[joasis]

So what is your best cheapskate tale? I had this idea while listening to my good friend try to get me to agree to his plan to fix his double wide mobile home....

A few years back, we took a weekend trip to Branson, Missouri with the kids......and while there, took the kids to the big fish hatchery, ran by the state to restock the lakes, I would guess. So anyway, there are fish of all sizes, but next to the tanks with the big fish (lake trout?), they have gumball like machines that dispense fish food...put in a quarter and get a handful of pellets...toss them in the water and the fish come up to feed.

I give my girl a few quarters and she has a blast. Now Daddy Warbucks (my nickname for him) is tighter then bark on a tree....and he looks around to see if anyone is watching...then shakes the gumball machine to get the loose pellets out and beat the State of Missouri out of a quarter. He has 2 daughters....and they know the value of a quarter or dollar for sure!

[Leo G]

You talking about Dave?

[Wolfgang]

Did an exterior bid for a guy 4 years ago. Said I was too High. We go back and forth for almost a year (!). Another year goes by and I dont hear from him and then he calls and asks if I've been thinking of my price (?!?). I ask him what he thinks is fair, he tells me some insanely low price, and I tell him that doesnt even cover my materials and labor. Another 6 months and I get another phone call from him asking if I've reconsidered. I just ask him what he thinks is fair again, and he tells me he'll pay for the materials, no mark up and at my price, and $10/hr labor. I gave him the number for the Open Door Mission and hung up. Next day he calls and says I must have given him the wrong number because he kept getting the Mission. Told him that was the right number because thats where all the $10/hr painters were and hung up. (Drove by last week...still not painted)

[joasis]

Originally Posted by Leo G

You talking about Dave?

Not Big Dave.... One of my highschool buddies..we are still friends today, 30 years later. He was cheap back then also.

I can't even begin to tell you what he wants to do with his house.

[Leo G]

The state, then the town then the RV then the fish hatchery. Had me going.

[Bkessler]

one electrician I worked for would pee in the corner than toss a quarter on it when we were at one particular home builders jobs........the builder was such a cheapskate he would pick it up every time. While my boss would feel better about working for such a cheapskate.

[Chris Johnson]

I did a project a year ago, typical bitchin' that the price is too high, after we start, ladedadeda...thank God I had a contract, we finish get paid after bending on a few extras (time only, no materials) which just made the transaction finish smoother, better for both parties involved.

To this day the client still calls for free advice, which I don't help much more than the occasional 'have someone do this or do that'.

Being it's ICF, I will talk to the sub-trades after me and give them an overview and will even meet the guy on site if need be to show him how it works.

Client tells the electrician she chose (not the one I recommended...too expensive) to call and ask how to do the work. This guy calls me 2 weeks after he started, needs a couple of 5" holes cored to run a service wire. Not my job, but I knew finishing up the next day I could sent a guy to help him out. I figured I would meet them there as well, A) to make sure they were not drilling and causing structural damage, B) to meet the electrician and exchange cards, shoot the breeze and make a new contact, C) to make sure the client did not hit on my guys for more extra work which I would not authorize without agreeing on a price.

Well, A) was fine where they wanted the holes, no problems B) This guy is not on my list of people I would recommend, he has hacked the hell out of the foam to run his wires C) The client as expected was trying for more freebies which I turned down immediately.

In the meantime I referred a stucco guy I am familar with to the project. She wants stucco inside and out, about 18,000 sq.ft. of wall surface on the ICF alone plus interior walls. Well, the ICF is a mess courtesy of the electrician both inside and out, patching alone is probably worth 4-5k on T&M and to top if off she tells the stucco guy she will pay for all materials and pay him $ 15.00 per hour and they will agree on a capped out number of hours not to exceed!!!

Now to top it all the client thinks I am responsible to fix the ICF foam since they told me they hired an electrician who was unfamilar with ICF and I should have been there to guild him through the process!!!

When does it end. Apparently from what I can figure out so far, I was first on the job, she hated the fact I made her sign a contract which had NO wiggle room for negotiating after the fact. She will not sign a contract with anyone now and tries to beat everyone from even making a wage. Since she was buying the materials she is now in dispute with the electrician who is suing her for non-payment, she is counter-suing for him buying materials that she paid for that never made it to the job (Even though the guy hacked the ICF, I highly doubt he did this, that is pure theft) and she is taking him to the CSLB for mediation.

Owner-builders - go figure

Sorry J, I don't think this was the cheap you were talking about.

So to date so far, she has gone through 2 electricians (One put up a new 400 amp service 200' away to service the whole property, he's gone, you've read about #2 above), 1 plumber (guy did the rough in below the slab, she complained about his price, he's gone). 2 carpenters, first guy put the roof up, couldn't handle her and walked off the job, 2nd guy did the interior walls, calls me for attachment details, apparently still not done after 6 weeks (client still calls me looking for references).

So after a 14 months, here's whats done...

Excavation
ICF walls
U/G plumbing
partial electrical
Roof on
partial interior framing
partial backfill

I'm betting dollars to donuts it's five years before this thing gets close to being finished.

[dakzaag]

I must confess, I am a cheapskate. I will pick up wall ties (worth about a nickle) that have been dropped or tossed. I don't like leaving a mess, and since I bent over to pick it up, I just as well save it.

Picked up roofing nails before also, but that was just too cheap even for me.

The following is but jsut goes to show how tight I am.

A short story about teaching your kids the value of money and integrity

I made my kids (3 boys) pick through the gravel at a farm I managed for a bunch of SS bolts, nuts and washers. I don't know who scattered the stuff around, but I believe someone was assembling stainless steel hog feeders in this area at one time and obviously left a lot of stuff scatterd about. I told the boys I would pay them a nickle for each item they picked up. The boys were young all under 9. I had some stuff to do and I let them at it for about 2 hours. Came back and saw they had gotten most of the stuff picked up and had several ice cream pails 3/4 full of bolts etc. (all stainless) I was real proud of them and they each had their own bucket so I sat down to count. Noticed a funny thing, some of the bolts had that shiny fresh out of the box look and most of the stuff was dull like it had laid in the driveway for quite a while. I went to the shop where the boxes of SS bolts were kept and noticed a few empty containers laying there that weren't empty before. Well the busy little beavers had picked up about $40 dollars worth of stuff, but maybe 15% of it was new out of the box.
I laid out the money out on the table, down to the last nickle, for each of them and called them in to discuss their payday. I started asking questions about how they found so many and I how couldn't hardly believe they made so much money... trying to see if they would keep up the lie. The youngest one (probably about 4 at the time) kept saying that the oldest one had taken some of his stuff and he was mad. They wouldn't confess, so I asked why some of the bolts were so shiny. Still no confession, so I said I found some empty boxes in the shop and was missing nuts and washers. Well, the middle one broke down and said they had taken new ones out of the box but it was the oldest ones idea. The youngest brother confirmed that it was the oldest ones idea and he also reminded me about the theft he had suffered.
Well, I guess I am just a mean old bassard, but I took their money away from them and made them contribute the items to the farm as payment for their theft. I don't know if the younger two have ever listened to their older brother since (this was at least 10 years ago.) They were so mad at him and me for finding them guilty by association they hardly talked to me the rest of the day. I still think I did the right thing, but when I tell this to people today all I hear is how mean I was. Its probably old fashioned any more, but I would rather raise em right and be called a jerk than raise em wrong and have kids that are jerks.

10 years later
The 19 yr old is home from college on spring break today, handles a trowel pretty good for his age, and can spot a shovel of mud on a board 10 feet in the air and not splatter a drop.
The 16 yr old knows which way is up on a block, mix the mud and spot a board as good as any apprentice and keep brick ready for two masons all day long.
The 13 yr old is just getting his fingernails dirty, he might end up as an accountant, cause I have to drag him out by his ear.

[joasis]

An older guy in town...father of one of my best friends, needed some flat washers, 1/4 inch, for something he was doing. Local lumber yard had them for probably a nickel a piece. His solution? Drill holes in pennies.....NO KIDDING! He needed 20 or so washers....and he guessed he saved enough to make it worthwhile.

Cheapskates all around.

Hey Chris, my last ICF customer was probably a first cousin to your client above. The house still isn't finished. We took it to dry in and packed up. She still doesn't understand that I agreed to the scope of work completed, and thinks I need to complete her house for free.

[Cdat]

My dad would use Scotts turf builder every year on the lawn and then mail in the upc for a full refund since it stated they'd refund the cost if you were not 100% satisfied. He did this for around twenty years. Whenever asked, he'd say he was 90-95% satisfied with the stuff.

He lives on Houghton Lake in Michigan. Biggest inland lake in Michigan. Deepest point is like 28 feet. He has this old pontoon about 20 feet long. He'll motor out to one side of the lake and fish and let the waves push him all the way to the other side. He uses an old snagging line, not to catch fish, but to snag other fishermens lost lures and stuff. He NEVER needs to buy anything. He has like 15 rods and reels, 4 or 5 anchors and rope and literally 100's of lures. If there is a lot of line attached to the lure, he winds it up on old empty spools and saves it. Every day he catches enough fish to feed a large family. My mom now hates to eat fish. Wonder why?

[Darren@Partners]

As rockers, we used to go through tape measures pretty quickly. I got to buying Sears Craftsman tapes with their lifetime warranty. My wife and partners wife took turns taking back 6-8 tapes at a time. Of course, now no one warranties tape measures any more.

[DavidC]

Years ago we weatherized a house for an old man via a local charity agency. He picked up all of our spent caulk tubes and headed off to the garage. Finally I told him he didn't have to do that as we were responsible for picking up and hauling the trash.

He told me he knew that, but bet we didn't realize how much caulk we were leaving in those tubes. He cut them open and clean out all the wasted materials. I often wondered how many jars of cured caulk he left with his estate.

And I once had an employee that would collect everyones used utility blades. He took them home and sharpened them. Never had to buy any himself. Never had to anyway, I supplied new ones for everybody. (except him) Same guy would take our paint rollers home and wash them on his own time, bring them back the next day ready to go. At a buck 49 each I can think of better things to do with the time but he was adamant they not be wasted.

Good Luck
Dave

[Cdat]

Originally Posted by Darren@Partners

As rockers, we used to go through tape measures pretty quickly. I got to buying Sears Craftsman tapes with their lifetime warranty. My wife and partners wife took turns taking back 6-8 tapes at a time. Of course, now no one warranties tape measures any more.

Well, if you want to know about abusing the system. I know of a person, who would take a wrench, lets say a 9/16 - 1/2 inch, open end, and break it in half (put in vise and slam with sledge hammer) and return each half on two seperate occasions to get two new wrenches out of the deal. Betcha' my Craftsman tool collection is TWICE the size of yours. Of course, this is only because I....er....I mean someone has two of everything....

[maleko]

Cdat ^^^^ thats a good idea never thought of that...

[Splinter]

Originally Posted by Cdat

Well, if you want to know about abusing the system...

When I was just out of high school, I worked in the Sears repair shop. We all owned our toolboxes full of craftsman tools, they sold them to us at a penny a pound. Whenever we had a slow time during the day, guys would put their dirty or scratched sockets on an impact gun and crank down on a bolt in a vice until it cracked the socket. A quick walk upstairs and we'd have shiny new sockets for free.

I'm sure I've told this story before about an engineer we built a kitchen and bathroom for... He had us do the kitchen start to finish before starting the bath. We had 3 way dimmers on 6 different lighting circuits for a 15x20 kitchen. Even the under-cabinet lights were on dimmers. (All his request) So one morning we show up to start the demo on the bathroom, and the guys wife tells us she caught him in the kitchen making coffee by flashlight at 5am. His excuse- he was saving electricity.

[Teetorbilt]

I once had a cust. that needed something welded and sent him to my welder. Buck told him that he'd do it for a bottle of Makers Mark. The old guy spent two days tooling around town in his '66 Impala looking for the cheapest price. In the end he spent more on gas than the bottle cost him.

BTW. This is a small town and he was a legend in cheap.