My father the cheapskate

I came across this post, about an extremely frugal father, and it reminded me of my own dad. Here are some things about my dad that - even as a kid, mind you - I could tell were a bit cheapskate-y.

For a great stretch of my formative years, my dad used the same lunch sack to take to work every single day. In a related characteristic of frugality, my dad took a lunch to work every single day.

Our family drove a huge red and white "shoebox on wheels" van for a long time beyond the point when it was socially acceptable (if it ever was socially acceptable). I remember riding in that van as a child on some lonely stretch of highway in California (?) when the odometer turned over to 100,000 miles and my parents gave a little "hooray!" from the front seat. Man, that van was HIDEOUS.



My dad gets really excited if he can get clothes for free. I remember him telling my grandma (his mom) once about how every item of clothing he was wearing at that moment was free or really cheap.

My dad has this orange backpack and it is really, really old. Like the original post I linked to above mentions, please be clear that my dad had a job that paid him money to live, and I'm sure he could have afforded a new backpack at some point. He just chose not to afford it.

In my adult years, I've spent some time traveling with my dad and he is on his best frugal behavior even when on the road. He will go without meals for absurd stretches of time if it means he doesn't have to eat at an expensive restaurant. As long as he has trail mix/Snickers/Peanut M&Ms, he can survive indefinitely.

My dad rides his bike to work most of the time, even when it's cold/wet/raining/dark outside.

Finally - well, just go read this. My dad is on a quest to obtain boxes of Wheat Chex at the lowest possible price. Again, this is a man with a paycheck. Maybe Wheat Chex tastes better when it's almost free.

Anyway, this is coming off more like a Father's Day post than a cheapskate exhibitionist post, but so be it. Sunday (the actual Father's Day) was a regular old day of the week here, no holiday about it, so I think that's enough excuse for being late, am I right?