You see what I did there with the title of this post? I think that ‘verbifying’ what might be a negative label for me (being a cheapskate) turns it into something less bad, and makes it seem more like a legitimate lifestyle choice. I do note though that this technique doesn’t work as well for ‘Tightwadding’ or ‘Frugalling’ - those still sound bad to me.
I acknowledge that I am a cheapskate in certain areas of my life, even though I am not really hurting for money. I guess it was something in my upbringing. But I do not practice cheapskating in all areas - e.g. I tip well, especially after I’ve had a few drinks. Well enough to occasionally trigger the AI fraud detection email from my credit card company (“Did you really leave a 37% tip at …redacted…’s Bar and Grill?”).
One area that I consider ripe for cheapskating is subscriptions to media streaming services. I often get offers for a free (or practically free) month or two on some streaming service or another, maybe from a Black Friday deal or some freebie that came along with a purchase I made. I sign up and then immediately set a reminder on my calendar for the future date where I need to unsubscribe to avoid getting charged (because that’s how they get you!). I then watch the service quite vigorously for awhile, binging the series or movies that interest me. But after just a couple of weeks I find that I’ve watched all the content from the service that I care to watch. So I always cancel when my calendar reminder pops up. The idea of staying subscribed to a streaming service waiting for episodes to trickle out over several months conflicts with my cheapskating lifestyle. More often than not within a short time of unsubscribing I get another offer for another free month or two, and I repeat the process.
Basically only two media streaming services have ever passed my cheapskating bar: 1) YouTube, which I use constantly to watch educational and how-to videos, and 2) Spotify, which is usually streaming in the background when I am at my computer. I also use Spotify in my studio to play along with when I am learning or practicing tunes. Both YouTube and Spotify can be used for free, but the free versions had too many inserted ads for my personal tolerance level.
I also practice cheapskating in the realm of computer software and hardware, to a degree. I refuse on principle to use any pirated software on my systems, but I do have vast amounts of free software that I use. If I’m certain that I will use it frequently, I have no qualms about spending my hard-earned money for software, e.g. a subscription to Microsoft 365 (or whatever it is that Microsoft is calling it this week…), or buying a full version of my Cubase DAW software along with every paid upgrade for it that comes along. But I generally buy the cheapest versions and configurations that I think will meet my minimum needs. I found that buying the absolute base model of the Mac M4 Mini or Macbook M4 Air (as described in this post) has suited me just fine so far.
I’ve found that the cases where I have regretted not spending more to get more have been outnumbered by the cases where I am really satisfied with the cheaper product that I bought, and I get to pat myself on the back for saving some money. A downside of cheapskating though is that I probably stress too much about overpaying and spend too much time shopping around trying to find the best deals.
I always start with the free versions of products or services whenever possible, and upgrade to the paid version only when it becomes clear that it would be worth it to me. I guess you could say that free trials are how they get me!. This marketing technique worked on me for Microsoft Azure (although I don’t plan on spending much on that - the services that I’m most interested in using are on the forever-free tier), and for Warp, which has become my most-used AI tool.
So what is the point of this post? Well, I do worry a bit that some of the topics we cover here on Retired Thinker may have a high barrier to entry, either in terms of access to resources, prerequisite knowledge, or time investment.
Many times the resources required are computing resources - I think that having a capable computing environment is a must for an intellectually stimulating retirement. Obviously if you are reading this, you have at least some minimum amount of computing and internet access available to you. But many of the topics and suggestions here will assume that you have access to a computing environment that is several steps up from that minimum. You needn’t spend much money these days to get some very capable computing hardware, and you needn’t spend hardly anything on software if you take advantage of all the free software and services that are out there.
Happy (and cheap) computing!
