Who else here is frugal?

"I'm too poor to be cheap"

There are a few replies in this thread such as from zkidd and michaelg63 that show that the person replying doesn't actually know the definition of frugal. Frugal doesn't mean cheap, it means "not wasteful". Because the value of an item is driven by the market and we can never know the true monetary value of an item other than by its cost (or what someone is willing to pay for it), how do we measure frugality? About the only way is to compare what others have spent with what we are willing to spend for the exact same item. So frugality = was what I spent a deal compared to what others have spent?
In that vein, I definitely consider myself frugal, especially in my speaker purchases. I bought used (like new) Magnepan 20.1s for $5500 ($12,000 new) and got a $1000 off the B&W MT-60D (new) to add a sub and surrounds. So I spent $7500 for speakers that would normally cost $15,000 if new and I have both great home theater speakers and great music listening speakers. Since the Maggies have been favorably compared to speakers costing $20,000 or more, some might say I've been even more frugal than the dollars I spent suggest. I also purchased an Emotiva amp to drive the Maggies, and Emotiva gets great reviews in the value category as well.
I've always been leary of the kind of person who wants to tell me how much they spent on their system when the game is to save as much as much as I can and get the most I can for my money.

asvjerry,

What do you call a person who rarely buys..

...Things? First, let us define ’Things’, Friend Eric. ( No, I’m not trying to be snotty...just Serious. *S*

It was my mistake not to write a thorough explanation, but under "things" I was referring to audio equipment. I thought that original post was solely about that although now I see it could be stretched.

It is interesting to read about three homes. How do we define "home"?

By the way, my name is not Eric.

winnardt,

"So frugality = was what I spent a deal compared to what others have spent?"

That would disqualify a person who buys something at full price and keeps it for 40 years from being frugal while would make someone who buys things at 60% usual value weekly for 40 years frugal.

You are right, we may have different definitions of frugal in mind and I am not claiming mine is correct.

One wonders if the dance craze The Frug back in the 50’s is somehow related to frugality. Maybe trying to teach frugality to wayward youth. 🕺🏻