Cheapskate Confessional

[Hallowed_point]

Originally posted by Canucks3322


Wow wtf man.... That is actually technically FRAUD youre committing? !

Pretty clever, and I feel like a hypocrite but fuck walmart lol. Not saying I'd do it..I just don't condemn his idea.

[Benny]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak
I have one that is kind of bad;

If I am over the warranty period for something and it breaks, I will buy an identical new one... then carefully repackage and return the broken one a day later in the same box


It is limited to Walmart though simply because I feel they have no ethics, just returning the favor

I've never done your scenario exactly, but I know that you can get away with some thoroughly greasy shit at Walmart. The Walmart return policy is fairly liberal in what they'll take back, and the employee running the return desk generally doesn't know shit about the item being returned. So if you just show up with the item in the box, a receipt, and it doesn't look too bad, you're golden. I have friends who refer to this as the Walmart rental.

For instance, one friend of mine went and purchased a ~$300 street hockey goalie set from Walmart and played a full Sunday worth of street hockey with it. It looked like ratshit and smelled like sweat. He turn wiped it down with a Mr. Clean eraser, packaged it up, and took it right back there for a full refund. This friend did the exact same thing after we had our floods last year with a pair of chest waders. Bought some, used them for a couple days helping people clean up, hosed them down and returned them. Walmart rental baby.

[tsi_neal]

Originally posted by FixedGear


The larger the temperature difference between inside and outside, the larger the rate of heat transfer, and the higher the cost. This is basic heat transfer, in fact it's literally Equation 1.1 in the heat transfer text i have in front of me now.

EDIT: I've read your posts about how you think "theory" doesn't apply to "real world", but Mars rovers and comet probes prove otherwise.

I'm not trying to argue here, I agree with science on this one. However I will argue that the cost difference between cold and comfortable is so small that people are actually being cheap bastards..

In an average home in an average winter month how much money is someone going to really save keeping their house comfortable vs. chilly to save a few bucks? I'm guessing less than 10 bucks a month, I figure my average gas bill is somewhere around 90-100/mo all in so that's maybe $60 worth of actual gas. Lets call the difference between chilly and comfortable 18* vs 21* or about 15% so lets say I use 15% more gas (even tho it doesn't really work like this and gas is also used for hot water and cooking) that's about 9 bucks more a month to be comfortable. Then figure that the furnace is really only working 6-7 months of the year...

[JRSC00LUDE]

^ That's why it's a cheapskate thread! Hahaha

[tsi_neal]

Originally posted by JRSC00LUDE
^ That's why it's a cheapskate thread! Hahaha

Touche

[flipstah]

I fly whenever there's a seat sale. Only suckers pay full price.

The key is having a very flex schedule.

[FixedGear]

Originally posted by tsi_neal


I'm not trying to argue here, I agree with science on this one. However I will argue that the cost difference between cold and comfortable is so small that people are actually being cheap bastards..

In an average home in an average winter month how much money is someone going to really save keeping their house comfortable vs. chilly to save a few bucks? I'm guessing less than 10 bucks a month, I figure my average gas bill is somewhere around 90-100/mo all in so that's maybe $60 worth of actual gas. Lets call the difference between chilly and comfortable 18* vs 21* or about 15% so lets say I use 15% more gas (even tho it doesn't really work like this and gas is also used for hot water and cooking) that's about 9 bucks more a month to be comfortable. Then figure that the furnace is really only working 6-7 months of the year...

I started saving about $30/month on my power bill when I installed a programmable thermostat. The point is that you only need it comfortable for 4-5 hours/day, when you're at work or sleeping, you can keep it colder etc.

[95EG6P]

Originally posted by Benny



I've never done your scenario exactly, but I know that you can get away with some thoroughly greasy shit at Walmart. The Walmart return policy is fairly liberal in what they'll take back, and the employee running the return desk generally doesn't know shit about the item being returned. So if you just show up with the item in the box, a receipt, and it doesn't look too bad, you're golden. I have friends who refer to this as the Walmart rental.

For instance, one friend of mine went and purchased a ~$300 street hockey goalie set from Walmart and played a full Sunday worth of street hockey with it. It looked like ratshit and smelled like sweat. He turn wiped it down with a Mr. Clean eraser, packaged it up, and took it right back there for a full refund. This friend did the exact same thing after we had our floods last year with a pair of chest waders. Bought some, used them for a couple days helping people clean up, hosed them down and returned them. Walmart rental baby.

lol gold

[tsi_neal]

Originally posted by FixedGear


I started saving about $30/month on my power bill when I installed a programmable thermostat. The point is that you only need it comfortable for 4-5 hours/day, when you're at work or sleeping, you can keep it colder etc.

I do 17.5 / 21 based on away/sleeping or home and awake. I cant sleep if its warm, so at night its for comfort over savings but the savings however small they may be are a bonus. You say power bill, electric heat?

[FixedGear]

Where I live, we mainly use AC which runs on electricity I'm sure I've saved on my gas bill too, but haven't check to be honest (the heat is really only used in Dec/Jan)

I've also got an "on demand" water heater, so I'm not constantly keeping an entire tank of water hot.

[spikerS]

Originally posted by Benny



I've never done your scenario exactly, but I know that you can get away with some thoroughly greasy shit at Walmart. The Walmart return policy is fairly liberal in what they'll take back, and the employee running the return desk generally doesn't know shit about the item being returned. So if you just show up with the item in the box, a receipt, and it doesn't look too bad, you're golden. I have friends who refer to this as the Walmart rental.

For instance, one friend of mine went and purchased a ~$300 street hockey goalie set from Walmart and played a full Sunday worth of street hockey with it. It looked like ratshit and smelled like sweat. He turn wiped it down with a Mr. Clean eraser, packaged it up, and took it right back there for a full refund. This friend did the exact same thing after we had our floods last year with a pair of chest waders. Bought some, used them for a couple days helping people clean up, hosed them down and returned them. Walmart rental baby.

I love people like your buddy.

I always look for the clearance sections, or the "open box" item at Futureshop or bestbuy that get discounted. Hell, I will even offer to take display models. Most of the time I will ask for a bigger discount on the open box item and they will give it to me. Will still carry a full warranty for me, and if something ends up missing, or is broken, i can do a straight exchange for an un-opened one.

Or for example, I will complain on FB or twitter when shit does not happen just right. For example, I needed my winters on quick, so I deviated from going to urban and went to a dealership (big mistake). Took like 2.5 hours to swap my winters on, got over charged, and was a shit experience, so I put it on their FB page, on my twitter and FB. Got a call back, and my next full synthetic oil change is on the house saving me ~$100. Granted, at the time, I wasn't looking for that, and I was pissed, but this is a welcome windfall.

[snowcat]

This thread. Just wow.

[snowcat]

double post

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by FixedGear


The larger the temperature difference between inside and outside, the larger the rate of heat transfer, and the higher the cost. This is basic heat transfer, in fact it's literally Equation 1.1 in the heat transfer text i have in front of me now.

EDIT: I've read your posts about how you think "theory" doesn't apply to "real world", but Mars rovers and comet probes prove otherwise.

I never said theory doesn't apply to real world, just at some point, theory goes out the window compared to PRACTICAL reality.

You aren't saving mad dolla dolla bills by keeping your house 2-3*C cooler. $25 per month? Maybe (natural gas is cheap)? Essentially NEGLIGIBLE.

Now if somebody said they had an electronic time based thermostat that turned the temp down to 14*C mon-fri while at work, that would make sense. And I would agree.

Silly high and mighty engineers

Edit-
Well shit, looks like I was beaten to proving my own point:

Originally posted by tsi_neal


I'm not trying to argue here, I agree with science on this one. However I will argue that the cost difference between cold and comfortable is so small that people are actually being cheap bastards..

In an average home in an average winter month how much money is someone going to really save keeping their house comfortable vs. chilly to save a few bucks? I'm guessing less than 10 bucks a month, I figure my average gas bill is somewhere around 90-100/mo all in so that's maybe $60 worth of actual gas. Lets call the difference between chilly and comfortable 18* vs 21* or about 15% so lets say I use 15% more gas (even tho it doesn't really work like this and gas is also used for hot water and cooking) that's about 9 bucks more a month to be comfortable. Then figure that the furnace is really only working 6-7 months of the year...

There is a difference between being thrifty and being stingy. Mother f*&kers with 18*C houses are stingy f*&ks

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Strider]

Originally posted by sabad66

How do you do this? My BMO world elite is 150 a year and i would love to have that cut in half or even waived. What do you say?

I called customer care and told them that I'm pruning down the number of cards in my wallet and this is the only one I have with an annual fee. Then I asked them if they could do anything to waive or credit the annual fee if I kept it instead of cancelling.

I have the BMO card too, but it's not up for fee yet so I haven't tried with them... It might be harder with that one because I typically put $1600/mo on my Gold Amex, and very little on the BMO card since I hate their rewards redemption website.

Originally posted by ercchry
i try to cook at home like... 3 times a week.. and uh... bought a one year old truck instead of a brand new one? ...i dunno, i rather make more than try and save

You make it sound like saving money and earning more are mutually exclusive. I saved $50 with a 5 minute phone call to Scotia while waiting for my ride home... Seems kinda silly not to take 5 minutes out of Beyond surfing time to save at a rate of $600/hr.

[flipstah]

I eat at The Keg instead of Vintage if I feel like cash is light.

[Disoblige]

Originally posted by flipstah
I eat at parent's house instead of Vintage if I feel like cash is light.

corrected.

[flipstah]

Originally posted by Disoblige

corrected.

[BavarianBeast]

One thing I remember about 10 years ago when I had a flip phone is that it had a white dot that would turn red if the phone got wet.

I got my phone wet and I took the white dot from my moms identical phone and peeled the red one off and walaaa - they replaced the phone free of cost. I would of had to pay if it was water damage!

I think it's a fair assumption to say that others have done this as well....