Keeping your finances in check is just one of the things that makes it so hard to be a parent. Make no mistake: raising children is the most expensive thing that one can do!
But people online have been sharing some crazy stories about how their parents used to save money. And even though every dollar makes a difference, the cheap parents on our list may have taken things way too far. Scrooge McDuck would be proud of these talented money-saving parents, who've developed some entertaining schemes for the sake of the littlest rewards. But in a world where so much is wasted, it may be refreshing to take a closer look at the most frugal parents who've ever lived.
Whether you're into extreme money-saving or not, this list may be helpful. While the past generations did cheap things to save some money, maybe we can do the same to protect and preserve the environment. Like it or not, our fragile planet could use some cheap parents right away!
When Life Gives You Lemons
You don't have to be cheap to know that ordering drinks at the restaurant is not very affordable. Sodas will almost always cost you double what you pay for them at the store.
But there's no way out, right? Well, not so fast. Because when life gives you lemons, you can always make some lemonade! That's what this cheap parent used to do anytime he ate out. He hid a couple of slices of lemon in his pocket and asked for a free glass of water. Then, he used the lemons to turn the free water into free lemonade. Works like magic and saves you an extra couple of dollars!
Tap water with some squeezes of lemon doesn't make for the world's best lemonade. But when it comes to cheap parents, even the sourest drinks can taste like sweet, sweet wine when you know you're putting that extra buck in your pocket.
The Free Soap Scheme
Giving inexpensive free stuff away to get people to buy expensive things from you is one of the oldest tricks in the salesman's book.
But no salesperson ever expects to have a client who figures out his whole game. An Internet user has shared a story about his cheap father, who devised a smart way of getting a free supply of soap. When he found out a company selling water filters offered free soap with their at-home demonstrations, he pretended to be interested in a new water filter. But all he wanted was that free soap. And he did it more than once, by the way, to multiple water filter companies!
The next time you need to buy a water filter and call for an at-home demonstration, don't feel surprised to find out they're no longer offering soap. Cheap parents have already run that business tactic dry with their ingenious money-saving schemes.
A Cheap Parents' Classic
This one will likely never die. Parents will always tell their children not to lie. But we all remember that one time they said to us: "... if anyone asks, just say you're still six years old!".
So yeah, lying is only appropriate when you're taking advantage of these sweet "kids-only" promotions. Whether they're looking for a free meal or a cheaper ticket to the water park, cheap parents will wish their kids never go past the age of six. Unfortunately, the lie has to stop at some given point. Puberty ruins a lot of things for a kid's life, but it also takes a toll on the finances of cheap parents!
There's always the cheap parent who takes things way too far, making for some hilarious moments. When your kid is already taller than you and talking with a voice as deep as Batman's, that's when you know you need to stop with this free kids lie already!
Recycling Christmas
Most people love the holidays and the unique joy that comes with Christmas. But as you can imagine, Christmas time can be a nightmare for all the cheap parents out there.
Being a rather commercial holiday, Christmas is far from cheap. Make no mistake: you'll spend some much-needed money on gifts and decorations that are basically non-essential. But even the Grinch would say recycling gifts is a pretty horrible thing to do. Yet, that's precisely what the aunt of a Reddit user did: re-gifting. And to make it all worse, she simply gave the presents back to the people who had bought them for her in the previous year. Ouch!
The love for Christmas is a little bit like life itself. When you're small, it's a magical time, filled with nothing but happiness and new toys. But as you grow-up, you start to get the full picture: since Santa Claus ain't real, it's up to you to do all the heavy lifting.
Rich For a Day
Your everyday attire is perfect for going to work and doing chores around the house. But when you want to feel pretty and at your best, you can only wish there was something a little bit more luxurious in your wardrobe.
Luckily, a cheap family has found a smart way around it. Whenever they went on holiday, they bought a ton of new expensive clothes from their favorite fashion brands. But they knew they were not going to keep them forever. Their plan was actually pretty smart: they never took the tags off and returned the clothes as soon as they came back from holiday. That's how you know what being rich feels like! At least for one or two days.
Even though this is a smart way of getting access to pricey clothes, the comedown must be hard to deal with. After being affluent, even if for only a day, it can be hard to get back to your old regular self.
Salt & Pepper
Back in the Age of Discovery, spices like curry or pepper were so valuable they were treated like gold or precious metals.
Today, it's easy to get some food condiments for under a dollar or two if you go to the right store. But cheap parents still feel like spices are way too pricy. So, what to do? Why not make the most out of the salt and pepper that's readily available at fast-food restaurants and take it home with you? An Internet user said his parents used to go inside restaurants simply to "steal" their spices away and save a buck, without even ordering food! It takes a lot of nerve for such a small reward, but hey, at least it's a smart way to get some free salt.
Cheap parents know better than anyone that all little things add up to something significant over a given time. Salt and pepper may look like a ridiculously affordable item, but if you add up all the money you spend on spices for a year or two, you may start to change your mind.
House Rules
Regardless of how smart kids are, there are a couple of things they always seem to forget. One such thing is that electricity and gas are not free and should not be used at ease.
It's pretty obvious, right? But some kids have never seen a house bill in their lifetime, and are always ready to use some extra energy back home. Well, not in this cheap parent's house! He's paying for the heat; therefore, he controls the temperature! And he's not going to let his kids turn the heat on without first taking all the available precautions. Sorry boys, you'll have to stick to your winter jackets until November, or pay up!
You may think this cheap parent is being way too rough, but this is an excellent way of teaching your kids a lesson. Many young boys and girls don't value all the amazing things they have in their homes, such as heat, water, or electricity.
Wash, Wash, Wash
It's a sin of the modern world: if a disposable item is dirty, you throw it away. But cheap parents have a different attitude when it comes to greasy Ziploc bags.
Why throw something in the bin when you can clean it and reuse it? In this case, the principle applies to the ever-useful Ziploc bag. But you can do the same with countless items. Cheap parents will reuse everything, from empty bottles of soda to takeaway containers. You never know when you're going to need something you were thinking of throwing away, so we actually think it's cool to give Ziploc bags a second chance.
Sure, it takes some work. Cleaning greasy Ziploc bags can be frustrating. But nothing in this world is for free, not even when you're trying to save money. And if you want to be a cheap parent, you better be ready to do the extra work!
25 Cents of Sweat
Cheap parents are not bad parents. They want to keep their kids happy, just like everyone else. But paying 25 cents for a mechanical ride? That's way too much!
But according to an Internet user, it's possible to have the best of both worlds: the world of fun mechanical riding, and the world of austere money-saving. Combining the two, his cheap dad used to sit him on the rides and manually shake the whole thing. We can only imagine how hard it must've been on his back, but he seemed to think the effort was worth the 25 cents. So yeah, one can say cheap parents are even more dedicated than your typical money-wasting dad.
Nevermind the 25 cents. How angry do you think the people in charge of the mechanical rides must've been? Cheap dads were not only using their machines for free but possibly breaking them with their unsolicited use of brute force. Not cool!
White Lies Never Hurt
If you happen to know one of the staff members at your favorite local restaurant, you can consider yourself lucky! Nothing gets you great discounts and excellent service, like knowing one of the workers.
But why wait for one of your friends to open a restaurant to get access to all of these benefits? An Internet used shared a story about his cheap mom, who used to lie about knowing a staff member anytime she visited a restaurant. She repeatedly asked if her husband's shift was over, and the staff would always treat her with the utmost respect. She even got a couple of discounts, all thanks to a well-put white lie.
The downside of doing this is that, sometimes, you may expose yourself to a lot of shame. If the staff finds out you're lying, which is not that hard, you may get the exact opposite of what you were looking for. There's no discount for liars!
A Month For Eternity
Before the heyday of the Internet, dial-up was the system people used to navigate the world wide web on their computers. And some people found a way to get it for free.
Cheap parents are also smart parents. And back in the day, a promotional 1-month-free Internet CD got some parents working on a way to get the Internet for free (almost) forever. How? Well, since these promotional CDs were for some reason connected to the computer's date, they simply changed the date in the PC's calendar and voilà! Free Internet for all. Some cheap parents have maintained this scheme for as much as a decade, which is impressive!
To be fair, the Internet back then was as basic as most TV's Teletext. It was already a powerful and useful tool, but it consisted mostly of poorly-designed websites and painfully-slow e-mail accounts. It still must've felt sweet to get it for free, though.
Nailed It?
Rusty nails are amongst the most useless objects one can think of. But a cheap parent finds it hard to throw anything away, even if it's some old, bent set of nails.
An Internet user shared a story about his father, who decided to remove all the nails he could find and store them after a house renovation. He was left with nothing but a bucket full of nails and a mild sense of pride. Unfortunately, the nails proved to be as useless as you can imagine. Rusty nails aren't very strong and reusing them is not a very good idea, unless you're into wobbly wood constructions.
Cheap parents may not always win, but they will always try! This cheap dad got nothing out of his second-hand nails, but at least he tried to save some money by storing them in the garage. It's like the old saying goes: the intention is what counts.
The Wi-Fi is Always Cheaper on The Other Side
The Internet went from being a novelty item to being an essential good in less than a couple of decades. Still, some cheap parents even hit their kids with the old motto of "always use the neighbor's Wi-Fi."
That sort of cheap thinking is what gets kids in situations like this. To get that real fast connection, they'll probably have to climb to the top of the kitchen cabinet or sit in a particular part of the bathroom. But two things are for sure: kids will be left with back pain, and cheap parents will be left smiling. Additionally, it's a great way of controlling Internet-dependency in your family!
Fortunately, scenes like this are becoming less and less frequent. Internet is more readily available than ever, and we're still waiting for the day it will become universally free. It makes sense, especially considering usage levels are what makes money for the most prominent online companies.
Fast-Food Salads?
Salads are not the main reason why people love fast-food. Still, some cheap parents have found a way to make the most out of the vegetables that come with their favorite fast-food burgers.
How? Well, it's pretty simple. You go to the restaurant, and you ask for some extra toppings on your burger. Then, you grab that extra lettuce and tomato and take it home with you. After a couple of visits, you have enough to make a nice salad. All for the sweet price of nothing. Why spend a fortune on vegetables at the store when there's so much healthy food given away for free at your local fast-food restaurants?
We never thought we would say this, but fast-food restaurants seem to be inspiring people to eat healthily! All it takes is some nerve and a money-saving attitude. Who would've thought that a nice home-prepared salad could follow a trip to Burger King?
Small Differences, Big Decisions
You don't have to be cheap to take your time at the store and pick the best products for the best price. But most people can make quick decisions when it comes to groceries.
Not this cheap parent. An Internet user shared that his dad used to ponder for up to ten minutes anytime he had to choose between a standard carton of eggs and a slightly cheaper carton of eggs. In his mind, he was making a big decision. In reality, he was only saving $1 or $2 at the very best, and probably ending up with poor-quality eggs in the fridge.
Stores display their products in a way that's meant to make you spend more and save less. But buying groceries doesn't have to be a nightmare. Sometimes you'll make the best possible decision; sometimes you won't. Either way, your time should be worth more than whatever's the difference in price between one carton of eggs and another.
Delicious Pizza Crusts
Pizza crusts are a slightly controversial topic. Some people love them; others prefer to eat the rest of the pizza.
Kids, in particular, seem to not be real fans of the crustiest side of their pizzas. But a cheap mom has decided to make the most out of her children's careless attitude. Instead of throwing the crusts away, she kept them in the fridge and used them to make all kinds of salty snacks and sweet desserts. You may not admire her cheapness, but you've got to praise her cooking abilities. Those pizza crusts look delicious, and there's no controversy in that!
It's like when artists take a bunch of trash and make a beautiful sculpture. Yes, you can make something beautiful out of something as ugly as pizza leftovers! There's also great comfort in knowing that, anytime you eat pizza, you'll also get to try some sweet homecooked croutons.
Tinfoil? That's Only For Special Occasions!
There are a lot of ways of taking food from one place to the other. And the best is probably in tinfoil, which is perfect for cakes and loaves of bread.
But some parents out there are so cheap they're not ready to spend money on some stupidly expensive tinfoil! Instead, they go with the cling wrap, the much-cheaper, much-worse alternative. No, we never thought tinfoil was considered to be a luxury by some people. But maybe we're better off than we've imagined? Or perhaps we don't pay that much attention when it comes to saving money? Anyway, we just want our cakes to still taste delicious.
We don't want to put an end to the cling wrap industry, but have people ever heard about re-usable plastic containers? It costs extra at first but ends up being a brilliant investment. You can use them for as long as you want, and they always keep your food nice and fresh.
Duct Tape & Humor
Nothing gets on the nerves of a cheap parent like a car in need of repair. When someone hits you or ruins your car's paint job, you know you're in for a couple of hundreds of dollars in expenses.
Or are you? Cheap parents aren't cheap to the point of driving around with a half-broken car. But they're cheap enough to find an alternative solution to actually fixing the issue. You can do so by applying the power of duct tape and humor. It's an exciting combination, best seen in stickers like this comic-book-inspired "Pow!". It gets the attention away from the damage, that's for sure!
You may find car stickers a bit tacky and cheap, but they are nothing compared to the old plastic bag for a window. Sadly, when your car window breaks and you have no money left in your bank account, desperate measures need to be taken.
For Tax Purposes Only!
Saving money is all about the small details. And speaking of little details, have you ever noticed some restaurant receipts include special promotions?
A cheap parent did. And she decided to make the most out of these exclusive promotions. She used the receipts to get free stuff from the restaurant, and she asked to keep the paper. She said it was for "tax purposes," but there was a different idea on her mind. With a free cheeseburger and a valid promotional receipt in her pocket, she simply went on to visit a different restaurant and get the same deal. It's a never-ending loop of free fast-food!
As soon as more and more people start paying attention to their receipts and reusing them, maybe Burger King will consider a different approach to promotional content. Meanwhile, we have to appreciate the ingenuity of all the cheap parents out there.
Half the Age
Like many other services, public transportation offers discounts and differences in price according to one's age.
This makes for a cheap parent paradise, in which there's a lot of money to be saved if your kids happen to be good at lying. But some lies are so absurd not even Houdini himself would be able to pull them off. It happened to an Internet user, who told a story about his cheap parent. He decided to divide the age of his kids in half to save some money on the bus. But the driver didn't fall for it. After all, can you genuinely convince someone that your 12-year-old son is six and that your 19-year-old daughter is 12? We don't think so!
To every cheap parent out there who still believes a teenager can pass as a 12-year-old: please stop! The money you're saving is not worth the lifetime of traumatic memories your grown-up children are being subjected to. Once he blows that 16th-birthday candles, you know it's time to move on!
Take-Away Refill
Some people believe you can never get something for free in this crazy world. But the saying certainly doesn't apply to ketchup.
Ketchup is free at almost every fast-food restaurant, which offers either small packets or free refills to the clients. But that doesn't mean you cannot save some ketchup money if you're prepared to put in the work. A cheap parent wasn't a big fan of buying ketchup bottles, so she simply took a lot of refills from the restaurant to fill the bottle she had in the fridge. The result? A lifetime supply of free ketchup, both at the restaurant and back home.
Never having to buy ketchup sounds like a sweet deal, but is it worth all the hassle? We can only imagine how difficult it must've been for this cheap parent to carry so many ketchup refills back home anytime she ate out.
Piracy, Before the Internet
Yes, we all know piracy is a crime. And yet, we don't feel like criminals when we watch something for free or download a new song online.
That's probably because piracy is as close to a victimless crime as there is. And this goes back to the gone-days of the Blockbuster renting business, which feels like something that happened a million years ago. But no, Blockbuster was still a thing as recently as 20-years ago, and cheap parents loved to use their VCR's to copy their favorite movies. That way, they were not forced to rent Star Wars whenever they wanted to watch it for a second, fourth, or twentieth time.
Even though there was a certain charm in going to the Blockbuster store and picking a new film, it's now almost impossible to imagine a world without immediate and affordable access to all sorts of entertainment. Especially since streaming services such as Netflix started to appear.
No Chicken Meat Will Be Left Behind
When you buy a bucket of fried chicken all for yourself, you're merely being lickerish. But apparently, when you eat the meat all the way to the bone, leaving nothing behind, then you're being cheap.
Delicious fried chicken can be pricy, but does that mean you have to eat it all the way up to the last scrap? The cheap parent of a Reddit user has become a pro at devouring chicken meat. He did an excellent job, don't you think? He believes that throwing chicken meat away is like throwing money away, and we get his point. But doing this good of a job must take some hard work and dedication!
Saving money, like most arts, is in the details. Only a highly-skilled cheap parent would be able to take a bucket of fried chicken, eat 100% of the meat, and leave behind nothing but the bones. Now that's how you make the most out of a trip to KFC!
No Cheese Please
Going to McDonald's already feels like a money-saving move. But cheap parents will always find smart ways of saving some cents, even at the world's most affordable places.
The tale of one money-saving mother started being shared online, and her savings are only worth about half-a-dollar or less. Not much, right? The thing she did was going to McDonald's and asking for the hamburger instead of the cheeseburger. They're basically the same, minus a small difference in price and the cheese slices. This clever mom would then take the hamburger home and fill-it-up with her own cheese, making for a cheaper cheeseburger.
For most cheap parents, saving money is more about the principle and less about the actual money they're saving. When you have a chance to keep a couple more cents in your pocket, you should take it, regardless of the value.
The Right To Pee
We don't support everything cheap parents do, but we have to pick their side on this one. Because when it comes to peeing, there should be no fees involved at all.
Still, some public restrooms are restricted for non-paying individuals, which feels a little bit harsh and unfair. That's why a mother always brought her daughter along to avoid paying for visiting the restroom. Since the girl was petite, she could fit in the space beneath the door, and open the bathroom for her mom to come in. It's a simple way to escape pesky bathroom fees altogether. We hope the floor was clean!
While we understand public bathroom fees are meant to keep some people away from the WC area, we still find it odd to have to pay to fulfill your inescapable human duties. What's the alternative? To do it in the open street?
There's Nothing Wrong With "Trying"
It's a standard practice amongst sellers: to attract new customers, companies send away free samples to whoever may be interested.
Typically, the people who ask for the free samples end up buying the product. But cheap parents don't discriminate: if they hear the word free, they will sign-up for it! An Internet user shared a story about his cheap father, who was an avid sample collector. At one point, he had a closet full of free samples from products he didn't even need. He simply asked for a free sample anytime a company or store offered one. In his opinion, the opportunity was too good to miss.
The fear of missing out is intense in this day and age. It makes us go to parties we don't want to and watch shows we don't even like. But cheap parents are only afraid to miss out on one thing: the opportunity to get something for free.
An Emotional Rollercoaster
When a cheap mom happens to work at a theme park, you know she's going to do all she can to sneak her kids in for free.
After all, theme parks can be expensive, and kids can be nagging about visiting. To make her kids happy, this mom used to sneak them in through the staff entrance and then change to her regular clothes. She was eventually caught in the middle of the act and probably made her boss super angry. Still, making your kids happy is worth the trouble. There's nothing children love more than visiting the theme park.
All things considered, is it fair that theme park workers are not allowed to sneak their kids in for free? Since they spend their day at the park, they should be entitled to free rides, along with the rest of their family!
Rinse the Paper Towels?
It might seem crazy, but an Internet user has shared a story about how his cheap parents used to rinse used paper towels. Now that's what we call anti-waste behavior!
For one, we have no idea how much skill is involved in the process of rinsing paper towels. But we imagine it's a lot! We cannot even begin to wonder how the whole thing is done without the paper being immediately ruined after use. It goes to show that, when it comes to saving, cheap parents can turn themselves into super-parents. Still, this sounds like a lot of hassle for the sake of a single sheet of paper.
Can you imagine if they did the same with toilet paper? Now that would be outrageous. Anyway, at least the environment can feel thankful for these hardworking cheap parents, who are saving a tree every month with their anti-waste routine. And that's worth more than a couple of bucks!
Barbecue Crasher
Cheap people will crash all sorts of events. But one of the weirdest parents on our list loved to crash the 4th of July barbecues of strangers. But how, and why?
The reason why is simple enough: he wanted to get some free meat for himself and his family. His method, however, is more complicated. He approached the grill of strangers and flipped whatever meat was there. If people asked him about what he was doing, he answered by saying that he thought the meat was about to get burned. In ten minutes or less, he got so friendly with the grill owners that he landed himself a free 4th of July meal.
You may think that this cheap parent was taking advantage of strangers. But we like to think it's the other way around: kind strangers offered their support and their meat to someone they didn't know, in the spirit of a classic American holiday such as the 4th of July.