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

Stores like Costco and Sam’s Club (to name only two) make a bank off convincing people that it’s worth buying in bulk—to buy an absolute ton of food in order to save money on each individual unit.

Here are the times when this is a useful strategy: when you have an enormous family; when you are outfitting the kitchen at a summer camp with hundreds of campers; when you are stocking up your sailboat to prepare to sail from Australia to Brazil. In any other situation, you are risking the possibility of buying more food than you will actually eat before it goes bad.