Have you seen the new show? Extreme Cheapskates

@coffeebreak (17798)
United States
January 11, 2012 11:32am CST
Now, I am all for being frugal and saving money, and being thrifty and recycling and all that stuff...not only is it money saving and economical, but it is a good way to help the environment and all that part of the story. I also don't believe that people that save money and recycle and are frugal are cheapskates. I think they are mostly, intelligent people that know the value of a dollar. However...this new show on TLC is called Extreme Cheapskates. I watched it last night out of morbid curiosity. It showed 2 families that do "things" to save money or not spend money etc. The first one was a family with 7 kids. FIrst I have to say to/about them...you need to spend some of the money you are saving any buy protection and that will help your budget issue. That said, it said that this family figured up they had $86,000 in credit card debt. Now I didn't see any fancy, up to date anything stuff in their house and they had one car so I dont' know what they did to run up bills like that, but whatever...they said that is what their debt was. They then said due to their "frugalness'..they were able to pay that debt completely off in ONE YEAR....now I have to wonder..good grief...what the heck were they doing or where was the money coming from that they made so much that they were able to EARN $86,000 to pay the CC's off, PLUS ALL LIVING EXPENSES for a family of 7 for that same year!!! Of course, like Extreme Couponers not telling us where they get the high value coupons, this family didn't tell us where that they got that much money. Anyway...They showed some of the things that they did to "save". First..they didn't buy toilet paper. They showed her (as she was talking about it) showed her cutting up fabric from (didn't say where she got the fabric) what appeared to be old clothes and towels. SHe cut it into about 8"x8" squares. They put it in a little basket at the toilet, when used...they had a plastic bucket to drop the used fabric in. THen she proudly announced that when the plastic bucket is "full", she just takes it and dumps it into the washer..never "has to touch the stuff". Well first.. the smell in the bathroom alone would be horrible and unsanitary. Second...okay if you are just peeing..but with a poop..there is "stuff" on the fabric...and if no one touches it..does that just get dumped into the washer too? She defended her actions saying the hot water destroys the bacteria, but still...And then she didn't say how their gas bill goes up cause you have to use HOT water for this....so where is the savings? And she also said that it saves their budget about $200 a year. Come on..isn't santization worth a little $200 a year? Skimp on something else! One of the kids was folding a white towel that had just been washed and it was full of stains and he held it up saying "this one is dirty looking" and mommy says.."that's okay, it's clean". So the kids are being taught that dirty is okay. THen to make a salad...she goes to the public park a few streets over and picks greenery out of the park..where people have been walkind, dogs pooping (they even showed them walking in the park and her pointing out the dog poop and telling the kids not to step in it!) and they picked clover and other grass things, took them home and made a "garden" salad out of it! THey have no idea what's been done to that grass. The second "family" was just husband and wife. She had a job. He didn't. In this case.. I just think it is his laziness and stupidity that is the reason he does what he does. His theory is that money found is not "earned income" so you don't have to pay taxes on it so there is a huge savings there. He bikes the city checking pay phones, digging around the pay phone area, going to resturants and digging down in the cushions for change dropped from someones pocket that sat there last...then to the laundry matte to collect the lint from the lint traps saying he uses it to start fire in the fireplace and also for his compost pile (isn't that suppposed to be for food waste"?) He empties his vaccum cleaner bag out in the composte pile and then resuses it...but finds coins in there all the time..why didn't htey pick the coins up instead of vaccuming them up? It is hard on the vaccum cleaner to pick them up! How lazy is he!!! But he found about $7 in change that day so he goes to the butcher and asks what ORGAN meats he can get for that. He said organ meats are the cheapest kind of meat. He bought 2 GOAT HEADS that still had the brains and eyeballs etc in it..took them home and baked them for dinner for a special treat for his wife as she will be so proud of him for not spending much money. (She hated it.) To summerize...the whole thing was just gross! Both families...to me were just lazy dirty families. Some things you just shouldn't skimp on. It isn't healthy or sanitary. Both these families are literally lazy, sloppy cheapskates. I guess the show is titled correctly, but they are trying to use it as a "way to save money", when all it is doing is showing the government that us American people don't need an income to live and will do without everything so why bother providing jobs and an economy! What do you think about this "way" of "saving money"?
3 people like this
11 responses
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
11 Jan 12
i will have to watch that next week. sounds interesting! lol! i am all up for cheap and thrifty ideas and do know families with a good number of kids (one family i know had 9!) but none of them go to that extreme. most of those ideas are just nasty!
3 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
11 Jan 12
I know. Most of what they do is unhealthy and plain stupid. THe fabric for saving money over buying TP...but not a word about the extra it costs them in water, gas/electric and laundry detergent to wash all that all year long! I'd be willing to be it is more than the $200 she says it saves them at the grocery to buy it! My point about the number of kids...I am not against a large family, but..by the same token..if you are so low on funds that you have to reuse toilet "fabric" to save money..then you shouldn't be having more kids (she had 7 and the youngest was an infant)with mouths to feed and clothes to buy and oh yeah...health insurance....
2 people like this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
24 Jan 12
Theres alot of people who use the fabric way...but theres different methods of doing it. Some use it...rinse it and put it in a bin with a borax solution until it is time to be washed. Others only use the fabric for pee and tp for pooping... Honestly...not even 30 years ago people used alot of cloth diapers rather than dispoable and did similar things with them until they could be washed...and reused.
2 people like this
@kylanie (1205)
• United States
31 Jan 12
I have saw the show and I admit I have done some of those things I went dumpster diving and got some good toilet paper a store threw out for smoke damage it lasted 2 months and also when I do get to go out and eat I find myself taking the ketchup packs home when my husband has to spend a few days in the hospital I admit I take the condiments from there he does not use I feel we pay for it so why not take it.
3 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
3 Feb 12
If they come with the meal or are offered to you...I have no problem taking them. But I won't take what more than my share or if I wouldnt be using them on what I ordered. THat is just stealing, but if they ask if I want this or th at, I say yes. They offered, no reason I can't accept!
2 people like this
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
11 Jan 12
I haven;t seen the show, but I read a bloggers rant about it lol I can not get over not buying toilet paper. I see bloggers post deal all the time for toilet paper that makes the rolls less than $.23 a piece. Also what are they doing with their toilet paper? I realize there are 7 people, but between kids at school and parent(s) working that has to cut into the amount they use. If you spent 200 on toilet paper at $.23 a roll That's almost 870 rolls of toilet paper. I would kill my husband if he tried to serve me a goat head. Yuck! For $7 he could have purchased some real meat - probably almost 2 lbs of ground beef.
2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
12 Jan 12
For $7 he could have gotten at least a couple pounds of ground beef! Or last week london broil was on sale for $2.77 a pound...he could have gotten a few of that and had enough for more than one meal instead of one meal of goat heads! He's an idiot I have heard that some buy the 2-ply TP and then unroll it to make 2 rolls of 1-ply each. That would be the better way to go!
1 person likes this
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
14 Jan 12
I think they pick people who are doing extreme things just to add shock value. Because, well, it is pretty extreme. The man from that couple just sounds lazy. Or something. He's working awfully hard to avoid working. The family of 7...I can see the toilet rags, actually, because what did people use before toilet paper? If I couldn't afford toilet paper, I'd definitely be trying to find a hygenic way to clean up without it. Of course, it would have to be a choice between food and toilet paper kind of situation. (Although toilet paper is bad for the environment, they do make more environmentally friendly brands of toilet paper now, which I am trying to switch to). When we were getting out of debt, we were very frugal for a couple of years. We didn't have much meat, we didn't buy cheese, my mom would give us the hambone from family dinner so I could use it for soup, that kind of thing. We paid off our debt by being frugal but also by selling out car and using transit, which they might have done.
3 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
15 Jan 12
Yeah, shock value is what sells I guess. He is just lazy and looking for ways not to get a job...he has a wife to support him and she doesn't care what he does while she does all the work I guess. I get the frugal ..but to a point...I mean, they used leaves before they had fabric...why don't these people just go pick leaves from the park trees? I think there is a point to which it is just stupid, not frugal. EVerything we do, we can go back and say...what'd we do before that?
2 people like this
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
11 Jan 12
I would have never made it though watching the whole show. I would have thrown up! That using fabric is the dumbest thing I have ever heard...and the husband without a job should have been out on the streets on his own fending for himself and his wife should have been using her money to eat something decent! Yuk!
2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
11 Jan 12
Thing is..she was rather heavy in the weight department! Not something one would be if they didn't have alot to eat! IT was morbid curiosity that kept me watching...I feel sorry for those little kids in the family... Apparently one of the MyLot readers here (discussion above) says the guy has some income and isn't that bad off. There's alot in what they DIDN"T say.
1 person likes this
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
24 Jan 12
Genetics can determine weight too not just how much you eat. An over active thyroid will cause weight gain...even with healthy eating. You cant just one for their weight without knowing their medical situation.
@bjc66bjc (6730)
• United States
11 Jan 12
Hi coffeebreak, Happy New Year to you....I didn not see the first family but I did see this cheapskate with the goat heads...and he purchased and cooked 2 heads... now I think people should be able to do and eat whatever they want...I do no jusge, But I a so glad his wife turned down that dinner choice...those heads look nasty nasty nasty and he ws calling out the parts as he ate them, eyes, brains, tongue....UUKKKyy...But he seemed to enjoy it...so may god bless him... I an very furgal but I am certainly not cheap as to not use toilet paper or any othern necessities in my daily routine...I think that is just so very unsanitary as you stated...How could a parent raise a child to do such things like that in life...To each his own but he seem like a crazy person out of touch with reality.....
2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
12 Jan 12
Yeah, it wasn't much of a savings if his wife didn't eat and then went out to fast food or something cause she was hungry. I think people should eat whatever they want to..but this was just gross and such a put on and how'd it save any money if she didn't eat? All that does is support him and not her! Happy New Year to you too!
@peavey (16936)
• United States
11 Jan 12
I don't watch TV so I didn't see this, although I wanted to. I know the guy professionally who bought the goat heads... for him it was a publicity stunt. Not only does he "find money," he's written some books that have made money and has a cool web site. He's well known around the internet frugal living circles. It was cool to me to find see someone comment on his frugality! The others, I know nothing about, but I would like to say that the "family cloth" (tp) isn't anything new or unknown. Like you, I wouldn't want to deal with the poopy stuff, but as far as urine, it doesn't smell when it's contained and it's easily washed up. Unless a person has an infection, urine is cleaner than a lot of things that go in the wash, including dishcloths. I have tried the family cloth and was impressed with how much tp it saved.
1 person likes this
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
11 Jan 12
i was watching a pbs show on Pompei last night and before the volcano erupted, (or maybe all over Europe at that time), urine was an expensive commodity as they used it to wash clothes with because it got the grease out!
1 person likes this
@peavey (16936)
• United States
11 Jan 12
I hadn't heard that one, but I'm not surprised.
1 person likes this
@peavey (16936)
• United States
12 Jan 12
Everyone has their own level of comfort when it comes to frugality. I'm sure that I do things that you would never do, but on the other hand, you might do some things I would never consider. Family cloth is gaining popularity, not just to be frugal, but to save natural resources. It doesn't take that much to wash it and if it's just urine, you wash it with underwear and so on. It's all the same, anyway. But, as I said, everyone has their own level of comfort! Jeff Yaegar pushes it, but he has a reputation to keep.
1 person likes this
• Canada
28 Jan 13
I saw that show and it completely blew my mind. I thought I was a bit stingy till I saw that. Makes me look like a spend-thrift!! I would never eat out of a dumpster, much less serve guests out of one. I would not do any of the other stuff they do either. Yikes!
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
7 Feb 12
Yuck factor on that used fabric bit! When I was a kid we were so poor that my folks rationed the toilet paper. Seriously, they counted the squares. And they were always telling stories about people they knew who used disgusting things like corncobs instead of TP...and the Sears Roebuck catalog. On the other hand, maybe you will find yuck factor in this, but I like organ meats. Unfortunately they are not as inexpensive as they used to be in the area where I live. But after hearing me rave about the delicious beef tongue I like to cook a friend in the Ozarks did ask her butcher for some to try with my recipe and the butcher sold it to her for 50 cents a pound. Here we are lucky to get it under $3. But still, I don't think I want to watch that show!
2 people like this
@TrvlArrngr (4045)
• United States
11 Jan 12
Oh my goodness! That sounds just awful and you are right - unsanitary! I will have to watch it to see. Might be another illness like hoarding is.
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
12 Jan 12
That hoarding show is not about hoarders. Hoarders are people that keep everything, but specifically certain things and in a very neat and orderly way. Those on Hoarders...they are just sloppy, filthy, lazy, trashy people. I am sorry but food all over the counters and bugs..that is not hoarding or a result of hoarding. That is just plain being filthy and dirty. Not taking the trash out..that isn't hoarding that is just plain being filthy and dirty and lazy.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
18 Jan 12
Okay, I think as far as the reusable toilet paper thing goes, it really isn't that disgusting in the long run. I mean think about it, there are a lot of people that are turning to cloth diapering their children because that is easier on the environment and making your own wipes for going to the bathroom is really no different than that. However, if I was to do that it would be to lessen my impact on the environment as opposed to a way to save money. Now with the searching for coins guy, that just kind of bothers me because there are a lot of ways to spend your time that are better ways to spend time and make money. Heck, he could probably make more becoming a member of this site.
2 people like this