A cheapskate is likely someone you have met. People like this often look for the best deals, reuse things, and so on. Their goal isn’t just to spend money; they enjoy getting the most out of every buy.

Everyone is happy when they get something for free, whether it’s a free pen, a free cup of coffee, or a sample-sized shampoo. Buckle up if you’ve never met a stringy person because these kids whose parents were cheap talked about some of the crazy things that happened in their home. This is what they said.

Text and comments have been fixed to make them clearer and use correct language.

1. A clever trick my dad used to get a free bar of soap
u/[deleted]: When my dad moved into his new house, he had a man show him how to use a water filter that fits under the sink for free. The man showed how to do it with a bar of soap and then left it.

Dad called at least four other businesses to get a free lesson just to get the free bar of soap. He never planned to have a water filter put in. This is something he does that gets worse as he gets older. I didn’t stop him, though.

2. The way my dad feels about paper towels
u/TheCommonStew: My dad saves all of his paper towels. Even though I’m 21, he still wants me to ask for permission before I use them. He doesn’t want me to waste them. At the time, I thought it cost $100 for a roll because he was worried I would waste them.

He always buys the cheapest thing, even if it breaks or doesn’t work as well. This means he ends up spending twice as much on everything. I spilled a gallon of milk all over his house while my girlfriend and I were there. She got a roll of paper towels and used them all to clean up the mess.

When my dad found out we used a whole roll, he looked so shocked that it made me feel like a bad person for helping her. He was too nice to yell at my lady, so I knew he wouldn’t yell at us. But it was clear that he was trying to hide his hurt, anger, and sadness over the “wasted” roll.

3. The unique way my dad saves every penny
u/notronbro: Oh my God, dads are so bad. He hangs his clothes outside because he doesn’t like paying for power. That would be fine if he didn’t do it all year, even when it’s cold outside.

When my sisters and I cleaned out our rooms, he would go through our trash to find “valuables” like money or cardboard that we had thrown away. He is crazy about gas prices. One time, I sat in the car with him for thirty minutes while he drove around town looking for the cheapest gas.

His favorite way to drive down a hill is to put the car in neutral, open the door, and push himself down the hill with his foot. We went to a Burger King one time, but I could only get chicken fries because a burger was “too expensive.”

4. Meet the Return Policy Maestro
u/halfadash6: My dad is crazy for taking advantage of Costco’s return policy. He gave us back a set of outdoor chairs that we had had for eight years. It was worn down from the weather, and a few of the pieces were broken. They took it, and he bought a new patio set from Costco with the money from it. Not believable.

5. Unveiling the Frugal Achievements of My Grandmother
u/Acetylene: When I was a little kid, I spent the summers with my grandparents. One of my jobs was to set the table every night before dinner. When we had guests over for dinner, I was told to use “the good napkins.”

That meant the napkins that didn’t have names of restaurants on them. My grandma only took us to restaurants when she thought she could get something good out of the deal. There were many ways she could do this.

Of course she cut out coupons, but that was just for kids. She always asked people to take her out to dinner to “return the favor.” She carried around a huge purse that was always full of napkins and food from the table.

She didn’t want to go to any place that didn’t have a salad bar. When my mom and I offered to take her to dinner for her birthday one year, we had to drive more than an hour to find a Sizzler that she wasn’t banned from.

6. Rolling in Savings
u/Askin_Real_Questions: My dad found a store that sells the big industrial rolls that you see in some shopping malls and moved us there. It’s like a big roll that has the toilet paper from three or four regular rolls. I’ve never felt so bad about having friends over.

7. My grandmother’s unbeatable guarantee from Sears for life!
u/stone_opera: When my grandparents got married, they set up their gift registry at Sears. This was in the late 1940s, when most of the things they sold came with a “lifetime guarantee.”

Since then, my grandma has moved nine or ten times, but she still has every flattened box and warranty for every appliance she bought when she got married.

About two years ago, I took her to Sears to get a new iron. To get a new one, she brought all the boxes and papers from the 1940s. They surprised her by keeping their promise and giving her a new iron!

She’s so cheap that she hasn’t had to buy a new device in over 60 years! I think that’s funny! She came to Canada from Ukraine and always says, “Lifetime guarantee means lifetime guarantee.”

Our family is known for having very long lives (her father lived to be 104). I feel bad for Sears. I sometimes wonder if this is why Sears is doing so badly: a lot of cheap old women are taking advantage of their lifetime promises.

8. My Dad’s Budget Home Became a Renovation Adventure
u/InVultusSolis: My dad is too cheap all the time. It’s hard to choose which story to tell because I have so many. My dad doesn’t look at anything else besides the amount of money. If he sees a six-pack of toilet paper for $5 and a twelve-pack for $7, he will always buy the six-pack…

You can already guess how any big buy with him goes. He bought a house when I was about eight years old. Back then, something pretty good could be bought in my area for $110,000. The cabinets, floors, trim, doors, windows, and other internal features are all newer.

He bought a bad house for $89k in the end. It was built in the year 1947. The person who built it was just as cheap as my dad. Each and every door and window was unique. It still had the asbestos siding that it came with.

There was no finish on the inside. There were no doors inside except for the bathroom door, which did not have a lock. There are no kitchen drawers or counters.

The living room floor was just plywood, and the bedroom on the first floor had linoleum that had been unrolled all over the place. In a way, my dad “saved” $21,000 when he bought the house, but he’s had to spend a lot more on it since then.

9. Cheap Ways to Beat the Heat
u/cerem86: Georgia is where I’m from, and it’s steamy and hot there. My dad wouldn’t turn on the air conditioning until it was more than 100F outside. He bought some Styrofoam pads with metal foil on one end.

When the AC was on, we had to put those in all the windows and doors that led outside to “keep the heat out” and save money on the AC. Besides that, our city has a spring. You can drink the water, and it’s free.

Let me set the scene. There’s a line in front of it. It was hot, and kids wanted cold water. Moms came with a pitcher to get some, and there was my dad filling up 32 5-gallon bottles “just in case the spring dries up tomorrow.”

10. What a poor girl
u/deleted user: My parents had a lot of nice things, but I didn’t. After my grandma died, they stole my inheritance without telling me. They only give me a $50 Walmart gift card every year. It’s so bad that I don’t even have a phone.

Once a year, they buy a bunch of fancy cars and take holidays in the Maldives. Things changed one day, though. I got a letter while my parents were on a cruise. “Do not open when they are around” was written on it.

After taking a quick look around, I tore open the envelope and started to read right away. “Hi Mary, this is your real dad.” It’s been years since I last saw you. I’ve been working hard to get back the money your grandma left you as an inheritance. Come to the address given and meet me there. It’s time to take back what’s properly yours and make your life better.

Being a cheapskate means you like to make every dollar count. But sometimes it’s nice to spend your hard-earned money on the people you love. It doesn’t mean you spend a lot of money. You can show them you care by giving them a treat or the nice gift they’ve always wanted.

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