Internet Users Share Their Two Cents on the Fine Line Between Being Frugal and Being Cheap

Here’s another useful distinction in considering the difference between frugality and cheapness. If you’re cheap, you want to avoid spending money right now, and you don’t think hard about how your decision will affect the future. If you’re frugal, however, you do think about the future.

Here’s an example: at the beginning of this article, I talked about buying boots. If you’re frugal, you might be willing to pay $80 for a pair of boots because you’ve done the research and you know they’re going to last you a long time. If you’re cheap, you pay $20 for a pair of boots, even though you have to replace them every year because they’re poorly made. So, in the end, you end up paying $100 for five years’ worth of boots. So the frugal person saves money in the long run. It’s the Boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness.