Everyone knows a person who will spend $100 to save $99. What is the story of the person who would do this?

19 comments

1. My mother in law. She is a hoarder. Severe hoarder. She buys tons of stuff she doesn’t need from dollar stores when it goes on sale. Then she piles it up in buildings and her house until it rots. When confronted she says but I saved such and such, yeah but your broke because you saved money on stuff you aren’t using.

2. Someone who thinks their saving money but aren’t in the long run

3. I bought two 30 year old vehicles, fix them in my driveway when I break down. Overall I’m probably $15k into parts and tools costs.

4. We have a store not too far from us, that gets returns, overstock, slightly damaged packages, etc., from places like Target, Home Depot, Amazon, etc. You can go buy individual things for about half of retail, or you can go in and buy a pallet of stuff for significantly less. I went in there (it has been some time ago) and bought a pallet of toilet paper – 4′ x 4′ x 4′, for about $200 (pre-covid). Most of it was packages (name brand) that had got hit with a box cutter when being unpacked, so a side may have had a slice or tear in the packaging. Almost all of the rolls were fine though.

5. I had a relative who would literally drive over an hour each way for cheaper gas.

6. if it’s something they or i will use over time, then awesome. however, buying it just because it’s on sale is dumb

7. My uncle would always buy the cheapest used car that he could and would think he was being smart and beating the system. Then he’d end up having to repair the thing so much that he would have been better off just buying a new car or buying a better used vehicle. He did this over and over again until my aunt finally snapped and he bought a decent second hand car.

8. My father. He bout a junk air compressor at a yard sale for $50. The motor was broken the pump broken and the tank was all dented and had a severe crack down the side. He spent roughly $450 to fix it and then sold it for $200. Claiming he got the best deal. A new one at the same size in the store was $260 brand new.

9. These people just don’t understand numbers and finances.

10. This girl in my class who is the only person with a job but still is broker then everyone while getting paid 8-10 dollars i know this cause I went shopping with her one time and she grabbed like 5 junk items she wouldn’t use ever and I’ve seen this with a lot of women its like they see a sale sign and get grabbed by it

11. My father in law. He wanted to save money on his electricity bill, so he hired a solar company where they install panels and you are basically getting billed for your electricity through them. It’s a great deal, but the road to get there is another story. First he had to get a new roof when his was decent as they wouldn’t install on one over 10 years old. Then he had three trees cut down maximize sun exposure. On the front end he reduced his electrical by about $100 a month, it will take just over 12 years before he can start breaking even due to all of the other costs.

12. My mom will buy somethin she doesn’t need or want because its marked down from 150$ to 100$. You’re not saving 50 dollars mom, youre losing 100.

13. Mental health disorder of some type.

14. Friend who is a professional. Bills out his time at many hundreds of dollars per hour.

    Also owns a multi unit income property. But refuses to hire somebody to clean it. So takes time away from his real job to go and clean the building. Thus saving probably $25/hr, but foregoing at least 5 times that in fees.

15. I do pay fees when I sell my USD but once it’s done I know I won’t be affected by inflation. Worth it

16. I know someone like this. She is an avid diy project person to save money.

    The problem is usually she spends twice what it would have cost to just purchase the item and in some cases, the purchased item was made out of better material.

17. That would be my dad. After he retired, he apparently just has way too much time on his hands.

    And that leads to him first spending an hour going through all the special offers of all supermarkets, then spending hours of driving to each one in turn to get something he needs or *may* need, just because it’s now slightly cheaper, ultimately wasting a lot of time and fuel for saving pennies.

    And no, he’s not poor. Not at all. His pension from being a higher-up civil servant is higher than my very decent salary. He can buy the most expensive butter, as much as he wants, for the rest of his hopefully long life – and still he has 10 or so packs in his freezer because “they were on sale”.

    Oh, and I also remember his scheme of buying a ton of vegetable oil, filtering that at home in a painstakingly long process, and then using it as diesel fuel. Sure, it saved a few cents per liter back then – but who knows how much this decreased his engine’s life?

18. Anyone who doesn’t go to the dentist, doctor, mechanic, etc in a timely fashion when something seems to be wrong.

19. Anyone attempting to mine bitcoin. Half the time they are spending more on power consumption than they will ever receive in return