What’s in a word?

Anybody who reads this blog will likely notice that I avoid using the words “tightwad” and “cheapskate,” even though two of my frugal heroes -- whose writings I include in my frugal bible -- use those words to refer to either themselves or their writings or both. But much as I admire Amy Dacyczyn, author of "The Tightwad Gazette", and Jeff Yeager, the "Ultimate Cheapskate", I just can’t bring myself to use words that carry such negative baggage.

I prefer the words frugal and thrift, whether you’re talking about an act or a person or a movement. In fact, I like to use the plural form of frugal (there isn’t one, I made it up, though I probably wasn’t the first) to refer to people who examine the economic impact of their actions: Frugals. I just like the sound of it.

The hulking 2,662-page dictionary my husband got me for Christmas a few years back, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, supports my intuition on this word-choice issue.

Here are the definitions it lists for these four words, presented in alphabetical order:

cheapskate -- first entry is “a miserly or ungenerous person” and “one who tries to avoid his share of costs” Lists this quote by Frances W. Browin: “If we were courageous enough to demur at the price we were made to feel in no uncertain terms that we were cheapskates.”

frugal -- “economical in the use or the expenditure of resources“; “not wasteful or lavish”

thrift -- believe it or not, the first definition listed is “healthy or vigorous growth.” Definition No. 2: “good fortune, success.” 3. “savings accumulated through frugality” 4.a. “careful management of financial affairs” It’s not until definition 4-b that a negative connotation arises, “stinginess, miserliness”. But by definition No.5, it’s back to positivity: “Gainful employment, useful occupation.” (There’s a definition No.6, but it’s a reference to a specific type of plant that’s n/a here.)

tightwad -- a person who spends, lends or gives away money grudgingly or not at all; a close or miserly person.

I should note that this dictionary’s copyright date is 1993. It would be interesting to see if the definitions of these words have been updated in recent years to account for the many “frugals” who have tried to take ownership of them and expand their meaning. Yeager, for instance, may well be the “Ultimate Cheapskate,” but he advocates charitable giving and other admirable, earth- and people-friendly acts in his book, “The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Roap Map to True Riches.”

The Ultimate Cheapskate responds

In a previous post I reported on our failed attempt to boil eggs in the dishwasher, as described in Jeff Yeager's "The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches." He concurs with my speculation that while variation in water temperature may be a factor, the most likely discrepancy is simply personal preference:

"I like my soft boiled eggs cooked for 2-3 minutes, close to the consistency of the photo on your blog," Yeager writes. "Of course, I grew up in the rural Midwest, drinking egg in my beer, and I still love nothing more than cracking a raw egg directly into a bowl of hot soup and soaking it up with some stale bread. I'm sure health officials frown on all that, but it sure tastes good and it's an affordable, quality protein.

"BTW, I came up with the idea of cooking eggs in the dishwasher many years ago, when I was traveling in Japan and heard stories of how, in days gone by, Japanese wives would bring a mesh net filled with eggs to the communal, hot spring baths in the morning, and soft boil the eggs for their families as they bathed. As a result of mentioning the dishwasher method in my book, I get a fair number of people who write to me to say that cooking eggs in the dishwasher is 'disgusting.' I feel like saying, 'If you think that's unappetizing, just be glad I don't cook them in the bath tub with me.' "

If you want to read what Yeager is up to these days, check out his weekly "Green Cheapskate" blog at www.thedailygreen.com.

Eggs in the dishwasher experiment

One of the things I love about homeschooling is that you can justify exploring almost anything you’re curious about and figure out a way to convert it into a learning experience.

Case in point: I’d read in Jeff Yeager’s “The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches” that he boiled eggs in his dishwasher. So naturally we had to try it. In an effort to be all scientific about it, we put one egg in a secure location in the top rack, and one in the silverware basket in the lower rack.

You can see the results in the photo: There was obviously some cooking that had taken place in both eggs, because the whites had turned from clear to white. But they were still too runny to be considered even soft-boiled eggs. You wouldn’t have wanted to eat them; we fed them to the cats.