The most common dictionary definition of a tightwad is “miser”.
Vile calumny, I say! A tightwad is one who is regularly able to make at least one complete peanut butter sandwich from a jar others dismiss as being empty. A tightwad would never say, “Who steals my purse steals trash” without first examining the wallet to see if there is any salvageable material.
And more, a tightwad is one who sees the town dump as evidence of the monumental stupidity and waste of his neighbors who lack the ingenuity to see salvageable (or simply repairable) objects of worth and simply toss them out to be destroyed by the elements.
A tightwad, by nature or nurture, is a conservationist, ever exploring new ways to use, re-use, repair, mend, re-engineer and recycle; one who sees the simple wisdom in the old meme, “Waste not; want not.”
Tightwaddery does not exclude spending more for an item of quality as opposed to an item that is poorly made of poor materials, but rather sees the long-term value and ROI in items of quality… even used ones in need of repair.
Above all, tightwads are not swayed by labels, advertising or brand names. Or the opinions of folks who see dumpster diving as something that is somehow repellant. After all, repairing and re-using items others would discard is, as I’ve indicated, a hallmark of tightwaddery. After rescuing some thousands of dollars worth of computer and electronic equipment, furniture, furnishings and appliances from dumpsters over the years–and repairing and putting them to good use myself or giving them away for others who needed them–I sometimes laugh at the folks who are so brainwashed they think they have neither the time or ability to repair their broken things (or that doing so is beneath tghem somehow) that they will instead waste money (which is after all their time in another form) going down to WallyWorld or K-Mugger or some such to buy something to replace the repairable object… something that will likely be less durable than what they are replacing, made by slave labor in China and contributing to the erosion of U.S. manufacturing capabilities.
So, I’m kinda glad I’m a tightwad. Even if it does mean my garage is sometimes a tad messy… *heh*
Sadly, sometimes a discarded item is not repairable, but… once three or four unworking printers, for example, have been stripped of all usable parts to make one serviceable printer, I no longer feel quite so bad discarding the unusable parts… (though I do almost always keep screws, rollers, wheels, whatever might be useful building something entirely new. :-)). And yeh, I do have several jars of bent nails I have not yet straightened. But I’ll get to ’em someday. And there’ll always be more, too.
(Straightening used nails with a hammer and a small anvil is something that can be a relaxing activity, kinda using the body doing a repetitive task to allow some meditation time. Try things like that. Very relaxing. Picked that one up from my tightwad grandfather. :-))
It may seem like a foreign idea in these advertising/consumption-driven days, but what can you “Use up; wear out; make do; do without”?