The Case of Cheap

Heinz is a saver by heart. Nothing makes him happier than to save a dollar. Even if it costs him two to save one. Now I know that doesn't make sense to most people, but to Heinz it does. Heinz doesn't rent anything. Nothing. And I mean that in the deepest sense of the word. When Heinz wanted to move Gertrud once, he bought a 10,000 Dollar truck to get the job done. He moved her with it, but could have saved himself at least half that money by renting a truck. This time he moved with Gertrud, he used the truck again. You say, "Good job Heinz, you have now paid for the truck and basically got it for free," but you don't know that now he also needed to buy a trailer for another several thousand dollars and then work on it and add more money into it for tires, new sideboards and new electrical. Well you say, "Now he has a trailer too." But then it took him three trips, which cost him approximately $4000 return for each trip. "But now you say he is saving, right?" And so I say," Yeah, now he is saving. He put potatoes in his garden and has a wonderful crop of potatoes, which he labored over lovingly all summer and should get him through the winter pretty much. So he is also saving on his carrots and onions now. Yes, I agree he is getting excercise and fresh air and the veggies are fresh, at least for now. Because by December, I don't necessarily see them as fresh anymore. Now I went to the grocery store and got 10 pounds of onions, carrots and beets for $2.99. The potatoes were $1.99 last week. So I wonder at the savings and all the work. Was it really worth it???
So now what about the water bill you ask. Does he save on water too? And I would say: "Of course he does. Remember he saves where he can."
We now have small buckets in each sink to save any water that might go down the drain. So you wash your hands and the runoff goes into the bucket. From there it goes into a five gallon pail into the washroom, where it get recycled to flush the toilet. The same happens to the wash water. Heinz drains all the wash water into 5 gallon pails and carries it carefully up the stairs to the main floor washroom so that it can be used to flush the toilet. Well, you dear reader might wonder at the madness, but to Heinz it makes perfect sense to go through all this trouble, since there is a water meter and he pays for water usage. The problem is that he doesn't understand that his water bill is not based on actual water usage but on person per household. I have tried to explain this to him, but still he insists on doing things his way. The water coming off the roof of his house will certainly also be recycled by next year. That much he has already promised himself and is on the agenda for next year. So for now, every time I wash my hands or brush my teeth and let water go down the drain, I feel somewhat guilty, like I'm not ecologically doing my part in saving water. And then I give my head a shake!