Your cheapest moment

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

Surely we've all done things where we've looked/acted cheap. Let's hear them. Here's mine (this came up as conversation among friends recently):

At a bar for my friend Jennie's 21st. I open my wallet for a $4 shot I just ordered for Jennie...and find $3. So, while the bartender has her back to me, I take a $1.50 tip someone left and suddenly I have $4, plus a 50 cent tip.

I guess I could call that a Creed Bratton moment.

 

[Lone_Star_Speed]

I used to go to a lot of record release parties. Some rep from the label would wander the room distributing drink tickets. But never enough. They'd give you five at a time. A soda would cost you one ticket; a beer two; and anything with liquor was three. Solution: I went to a party supply store and bought a roll of red, blue, and green tickets. Cost me about $12.00 and I had all the free drinks I wanted at those parties for years.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Well, when I was in college I switched a price tag for a pair of jeans at the Salvation Army thrift store. They cost 2.99, I got them for 99 cents.

My cheapest, and least proud moment. I'm sure that two bucks went for beer though, so it was worth it.

BEAT THAT!!!!!

 

[Batman]

Went to a friend's bachelor party and ended up at a strip club. I only had $50 or $60 on me, so I wasn't trying to do anything more than hang out with the fellas and have fun. I sat down next to some of our people who were at the stage, and a stripper crawls over and shakes her tits in my face. I didn't have and $1 bills, and that sure as hell wasn't worth a fiver. So I just throw up a sheepish grin and shrug my shoulders, and she crawls on to the next guy.

 

[Bubbler]

Went to a friend's bachelor party and ended up at a strip club. I only had $50 or $60 on me, so I wasn't trying to do anything more than hang out with the fellas and have fun. I sat down next to some of our people who were at the stage, and a stripper crawls over and shakes her tits in my face. I didn't have and $1 bills, and that sure as hell wasn't worth a fiver. So I just throw up a sheepish grin and shrug my shoulders, and she crawls on to the next guy.

That's your cheapest moment? When I was in college, doing that was practically a right of passage.

My cheapest moment turned out to change my life. I took future Mrs. Bubbler on a date when I was in college. I think I had perhaps $15 in my bank account, but I felt the need to take her out, so I "swanked out" and took her to the four-star Sizzler franchise in Muncie. I let her order whatever she wanted and I got a salad or something to economize.

When I got the bill, I realized there was no way I could leave a tip. No wanting to look like the asshole I clearly was, I left the waitress a note profusely apologizing for not being able to leave a tip. Somehow, future Mrs. Bubbler saw it, and I was embarassed.

Turns out she was touched and thought it said a lot about me as a person (little did she know).

It's all been uphill from Sizzler since.

 

[Flash]

Gave copyrunner a handful of loonies, quarters and dimes to pay for my dinner one night at the Sun.

It's all I had! Damn Sun pays like **** and I was living paycheque to paycheque in a major metro area. What did they expect?

I kind of felt bad for the kid, though ... I got yelled at by a higher-up, who said 'you know, you people make a helluva lot more money than he does.'

I almost choked on my water when he said that. If I was making a 'helluva lot more' than the copyrunner was ... shoot ... that poor *******.

 

[Diabeetus]

At a GAP outlet store, there was a really nice sweater on sale for something like 9.99. I took a price tag off something nearby and made it 2.99. It was a really nice sweater, and they didn't have a clue. Makes up for some of the overpriced stuff I've bought from them regularly.

 

[Flash]

Oh shoot, yeah, I've switched boxes at the Shoe Warehouse a couple of times, too.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Until I met my wife, every towel I owned was swiped from a hotel...

 

[westcoastvol]

I went out with a girl three times.

Her cost of going out with me: Zero.

My cost: about $200.

After the third date, it was clear she was just using me to have fun out on the town. I called her on it and sent her a PayPal invoice for half.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I went out with a girl three times.

Her cost of going out with me: Zero.

My cost: about $200.

After the third date, it was clear she was just using me to have fun out on the town. I called her on it and sent her a PayPal invoice for half.

Wow... That's pretty bad... Dating was the one place where I was never, ever cheap.

 

[playthrough]

I can't think of one specific thing, but I have a lot of cheap-ish moments in casinos. I'll get lucky and win a couple hundred bucks and then work my tail off with casino personnel to try to get a comped sandwich. Probably sounds completely ridiculous to anyone who doesn't gamble.

 

[OTD]

Hotel shampoos. I'll make sure that the ones from the first day are stashed away so they'll bring more on subsequent days. I hardly ever have to buy shampoo.

 

[Diabeetus]

Props on this thread, by the way!

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Hotel shampoos. I'll make sure that the ones from the first day are stashed away so they'll bring more on subsequent days. I hardly ever have to buy shampoo.

I do the same thing. My wife looks at me strange every time I come back from a trip with shampoo, conditioner, soap, mouthwash and whatever else they had in the room.

 

[Mayfly]

Until I met my wife, every towel I owned was swiped from a hotel...

When you start to show up with the sleep number mattresses, then it gets kinda weird.

 

[westcoastvol]

I went out with a girl three times.

Her cost of going out with me: Zero.

My cost: about $200.

After the third date, it was clear she was just using me to have fun out on the town. I called her on it and sent her a PayPal invoice for half.

Wow... That's pretty bad... Dating was the one place where I was never, ever cheap.

If she hadn't been such a ***** about the whole thing, not even getting as much as a kiss or anything...**** that noise. She can stay at home, watch Showtime After Hours that she's stealing from another neighbor and diddle with a pocket rocket for all I care.

 

[MTM]

Not so much cheap as deceitful.
While in high school, a buddy and I arrived at a restaurant and sat with two other dudes we knew who had already ordered. They finished before us and left, without paying, before we were done. The waitress told us they didn't pay, so we chased them down in the parking lot and got the loot.
We told waitress we couldn't find them and then used their cash to pay for our food.

 

[Norman Stansfield]

Sometimes I re-use paper plates, if I have a sammich or something and I'm able to just wipe the crumbs into the garbage.

When I was in high school my friends and I would go to the earliest movie possible, pay the $3 or whatever it was, then stay for the next 12 hours hopping from theater to theater. Then, to top it off, we'd wait for a theater to clear out, waltz in and grab an empty or near-empty tub of popcorn and take it back to the counter for free refills for the rest of the day/night. All we'd spring for was a large soda, which also had free refills. Couldn't beat it.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Until I met my wife, every towel I owned was swiped from a hotel...

When you start to show up with the sleep number mattresses, then it gets kinda weird.

I have a friend who swiped the comforter from a Westin... I'd never do that, but I can't say I blame him...