Becoming a Tightwad

Becoming a Tightwad

Anyone who knows me, knows I love books. My interests range from mysteries to scientific non-fiction. I also like self-help books. Several self-help books have enhanced my life. One book saved my life, The Tightwad Gazette (TWG) by Amy Dacyczyn.

If you are not familiar with the Tightwad Gazette, let me briefly describe it. It is a book about money, how to save it, how to spend it wisely, how to understand the power of compound interest and the power of setting financial goals.

Sounds like more dry text about math, stocks, and mutual funds doesn’t it?

Well, does saving vacuum cleaner lint, storing cans of tomatoes under your bed, buying pounds of chicken on sale, or yardsaling with a map, thermos, and a packed lunch sound like dry complicated math?

These are just a few tactics from thousands of similar tips offered by the author, Amy Dacyczyn, and her readers, to save money.

Conversion to becoming a tightwad was a joy. The book made me laugh. But conversion to becoming a tightwad was not without its mishaps.

One fundamental of being a tightwad is cooking your own meals from basic ingredients and not buying ready-made foods, or eating out a lot. I am not a cook, So, I learned to cook, sorta.

When I got the TWG in the mid-1990s, I had one cookbook, a rice cookbook. I made a lot of rice dishes. Having only a microwave also limited my cooking repertoire. But, hey, I could do potatoes five different ways.

Plus, I made muffins. Of course, I had to experiment in order to get them right. It amazed me how recipes try to describe the correct consistency for dough mix. I made probably thirty muffins before I got it right.

Then I went and made over 100 muffins and ended up offering them to anyone who would take them. I finally stopped making muffins when my consumption dropped and the muffins turned green.

Two other TWG tactics I use are the once a month shopping routine and the price book. You enter the price of items from receipts, or from direct mail advertisements into a small notebook to carry with you to compare prices when you are out shopping to determine if you are getting a good price. What a wonder, I had no idea how many sales were not really sales.

Using the price book idea also added a sense of intrigue to the task of grocery shopping. In the States, when I was in a grocery store comparing the prices of various gallons of ice cream, I found myself blushing as if I were doing something illegal. When what I had discovered was I could get ice cream cheaper at a competitor’s store.

Though I already had ceiling fans, used cloth napkins, and bought used clothes, books and various household items, I still felt like a failure as a tightwad. I didn’t salvage items from alongside the road, or bargain with yard sale entrepreneurs for a reduced price. It felt like I paid full price compared to the deals Amy got, like tennis shoes from a freebie box, or a blouse for a quarter because it had a small tear.

I did learn to make pickles, apple crisp, and use leftovers in various ways.

Using the price book as a guide, I held the line at .99 for a pack of four rolls of toilet paper. You have no idea the joy in finding toilet paper on sale for less than .25 a roll.

I had to figure out what fruits and vegetables were in season in order to catch sales at their peak, it was like surfing a monetary wave.

I’ve got good at making milk from dry powder and I would go out of my way to buy juice concentrates on sale. I had enough shampoo to last a year, several boxes of raisins in the refrigerator, and tubs of butter in the freezer I got on sale over a year ago.

Amy also suggests saving 10% or more of your salary. While I was working, I did this. As my savings grew, I was able to put some of the cash into certificates of deposit, which at that time, paid higher interest rates.

Mexico Update

The above article was written in the late-1990s. Today, I still struggle to be a good tightwad. Yet, it is because of the TWG I was able to travel to Mexico to get good, affordable, accessible health care and survive on my emergency savings.

When I look at the various frugality posts on my blog, I see I could do better. For example, I could find a bank where I can get an ATM card and make withdrawals for no fee. Banking in Mexico is complicated.

When I started a new “frugal” hobby, making my own earrings, I hesitated to begin a new hobby because I had a bad habit of buying supplies for a new hobby and never investing time into the hobby.

But, I love earrings (aretes), so after spending $900MX (~70.00US), I have made more than 80 pairs of earrings, so far.

In the marketplace, street vendor or retail store, aretes (earrings) can run from 20pesos to hundreds of pesos.

What is also great about my hobby is if I need a gift for someone, I make a pair of aretes. Or, if I want aretes to go with an outfit, I just make a pair.

I think my aretes now cost about 12 pesos a pair. So, you could say my hobby has already paid for itself.
 
But, I could go more often to open food markets or flea markets to buy food, or household items, spices, clothes, and other items for less.

I could learn to “haggle”, to negotiate for a favorable price with a vendor. I have heard that “haggling” is common in Mexico.

I do research and attempt to understand the local economy. Because the minimum wage is low, I am not comfortable “haggling” for a lower price. Usually, if I do not like the price, I do not buy the item.

In the case of a taxi ride, I do know how much it should cost to go from A to B, so if the taxi does not have a meter, I ask the driver what the price would be to go to B. If the price is too high, I decline the taxi.

Living between countries puts pressure on my limited tightwad abilities. I still haven't figured out the an easy, frugal way to travel.

But, that is part of what it means to be a tightwad, to me. It's means you continue to experiment with, explore, and research ways to save money that will enhance your life. I can't paint, dance, write poetry, or other artistic endeavors, but I can creatively save money. Being a tightwad is a creative endeavor anyone can do.