Extreme Cheapskates

[gues77]

I found the link for the new TLC show Extreme Cheapskates. Enjoy!

[Natalka]

Thanks, I couldn't find it online, and didn't think of YT!

[leda]

I watched this on tv and was really disgusted by that one guy; the one taking everyone's leftovers!!! I totally agree that a lot of people waste a lot of food, and I hate seeing food in the garbage knowing there are hungry people all over the world, but that doesn't make me want to eat others leftovers. And going into restaurants to ask for ketchup packages to squeeze into a bottle!? I have bottles of free ketchup in my stockpile and I didn't get it that way, lol. I also felt really bad for his wife who got roses out of the dumpster for their anniversary and animal crackers

[tinambulance]

Ya, I agree with Leda. I find this show totally disgusting. Who would ever eat off someone's plate from a restaurant. There are other ways of being frugal that are a lot better.

[Natalka]

Oy, asking people for their food in the restaurant is just disgusting. Why the heck can't his wife stop him from doing that? C'mon!

Ketchup packs, etc. from restaurants - no problem with that at all. We don't refill containers, though, just use the packets - ketchup, soy sauce, plum sauce, hot sauce.

The fiscal fast was kind of interesting; forces you to be creative.

As for the goats' heads - well, to each his own. I mean, I like a Ukrainian dish made with jellied pigs' feet and hocks...

For the barterers - I think doing some is a great idea, but with everything, too much is never good.

[princesskimmi]

I thought some ideas were OK - Sharpening razors - maybe. The goats head was just disgusting - my DH said he should've made a soup with the broth in the pot! So nasty!

[Sally888]

I blogged about this a few weeks ago, the goat head guy actually has weighed in on my blog post.

http://smartcanucks.ca/extreme-cheap...e-frugal-line/

[glenglen]

I blogged about this a few weeks ago, the goat head guy actually has weighed in on my blog post.

http://smartcanucks.ca/extreme-cheap...e-frugal-line/

great blog thanks!

[Darth Penguin]

Oy, asking people for their food in the restaurant is just disgusting. Why the heck can't his wife stop him from doing that? C'mon!

I'd imagine he's one of those people who 'acquire' the left-overs at work too.

Ketchup packs, etc. from restaurants - no problem with that at all. We don't refill containers, though, just use the packets - ketchup, soy sauce, plum sauce, hot sauce.

one or two no problems but more than that is, IMNSHO, greedy and will end up put prices up for every-one

[maliha44]

This is what Jeff(the goat head guy) had to say about it. Posted in the smartcanucks blog.

"Hi – I’m Jeff Yeager, one of the “Extreme Cheapskates” featured in the show -- the goat head guy (AKA “The Ultimate Cheapskate”).
Just for the record – and speaking only for myself and my wife and the part of the show we were in - we were pretty satisfied with it. Yes, they enhanced the quirkiness and “entertainment value” in order to get people to tune in – not too uncommon with TV, you know.
No, I don’t spend entire days bicycling around, looking for lost change -- although I do go for a bike ride most days (one reason why at 53 I weigh exactly what I did at age 21), and I’ve never been too proud to bend over to pick up a lone penny on the sidewalk, or even make it a point to more aggressively look for lost change if I have the time (it’s my form of “fishing” – recreation, not a career). Yes, I really do eat and enjoy offal and things like goat and lamb heads, as they do in many less-wasteful cultures around the globe; please, try it before you criticize it, and – if you eat meat – consider the moral implications of the snoot-to-tail approach I endorse.
And, yes, I know very well that you can buy all kinds of meat and other nutritious “normal” foods for less than I paid for the goat heads (heck, I write books on the subject -- all available at the public library, BTW). But watching me eat a chicken thigh ain’t exactly riveting TV, and since – in real life – I eat both goat heads and chicken thighs, the producers opted for the more photogenic goat head (go figure). Obviously it was done to attract viewer/media attention, but it wasn’t inaccurate or dishonest in terms of representing my behavior, which I openly admit isn’t mainstream-meat-and-potatoes-American.
At least in terms of our segment, I was I glad I got a chance to make some points about frugality – and provide at least a few practical tips – that I consider worthwhile, including: going for a week without spending any money (what I call a “fiscal fast”) is both possible and therapeutic (BTW, the statement that we save “$700 a week” by doing this was inaccurate and something we never said or claimed, and I don’t know where the figure came from); dryer lint stuffed in toilet paper tubes make good fire starters; Americans spend 50 cents to $1 per mile driving cars, when there are alternatives like cycling that could save many people thousands of dollar a year; set a “permanent standard of living” and stop allowing your expenses to rise to meet your income; mesh onion bags stuffed with repurposed aluminum foil make good pot scrubbers; a penny saved/found is actually worth significantly more than a penny earned, for the reasons I indicted; soap slivers can be used up by putting them in worn out pair of pantyhose and making a “cheapskate soap-on-a-rope;” we’re too dependent on costly technology that doesn’t necessarily make our lives any better; lemon rinds and baking soda can be used to clean copper; we waste too much, including foodstuff that we’ve been conditioned to turn up our noses at, but that’s a delicacy in other cultures; and you can have a pretty cool house, a loving spouse (of 28 years), and lead a seemingly content, enjoyable life, and still be a “cheapskate.”
Sure, a lot of this isn’t “new news” to frugal folks like us, but it is for many (most?) Americans. And, sure, I wish they would have included some of the other information and details about our lives based on the interviews we gave (e.g., we give ~20% of our annual income to charity; we “functionally retired” in our mid-forties; we spend two months out of the year traveling the world in “cheapskate style;” we live entirely debt-free, paid off our one-and-only house in 15 years and built much of it ourselves from recycled/reclaimed materials; our frugality is grounded in a strong environmental ethic; etc.)
But my wife and I also don’t feel ashamed or embarrassed about our involvement or portrayal in the show, and we’re comfortable with and proud of the life we lead, whether others consider it “extreme,” gross, unappealing, or otherwise. We just consider it enjoying life more by spending and consuming less, the occasional goat’s head and all."

[leda]

Oy, asking people for their food in the restaurant is just disgusting. Why the heck can't his wife stop him from doing that? C'mon!

Ketchup packs, etc. from restaurants - no problem with that at all. We don't refill containers, though, just use the packets - ketchup, soy sauce, plum sauce, hot sauce.

The fiscal fast was kind of interesting; forces you to be creative.

As for the goats' heads - well, to each his own. I mean, I like a Ukrainian dish made with jellied pigs' feet and hocks...

For the barterers - I think doing some is a great idea, but with everything, too much is never good.

I found the fiscal fast interesting, but one could go a week without spending anything easily, if they have enough of a stockpile or enough groceries to substain them. Which for a week, especially with just two adults, isn't hard. But I think it's a great idea because it would cut out those things that just about everyone buys that we don't really need, well at least for a the fasting week. I think many of these "cheapskates" would benefit from a few lessons in couponing!

[rhiannon1891]

That Jeff guy was the most interesting guy on the show, and he did have some very good ideas, even though some of them I thought were kind of weird. His response to the blog post is also very interesting, it made me think not necessarily about not spending as much money, but more about 'wastefulness'. We are a very wasteful culture.

I'd be interested in learning a lot more about him. I really didn't like the other 3 people featured on the show, but really that Mom actually made me really angry.

She fed expired food to kids that she was babysitting. Seriously - that is just not right.

[Candini]

I blogged about this a few weeks ago, the goat head guy actually has weighed in on my blog post.

http://smartcanucks.ca/extreme-cheap...e-frugal-line/

Very cool, Sally!

[Darth Penguin]

She fed expired food to kids that she was babysitting. Seriously - that is just not right.

Sounds like a lawsuit ready to happen if one of those kids get ill...

[glenglen]

Did anyone watch last night,I did and I thought the japanese lady was comical,I can see saving money being extremly frugal but I would'nt eat of of garbage bins if I had a choice she has that choice and it was so crazy to me to see her eat bin food,the guy made me mad as his family lived in a house that looked like a prison not a home they probaly have better furniture in prison he could buy couchs/beds etc off of sites like kijiji for a few hundred dollars I thought he was a big jerk!,