Will you help me?

At the beginning of the year I was asked to teach a class at the church on frugality. Every Wednesday night I would meet with a group of women and together we learned how to be good stewards of God’s riches. I was so passionate and excited to share everything that I have learned during my short tightwad journey. The Lord was so good to me and I always left the class feeling beyond blessed, because we were growing together in being responsible with what God has blessed us with.

Throughout the week I would send out an e-mail sharing a devotional as the Lord lead me. And after receiving positive comments (God gets all the glory for that) the idea of staring a blog was born. I had no idea how I was going to manage all the posts, since we do not have internet at home (and I learned this month that it would be another 3 years before we will get the service). But my passion of sharing all the tips and tricks along with sharing Lead Me to the Cross devotional kept me going as I drove to a fast food restaurant to use free internet connection.

It has been my deepest desire to serve you and to share with you all that I have learned. I would love to continue to do just that, but need your help. Would you be so kind and share with me what topics interest you and I would gladly research and write future post about it? I would be forever grateful for your comments!

I am ready for snow...I think

Growing up I dreaded winters, because the minute you look outside the ground was covered in snow. Sure, watching beautifully white snow glistening as soon as a ray of sunshine hits it is fun. However, after a short while walking in the snow to a near by bus station and waiting for the bus to arrive while it is freezing cold outside is not so fun.

After I moved to the US (south), I was shocked when schools were canceled at the sight of a first snowflake. I laughed out loud when I heard about people rushing to the grocery store to clear the shelves and stock up on bread and milk. I never understood why bread and milk. When I got married and moved to the mountains, I was kind of hoping that I would see snow more often, but I was wrong. Last year meteorologists promised snow in our area too many times to even bother counting. I came to conclusion that every time a grocery store would like to get rid of old inventory, all they have to do is ask a weather man to announce that it would snow. In a matter of one hour the shelves are in need of some serious restocking.

As soon as the shelves are empty, you know that the roads are clear too. Occasionally when it does snow, it takes time for the roads to be scraped and sprinkled with dirt/salt. So it is understandable why every single person stays home, when it actually snows. Safety must come first!

Talking about safety! Last year I learned that my car has anti break locks (I think that is what it called). While I was still at work, it started to snow. So I was very careful going up the mountain. I finally made it (almost made it) to the house. When I was getting ready to turn in to our driveway, I let my foot hit the breaks. Big mistake! I kept on pressing the breaks only to find myself freaking out because my car kept on going. The following thoughts ran through my mind, “I can either hit the ditch or Daniel’s car to help me stop…I guess the ditch would be better”. As I started to force my steering wheel to turn, my car finally stopped perpendicular to the incoming traffic. Thankfully we live way up the mountains and everyone was already at home sipping hot chocolate, so no cars on the roads.

I somehow managed to find my way to our house and park my car. Frantically I told my husband that my breaks need replacement because they were broke. He decided to take my car for a drive only to inform me later that my breaks were fine and it was the anti lock system that made me so scared. So much for warning me that I had the stupid system in my car that almost forced me to use the ditch as my stopping force.

My hope is that we will see snow this year and I learned the following trick just in case we will have so much snow that it would require Daniel (not me) to use the shovel to clear the driveway. In order to make snow shoveling an easy task, spray the shovel with cooking spray and the snow will fall off the shovel. How cool is that? Now I just have to sit and way for the weather man to make another promise that it would finally snow.

Static Hair No More

Nothing drives crazier than static hair. I am a gal that loves to wear her hair up so I seldom bothered by static hair. However, once in a while I do enjoy taking my time to fix my hair. I get up, plug in flat iron and spend the next 15 minutes battling with my frizzy hair. Then I decide that I am in the mood for brown sweater instead of green and make the swap. Well, somehow during the swap process my lovely straight hair charges up and I am reminded again why I love wearing my hair up. That’s right…because my now static hair make me look like a clown because my hair is sticking up instead of sticking down.

According to ehow.com “when you hair develops positive electric charge -each strand of hair is repelling the other and is trying to get away from each other.” If you are in the same boat as me and feel a little…just a little frustrated about spending 15 minutes fixing your hair just to look in a mirror and see a frizz ball, I have a solution. You can use dryer sheets to keep your hair at bay all while making your hair smelling so fresh and so clean. Just take one dryer sheet, rub it on your hair and your hair will look beautiful again.

Giveaways

I have never won anything by filling out my mailing information and dropping a piece of paper in a prize giveaway bowl while shopping at the store. Yet not knowing the future of whether my name is going to be drawn keeps me wanting to fill out the same form over and over again. Now, I don’t do it for every single drawing that I pass by, because there are times that I do not have 5 extra minutes to waste.

Since we do not have internet at home, I seldom enter giveaway or sweepstakes online. If I am down the mountain browsing the net, I take a few minutes to enter my name in All You magazine giveaways. You can enter your contact information every single day (once a day) and at the end of the month the drawing takes place for some lovely prizes. The reason I chose to participate in this particular giveaway is because your name is entered automatically not just for one gift but for several gifts. I have been entering my name now for at least 6 months and still no luck.

Lucky or not I still hold on to the hope that I may win a trip to Italy by entering my name in Francesco Renaldi giveaway. Seriously, someone has to win so why not me?! You can enter your day every single day for a whole year and at the beginning of 2011 the drawing will take place for a relaxing trip. Oh how I would love to win, but I have a feeling that the whole America is participating in this giveaway so my chances are pretty slim. But at least I can hope, right?!

There are many hopefuls who participate in giveaways every single day with optimism of winning something. I have heard of people who spend hours entering giveaways because that is their real job. They use prizes as a source of income. I think I would be a little too nervous to rely on giveaways as my source of income. But hey…if someone can do, then they deserve applause.

Do you enter giveaways and sweepstakes? Have you won anything? We would love to hear from you.

Laundry days...

I have been trying to learn how to love laundry days, but thus far my attempts have been unsuccessful. To be honest with you, I hate doing laundry! I don’t mind throwing clothes in the washing machine or dryer, it is the folding, ironing and putting away part that I do not like. I would much rather clean the bathroom than do laundry!

After doing laundry, folding clean bed sheets and storing them in our closet is an easy task until the day that I have to pull the sheets out. I then spend extra 5 minutes trying to retrieve every component that goes into changing the bed sheets.

Recently I came across a neat time saving tip that I would love to share today with you. Once you fold your clean sheets, stack them all together and store them inside of a pillow case. Easy as 1, 2, 3! Now I do not have to search for a matching pillow case or lost bed sheets, because now all the components of bed making are together in one place.

What is your time saving tip?

Frugal Reads

When I have a free moment (which doesn’t happen too often) I enjoy reading. At night I read the Bible and was beyond blessed when God spoke to me through the book of Job (I will share with you about my experience in weeks to come). In between studying for classes, I like to read books and articles about living frugal. I know you must be shocked?!  So this is what I have on my to read list as soon as I am done with school in October.

- The Complete Tightwad Gazette. I started to read this book two years ago and am determined to finish it by Dec. 31st.

- Back to Basics: Traditional Kitchen Wisdom

- Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I have ordered these books through Wal-Mart, which had the best deal, and can’t wait to read them upon my return from Spain. I will try making homemade crusty bread and share my journey with you. Thus far my attempt of making homemade bread has been unsuccessful.

- The Farm to Table Cookbook

- Green Home Improvement

- Country Wisdom & Know-How

- Thriving During Challenging Times

- The Encyclopedia of Country Living

- One Day at a Time in Al-Anon, The Twelve Steps for Christians and Let Go and Let God. A precious friend of mine, whom I have never met face to face, has sent me these books to help me understand my daddy’s battle with drinking.

I am also fascinated with Amish communities and if I could, I would love to live with Amish family for 1 month and learn new cooking and homesteading techniques. It would be a dream come true to follow their daily schedule of farming and cooking. I realize it is hard work, but I believe I would find it very fulfilling. Note to myself…find books about Amish living. In a mean time since I can not stop working for 1 month for fulfill my dream, plus I do not think my husband would like the idea of living without me that long, I must find something else to do. In fact, an older couple from church owns a dairy farm and I have asked them if I can come one day after I am done with school to help them with their cows. With a big smile and a facial expression, “You have no idea what you are signing up for”, they graciously agreed for me to help them feed baby cows in the fall. I will make sure to document my farming experience.

In a mean time I would love to hear from you. What books are you currently reading? If you have any suggestions on how to acquire the books for very little out of pocket cost, I would be forever grateful.

Be content with what you have

It was 100 degrees outside, but it sure felt like 300 degrees as I was riding in my car with the windows down, because my AC was not working. Daniel and I had to run an errand in a near by town and riding in my car was our only option that day. Ill from feeling overheated and sweaty I looked at my left arm and shook my head. Seriously, I looked like half cooked lobster. One arm that enjoyed the sunshine because of the rolled down window was completely red and burned, while my other arm was as white as a ghost. My husband was also feeling the weather, because he had to deal with not so friendly me.

Before heading home Daniel proposed for us to stop by the mall so he can see if the shoes that he has been wanting are on sale. I reminded him that I needed a button up shirt to go with a skirt that I was planning to take on a business trip. After we enjoyed a small discount of purchasing Daniel’s shoes, I started to look for a shirt that I wanted. We stopped by one store and they didn’t have exactly what I wanted. The cheapest button up shirt was $29 dollars. We moved on to the next store where I spotted “the one”, the beautiful pink button up shirt with no bright discounted sale stickers on it. I put it back on the rack only to be question by my husband if something was wrong with the shirt. The price was just not right ($39 dollars), but he nicely told me to get it. But I just couldn’t see myself paying $39 dollars for one shirt. The $39 dollars could feed my family for a whole week and the shirt…well…it would probably be hanging in my closet after the trip.

Since my trip was 3 weeks away, I figured that I would look through my closet as soon as I come home and see if I can find something to go with the skirt. When I opened the closet door, I was ashamed at how much clothes I have yet I complained hours earlier that I didn’t have anything to go with the skirt. In a matter of a few minutes I found a beautiful off white shirt that would look great with my brown skirt that I was planning to take on my business trip. This episode of wanting a new shirt made me realize that I should be content with what I have, because I have been blessed beyond my imagination.

When my mama visited us this summer from a small country of Belarus she also reminded me that I have been blessed by simply asking me if she could take several toothbrushes with her home. Of course I didn’t mind at all and asked if she was taking the toothbrushes home for her family. She looked at me and smile. My mama was bringing toothbrushes as a gift for others! Several people have requested for her to bring a good American toothbrush. I stood quite and humbled by the fact that someone in a foreign country wanted a toothbrush that cost several dollars for a gift instead of a fancy dust collector. When was the last time I stopped and thanked God for letting me have access to great dental care through easy access to toothbrush and toothpaste? Hmmm….I can’t recall it!

How about you, my friend, do you have a humbling moment when you realized that you should be content with what you have? We would love to hear!

Visiting Spain

I have been blessed with an opportunity to travel to Spain for 10 days on a business trip. Today I would like to share with you some of the pictures that I have taken thus far.


As soon as we (my co-worker and I) arrived to the hotel, I couldn’t wait to go check out a grocery store that was located within walking distance. I am happy to report that the prices are very reasonable and in some cases are much cheaper than in the US. Unfortunately I didn’t see any signs that gave explanation of coupon policy, thus I am guessing no coupons in Spain…but I also can’t speak or read Spanish…so maybe I missed the sign.

Next I couldn’t wait to try Spanish cuisine. We ate a lot of tapas. According to wikipedia, “tapas is the name of a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks, in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold (such as mixed olives and cheese) or warm (such as fried squid)”. I must say desserts are just so-so for the exception of homemade ice cream…I can so eat it every day.




Sight seeing was enjoyable. I noticed that almost every single building was covered with graffiti, which in Spain represents the creativity on an artist. My favorite part of sight seeing was visiting local farmer’s market. It was the biggest farmer’s market that I have ever seen. Each shop is filled with fresh produce, meat or fish. The prices for fruit were unbelievably cheap and you guessed it… I bought some yummy fresh fruit. I made a mistake of picking up a strange looking fruit to smell, only to be told later to be careful because it has thorns…well…it was too late… my fingers were full of them and needless to say I did not purchase the funky thorn filled fruit.









We also had an opportunity to stop by the beach and wet our feet in the
Mediterranean Sea.

The rest of the week will be spent at the trade show speaking to new and existing customers…woot…woot…

Organizing Jewelry

I have quite a few pieces of jewelry, but I seem to wear the same rings and earrings all the time. On a special occasion I will change the earrings and add a necklace, but those occasions are few and far in between. And when I do decided to wear a necklace, I would spend my precious time untangling jewelry. One day I had enough and I decided to get organized.

A while ago I acquired free plastic you can stick anywhere types of hooks, thank to coupons. I figured it was time to put them to use. I have glued the hooks on the wall in my closet and hung necklaces that took up too much space in jewelry box. The result is wonderful. I no longer have to spend my precious time untangling that one necklace that I want to wear.

If gluing hooks is not for you, I have another option. You can organize your jewelry by using bulletin board with tacks attached to it. You can then hang your precious trinkets tangle free on the bulletin board.

Do you have jewelry organizing tricks?

Unplug Everything

The first year Daniel and I were married, I didn’t pay much attention to our electric bill. All I did was write a check, stick a stamp and take the envelope to the post office. The second year of our married life things have changed and I began to really monitor our monthly electric bill. Hours of research have helped me understand what was causing our bill, especially during the winter months, to climb up.

I began to pay closer attention to our habits. Sometimes I feel that I am a drill sergeant at our home, when it comes to saving money on electricity. My poor Daniel gets to hear my lovely voice when he keeps the fridge door open for more than 10 seconds. When my hubby stares at the contents in the fridge for what feels like 10 minutes he sees food and I see dollar signs flying out of the fridge. Although the fridge has to work harder to keep the air cold during the 10 seconds that Daniel tries to decide what to eat, I found that something else can have enormous impact on electric bill.


That something else is your plugged in appliances and electronics. After reading that approximately ¾ of the energy that appliances and electronics burn happens while they are turned off!!! Within minutes every single item that was plugged in into the electric outlet in our house was unplugged. Over the course of several months our attitude towards reserving electricity has changed. After coffee is made in the morning, we turn the machine off and unplug it. If we do not use our laptop, we unplug it. During the summer time, we only use one alarm clock, thus the second one stays unplugged for 3 months.

The only thing that I have yet to do is to invest money in a Smart strip. Because we have too many cords behind our TV, it is practically impossible to plug and unplug X-Box, DVD player, TV and tons of other never used gadgets. Smart Strip automatically shuts off the power, when you turn off electronics or appliances. The power returns when the item is turned on again. You can purchase a 10-outlet strip for $31 dollars at amazon.com. Purchasing one is my next project as soon as I am done with school. Also I am planning to make a solar pannel out of copper pennies with my father in law in the fall. I will make sure to document the project.

How do you save money on electricity?

Cooking/Freezing/Canning

There are days that I stay so busy that I can barely find time to take a breath of fresh air much less find the time to cook. Recently I have been fascinated with the idea of cooking ahead and freezing, but have been too nervous to try it. We are not very good at eating frozen leftovers.

But this weekend I was involuntary forced to make several meals ahead, because I will be traveling to Spain for work in a week (I will schedule posts ahead of time). To prevent my hubby eating out too much, I decided to make several meals and freeze them

- taco meat
- chicken (will make pre-made pizzas before I leave)
- banana nut muffins


I was so motivated to cook that I even decided to can! I used my very first tomatoes to make can homemade tomato sauce. Only I was very disappointed to learn that 10 tomatoes make only 1 jar of tomato sauce. You should see my face when I filled up a jar that was way too big for the amount of sauce that I made. I had to run to the garage to get small jars.

In between cooking I was typing up a paper for school, so my next mission was making apple sauce. I purchased 10 lbs of apples for $3 and was thrilled to make 4 jars of homemade apple sauce. At work I love snacking at apple sauce instead of the very tempting vending machine snacks!

So my friends, I need your help! Have you tried cooking ahead and freezing your dinners? If so what sources for recipes do you use?

Where are you, my ponytail holder?

I am a simple gal and if I could I would live in sweat pants every day. I would never wear make up and would always put my hair up in a ponytail. My dream of always putting my hair up becomes a reality, when I step outside and am welcomed by 300° F hotness. I am then faced with a choice of either keeping my hair down and by the end of the day have a freeze ball for a hair do or putting my hair up in a ponytail and look normal. The latter always wins.

The problem that I am always faced with is finding the billion ponytail holders that are scattered around the house. You can find them probably in every corner of every single room.

You can find a ponytail holder in the kitchen

You can find a ponytail holder in the bathroom

You can also find them in the living room

But for some odd reason, I can never find them when I need them. So I decided to implement a trick that I read about in a magazine not too long ago. I was able to use an old keychain holder that has been collecting dust in our drawer.

The next step was to find all the gazillion ponytail holders around the house. Finally I clipped all the ponytail holders together on a key chain and have not had a problem of locating the much needed ponytail holder every since.

Be a Blessing to Someone Today...

I have never met Jenn in person, but always enjoy talking to her on the phone. Our friendship started when I had to ask her for work related help and in no time I had my answer. Months later we were talking about families, weekend plans and exchanging TGIF on Fridays! It is always a joy talking to Jenn on the phone, even if she is miles and miles away.

The distance does not keep our friendship from growing and one day while we were exchanging work related e-mails, I had a brilliant idea. I should go home, make a care package and send it to Jenn’s work as a surprise. That day I couldn’t wait to go home and pack all the goodies in a basket and send it the next day.

Several days after the package was sent, I received a phone call. I could picture Jenn’s grin and surprised look as she thanked me for the basket. But what Jenn doesn’t know is that I was blessed by her excitement far more than she would ever know. Act 30:25 says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

So you all wonder why in the world I am sharing this story with you. Well, get ready, I have a challenge for you. Find someone this week to bless! If you have a garden, share your crops, if you have extra cash, pay someone’s bill, if you meet a stranger, say a kind word. Let your imagination go wild, the options are endless. But there is a catch, you can’t tell anyone of your good deed. “But you have shared yours”, you may say. Well, I just wanted to give an example of how I was blessed by blessing someone else. My husband didn’t know about it, and he is usually the first in line to hear when something exciting happens. When you start sharing with the whole world about the good deeds that you do, the spotlight begins to shine very bright on you. With the bright light the initial intention of blessing someone else starts to lose its intended purpose. As the word says in Matt 6:3-4, “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

So are you in? Has that someone already come to your mind?

Matt 5:16 says, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Dancing away...

Can I share a secret with you? I love when the Holy Spirit that lives within me does cartwheels! Ok, before you think that I am crazing read on. A lot of times the Lord speaks to me when I am driving in my car listening to the Christian radio station. During this particular season of my life, when I hear “Until the Whole World Sings” by Casting Crowns the Holy Spirit within me dances. I can not describe to you but I when I hear this song my hands are lifted high, well one hand at a time and the only thing that keeps me in my seat is my seatbelt. I want to shout and every word that utters out of my mouth as I sing along has a sincere meaning. For example, the one part of the song goes like this, “Lord I want to feel with Your heart/ See the world through Your eyes/ I want to be Your hands and feet/ I want to live a life that leads.” The first time I heard this song, I had to ask myself, do I truly want to see the pain of others through God’s eyes? Yes! I want the Lord to use me to minister to others. I want to be His hands and feet. Do you?

When I sing I truly mean what I sing and that is when the Holy Spirit within me does His cartwheels. The minute that I wake up each morning I have a choice to be a walking missionary for the Kingdom of God. You and I have been instructed in Matt 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” But when was the last time we anonymously dropped of groceries at the house of the family who was in need? Or paid someone’s electric bill? As I sing, my words mean nothing if they are not backed out by my actions. And trust me, the Word of God says, that “it is much more a blessing to give than to receive.” () So let’s unit and “sing until the whole world hears.” Let’s show God’s love through our actions by helping those who are in need (“But be doers of the Word and not hearers only” James 1:22) so that God can get all the glory, honor and praise.

And I am waiting...

                                                          (my new friend from Chile)
                           
I decided to leave around 1 pm today to go to Atlanta to pick up my mama. Well, about 40 minutes into my trip my GPS completely died….no warning, no nothing. Anxiously I pulled to the near by McDonald and checked for directions online. And let me tell you something, I am the world’s worst direction follower. I was certain that I would end up in Florida before arriving to the Atlanta airport. Thankfully I didn’t have to make a lot of turns and in 2.5 hours in I was at the airport.

I first noticed people who were glued to the TV watching a soccer game. The shouts and screams of the diverse group of people made me feel so proud to be an American. As I passed the group, I decided it was time to find a comfortable place where I would spend the next 8 hours. Atlanta Bread Company seemed like a perfect place where I can get online (I had to pay for wireless…boooo) and enjoy a sandwich. Within 5 minutes I had a family of 5 people come up to me and said, “You are from Belarus! We have the same shirts!” Needless to say I enjoyed meeting my countrymen!

Meeting new people is my favorite part of being at the airport. Before too long I made a friend from Chile and she kept me company for several hours while I sat the ABC. Now I have 5 more hours of waiting for my mama to arrive and I just can’t wait!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE SWEETS

Confession is good for a soul or so they say. Thus I must confess to you that I love eating sweets. If I could I would eat dessert with every meal, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) for me I married a health nut that avoids eating sugar. So when he does eat a spoonful of banana pudding or a bite of a cake, it is a big deal at our house.

I was surprised one day when Daniel looked through dessert menu at a restaurant and wanted for us to split a Tiramisu. If you are not familiar, Tiramisu is a light coffee dessert. Well, since I do not like the taste of coffee I was not very thrilled with his chose, but decided to go along since he almost never has a say so in dessert choosing department.

The dessert arrived! It looked good, but I was skeptical that it would actually taste good so I let Daniel have the first bite. He said that it was good, and put the spoon down. I had one bite, and then a second one, and then an eighth one…but was considered enough to let Daniel take the remainder (may be a bite or two) of what was left to work.

As much as I don’t like coffee taste, this dessert was heavenly. Seriously, it was amazing! I guess it would be nice of me to tell you which restaurant we were eating at…huh?! Occasionally for special events we enjoy driving to Macaroni Grill, which is about an hour away from our house.

After the night that I was introduced to Macaroni Grill’s Tiramisu, I have craved that dessert ever since. As you can imagine driving an hour for a dessert would be insane, so not too long ago my husband had to run errands near Macaroni Grill and I asked if he would stop by the restaurant and pick up Tiramisu, because I was craving it and was dreaming about it. By the way, I finally found a local source of Tiramisu.

My sweet Daniel brought the dessert back for me. Since he drove a motorcycle, the beautiful Tiramisu got smooshed. It didn’t look pretty, as you can see on the picture, but it still tasted wonderfully good! I ate and I ate and I ate until I could no longer expand. I did let my husband take one bite; after all he was the one who bought the dessert.

Anyhow, the point of me sharing this story with you is because I need your help. I want to know what is your favorite dessert. Perhaps I can try something new and change my favorite dessert, until then I am stuck on Tiramisu!

Am I really a TIGHTWAD?

According to the dictionary a tightwad is a parsimonious person, in other words thrifty, frugal or sparring. And that tightwad is me. When Daniel and I changed our spending habits, I thought the word tightwad described our newly found lifestyle perfectly. Daniel began to ask me if I had a coupon for every item that he was interested in purchasing. And I…well I became a drill sergeant. Every time Daniel would open a fridge door, I prepared my speech on how he was wasting electricity. What I mean by that is when he stands in front of the fridge with an open door for 10 minutes trying to decided what he wants to eat, he sees food in front of him, while I see dollar bills flying out of the fridge as the electricity bill creeps up.

One may observe my money saving ways and calcify me as a tightwad right away. However several weeks ago I learned that there are several levels of a tightwadness. My co-worker shared with me an article that she read about tightwads and I was excited to read it for more frugal ideas. Instead I learned that there are extreme tightwads and mild tightwads, which I fit the latter category.

As I was reading the article, I was shocked what people are willing to do in order to save a dollar or two. For instance, a man bought a meal from McDonalds to enjoy for dinner. At first, I didn’t think much about his trip to McDonalds because the article didn’t say anything about him using coupons to save money on food. But as I continued to read the article it said that the man goes home, washes the plastic cup and then casually stops by McDonalds through out the week for free refills using the same cup. The sad part about the story is that he does not pay for his refills.

Sadness continues through out the article. That same man apparently loves red peppers seasoning that you top your pizza with for a “kicking” taste. When he visits pizza parlor he empties the whole pepper shaker into a napkin and takes it home for later enjoyment I guess during his late night pizza parties.

The story does not stop here. Half way through the articles I started to question if I really fit in with tightwads. I mean seriously, making frequent trips to fast food restaurants for free refills and emptying pepper shaker were not part of my changed lifestyle. Personally I think the described tightwad behavior is unethical and can be classified as stealing.

The article also mentioned that people take 20 or more napkins home from fast food restaurants in order to avoid paying full price for a pack of napkins at the store. Ok…I admit that I have grabbed 2 or 3 napkins before from a fast food restaurant, when picking up to go order. But 20 napkins, never?!?! I don’t think my conscious would allow me to take more than 5 napkins per visit. And my visits to fast food restaurants are few and far in between.

So as I questioned myself if I can join the tightwad ranking after reading the article, I finally made the decision that yes I can! However, I do not believe I want to be labeled the extreme tightwad or engage in emptying a pepper shaker at a pizza parlor or grabbing 20 napkins on my way out of the restaurant.