Are you stingy?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike Rotch
  • 35 comments
  • 1,029 views

Are you a scrooge with your money?

  • Yes, evey time I buy something it feels like I am breaking my arm.

    Votes: 12 37.5%

  • No, I live for the here and now.

    Votes: 7 21.9%

  • I spend on the occasional "want", but am pretty average in this regard.

    Votes: 13 40.6%
  • Total voters
    32
Mike Rotch

Mike Rotch

Aluminium Overcast
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Are you impulsive with your money?

I am a scrooge. Whenever I buy something it is like I am spending my last penny. Even when I am thinking of buying something that I really want, I end convincing myself that I dont need the item. The result is a lot of spending "on savings".

Are you the same? Or are you penny wise, pound foolish?
 
I spend way too much money on so much worthless crap. It is because I don't like holding onto my money. It doesn't do me any good just sitting in my pockets, so I spend it.

I know guys who squeeze every last nickle so hard that the beaver ****s. (There is a beaver on the Canadian nickle.;))

If that is your style then fine, it's just not mine. Money is ment to be spent. (I love rhyming stuff. )

I invented impulse buying.
 
I save lots then spend it in one go and don't think about it after that. I don't earn my money I guess thats why.
 
I'm a money scrooge as well. I'd rather have less crap in my house and more money in the bank :) I already have most of the stuff that I want and i'm contempt with having what I have.
 
Instead of saying I was impulive I would say i was a... state-of-the-art gizmo investor. Or somethign along those lines. I spend about 50% of what I earn in a week. 45% however I save long term in one of those "high" interest accounts.
 
I kinda have to be since I'm broke... plus I'm half Chinese. Actually, being in Industrial Design is contradicting because we create everyones world(in a nutshell I guess). The thing is that I don't want to buy much anymore, only if I absolutely need it or it serves some kind of function. I try to suppress urges or cravings just because I want it or it's cool when it's something that I will just throw aside in a week or a day.

edit:The best buy you could make is the one that you ask yourself "Do I really need this??" if not you walk away.
 
despite being Scottish, i am not very stingy...

i tend to spend too much money when i am out and run out of money and end up using the credit card to bail me out at the end of the month....

there is an old joke....how was copper wire invented? two scotsmen fighting over a penny! (pennies are made of copper here)
 
I tend to spend it on small things. Like food. Have a real tough time being smart when in the grocery store. As for big purchases, I have a wife that I need to talk it over with first, and we usually find something else to spend money on.

AO
 
I have money to burn, but I also love a bargin. I feel stupid if I pay more for something than somebody else. I love to haggle with salesman and make them sweat. If they don't sweat, you're not doing it right.
 
I wouldn't say I'm an impulse buyer, but if I want something, I shop around till I find a decent price, and then I buy it, even if it's not particularly a necessity.

But I do make sure the necessities are ALL covered first.
 
Lately I've been spending lots of cash on my lady, little on my self, and trying to save for an S2000. All in all, not shabby.
 
I get very nervous about large purchases, and have been known to procrastinate a necessary large purchase for a long time. For instance, I tend not to buy a new car until the one I'm driving is dead forever. I thought I was going to throw up when I bought my old computer, which was $1800 five years ago. When I bought my house I felt much anxiety even though the mortgage payment was less than my previous rent.

My wife is a genius at saving money, buying things on sale and using coupons. If I was in charge of grocery shopping we'd be broke.

I just spent, and am still spending, a lot of money on an investment property with the expectation I will make it, and more, back. But it still irks me every time I have to write a check, like this morning, $527 on insurance. Or $200 on paint, or a totally ludicrous $600 deposit to get the power turned on. It literally gives me a stomach ache.
 
Ouch, that's a lot of investement. But I believe your feelings are not unique. I hessitate on large purchases as well, but lately it's been easier for me. I don't know if it's because most of the money I spend isn't on myself, or what. But it's definitely been getting easier to drop a few hundred dollars on a single item.
 
I rarely ever have anything to spend on... School, books, food, occasionally clothes. After that, whatever cash manages to stay in my wallet gets saved up until I have enough saved for something I really want. That's generally something like audiophile headphones, parts to keep my pc alive longer or for the very occasional game... I rarely ever have cash at hand - it's not like I'm broke or anything, it's just that i'm not comfortable spending the money my parents are giving me. I need a job for the big stuff I want to buy. The problem is that very few people are looking for 18 year old IT people :irked:
 
Originally posted by emad
I rarely ever have anything to spend on... School, books, food, occasionally clothes. After that, whatever cash manages to stay in my wallet gets saved up until I have enough saved for something I really want. That's generally something like audiophile headphones, parts to keep my pc alive longer or for the very occasional game... I rarely ever have cash at hand - it's not like I'm broke or anything, it's just that i'm not comfortable spending the money my parents are giving me. I need a job for the big stuff I want to buy. The problem is that very few people are looking for 18 year old IT people :irked:
Click to expand...

18 year old ... anything are not in much demand. I suggest not looking for an "IT" job, per se, but just a job where you are significantly involved in computers. At 18 I was working at Acxiom as a "tape monkey" - a guy who runs and gets tapes for the mainframe. Then I got a job as the assistant sys admin for the local newspaper. Both jobs paid ****, but that's the stepping stones.

From there I got a job as the assistant sys admin for my current employer, and when my 'supervisor' left I took his role. I've now been here five years and am making pretty good money.

Stepping stones my friend. Stepping stones.
 
Originally posted by LoudMusic
18 year old ... anything are not in much demand. I suggest not looking for an "IT" job, per se, but just a job where you are significantly involved in computers. At 18 I was working at Acxiom as a "tape monkey" - a guy who runs and gets tapes for the mainframe. Then I got a job as the assistant sys admin for the local newspaper. Both jobs paid ****, but that's the stepping stones.

From there I got a job as the assistant sys admin for my current employer, and when my 'supervisor' left I took his role. I've now been here five years and am making pretty good money.

Stepping stones my friend. Stepping stones.
Click to expand...

hell, not even the most basic jobs are available right now...I've got the experience necessary for most entry level IT jobs, so that's where I tried to apply most.

who knows, maybe best buy will get an opening or 2 in coming weeks.
 
As many of you already know, I'm pretty stingy. I do spend money on things but I spend it carefully. I make sure that I'm going to think that what I bought is worth the cash I doled out.

I look at the relative benefit that I expect to get and decide whether that is worth the money almost completely independently of what the general public is doing.

For example, I'm in the market for an hdtv, but I haven't hooked up the cable in my apartment (yet). The next car I'm considering buying will probably be quite expensive, but I stretch the oil changes on the one I have currently.

I go out to eat and watch movies on the weekends, but I try to ration it.

Basically I avoid buying anything that I don't think I'll use to it's fullest extent. I try to make sure that every purchse of mine is a quality purchase and that it won't prevent me from attaining my long term goals (house).
 
I don't buy a lot of useless things. Maybe, I might buy some trivial things, but I prefer saving up my money for something more expensive (like my GT Force Pro :D) I would consider myself pretty average.
 
I'm very tight with the money that I have.

When I do, in fact, want to buy something, I always do a little research and find out where I can get the product for the lowest price.
 
Reading some of the posts reminds me that I absolutely detest spending money on anything that isnt tangible - like going out for an expensive dinner. Sure, it tastes good, but the next day you have nothing to show for it and you have a lighter wallet.

Going to movies too regularly illicits the same feelings. When I spend my money, I like to have something useful to show for it.
 
I'm quite stingy with money. I don't necessarily shop around for the lowest price, but if I can get something on sale or with an educational discount (I've saved about $1000 in software due to educational discounts), then great. My real "issue" though is that I sit for almost ludicrous amounts of time on large purchases (large being >$100 for me). For example, I've been wanting an eternal HD for about 6 months now, but haven't bought one yet (I've bought a USB disk drive in the meantime though).
 
Originally posted by keram
I save lots then spend it in one go and don't think about it after that. I don't earn my money I guess thats why.
Click to expand...

I'm the same as you. I save my money and end up spending it all on something that I'm not alway's gonna use.
 
Originally posted by Sage
I'm quite stingy with money. I don't necessarily shop around for the lowest price, but if I can get something on sale or with an educational discount (I've saved about $1000 in software due to educational discounts), then great. My real "issue" though is that I sit for almost ludicrous amounts of time on large purchases (large being >$100 for me). For example, I've been wanting an eternal HD for about 6 months now, but haven't bought one yet (I've bought a USB disk drive in the meantime though).
Click to expand...

as a personal suggestion, I'd say buy an internal hard drive and spend $20-40 on an external casing. You'll generally save yourself about 50% off the msrp on an equivilant external hard drive :D.


I'm the same as you. I save my money and end up spending it all on something that I'm not alway's gonna use
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I'm the same there...except it's usually on something I use a LOT so It ends up being worth it
 
I'm a ravenous penny-pincher.
Scrooge worked for me.

Really, I get almost no income during the winter, so I stash whatever I have in the bank and am pretty loose with whatever I can get a hold of with the notion that there's still a reseve.

I'm ridiculously impulsive about buying things, or at least wanting things. If I see something that I can afford, and it's even the least bit cool (for instance, a quad-PII file server on eBay or something; even though it's slow, it's neat), I'll reach for the Buy It Now button as fast as my mouse will let me. Then, maybe ten minutes later, I'll be praying that someone outbids me because there's this other thing I've found that I want more, but that's just as stupid.

I've sort of gotten better at that since I've started driving, because even the little scraps of cash I scrape together every once in a while are predestined to end up as insurance or gasoline.
 
I spend it on the occasional want.. Thats about it, but then again, sometiems i feel stupid for spending it. ;)
 

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