Maybe times are hard for plastic surgeons, though. If there's one thing people with real financial troubles can skimp on, it's plastic surgery.
In San Francisco, Cooper Marcus, 36, has started choosing recipes based on the ingredients on sale at the market. Mr. Marcus canceled the family’s subscription to Netflix, his premium cable package and a wine club membership. He uses a program on his iPhone to find the cheapest gas and drives out of his way to save 50 cents per gallon.I guess greenness isn't the style anymore or Marcus would be ashamed to say he was driving a lot more just to save some money.
“It seems a little crazy,” he laughs, then adds: “I’m frugal and loving it.”
Kellee Sikes, 37, a consultant in Kirkwood, Mo., no longer uses paper napkins. Ms. Sikes uses organic cloth ones until they get threadbare and then uses them as cleaning rags.Oh, bullshit. It takes years for cloth napkins to reach the rag stage. They do make great rags, though, but this napkins-to-rags stuff doesn't fit the trend story. Unless that "organic" cloth is really crappy, in which case, it's not to frugal to buy it.
When they are no longer useful, she puts them in the in-ground waste composter in the backyard. She plans to start burying her dogs’ feces there, which saves on the cost of sending refuse to a landfill.Oh, now they've deteriorated to the point where they are not even usable as rags? Spare me. And TMI about the dog shit.
“I recently heard a phrase: ‘Never waste a crisis,’ ” Ms. Sikes said. “I love it. This is a chance for us to re-examine what’s important.”Never waste a crisis... Yeah, somebody said that recently. But it sure as hell wasn't about resisting spending money.
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78 comments:
Gleefully frugal? If I did not know better- the silliness of some people- I would have thought this article was a pure fabrication. Some of the people interviewed were just to silly to be true.
What next, the frugal glee club?
I’m not going to be too hard on these people, since I can relate to their plight.
Same as everywhere else, hard times have fallen on the House of Bissage.
No longer can we afford the little luxuries of life and Mrs. Bissage will have to make do without any orgasms.
Batteries don’t come cheap.
Paper napkins are better because you use a lot of energy to heat the water to wash the cloth napkins.
How do you save fifty cents a gallon on gasoline??? I did once see gasoline on Highway 101 cost twenty-six cents more than the place where I filled up only two exits further down the road, but fifty cents? Of course San Francisco is a little weird, ya know.
I hope Ms. Sikes checked out a good web site on composting -- I'm not sure that fecal matter from carnivores is recommended. But I haven't been allowed to compost in this development where I live so I've forgotten a lot (can't mount solar hot water or solar electric cells on the roof here, either, lest I disturb the property values).
It's always funny when reality and the NYT meet.
Never waste a crisis.....
Reminds me of another saying.
"The worse the better". V.I.Lenin
Is it enough of a crisis at the House of Bissage for Mrs. Bissage to go "organic"? I have it on good authority you're wonderful enough!
Sounds to me like the Boomers are trying to take on their dim financial futures by practicing Living Poor for Dummies. Maybe the Boomers also want something to feel special about, since their skills are seen as irrelevant these days by their super kids. The surest thing about the Bailout with borrowed "cash" is a coming mega-inflation at the same time that the retirees savings and pensions have all been Bankrupted by the non-payment of the loans created over the last 10 years of rewarding loans made when the old credit standards had been intentionally removed by our Governing Representatives in DC. Next certain stop is the world currency issued by a world Governing Body, not elected, but agreed to in the treaty ratified by our ever watchful Repersentatives. Voila, the Social Security ponzi scheme in the USA will not have to be fully funded by this new world Governing Body. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Well, at least we can say we got to know Obama when he was still on his way up.
45 years from now Dana Carvey's grandson will be on Saturday Night Live reprising his grandpa's role as the bitter old man.....
"Yep, back in the recession of '09 we had to watch basic cable, no fancy pantsy HBO or Cinemax for us. We had to suffer watching endless reruns of Law and Order, but it made us able to pass the bar exam. We also didn't have wine clubs. We had to buy our wine in stores, in peril of accidently picking up a screwtop bottle. Then we would use cloth rags to clean and we would then wrap our dog's poop in the rags and bury in the backyard......and we liked it!"
I might add that my wife has always set her menus by what's cheap and what's fresh at the grocery store.
“It’s a chance to pass along the frugal lifestyle that my mother gave to me,” she says...
Chances are, your mother would look at what you are are doing, in the context of how you are living, and properly pronounce you a tightwad.
"The mantra is cut, cut, cut — magazine and cable subscriptions, credit cards, fancy coffee drinks and your own hair."
But not your newspaper subscription.
I can imagine a series of articles extolling the uses of the NYT:
Here's a diagram on how to fold your used newspaper into disposable garbage cans!
Use newspaper to wrap presents!
Why bag your work lunch in expensive paper bags when you can wrap it in newspaper?
And a new slogan:
The NYT, it's not just for your pets to shit on anymore.
Isn't it about the time when we could start to be composting the Boomers themselves? Shouldn't they be loving it?
I luxuriate with the Sunday issue of Popular Mechanics myself.
Convert those unused Sherman tank thrust bearings into clothesline pulleys.
How about this: We legalize murder on Earth Day of those over 65 ( or smell too much of patchouli ) as long you bring the body to some local composting center. Save The Earth...and Social Security, too!
Unless Mr. Frugality uses 80 gallons of gas a month, wouldn't he be better off tossing the iPhone, replacing it with a basic cell plan, and filling up at the local station down the street? (I realize that he may still be within his two-year contract period with AT&T, but seriously, an iPhone-toting San Francisco yuppie as the new face of frugality?)
What really sucks is when people start rationing those blog posts.
Very very cheap.
Mercifully, they eschewed reusable toilet..."wipes".
WALLYPOP: Supporting the natural lifestyle.
Using cloth toilet wipes actually has many advantages. For one, it's a lot more comfortable and soft on your most delicate body parts. It's also more economical, uses less paper, and saves you those late-night trips to the store. And cloth wipes can be used wet without any of the sopping disintegration that regular toilet paper is prone to...
Lately, with all the media attention, there've been a lot of naysayers talking about the stench. I can honestly say, our wipes don't stink. They don't go into a sealed container. They go into a little (lidded) garbage can in the bathroom. Many people use a wet bag, as pictured below. There is no odor.
But, really, you might be wondering, how do I use these?
Using cloth wipes for urine-only visits to the bathroom is so simple it's hardly worth mentioning...
Using cloth wipes for other toilet visits is not any more difficult, but there is a certain ick factor involved. Consider how much waste you're willing to leave on your children's diapers or wipes when you toss them in the pail. Use the same standards for yourself. Shake, scrape, swish, or squirt off anything you don't want in your laundry, and then toss the wipe into the pail or container. (Personally speaking, we just wipe and toss in the pail. Our wipes have minimal staining.)
Traditionalguy,
You left out that there would be a gleeful acceptance and we will all live a life of, er, well, hmm,... government sponsored joy?
It's so utterly adorable to watch the NYT "go native."
We all miss the conspicuous consuption days. But replacing them with conspicous cheap living is a great leap backwards. While it's true that the advantages of being Rich vanish when everyone is rich, this is overkill. So shall we welcome the new era of shortages imposed upon us "for our own good" all you Joe the Plumbers out there as a fun new hobby? Or do we start back to our own Industrial production in the USA and use our own coal and our own oil and tell the Sorosacrats and their new figurehead Obama to go to hell? Our time of decision must come before the Government has criminalized our guns and taxed out of existence our coal and oil resources based upon a 100% fake "science" about a Crisis of Evil CO2 everywhere.
Ron, things have gotten really bad and we’ve had to get back to basics.
For example, Mrs. Bissage pinches pennies by making butter the old-fashioned way.
What a great gal!
(Personally speaking, we just wipe and toss in the pail. Our wipes have minimal staining.)
How nice to know that their stuff don't stink, or stain. I suppose they chew chlorophyll tablets.
(It's easy to avoid those late-night trips to the store: notice when you're running low, and plan ahead.)
Hey,
Troop, Those words are expensive! You do know that Althouse is getting married and every buck is going to have to count? What, you just think that people should just bandy about words with abandon and bankrupt themselves in the process?
You do know that the government has not bailed out Main Street, as promised. People have to gleefully ration their words to preserve their vocabulary for the tough times ahead.
A follow-up:
Lately, with all the media attention, there've been a lot of naysayers talking about the stench. I can honestly say, our wipes don't stink.
That about sums it up, doesn't it?
Our shit don't stink.
"Never waste a crisis... Yeah, somebody said that recently. But it sure as hell wasn't about resisting spending money."
LOL! ...this is a prime example of why the lefty bloggers hate Althouse.
Maybe if they changed the NYT to be a compostable buttwipe (not just metaphorically!) more people would subscribe!
Ad on bus in midtown: "You know what you can now do with MoDo, right?... The New NYT."
Big Mike -
It's very easy to save 50 cents a gallon on gas if you live in San Francisco. Simply fill up your tank in San Francisco, drive into Nevada and fill up again.
Then drive back, of course.
Cancels netflix (which has plans as low as $4.99 a month)... but still has that iphone and the AT&T service package required to use it.
Even if frugal, a person has got to be seen in public still and can't skimp on appearances.
"Mr. Marcus canceled the family’s subscription to Netflix, his premium cable package and a wine club membership. He uses a program on his iPhone to find the cheapest gas and drives out of his way to save 50 cents per gallon."
Man, this is what it feels like to be one of those people like in Bangladesh or Ethiopia or something!
Did you ever wonder where the New York Times finds the people who populate these kinds of articles? Did you ever notice how similar they all seem? I think it's the same 5 people used over and over again. These are the same oxygen thieves who fussed about "bedscarves" and who beamed with pride when they cut their electric bills to only $500 a month and who valiantly fought their neighborhood associations for the right to erect clotheslines behind their 3 million dollar homes.
These are the kind of people, in my darkest moments, who I'd like to see utterly financially destroyed, even if it meant plunging the world into a miserable depression. I want to see Becky Martin selling her hair to a wig maker in order to help pay the rent on their two room apartment. I want to see Cooper Marcus waiting in line for 6 hours to get a tin cup full of watery soup. I want to see Kellee Sikes turning tricks in the city park in order to afford beans for her children. It's the vulgar decadence and endless stupidity of these people who brought us the Age of Barack, and I'd like them to suffer for their choice.
I know, I know. Evil thoughts. It's the deprivation of this new Age of Austerity that has given rise to these shameful, misanthropic thoughts. I apologize.
@Ron, were you asleep during your third grade arithmetic class? The first Boomer was born in 1946 so the oldest Boomer is only 62. You'll have to wait 3 years.
@John, the trouble with Californicators moving to Nevada, Taxachuesetts residents moving to New Hampshire, and New Yawkers moving to other states on the eastern seaboard is that they enjoy the lower costs and lower taxes, but bring their stupid voting patterns with them so they start screwing up wherever they wind up. The connection between reflexively voting Democratic and screwed up governments seems beyond their ability to make.
"the trouble with Californicators"
Don't blame us. It's the people who moved to California who upset our natural Western conservatism. Which is why it's still the urbanized areas of LA and San Fran (those pockets of migration) who are all blue while most of the rest of the state still votes red.
Those people came here for some exciting opportunity stayed a bit, mucked things up while telling everyone how alienating California is, then move away to another state.
"How about this: We legalize murder on Earth Day of those over 65 ( or smell too much of patchouli ) as long you bring the body to some local composting center."
I often smell of patchouli. Pogostemon cablin is a wonderful material and an important component of many great perfumes, such as Diorella, Arpège, Opium, Youth Dew, Tabu... I understand the associations people make between patchouli and dirty hippies, but I cannot allow patchouli to be maligned in my presence without defending its reputation.
And no, I haven't given up patchouli in this Age of Austerity.
Reusable toilet wipes?
Count me in for a garden hose and adjustable nozzle next to the throne.
Hillbilly bidet.
That's nothing. I'm so frugal I'm buying domestic caviar and get my white truffles, vanilla beans, and coconut oil through eBay.
This is a delightful article. It reminds me how so many of my archly politically liberal friends are actually practical conservative in areas apart from politics. Yes, conservative in the original sense of the word. They're embarrassedly conservative with their own resources but oddly liberal with public money. One guy actually cuts coupons, cuts them precisely, organizes them, pays attention to dates and uses them. Another hosts pot luck parties rather than just buying and preparing everything herself. But then retains her liberal cred by subversively or at least subconsciously organizing the pot luck by first asking you what you intend to bring, then telling you what not to bring because somebody's already bringing that. Not a bad idea but something that pretty much eliminates the "luck" portion of pot luck, and the whole thing is conservative at its root. She also does BYOB, which until I met her was something I thought reserved for college-age soirées . Ideally there'll be surplus and her own cabinet stocked for free. A couple also shops at thrift stores. Hard to imagine wearing something infused with someone else's vibes unless I already loved that person, like, say, my brother whose jacket I nicked.
My own mother, a frightful driver who tailgates because she doesn't much care for people slipping in front of her, clicks her transmission to neutral on down slopes with the thought of the car intermittent idling while driving saves on gasoline, which strikes me as just flat dangerous. She also owns a can crusher, saves soda cans in great volume in yard bags, clutters her garage with filled bags, then turns them over for cash. Sorts plastic according the the number on the bottom. Newspapers too. The good thing about that is there's always a ready supply of raw material for large paper mâché projects.
Paladian:
Screw waiting for dark moments. Do the hate thing 247 - your blood pressure will thank you!
As to where the NYT finds these people, I remember reading an article about a company somewhere which does searches on the internet to find people that i.e. use their dog's crap as compost. Then the company puts the respondents in their database for when the NYT comes calling.
Which is why it's still the urbanized areas of LA and San Fran (those pockets of migration) who are all blue while most of the rest of the state still votes red.
Exactly!! This is why we in the red state areas are embarrased to admit we are even from California when traveling.
California is full of loons. Fortunately they all congregate together, in their own little echo chamber fantasy land.
My income is about the same, but a good chunk of my wealth has evaporated. It's all very character building. When I pass into the kingdom of heaven, I won't have to spend a lot of time in the checked baggage line.... I haven't made any conscious efforts to economize but my credit card balance is generally a few hundred dollars less per month. I no longer buy heirloom jewelry from the Romanov estate in a pathetic attempt to buy the affections of pretty women. You can save a lot by not buying heirloom jewelry, and your soul is better for the frugality....On the surface, cancelling your Netflix subscription doesn't save all that much money, but the time spent watching crappy movies might more profitably be spent in collecting deposit bottles or staring into space.
Let me pile on the guy from SF.
Iphones are free, I assume. Both to buy and to operate.
The guy should go to the library and use their computer to find his cheap gas.
Why does he have a car, btw? Isn't there pretty good mass transit in SF?
How do you save fifty cents a gallon on gasoline???
Easy, don't stop in Gorda, just a bit south of the bay area.
According to AAA spokeswoman Rolayne Fairclough, California has the highest gas prices in the nation... about 50 cents more than the national average.
"I know, I know. Evil thoughts. It's the deprivation of this new Age of Austerity that has given rise to these shameful, misanthropic thoughts. I apologize."
Apology accepted.
Sent from my iPhone
On a broader note, why do people think it more moral to spend money on abc instead of xyz?
I have a relative that won't have cable (which I have) and constantly harps how noble she is or silly those with cable are?
Yet she goes weekly to expensive restaurants which I seldom, if ever, do. I don't ever bring that up.
You make your choice about what you like. Its not noble either way.
Bissage said...
Same as everywhere else, hard times have fallen on the House of Bissage.
No longer can we afford the little luxuries of life and Mrs. Bissage will have to make do without any orgasms.
Batteries don’t come cheap.
Apparently neither does Mrs. Bissage.
I use the Honda portable generator for the last few days of the month to stay just under the 600kwh low-winter-rate limit, in the summer.
It costs more in gas and pollution at the time, but has a big effect on the winter bills.
AJ Lynch is so frugal he is recycling his "i.e."s and using them as "e.g."s.
It costs more in gas and pollution...
You actually pay for your pollution?
Yeah I had to sell my book on grammar usage to pay for my netflix bill.Heh.
You know, if you take one piece of toilet paper...
‘Never waste a crisis,’
The same sage also said I dont know what to believe
So, a crisis might not be a crisis.. unless you believe its a crisis.. but if the so called crisis is not politically palatable then you have the FBI open up an investigation.
You never know when a pirate's finger prints might come in handy.
Is it any wonder why newspaper are tanking when they print stories like this? It seems designed to piss off normal people.
The one good thing (perhaps the only good thing) is that it resulted in a classic Althouse fisking.
OK, I agree with Palladian on this, big time:
Did you ever wonder where the New York Times finds the people who populate these kinds of articles? Did you ever notice how similar they all seem? I think it's the same 5 people used over and over again.
Yep. If they weren't telling us how insufferably noble they are with their trite little acts of frugal sympbolism in the New Age of Austerity....and the Times extolling them as moral exemplars simply because they have the discretion to "save" or not while lesser Americans are FORCED to..
What else would they do with their leisure time activity of preaching to others and looking down their noses?
Same 5 people 2 years ago were proudly telling us they belong to environmental legal groups blocking ANWR, any new coal or nuke plants. They drive a hybrid for their 260 mile wekly commute to law or university or doctors offices. But unlike plebians, they have discovered that drycleaner bags can be recycled for about 20 uses rather than just be thrown into landfills, get loose, and possibly end up in the ocean and endanger marine mammmals. And they pray for a day when dry cleaners develop a higher conscience and demand "new, safer bags." And no, they don't want windmills in San Francisco or the Hamptons because they endanger "precious shore birds" as well as disrupt the view from their houses.
And 5 years before that, the same 5 people were sneering at stupid people with their stupid archaic BBQs and picnics in the New York Times. No carcinogenic red meat hamburgers, unsustainable agriculture pesticide-treated corn on the cob, or "potato salads" and processed beer created when people didn't know any better.
No, they have learned that tossed arigula and grilled baby squash imported from Guatemala is far more satisfying than the ignorant people's weekend treats. And THEY go 70 miles in their non-SUV planet destroyer to pick up organic blue sweet corn from a "dedicated small farmer" that costs 4 dollars an ear (but is worth it.)
The Times always likes to cast one of the 5 Elite as having a weakness...and how they are presently rising above it..unlike the great unwashed. "Hot dogs and hamburgers are definitely out. And serving beer when a good Chardonnay is available is just insane. But I do like chicken. Not the fried sort, of course, but lean free range chicken rubbed in 1st press virgin olive oil and fresh rosemary. But of course I limit myself to 5 ounces..though it is a struggle.."
Palladian -
These are the kind of people, in my darkest moments, who I'd like to see utterly financially destroyed, even if it meant plunging the world into a miserable depression. I want to see Becky Martin selling her hair to a wig maker in order to help pay the rent on their two room apartment. I want to see Cooper Marcus waiting in line for 6 hours to get a tin cup full of watery soup.
"I know, I know. Evil thoughts. It's the deprivation of this new Age of Austerity that has given rise to these shameful, misanthropic thoughts. I apologize."
Don't apologize, Palladian, or fall for it. I'm sure the Times will come out tomorrow and reveal that this article is a parody.
"According to AAA spokeswoman Rolayne Fairclough, California has the highest gas prices in the nation... about 50 cents more than the national average."
Because of the taxes levied by the state at about $.50 more per gallon than other states.
Being born and raised in Central California, we used to have the lowest gas prices in the nation until tax and spend social-democracy took over in Sacramento.
Now we have the most expensive gasoline in the nation and our electricity rates - once low too - are high and are going to go through the roof due to our legislature recently mandating high percentages of our electricity come from 'alternative sources'.
Our sales tax is almost 10% and other taxes and fees are going up as well. We have about 25% or more of all the illegal aliens in the nation.
And, if CA is not the most business-antagonistic state in the union, then we are tied for that distinction.
Californian's are so screwed and the nation as a whole is following our lead given Obama's escalating the growth of the federal government.
My own thought exercise these days is wondering just how much citizens will take before they get really ugly with elected officials.
@Big Mike -- Yeah, I probably slept off a drunk or two in third grade, but what the hell, if we speed up the "sell by" dates on a few yupsters would anyone really complain?
Paladian -- I can understand defending precious smells just like I understand swastikas are ancient religious symbols, but some things just get broken over time. Althouse's recollection of Moby Grape stuck the stake in the heart of patchouli... Forget it Jake...it's Chinatown.
Speaking of cable's premium package, I was curious.. enough to click on Bill Marh's HBO On demand to the episode where Most Def and Hitchens had their spat.
Lo and behold, as I had suspected they put up a sanitized version with no sign the skirmish whatsoever.
What did surprised me however is to find it gone from Althouse too.
Green went out at the end of last summer.
I'm a failure as a green. (Does that make me brown?)
I couldn't get my dry cleaners to stop bagging my garments :(
All real men use the same underwear until it vaporizes.
Well...I do.
what do you know; According to the NYT I am not only trendy, but was AHEAD of the curve.
By 20 years or more, in some respects.
For example, I don't compost my dog crap; I let it rot in the woods, right were the dog leaves it.
But I have been recycling aluminium for years. Beer cans mostly.
Buying on the cheap? Yep. I once got into an arguement at work with a coworker because I refused to by my 12 year old a pair of $100 shoes. $20 at Walmaart was my max. Hell, he either outgrew them of trashed them in 3-4 months anyway.
On sale grocieries? Do you even want to know how much hamburger I've eaten in my life?
I agree with most of the folks here; the NYT must have to search high and low for idiots like these.
Oh- one more point; I carry an iphone, but my employer paid for teh phone and pays for the service, so it is possible to have afre iphone; you just have to work damn hard to get one that way.
@Ron, well I would complain. And make sure none of my ammo had expired.
@Jason(the commenter):
"It's always funny when reality and the NYT meet."
If that ever happens please let me know.
I wouldn't want to miss it.
For example, Mrs. Bissage pinches pennies
I read that as pinches penises. But only the first time I read it.
It's the vulgar decadence and endless stupidity of these people who brought us the Age of Barack, and I'd like them to suffer for their choice.
I loved that. It's so, ya know...
Hey, Edjamikated, you and the others are dead wrong. The Times did not have to go searching high and low for the lame brains in the article. As far as the Times is concerned, people like that are the only people they know -- and the only people they believe are worth knowing.
It's a small world, after all.
PS Nice car. Is that a '68 or am I getting old and forgetful?
A little more information: It's against St. Louis County ordinance to compost dog feces.
Perhaps her ticket will be written on post-consumer recycled paper.
Life with a government full of Planners is funny sometimes. These Political geniuses have raised the Tax on Tobacco over and over, and they have made smoking in public a bigger taboo than Christian Speech in public, but the # 1 way to save Social Security is simply to promote chain smoking as a wonderful thing, highly valued by all, and then subsidize cigarettes with a tax on the non-smoking people over 50 who are not doing their part.That makes more since than taxing American Coal producers out of existence.
Composting cloth? Not according to my mother. It takes it too long to rot.
How do you save fifty cents a gallon on gasoline???
By not buying it at the most expensive place in town. And don't buy gas on the weekends; stations jack it up on Fridays. Some stations will knock off up to 15 cents for cash customers.
Part of the price difference between California and other states' gas is the oxygenates. California gas is about as expensive as the reformulated gas sold in the City of Chicago, FWIW.
Oh, and what to do with your dog poop? Flush it down the toilet.
Sheesh. Poop is poop, people.
I think the proper, self-imposed term employed by these sorts of people (or at least proudly used by my far-left sister back in the '90s) is chic poor. I found it insulting on all sorts of levels, myself.
This is a great posting, one of the Professor's best! Of course, her comments are just a little feisty, which might mean that marriage suits her well. Either that or she's getting on with the being aged life style.
Regards, great posting, so-so comments. Can't have everything, eh?
What's your beef, eh?
I've been frugal all my life, and become more so in response to the current economic situation.
It's a good way to live, and I've got plenty of cash, gold, guns, and food saved up in case things get really bad.
I'm tumbling brass from an afternoon range session now so it can be reloaded to shoot in my .45 again. I'm recycling and PROUD! When I look behind me I see little tiny carbon footprints!
great posting, so-so comments.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
I think the word we are searching for is "slumming". And I'd love to have some of those New York "dudes" come spend a day at my place to see what it's really like. I'll start by having them wash the cloth diapers.
My parents still have cloth napkins they received as a wedding present. So they're almost thirty years old. You can see through them, but they're still functional as napkins. Obviously they aren't from organic cotton, since no one had even heard of that thirty years ago.
So, cloth napkins made from cotton other than "organic" cotton must be made of polyester cloth!
Or, has the PC and the Enviro crowd gone around the bend with their silliness?
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