What things are you tight about?

Haven’t been to the hairdressers for 3 years, it’s long, rather messy but I’m not bothered. I expect I will go sometime but I begrudge paying so much just to have a couple of inches cut off. I also hate food waste so use every scrap I can. Always looking for ways to reuse things that would normally be thrown out.

Having never been well off in my life, I'm pretty thrifty about everything. Cutting tubes open, turning things upside down, cutting my own hair, always using left-overs, etc.
I'm so used to it that I don't really mind, but just now and then that song from Fiddler on the Roof comes into my mind, -
"Would it spoil some vast eternal plan if I were wealthy man?"
(or in my case, woman).

I've got Mumsnet over the box and Barclays at the top

I've got the usual one taking up the writing space now, and specsavers at the top.

MissAdventure

I think it depends what you're using, kitty.

I'm using my phone, and as soon as I click an ad away, another pops up.

They used to on mine too but don't now. I'm on my phone too.

Isn't it odd.

I don't think it's tight-fisted to be mindful about spending - sensible is a better description!

I grew up very poor but as an adult have had the very best of everything - I eat only good quality food but never/rarely waste anything. Right now I have an empty olive oil bottle up-ended to drain out the last 5mls!

I think it depends what you're using, kitty.

I'm using my phone, and as soon as I click an ad away, another pops up.

MissA I can dismiss my ads by clicking the x at the top right.

I’ve always done my own nails, but I keep them fairly short and only use clear polish. I’ve gone right off the coloured sort, and not only because it shows any chips.

I’m a bit fanatical about not wasting food - if that counts as being tight.

I don’t buy many clothes or shoes, but do buy reasonable quality and often keep things for years.

Oh. Tight.

It was impossible to see what I was writing WITH A RUDDY GREAT BIG ADVERT IN THE WAY!

Doodledog

L'Occitane sell little gadgets that get the last drop out of tubes. You just clip them on the end and roll up the rest of the tube.

I'm much too fight to spend money on those!

Oh dear all this makes me sound like a spendthrift as I don't do any of these money saving things. There was no money at all for nice things when I was growing up and in early married years. Things are easier now so I am a bit extravagant but as prices are rising so quickly I think I should try and control the good bill better and we do go out/eat out a lot.

Thanks Doodledog.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

maddyone

Yes they do Doodledog but I don’t know whether they work on plastic. They work well on L’Occitane’s metal tubes though.

They do. I use one to get the last drops out of Clinique lip hydration stuff. I can't remember the name, but it's in a little plastic tube and the only thing that works on my dry lips when my B12 injection is due.

Monica. Thank you for your thoughts about why I’m like this. My childhood years were not good and we were made aware that we were lucky to have a ‘roof over our head’. Very aware of being no value and that never leaves some of us. Sadly I always view counselling as a waste of time but then I’ve never known anyone who has done it. Thank you again for your suggestions. Laughably a few years back my son took to me Claridges for the weekend. I was warned not to look at or comment on the prices. I’m still in shock from them 15 years later!!

I squeeze tubes out empty bottles and jam jars I just do not like waste. If I can find another use for something I will. I wipe foil grease proof paper and foil containers I fill with homemade meals. I use them until they are useless it's a habit I can't shake off.

Yes they do Doodledog but I don’t know whether they work on plastic. They work well on L’Occitane’s metal tubes though.

L'Occitane sell little gadgets that get the last drop out of tubes. You just clip them on the end and roll up the rest of the tube.

V3ra I’m exactly the same. I cut all my tubes in half to get every drop out them. I don’t like waste either. I also stand bottles on their head to drain the last bits out of them.

I think that is very sad 'TerriT. Do you have any idea why you feel this way? Being quite serious, this something that specialist counselling might help.

Sometimes these things have a trigger in your past that you have forgotten or would not think of. For years, I could not watch a train coming into a station or going across a level crossing, if I could not see it well in advance, even then I would turn away. at a station, I would stand as far back on the platform as I could, and close my eyes until the train stopped.

In my mid 20s I mentioned this in passing to my mother and she stopped what she was doing and said I know what causes that. She then explained that when I was about 9 months old, in wartime, we were travelling from London to Somerset and had to sit in the waiting room of a double sided platform for nearly two hours waiting for a connection. It was just before D Day and the whole time steam trains were rushing past in two directions with men and supplies and I was absolutely terrified. From the time she told me this story, my fear of trains coming into stations disappeared.

You may find a bit of counselling to explore the problem might help, or speak to your mother, if she is still with you.

Eating out is something that i find impossible to do. The cost has always seemed ridiculous and anyway I get no pleasure from it. However, I wish a wand could be waved over me and I could change. We are not short of money so it’s not that. I’ll spend money on anything else so what is this illness I have. My adult children think nothing of spending huge amounts in fancy restaurants and on the occasion I go with them I feel sick at the price of it all. Is there some therapy I can get!?

I suppose I'm tight with a lot of things -
I cut my own hair, a simple bob (saves me £50 a month). I don't colour it.
I don't wear makeup and my only skin care product is a bar of soap.
I don't have facials, Botox, manicures or pedicures.
I don't buy clothes very often as I live in trousers & t-shirts all year round.
We don't eat out, go to coffee shops, pubs, cinemas or theatres. We only buy a couple of bottles of wine a month.
We don't go on holidays.
We only change our car when we really have to.
We do all our own decorating and repairs (when we can).
I look at the price of things in shops and my first thought is 'Can I make that more cheaply?'

But I have three extravagances -
Properly fitted shoes for my difficult feet, even if that means made to measure. I can't bear my feet being uncomfortable.

Chanel perfume. I've worn it since I was 17 and although I'm often given other perfumes I always have to have a bottle of Chanel on hand.

Craft materials and tools. I love making things and will spend ridiculous money on lovely fabrics sometimes with no idea what I'm going to do with them! The most expensive thing I ever bought myself was a high-tech sewing machine. I still feel guilty about it, but I love it. It enables my creativity and keeps me sane!

Don't think I'm tight about anything I really want but I do seem to have demarcation lines about items and I don't actually know or understand how or why they suddenly kick in but for reasons unknown I adhere to my instincts. Crazy or what?!

I think there is a difference between being thrifty and careful and those unnecessary little meanesses over little things.