I thought of something else this morning in relation to your entry. There is, I believe, a way to definitely take the tightwad thing too far. It's no secret that I think my in-laws are a bit on the weird side. They have these antiquated Victorian ways, but that's a whole different story. But my MIL also has some of the tightwaddiest ways imaginable at times. When the whole family gets together, it's pretty much expected that the paper napkins at your place at the table will be reused over and over and over again, unless it's so dirty you couldn't possibly use it again, and even then, I'm not sure what that would mean. I'm not against reusing wrapping paper, but they have used some pieces for well over a decade and I think there's more tape marks than actual design on some of these pieces (for my part, the lazy in me uses gift bags and has absolutely no qualms about using those over as many times as possible). I always tell John to wrap their stuff in the paper we like best since we'll be seeing it again for many years. John has stories about his mom actually pulling kleenix out of the garbage right after he had thrown one away because she it was still usable. I'm not even kidding. And he'd kill me if he knew I was sharing that story.
She's also got major packratting because of the tightwadness. Like, you never know when you might need that item again so you must save it for your entire life. We don't tell her some of the things that we've sold at garage sales because she would request them back and I am not lugging things the 9 hours to New Hampshire for our once a year visit just because she can't let things go. Now, to be fair, I have diagnosed her with a very textbook case of OCD personality disorder and the hoarding is part of that, but you should see their basement. John had never given anything away to the Good Will before he met me. Ever.
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Date: 2007-08-11 03:22 pm (UTC)From:She's also got major packratting because of the tightwadness. Like, you never know when you might need that item again so you must save it for your entire life. We don't tell her some of the things that we've sold at garage sales because she would request them back and I am not lugging things the 9 hours to New Hampshire for our once a year visit just because she can't let things go. Now, to be fair, I have diagnosed her with a very textbook case of OCD personality disorder and the hoarding is part of that, but you should see their basement. John had never given anything away to the Good Will before he met me. Ever.