“From Savings to Snafus: 69 Cost-Cutting Decisions That Went Horribly Wrong!”
Oh, okay, one more one. My parents were too cheap to buy either good knives or good cutting boards to cook with. It was so hard to cook with dull knives on old, uneven wooden chopping blocks. So I bought them a nice knife sharpener and a nice chef knife after college. A few months later I noticed how worn out the sharpener was, and yet the nice chef knife had been blunted down. I figured out what was going on watching my father cook later on that day, watching him use the nice chef knife to chop through a whole chicken (bones and all) directly on a *marble* slab that I thought they were using as a place to put hot pans/pots.
I told my mother, and she said that my father did that all the time with all the knives, and then she would sharpen the knives in an idiotic, absurd cycle. I was so angry with my father I took the knife back, and to my surprise he didn’t care because he said it got dull too quickly as opposed to the ancient, clunky meat cleaver they had. That god damn cleaver. I have clear memories of them using it when I was a child all the way up until I was out of university. The handle on it actually snapped clean off while I was in high school, but rather than buy a new one, they got a friend that did some metal work to weld it back together.
When your life becomes more difficult because of how cheap you are, it’s time to re-evaluate things.
Recently I moved and hired movers instead of moving myself. The price was so much cheaper than other companies. I found out why.
I didn’t read the fine print. I was responsible for renting a truck for them to use. They only moved the stuff.
So when they arrived I didn’t have a truck ready. I had to call around and find a place that had a truck available. Fortunately it wasn’t too hard and I found a truck quickly. It was a 20-minute drive to get there so I’m looking at close to an hour to get the truck. THEN when I get there I realized I left my wallet at home and I had to go back and get it.
Meanwhile I’m paying these guys by the hour. I ended up paying double what I would have spent if I had used a company that provided the truck.
Our dryer was making horrible screeching sounds. I researched and watched videos, figured out it was a pulley, ordered the part and we fixed it ourselves! Then at the very end my husband noted the gas line shut off valve was no longer screwed to the floor. He put a screw right through the gas line. Ended up paying $385 for the plumber to come out and repair the line
I didn’t have a vacuum, so I bought one at a thrift store (Hoover Windtunnel 2). Turns out that nobody sells bags for them anymore, so I spent 20 minutes cleaning out the old bag while I waited for the bags I bought on ebay to show up. I neglected to buy a filter. Still smells like wet dog whenever I vacuum.
When I turned my fridge off for two weeks when I was out of town. Turns out when you turn the lower part off, the freezer turns off too. Came home to some dead flies and live maggots. Cleaned it out, and still using it despite everyone telling me to get a new fridge.
I called Comcast for a credit because my internet was out for a day.
Total refund: About tree fiddy.
Total time on the phone: 45 minutes.
. A few years ago I used about every liquid dollar I had to buy my first place, a fixer-upper.
I thought I was going to save a ton by using the handyman from my last apartment building as my “contractor” for real work (demo, electrical, plumbing)
That bought me six more weeks of not being able to move in and $8,000 just to undo the work he did.
Young people, do not be dumb like me. Home improvements can wait until you can actually afford a licensed individual/team to do the work.
Not really backfired, but got less than optimal results buying the generic chunk of Parmesan cheese. I don’t use it often, but shave it on the occasional pasta dish or salad. It took forever to use it up. When I needed a new chunk, I decided to splurge on one that was more mid-range price, and what a difference! When this is gone, I might actually buy the expensive one. I use a few cents worth of cheese each time, so it’s not really that much more money, and the taste is MUCH better.
You need to read “die broke”
Frugality is great, but enjoying life before you die is greater still.
I drink a lot of pop/soda. I buy it in 2 liter bottles because it’s the cheapest. But I live in California where I have to pay 10 cents a bottle for California Redemption Value. I collect two huge plastic bags worth of empty bottles and then take them to a recycling center to get my refund. It’s crowded, dirty, smelly, and noisy. Usually I get at least a 5 dollar bill. This past time I only got $4.75. At that moment I reevaluated my life and decided it was no longer worth my time and effort.
While planning my trip to Korea I spent 50+ hours figuring out the cheapest combinations of flights, which ended up saving three people going $30 each. Probably wasn’t worth the time.
About a month after my husband and I brought our dream home, we noticed the we had a leak. Called home warranty, they came out and it was discovered one of the pipes was plastic and a staple had gone through it. The staple rusted and fell out, leaving a hole. It was supposed to be a medium repair: cut out dry way to get to pipe, replace pipe and then repair drywall.
The guy who came out said paying in check for the call was fine, but we had to pay in cash for the actual job. Okay, no big deal. He fixed it, we paid. All was good.
