On another thread I mentioned my BIL had gone to a thrift shop and repurchased his own garments that his wife had donated. He did not know they were his garments, only that they were his size and cheap 25 cents each.

I started wondering if my BIL is the cheapest Mormon alive. Do you have any stories about cheap a$$ Mormons?

My cheap a$$ Mormon story - I used to live in Gilbert, AZ and I had a TV that needed repairs that cost more than the TV did. So I set the TV on the curb. A Mormon lady from the ward rescued the TV from the junk heap. She called me a few days later and asked me to pay for the repairs to her new TV. Her reason for the call, she knew I would not want her to pay for the repairs because I would want her family to have a working colored TV (they only had a black and white model).

My husbands former mother in law could make pennies cry. They only bought dented cans of food with missing labels. She actually had it down to an artform where they could shake a can and determine the contents before opening it. She kept track of every single penny spent in a ledger. She drove all over town to get the best bargains. They only drank watered down powdered milk. You get the picture.

And the best part of all, there was a book written about her. They thought she was amazing!

I didn't water down the powdered milk, though. I'd pile a bagful of 25 cent cans into the basket of my found bike that someone had thrown away, and cart them home. I also cooked everything from scratch, never ate out, and didn't finance a car. By doing so, I could manage on a part time job and have time left to slowly remodel my house, mostly on my own. In 2010, I sold it for a nice price, to the envy of several family members. I'm not rich, but quite comfortable now.

Unfortunately, the Morg wants members to live cheaply so that they can throw dough into its coffers, keeping them continually poor.

What is the name of the book?

I don't know. I just remember mentioning her to my mother and she knew her from being written about. I can't find anything online about it, but it was from the late 60's or early 70's, I think.

Do they really resell used underware?

That's what I was wondering. Pretty gross.

Out of people I know personally, probably my TBM aunt & uncle. They made really good money, lived in a really good neighborhood, but lived like they were poor on welfare. They didn't take care of their house, they always had used broken down cars, & they personally dressed like they were dirt poor. Their oldest daughter went to work almost full time the minute she turned 16 so that she could have anything decent.

I do not know where the hell their money went.

Let me guess, the church?

That's all I could ever come up with.

American Mormons get cheaper with people as the living quality of those around them is reduced. I don't know how to say that, but I'll explain:

If you do, indeed, get help from a bishop in the states, he will have some sort of requirement of you, but it will not include things like selling your car, divesting yourself of you house, getting rid of your TV, telephone, and every luxury. However, an American LDS leader in a Third World country will do just that. If some Filipino asks for aid, he or she is often told to get rid of all property before asking for assistance. I've seen this everywhere. It's a lopsided application of their stupid rules.

since I am one. You might even call me a penny pincher. Or a scrooge. Whatever you want.
All I know is that it enabled me to help get all kids through college and pay cash for the nice house we now live in.
We paid tithing too. Living frugally allowed us to do that as well. I don't pay tithing now, but I can donate to things I think are important, in part because we went for years without buying a lot of "things."

Oh, and I'm a little surprised at the "buying temple garments" thing also. If that's ever been done, I've never seen or heard about it. And I've spent many hours searching around in the Deseret Industries.

It was probably some other thrift shop, where they had no clue what the garments actually were.

Thrifty is one thing, stingy or penny wise and pound foolish is another. And then a third thing is poor nutrition for your kids, and/or risking botulism.

I have been dirt poor and have lived very frugally myself.

I went with a singles group to a 4th of July fair/music festival.

A friend ordered an awesome blossom, if you don't know what they are, its a huge onion cut into strips which is breaded and deep fried. Chili's usually has them.

My friend passed it around and we ate it down to the center, which was slightly undercooked and didn't taste good so we stopped eating it. This friend places it on the ground.

Another friend, the cheap skate(called CS after this), picks up the discarded left overs of the awesome blossom and attempts to pick at the remainder of the onion. She complains that its raw and itsn't cooked all the way through. She take this 95% eaten onion and approaches the food booth. She complains they gave her an undercooked awesome blossom and wants another for FREE! However, CS demands they have to cook it longer.

They make her another awesome blossom and they cook it extra long to make sure the center is oh so delicious and fully cooked. CS comes back to our group, sits down, and eats the entire awesome blossom by herself.

We all sat around awe struck with her cheap skateness and boldness to demand a free fried onion she never paid for to begin with. Thus the mystery of CS!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2013 10:18PM by alphonso.

One TBM I dated would put down a decent tip on the table only to go back when he thought I was in the bathroom to take the bills and leave the change. Now that's cheap!

One other guy I dated took me on out on a picnic with some KFC, blanket and wild flowers. It was a frugal, but sweet date.

There is a big difference between being cheap and frugal in my mind.

That's not cheap, that's scumbag asshole.

I later found out he was from a very, very wealthy part of Utah.

I've got one more. Some guys at BYU I knew were so cheap they wouldn't buy TP and of course they wouldn't steal it from campus. I heard they would shower instead, but I really question that one. I think they were using newspaper or nothing at all.

My TBM / RM younger brother gave me one year as a Christmas present - all gift-wrapped - an empty whiskey bottle that he had found in the street.

Another year my Christmas gift from him was a book I had lent him a few months before. He thought it was a nice way of returning it to me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2013 11:43PM by RPackham.

Oh my, uh, WOW! What was the story behind the whisky bottle? Did he think you'd appreciate it like no other?

When my kids were little, I subscribed to a newsletter called "The Tightwad Gazette," which had all sorts of ideas for cutting way down on expenses. My kids and I often dressed in thrift-shop and yard-sale clothes - but I found shops and sales in upscale neighborhoods and my kids never LOOKED like they were dressed in secondhand stuff.

To this day, many of my favorite tee shirts and sweatshirts (practically my uniform in summer and winter) came from secondhand sources. And they are good-quality stuff.

But I find, as I get older, that a lot of the strategies that save money require a trade-off in energy - a commodity that I find I have less of nowadays. Sigh.

I have some of the compilation books for The Tightwas Gazette. I agree, there are many good ideas. They are a bit extreme for me, though.

As I approach retirement, I'm getting more frugal. I have a ways to go, though!

I knew a family that didn't want their children to eat a lot of sugar so they put extra water in the jello. The poor kids had to eat jello because it was cheap, but it got stretched farther with too much water because they were to eat less sugar!!!


Gross watery barely set up soupy jello...cheap or over reaching?

"yet to be determined": a Race to the Bottom.

My cheapest LDS alive inherited 3 million dollars from her parents, but she is selfish. When her husband retired, and no longer proved the family income, she didn't want him to enjoy any of her money, so she divorced him. They still live together, but with separate bank accounts. Her parents left her their $700.000 house, but she lives with her ex-husband, while the house stays vacant. He decided to charge her rent to live in his house. They are both TBM, and can't understand why the Mormons don't include them in their LDS couples' activities more.

This same person drove all over town to use three different coupons, and ended up with a free jar of mayonaise, and she bragged about it, until I pointed out how much it must have cost for gas for her Suburban.

This cheapskate used to be a good LDS friend. One Christmas I gave her a gift card to her favorite scrapbooking store, because I knew they had a good supply of the stuff she needed. Six months later, I get a call from her, and she is crying hysterically, because she went to the store, and they had sold out of her favorite things, and she couldn't find anything she wanted at the store. She was upset that they wouldn't just give her cash for the card, and had called the manager and made a big stink about it. She had called four of our friends and had told them the story and asked if they wanted to buy the card from her! They all said "no," so she was calling me and would I please buy the gift card (I gave her) back from her and give her the cash, instead. I drove 20 miles round trip to Federal Heights, to give her the money and get the card, so she would shut up. I secretly vow to never give her anything again.

Yup; it's gonna be tough to top that one!

That's beyond cheap, that's a horrible person's behaviour. You should have discounted your gas money from the value of the card.

You can donate G's to a thrift shop? Is this an LDS thrift shop that requires a recommend to enter? I am just surprised to hear about this.

If I had to pump out 12 children starting at age 19, and then had to pay 10% of my gross income as tithing for the rest of my life, I'd be a cheapskate too.

One guy in my old ward was a civil engineer, working for the provincial government so he was making good money, but his wife and family wore what looked to be thrift store clothing and I remember his dress shoes were cracked and almost falling off his feet....and he always complained about being poor....never could figure that out...

Ron Burr