Frugal Vs Cheap: The Kiddie Edition
Posted June 23rd, 2009 by Carolyn Joy Villanueva · 1 commentTagged bargains, budgeting, saving money, shopping, tips
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
We’ve all heard both sides to the argument on being frugal vs being cheap.
While both can lead to cost savings for a household, the former is more about getting quality products at lower costs, while the latter is getting something simply because it has the lowest price (or comes free!) without much thought to its make, functionality, and how it could affect other people (not leaving a tip in a restaurant for instance IS cheap).
Adults can live without those unnecessary luxuries or make those small “sacrifices” in the name of frugal living and being eco-friendly. But just how much of our frugality should be applied to buying for our kids without crossing the line to cheapness? Here are some great ideas for frugal moms, which can bring in huge savings for you without sacrificing your young ones’ comfort and little pleasures.
Having at least three children or more will definitely make a dent on your clothing budget. When shopping for kids’ clothes, try the following:
A child’s birthday that’s just around the corner can be a stressful time for parents because birthdays are typically associated with costly parties. As frugal moms know, birthday treats don’t necessarily have to be bank-breaking. A few suggestions:
Now, I’d like to think that the ideas mentioned above were certainly within the bounds of frugality. So what for me would be ‘cheap mode’ for kids? Off the top of my head, just two:
As with everything else, it’s all a matter of perspective. What may be frugal for some, could be thought of as cheap by others.
As a parent, do you have these “frugal vs cheap” debates within yourself?


There are a limited number of good, free personal finance programs available, and less that are web-based and platform independent (meaning I can recommend them to anyone). So it was with great interest that I read