Is It Possible To Be Too Frugal?

There is nothing wrong with being frugal, at least to a point, but is there ever a time when people can go just a little too far in trying to save their pennies?

When I was a university student I was extremely frugal.  I only took the bus when absolutely necessary and whenever possible I would ride my bike or walk to my destinations.  I bought the bare minimum food that I needed and always bought the cheapest of everything.  I bought my clothes at thrift stores when I had to, but seldom bought anything for myself other than absolute necessities.  My goal was to reduce the amount of student loans I would need.  My lifestyle paid off, but some people might consider my style as too frugal.

I recently stumbled upon an article on globeinvestor.com that discussed this topic of being overly frugal.  You would be surprised at some of the things people do for the sake of saving money.  Some tactics were even unhealthy.

Some things mentioned in the article that people have admitted to doing in order to save money include:

-rewearing their underwear inside out in order to save on their water bill

-reusing dental floss

-separating the layers of their toilet paper in order to make it go farther

Can you believe that someone would consider doing the things listed above?  Being frugal is one thing, but being obsessed with saving money is quite another!  It is good to be frugal but not to the extreme that you are jeopardizing your health or wasting hours of your time just to save a few pennies.  Your time is worth more than that, and so is your health.

What are some things that you have done in order to save money that might be considered “too frugal”?