Do you consider yourself cheap or frugal?

[mrsmoneysaver]

I think I'm frugal-my husband thinks I'm cheap. We have arguments over buying cat food. I would rather feed them table scraps. What do you think?

[marvholly]

Scraps are NOT healthy for cats/dogs. A once in a while 'treat' will not hurt but NOT as regular food. My cat LOVES the liquid from water pack tuna & gets it about biweekly.

Set up a system for using bits of leftovers. Couple ideas:

Marinate lefover veggies in Italian dressing-foew days have a 'new' side dish
Have containers in the freeze for left bits of veggies and meat. When full make soup.
Have a weekly smorgasbord meal (lunch or dinner) of all leftovers
Repurpose leftovers into other meals - chicken can become MANY different dishes

[NJDebbie]

I'm definitely not cheap. I like to save money on certain things so that we can have savings and do the things that we feel are important to us.

[Breton Wench]

[quote=marvholly;273618]Scraps are NOT healthy for cats/dogs. A once in a while 'treat' will not hurt but NOT as regular food. /QUOTE]

Agree entirely. Cheap or frugal, pet food is manufactured for pets who have a different nutritional requirements to humans. Cats have especially finicky systems requiring high protein and extra taurine intake. And I am an ex Animal Health Technician, so I know how to read those labels. Give the pets scraps to add variety to, but not replace, their diet.

[kork13]

That's a question whose answer varies day to day. Some days, it's frugal, where I'm making smart money decisions based on fact and reason; others, I'm simply being cheap for the sake of being cheap. I try to aim for the former, but often find myself doing the latter....

[Aleta]

I consider myself to be frugal. Many people don't know the difference between cheap and frugal.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I don't know anything about the nutritional needs of cats, nor the expense of cat food versus people food for cats. However, I know people sometimes joke about getting by in their poverty stricken old age by living off cat food. So to some degree cat food does have a reputation of being less expensive than people food....I would not know.



However, if you are saving money in order to do the things that are important to you and your husband, and if it is important to him to feed the cat differently, why not do it? I'd try to first save money on the things that are less important to either of you, and only secondly on those things that are more important. Perhaps there is somewhere else you and/or your husband could save some money in order to feed the cat. If you and he differ on whether it is important, well, you do have to respectfully allow one another some leeway.

[CHH1023]

I'm cheap, that's why I don't own any pets.....well, that's not completely true. I do have a pet rock on my table.

[nick__45]

I think I am both cheap and frugal and wasteful at the exact same time. So I am just me, I have my values and place values on things.

[nick__45]

Originally Posted by CHH1023

I'm cheap, that's why I don't own any pets.....well, that's not completely true. I do have a pet rock on my table.

They're the best pet money can buy. No food, no walking, and no misbehave. Several thousands years ago, they were man best friend and can still be with if placed in a sock.

[PrincessPerky]

I aim for frugal.

I know some folk who re just cheap. sad really.

If you are willing to research what a cat really needs you might find alternate ways to feed them, but try not to assume an indoor cat will 'survive fine' on a typical American diet.

[nick__45]

I would never own a cat. They are pretty useless.

[wincrasher]

Useless, but delicious!

[tripods68]

My wife calls me "CHEAP" and I wear it PROUDLY

[cjscully]

LOL. Cheap or frugal is just a matter of semantics. If the goal is saving money and building financial security and eventually financial independence and your unwillingness to spend money on certain things is helping you make progress toward achieving your goals then it doesn't matter much what you call it.

On the other hand if you refuse to spend money and you have no goals and no plan you're probably not going to get anywhere financially so again, it doesn't matter much what you call it.

[atx]

Originally Posted by nick__45

I would never own a cat. They are pretty useless.

i agree.

But i do consider myself frugal, not cheap... i think its bad when you become cheap.

[nick__45]

Dogs are better but I can't even take care of myself so no pet.

[cicy33]

Originally Posted by mrsmoneysaver

I think I'm frugal-my husband thinks I'm cheap. We have arguments over buying cat food. I would rather feed them table scraps. What do you think?

I don't have a pet because I am selfish (I don't want to deal with the work so I don't think I should have one) however, I am in agreement that feeding them scraps is not good. There are so many coupons for cat food (and dog food) that frequently you can get them for free or super cheap. Sometimes I think the papers have more of those then food coupons lately! I think it was pedigree that had a promotion a year or two ago that if you joined their thingy you got a free bag of food. maybe purina? either way. get on your computer and research it, you would be amazed at the savings. For myself, I am cheap when I can be. there are things I won't go cheap on. and others I will go as far as cheap will let me, even to free!

[timotheus]

I consider myself frugal, since there are some things I have no issue spending money on, since they interest me. But, I can obsess about cutting costs.. so I'm not sure. :/

[marvholly]

I used to consider myself frugal- ie using coupons on sale items at the grocery, planning meals on sale items, eating in season, eating out w/coupons, buying clothes for the next year on end of season sale...........

However, I have been forced to become CHEAP since I am now unemployed. I do NOT eat out at all, buy clothes at all, have cut back on gifts (both the number and the $$ spent, frequency of haircuts.........Unemployment pays 1/2 of what I was earning.