For instance: Stealing light bulbs from a hotel, and stealthily swapping in dead bulbs you brought from home.
A BankRate post asks a couple of frugality aficionados to weigh in on when the line has been crossed between wise and thrifty consumer to rat-bastard-cheapskate. The sources are Jeff Yeager, a friend of this blog who discussed his book The Cheapskate Next Door not long ago, and who says being a bad tipper at a restaurant means you’re a jerk, not a savvy saver:
“If you can only afford to go out to eat if you’re going to slight your server, then don’t do it,” Yeager says.
Personal finance expert Liz Weston, meanwhile, says that the line is drawn when saving money screws someone else over. In her words:
“Frugality that comes at the expense of someone else is not really frugality or thrift.”
At the same time, even frugal folks who only partake of money-saving moves that don’t screw anyone else over can overdo things, and screw themselves over in the process:
“You don’t want to be so thrifty that you miss living life today,” Weston says. “Life is not about all of the ways you can save money.”
As for the man who bragged to Yeager about stealing not only light bulbs at hotels, but towels and toilet paper as well—and who ate hotel continental breakfasts even when he wasn’t staying there—well, if there’s any justice in this world, he’s sure to find his stocking filled with sharp glass from broken light bulbs.
Related:
Guess Who’s Cheap (in the Cheap Bastard Sense)? People Who Know Lots About Money
Good Service? You Tip Well. Bad Service? You Still Tip Well