kinds of amenities coming in and what I have left to pay on my mortgage is less than 25% of the sale price for houses on the market on my block.

I don't drink at all, so I don't have to worry about Patron or fine wine. God bless everyone who does, do what you do, but I don't.

My car is almost 10 years old but runs great and looks good.

I am saving a nice chunk of change for retirement myself.

There are a lot of great cultural events and other creative date ideas out there where you don't have to spend a fortune to enjoy some good times with good company. I urge everybody out there to live well for less.

[Jeff Yeager]

Hi - Thanks for discussing my book, The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches. It's my first book, and I'm really proud of it.

Despite my moniker - The Ultimate Cheapskate - and, yes, a few off-the-wall "tips" I give in the book (largely to add some levity, usually at my expense), I hope you'll have a chance to read my little book (please, borrow it from the library), as I think you'll find it to be a whole lot more. It's a book about taking stock, not about buying stock. It's a book about amassing a quality of life, rather than a quantity of stuff. Please don't sell it (or me) short unless you've read it.

Stay Cheap!
-Jeff Yeager