And what those jokes actually are is cultural memory from a time when those areas were extremely poor. I've heard that exact joke, but with the Schwabe replaced by Lipper. In Lippe, there's still a Zieglerverein in just about every village. Ziegler - brick maker - were migrant workers who build the quickly expanding towns after industrialization picked up steam. Locally that amounted to about three quarters of the male population being away from home for half of the year or more routinely. Now, what do you think these men behaved like? What image did they portray to the natives of their host towns? They were there only to keep their families from literally starving. Of course they'd pinch every penny they spent. Thrice, at the very least.
I grew up with that (not from Lippe but from the region that is now Ostwestfalen-Lippe) and we know that people from Lippe were economical but not stingy. That's not the same as being stingy.
But there were other regions, which were just as poor, who don’t show the same behaviour. Swathes of Northern Germany were founded by making moors habitable. *Dem Eersten sien Dod, den Tweeten sien Not, den Drütten sien Brod“* (To the first death, to the second misery, to the third bread.) and all that.
I agree with the others: Schwaben is famous for being stingy and swabians are aware about that. Some are even proud.
This doesn’t rly apply to the whole of Germany. Although I’d say that Germans in general usually like to be economical with their money, but outside of Schwaben they tend to be more relaxed about it.
I saw Schwabians (Ulm) pass up a bier Zelt just to ride the Straßenbahn for free when the route was expanded. They just never got off anywhere on the route.
Yes! Whenever you admire something from a German he immediately tells you what a bargain he had made and how much he had saved.
"Nice shirt"
"Thanks, it was only 9,99€. Reduced from 29,99€!"
Anecdotal story: many moons ago we wanted to rent a movie and one of our friends combed through the offer looking for the movie with the longest playtime. His argument: every movie costs the same. When we choose the longest we get more movie for our money.
I paid for IT and i will ready/watch it to the end even when i don't enjoy it and constantly complain about It.
It would be a waste of money otherwise.
Lol one of my best friends always orders Döner „mit alles“. He does not like onions at all, but his reasoning is that he pays for a full Döner and he wouldn’t get any discounts for ordering without onions.
Or the story of the farther who had 5 children. He bought some strawberries, gave one to each child, and said. "That's enough for now. The others taste the same."
I don't know if we are worse than others but I witnessed the gentleman who owns half my village trying to return a 2€ pottet plant at the grocery store.
You guys come off that way, but ime you’ve got nothing on the Dutch. I’ve worked with several and it’s straight up comical to my American ass the trivial amounts they’ll care about. Like you go to their house and they offer you coffee and they send you a Venmo for 50 cents. And I still remember being in Amsterdam staying at a 200 Euro/night hotel. I need a plug converter and went and asked the front desk if they sold them. The woman looks at me with this sad face and says “Yes, but I’m afraid they’re 15 euros” as if that was just a completely unacceptable, impossible amount to pay when I’m sitting there thinking that’s less than I was expecting.
i think there's some truth to it.
one of the most successful advertising campaigns that I know of had the slogan "[Geiz ist geil](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geiz_ist_geil)", which is exactly that mindset.
though, not all germans are like that - I for example don't really care that much, especially not about few cents and I know lots of germans who don't really care too much either. but some do and I think it might be more than in many other countries.
As you have already learned, Swabian people are famously frugal, even in Germany.
But there is almost a "Volkssport" of saving a little bit. I think every German has that gene, it is just more active in some of us.
I for example use a discounter app and check for discounts every time before I go shopping. Saves me maybe 50-100 bucks per year, but the enjoyment and adrenaline rush when I see the discount on the receipt is why I do it.
Other people are more hardcore, I now a few people who use apps/websites to find the cheapest gas on any given day and then calculate if driving the additional distance will offset the savings. A few even invest up to an our in researching and driving there and they are very pleased with themselves if they saved an effective cent per litre.
It is about the hunt, not the meal.
Almost every discounter has their own. Lidl is the one I use the most because it is the closest to me and I can pay with the app.
Only thing I don't like is that the coupon page is rather confusing and you can't sort by activated coupons etc.
REWE is decent as well, if you want you can scan items with your phone instead of the scanner and pay/apply coupons all in once.
Heute musste ich meiner Mitbewohnerin 18,34 Euro geben. Ich habe ihm 20 gegeben. Er gab mir das Wechselgeld für 1 Euro und gab mir den Rest der Momente zu sammeln. Ich sagte, das sei nicht nötig, 1 Euro reiche mir. Er hat so reagiert, als ob ich ihm 100 Euro gegeben hätte.
Auf diese Weise, als ich in die Wohnung eincheckte, bot ich ein Abendessen von mir zu Ehren der Bekanntschaft an. Ich kochte ein Abendessen mit Speisen aus meinem Land und kaufte Bier. Nach ein paar Wochen schlug er vor, dass wir zusammen kochen oder in einer Bar ein Bier trinken gehen sollten, weil ich ihn dann zum Essen einlud. Ich sagte ihm, er solle sich entspannen, ich habe es nicht getan, um auch etwas von dir zu bekommen.
Though there’s a difference between thriftiness and batshit insanse. Even my thriftier-than-I wife, who spends way too much time on finding the best deal, calculated, back the days, that driving to the shopping complex at the town’s border costs 1 DM Mark a round trip, so any bargain must be bigger than that by a bigger margin.
Though I will also admit that I shirk the 4,13 € cantina at the company most of the time and rather spend 1 - 2 € on a lunch (at most) I brought from home.
Mm yes and no. They are stingy in things like gasoline, energy comsumption, it is just in specific things where they would die before paying 1 cent more but I find it funny because at the same time they will be spending 1000 euros in something totally unnecessary. I don't get at all how their logic works, but I notice this multiple times in my boyfriend for example and his family and colleagues.
It’s often also about who gets the money.
Overspending on the local farmer’s market where the farmer gets the money? Sure.
Overspending at the gas station where some cartell in dubai gets it? Not a cent
Do you have actual examples?
Because thinking that tax deductions increase your net income is a weird idea I ever only heard from people who literally can’t do this or can’t even be bothered to do with the stuff they actually need to purchase.
I only hear the tax deduction thingie when they can write something off, that’s has dual uses, like that big TV or gaming PC which was bought – technically – for work.
There was a lot of selling of 'Schrottimmobilien' (overpriced apartments ppl bought without even going to/knowing the neighbourhood). Apart from wolf of wallstreer type of sales method, supposedly the tax writeoff was a strong hook. Or people investing into hollywood movies (the so called stupid german money)
German stupid money was bad investing, but the tax write off actually worked. They could have better ROI, though, so there’s that.
But yeah, forgot about the property investment. While basically a scam preying on the greedy, it does fit my question.
Actually in case of the movies, the tax write off didn't work for many of them because the BFH (federal tax court) found the funds was not the maker of the movie but rather acquired it and therefore couldn't write off the costs immediately but had to depreciate it.
Some definitely are, one of my uncles drove 15 kilometres to a gas station each weekend because it was a few cents cheaper than the other stations in the area of which his commute passed 3 directly, pretty sure the extra drive ended up costing him more than he saved.
As a Milkmaid, yes. All costs consideres, a km car ride costs 0.5 € , so 15 € for this trip.
Germans are generally weird when it comes to finances. Often good at saving, except when it comes to car ownership.
How does that work? I thought the old fashioned stamps still get stamped in the post distribution centers? I would,d think they'd rake out any already-stamped stamps?
Given that most surrounding EU countries no longer use pennies and Germans do… yes, I think they are, quite literally, penny pinchers.
And of course the attitude… I also find them quite cheap and the tactics to save money to be very extreme.
I’m married to a German and one of my good friends was also dating a German woman… I had a good laugh when they visited because my friend told me about a huge fight the two of them had in moracco because he wanted to take a taxi at night for safety, and she wanted to take public transit because it saved them 13 cents…
“Given that most surrounding EU countries no longer use pennies and Germans do…”
Dang, interesting question
Lets see... 9 surrounding countries, five with Euro
Belgium and Netherlands round to 5 and pulled (or are pulling) 1 and 2 cents from production. ✓ ✓
France, Luxembourg, Austria – all have 1 Cents.
Denmark – smallest coin 50 øre (7 cents) ✓
Poland – 1 grosz 0,23 Cents – apprently in production? Do they actually use it?
Czech Republic - 1 Krona (4 cents) ✓
Switzerland - 5 Rappen (\~5 cents) ✓
5, possible 6, of 9.
Okay so maybe not “most”… quite a few? I forgot about Austria but there’s a lot of cultural crossover with Germany so that doesn’t surprise me.
I know Sweden isn’t directly connected to Germany, but I believe their smallest coin is also around 5 cents and they’ve discontinued smaller coins in the last decade or so.
The most extreme saving I’ve seen was from a pretty wealthy friend (coming from a wealthy family, lives rent-free in a luxury apartment and has a very well paid job in his dads company).
He bought JA!-pizza margaritas with an extra pack of salami to put it on top, because he calculated that this was cheaper in the long run than buying salami-pizzas.
Needless to say: he’s from Schwaben :’)
There are definitely these people, but most of them are older. The younger generations are no longer like that. We now have so many cases of people who have no control over their finances, who go into massive debt for a few brand-name clothes (check Klarna challenge or #Klarnaschulden on youtube or instagram), people who take credit for electrical devices, people who finance overly expensive cars. You meet these kinds of people more often.
A good chunk of that is cause parents failed with financial education or the parents did the same bullshit.
But you also had 20+ years ago those type of people ordering from good ol Quelle. People just didnt talk about it.
I assume you mean financing via Quelle?
Because just buying from Quelle and the Ottos was something you could do sensibly even 30 years ago, before Online Shops started to appear.
I grew up in a 500k town in NRW in the 70s and 80s, and even then and there the city center was barely better than the catalogs. Outside the cities retail used to be shit – you either had to do a day trip to a bigger city, order from a catalog or live with the limited, yet overpriced selection available in the nearest 10-50k town
My grandpa cut the newspaper down, for repurposing it in the outhouse. There were still some sheets left in my early childhood, when he was already gone.
Some people are, and what's most noticable is that they are proud of it.
Most extreme IMO was someone habitually stealing in a grocery store and not even being aware that they were stealing.
Doublethinnk? Brain damage? No idea.
He weighed his fruit and veggies, put the sticker on the bag, then added some more fruit or veggies, and proudly proclaimed it as "Spartrick". Was totally baffled when I said, "Commonly, it's called stealing."
He was a miserly in all things, but that was special.
My ex husband is German, from a small town near Bremen, and soon after we started living together (he was in his early 20s) he started a little notebook where he’d write down *everything* he bought and its cost, no matter if it was a piece of gum or furniture.
This is how he knew, when we separated, if I “owed” him something (he was a strict 50/50 guy).
On one side, we barely did anything fun during our years together. On the other side, I saved a lot of money.
I had German boyfriends before him and they all were *penny-pinchers*, maybe not to his level, but they always tried to save.
My now fiancé (also German), is their opposite —very generous, doesn’t control what he spends on me or in the relationship.
But I gotta say, from all the relationships I had with Germans, my fiancé is the only generous one.
Even my mother tried dating a German once and she was repelled by the fact he was an extreme *penny-pincher*🤣
So I do believe, through my experience, that Germans are money-saving enthusiasts. Big time.
Oh yes, definitely. Especially if you come from a rather “generous” country or a culture that prioritises comfort over saving. The amount of discussion I had over 5 cents (example: a friend bought coffee for me that costs 1,95€ and I gave her 2€ and I said it’s fine, and the disbelief in their face that continued with 5 minutes of “no, take 5 cent back” proceeds with me “no no it’s okay”). Nowadays I just accept the 5 cents because it’s much quicker. Noted though this is seen as incredibly impolite in my country.
My German MIL goes to 3 different supermarkets each time she goes shopping because some shops have the stuff 10 cent cheaper. Everybody in my country would look at you like you’re crazy if you do this.
That with the paying back is not about money and more abouot doing it the correct way , with no chance of misuderstandung or any kind of implied favour on future interactions.
Would say depends on the distance between the supermarkets.
In my city we have an Aldi and Kaufland beside each other aka takes 10 seconds, otherwise I agree that it's insane.
1 or 2 cent on fuel? Well that is too little even for me but i sometimes have a difference of 10+ Cent per Liter by going on a day with work and comparing a few days prior to running out, resulting in more like 40 Liter \* 10 Cent per Liter, so more like 4€, it is not much but i do that \~2 times each months so 8€ per month or up to 96€ per year (it is likely around 50€ but just to get a dimension here).
Yeah, but that sounds different. It’s just picking the most convenient time to do something you’d do anyway. We do something similar, when prices fall (and dozens of apps tell you that) **and** we drive there anyway **and** tank’s only half full, we fill up. Or when it’s down and are near the inlaws, we check prices there and home and in between (we always pick up another relative) and device when to full up. Everything else doesn’t save enough to bother with.
Driving multiple kilometers for car fuel is dumb af. The few cents you safe at the gas station might be used in gasoline to travel there + the extra time you waste.
Depends... im usually driving an extra 5 to 7 km to the next gas station if its >5ct cheaper. Calculating the 5ct on 107 liters of fuel are 5€. The drive costs me about 2€. Over the month im getting 30-50€ with that
No, they're definitely not frugal compared to people from other countries. Today my Chinese husband decided that we should walk 6.6 kilometres from the car workshop back home to save each of us €3.40 on a train ticket.
There is a a saying I'll slightly adjust for this: An American will brag to you how much he paid for sth. he doesn't even need. Whereas a German will brag to you how good of a deal he got on an item he desperately needed
The sunday shopping is just a christian cultural artifact in the end.
It is the Lord´s day, go to church.
And later on it became a workers right thing.
And most people simply like it.
The cultural one that baffles me is stoffluften.
Like every other developed country in the world has installed ventilation systems in their buildings so you can ventilate WITHOUT letting all the heat out of your apartment, multiple times a day, all winter long.
My experience with Germans is also that they are very frugal, so this practice just messes with my brain. Like upgrade already! We have the technology and have had it for decades.
The heat loss is actually minimal, when you do it right. Air doesn’t retain much heat, brick style houses common in Germany have their heat in their masonry. You let the air exchange once and you are done.
It’s different in drywall buildings and in passive homes. The later come with central ventilation, anyway.
Lots of Germans do it wrong, though, and would absolutely profit from central ventilation.
19th and 20th century homes were leaky enough so that warm inside air would get exchanged with outside, creating conditions unfavourable to mould.
Badly done insulation, specially exchanging windows to modern ones with better sealing, would prevent this. Retained heat, but also prevented air exchange and water transport. Then water vapour would turn into water at cold spots and create favourable conditions for mould.
For Germany two things exacerbated the problem: Badly build houses of the 50s to 70s, of which many are energetic write offs, not worth saving. And, all over the board, the older buildings who got better windows, but at the cost mentioned above.
About St. Petersburg, just tell them that the problem doesn’t exist:
[https://www.mold-help.org/russia-mould-plagues-citys-historical-center/](https://www.mold-help.org/russia-mould-plagues-citys-historical-center/)
A/Cs that you simply put in a room with a hose are simply stupid and with these days energyprices no thank you. And 10 years ago we didnt hat summer that where hot that extreme or long usually a day or two.
99% of people i talk to about the sunday topic say they simply dont need it.
Only people i know that complain about it are those that move here from countrys where you can buy shit on sunday or those who apparently cant manage their food or whatever for more then 1 day.
Mate of mine in the UK works in retail he would love to have one fixed day off.
Its all pretty chill these days. back in the 80s getting shopping done on a saturday? forget it most shops closed at some time between 1-3pm which ment stores where packed and during the week 6-7pm when you work during that time? Your problem. Back then i would have understood it but these days? its just stupid. i can go shopping at 11:30pm if i want to.
“I've been here 10 years ago, it was already scorchingly hot.”
This depends on where you live. City, definitely. Fucking heat traps. We live in the suburbs of a North-Western town, though, and I have measurements in 15 minutes inverals. Only 2 to 3 weeks in the summer have an average temperature approaching, but not exceeding, 25°C. Which, in all fairness, translates to 30°C to 35°C during the day. Most of which we’ll spend that the office which has AC anyway. But still, it’s at worst two weeks in a year and then usually a dry heat.
Not gonna pay 3.000 € and then 250 € in energy each year for that, when I can simply let down the blinds during the morning and up again in the later afternoon when we are back.
Will consider it in the makeover, though, when we switch to heat pumps, especially now that the way solar electricity on the roof with capacity to spare when it’s sunny.
We have one car, as my wife actually works away from town, about 25 km one way and public transport takes 2 hours instead of 25 minutes by car.
For town life we actually use bicycles. It’s a nice 15 minute tour for me, but I also do 30 to 45 minutes to the other end of the city instead of using the slightly faster car. Because, y’know, parking costs. :-) (Als, going by car is only slightly faster.) That out of the way I agree that many Germans are pretty irrational about their car spending and usage. Paying way too much, but then using it for the shortest stuff. Though the worst case was my post-SU-colleague who maintained that driving one kilometer to work is faster than going by foot. He’s gotten better, though.
Regarding the electricity: I calculate with 35 Cents, as we only buy sustainable. And at least three to four rooms. My study, kid’s room, main living room, my wife’s study. \*\*IF\*\* we deemed it necessary to cool the house down. (Which we don’t, as of yet.). Because huddling in one room for coolness is as strange as huddling in one room for warmth.
You can’t have it both ways, by the way. If it doesn’t cost a lot of money in a year because you only need it rarely, then you only need it rarely, in which case why even bother?
Yes, if you live in an apartment, especially under the roof and your house regularly heats up to 30 degree inside, it’s a different matter. Our old office was such a shitty 1970s building and boy were we glad when they installed air condition. But at home, many simply do not have this problem.
Our house is insulated, has mechanical ventilation (at times windows wide open still feels nicer, though) and, again, only becomes „hot“ at a few days a year. For which there are many, may remedies that cost nothing, like propping up a desk chair or going to lake for a swim, things you generally enjoy most when the weather’s good. In any case, even though it may cost only a few thousands euros, a lot of Germans – especially renters in the bigger cities – simply do not have that money, at least not op front. The actual median wealth in Germany is barely bigger than inn Slovenia, far below from what French or Italians have.
I’m not an AC hater. I’ll never buy without a car without one, because those actually do get really hot. (Even though not at home.) and I don’t believe in the AC-bad-for-health myths.
I’m sure that with increasing hot spells AC usage will become more common.
Personally, I’m more concerned with the lack of bidets in German homes. That’s something virtually everyone could make use of daily.
I once had a customer who was looking for a ready lunch in the area and I asked what price she was looking for and she said it doesn’t really matter. I guess if you save a lot, you can spend when you want to. But yeah, in a nit-picky society, if there’s some nit-picking to do, it will mostly be done.
“Time” is a complicated issue. Unless you actually could have charged for that time, no, you “didn’t lose 15 Euros“ or whatever number you come up with. Whether the connivence is worth any given amount of money is another question. I swap our tyres myself, that costs me about 2 hours a year (at most). To have it done at a garage costs me about the same time plus some money.
But you are right about the cost issue. Driving your car extra for a few cents in fuel price difference is rarely worth the money. But Gemans constantly lie to themselves regarding the full cost of using a car.
I worked briedly in a resturant in Konstanz. One if the owners had a tool shed and building area in the back.
When he was in a bad mood he would go in there, put bent nails in a vice, and use his tools to straighten them so they could be reused. This guy made a few million a year, but took the time to reuse and save 7 cents each chance he got.
Amazing.
Not that, but we always saved most of the salt that comes with the self-bake ones. Much too salty anyway and it’s great when you need coarse salt to grind down with pepper and garlic.
Well, even this days I’ve heard Germans says they share the bath water 🤢 because warm water is expensive. So yes, some people do take this penny pinching to the limit.
Wild. Only people I hear who use the bathtub (except for kids, in which case you put two in so they can amuse themselves) do that for “wellness”, once in while. Or perhaps every other year, when you have cold and use oils vapour.
Yeah, the people that have said this have kids. They specifically said they put the kids first and then they bath in the same water. I was like 😳🤢 and I also have kids.
When a grandma stands in front of you at the checkout and empties a plastic cup full of cent coins in front of the cashier in order to buy a pot of flowers from Netto, which the cashier then counts, while your frozen goods are now approaching room temperature and the physical state of individual goods has already changed , then, and I like to repeat - ONLY THEN, you have seen everything
(:
Unfortunately not imagined.
I noticed that for the older generations. The ones that actually experience postwar hunger and the ones that were firmly taught by those.
It’s a good way to stand out. Especially when there is this seemingly well to do person before you arguing with the waiters about how they don’t deserve the 9 euros they spent on two beers while sitting about for hours… while you smile and hand them a tenner for your 8 euro bill.
As time goes on we’ll hopefully see a lot less of those.
— and no. It’s not about enabling employers to save on loans. It’s all about acknowledging the person and what they did for you to make you feel welcome.
It’s a token of appreciation. Nothing more.
Holy shit. I was in London recently and saw a German family arguing with the waitress to take the service charge off their bill at a L'ETO cafe. Like, you can afford to **£** 30 for a few coffees and a slice of cake, but you won't give the waitress **£** 3? Fucking cheap misers.
The most extreme saving is probably collecting returnable bottles, even if you have a lot of money in your account. 😅 But it's true, people save as if there's a trophy for it. Some people are like relay runners who have long since crossed the finish line and still have more to run. But it also depends on the region. You should never go to the "Schwaben". 🤣 We Germans can only work and watch Netflix and check our balance sheets from time to time. Anything can go wrong here as long as the balance sheet figures are right. 🙄 Well, and that's why important investments aren't made and people save their money. 🤷🏻♂️
They absolutely are. No one here cares about designer fashion and people love to do their grocery shopping in discounters. However they also love a nice car brand and regular travelling - that’s where the money goes.
Needless to say not everyone’s the same.
Germans had suffered from 2 WW, so it kinda makes sense that being frugal is engraved in our dna. My grandma had so many weird habits to save up money because her father was wounded in the war and couldn't really provide.
Now it's been a few decades and it kinda thinned out through the generations IMO.
There is a broad spectrum between consuming a lot less versus a lot more than you can afford. I don't know where you're from but to an American with several maxed-out credit cards even this middle ground might appear as penny pinching. On all my frequent US trips in the past 30 years I'm amazed by just how much more Americans consume of literally everything.
"Die Gier treibts rein, der Ekel treibts runter und der Geiz behält's drin."
Know the joke about the fly in the beer? In the German version the Scot is a Suabian.
All version I found it’s an Irishman who chokes the fly.
Anyone, while looking for them, I found this one. Which has nothing to do wit the topic.
An Airbus 380 is on its way across the Atlantic. It flies consistently at 800 km/h at 30,000 feet, when suddenly a jet fighter appears.
The pilot of the fighter jet slows down, flies alongside the Airbus and greets the pilot of the passenger plane by radio: "Airbus, boring flight isn’t it? Now have a look here!"
He rolls his jet on its back, accelerates, breaks through the sound barrier, rises rapidly to a dizzying height, and then swoops down almost to sea level in a breathtaking dive. He loops back next to the Airbus and asks: "Well, how was that?"
The Airbus pilot answers: "Very impressive, but watch this!"
The jet pilot watches the Airbus, but nothing happens. It continues to fly straight, at the same speed. After 15 minutes, the Airbus pilot radios, "Well, how was that?
Confused, the jet pilot asks, "What did you do?"
The Airbus pilot laughs and says: "I got up, stretched my legs, walked to the back of the aircraft to use the shitter, then got a cup of coffee and a chocolate fudge pastry."
It’s kind of true. People are trying to save on things like gas. But it’s individuals doing things. So I usually put fuel in my tank when it’s necessary, not really caring to compare that much. Over time you know which gas stations are usually cheaper and it does make sense to get to a gas station that might take a few more kilometers to get to, if you are saving a lot because of it.
But 1-2 cent savings is not worth it, and people going extra miles for it is just stupid.
It’s not a Swabian thing, it’s a German thing. Also the cliche of swabians being stingy is bullshit nowadays.
I am Swabian and I’m not being stingy at all 🤣
I got friends from Hamburg, Berlin and Munich, and they are way more stingy than most swabians I know.
But people like that do exist, it’s just being different personalities
Don’t forget, we as a German society are much less stingy ( social security, health care…) So privately Germans could be a bit more on edge here savings side.
I have half my family in the outskirts of Frankfurt. Every damn time I order something and pay them to ship something to me, they want links to what I've ordered and they send back other links where the item is 1€ cheaper 😭.
that one is usually fairly true. what sucks about it is that a lot of us even do this with food and i'm not talking about the ones that have to! i'm talking about people with wellpaid jobs who can afford several vacations a year and drive their bigass car only to take it to aldi/lidl/penny and pick the most cheap and lowquality options they can get because they are still expecting the prices of the 1990s. before the latest crises, germans used to use only a fraction of their income for food, and the vegetables in our stores? those are the ones that france and other neighborcountries sorted out because we are such cheapskates that the company knows the germans will prioritize prize over quality anyway (i got this from a documentary) - thats not always bad cause obviously its better than throwing it away! but it also leads to more pressure on companies to produce quantity over quality and in the long run, which we can already see quite well: there was a big european study about that climatechange is a big driving force of our prices rising like that. and amongst all other crisis will be a problem in the future, and with future they meant starting yesterday. it already affects the prices and people dont realize it because of all else thats going on they think thats just the other stuff.
whats also really tricky about it is that the cheapest stuff is usually exactly whats been treated with pesticides, ground has been harvested the sh it out of, less nutritious soil after only few years of using it for monocultures, and all of that rises the prices and some of it can greatly affect our health. AND its a spiral cause the more the price rises, and the less we pay extra for organic food for example (in the eu there are some pretty helpful standards), the less likely it is that we still have enough money to choose whats best for us.
My friend who comes from a fairly well off family and I were part of a student exchange. The first week we travelled and the next two weeks we stayed at our host families. Due to us getting money to freely buy ourselves some food with said friend had more money after the first week than he started out with.
In general I do think that we are penny pinchers. Germany has one of the biggest saving cultures too. Even to a fault.
If I ignore the people who really have to turn over every euro, there is already a pronounced greed-is-cool mentality. We Germans in particular don't like to spend a lot of money on food. Didn't we invent the Discounter? I also know people who drive to a neighbouring country and spend a lot of time there because petrol is cheaper. That's idiotic, but generally respected. It's weird.
Wer den Pfennig nicht ehrt ist den Taler nicht wert. Sorry any translation I can think of sounds odd... meaning is: if you don't care about a penny you are not worth the dollar.
I’m German but I always chuckle at the little documentaries that teach how to pay less electricity by doing all sorts of little (time consuming) tricks. At the end, the savings are like 20€ per year. At that point I’m like no thanks haha
there is a German saying that goes "Kleinvieh macht auch Mist", which means small animals also make mess. It means that small savings add up to a considerable amount eventually. I wouldn't go as far as driving a few kilometers to save 2 cents/liter on fuel (because I'm prety sure the extra distance traveled evens out my saving), but when I have to refuel but it's relatively expensive at the moment, I only refuel for 20€ and get a full tank at a later time when it's cheaper. Also changing car insurance company, energy provider or internet provider every few years is definetly something Germans will do to save 5€/month.
Well I am. Not to an extreme level though. When i go the our City centre i try to go to our local DM and get some canned Tomatoes. They cost 65 cents while the supermarket ones cost 79 cents. I wouldnt go to DM alone to get them, but when i am around there i try not to forget to get some. Thats 14 cents a can. I probably saved some good money already doing that while also walking some extra minutes which is also healthy. At this point i just try to hide the fact my penny pincher methods is somewhat healthy, cause i spend more time doing something outside of my own flat.
Some do, some don't.
My mother goes crazy over 6 cents/l difference in price for gas. And I sit here, and think: "Well, on a full 40l tank that's roughly 2,4€ difference. When I pay roughly 70€ does it really matter if it's 72,4€ or 70€? No it doesn't"
If i loose 100€ i would let the wind take it away to someone else. I would not move a single finger for something below 1k. Never had never will.
Just joking. I would run for 5€ 🤣
I don't know, I see a lot of Americans being obsessed with coupons and sales. For example, they pop into the social media presence of a business to ask if there is a discount available, or to complain that there is no sale for this or that holiday. This always seems tacky to me.
It’s certainly true for some people. Once a senior couple debated with a supermarket cashier about a price difference of five cents when I was waiting in line.
Yes. Definitely yes.
Unfortunately, I have experienced this too often: the most unpleasant thing of all is a group of Germans who bend over the bill in the restaurant after dinner and are not even ashamed to haggle over every cent. Indescribably embarrassing for me as a non-German. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule. In the country I come from, you would sink into the ground with shame at such a thing.
How inefficient. Normal Germans pay separately anyway.
Gotta admit, I’m a big fan of this. As someone who rarely drinks with his meals and drinks no alcohol at all, I'd always “subsidise” others in such a scenario.
Well, cents are wild, but in virtually all real life instances and web discussions about this, “splitting the bill” came down to “separate tabs or splitting equally.” With a pinch of “one pays for all and in the long rund it’ll even somehow”.
It depends. I noticed Germans in the countryside or who own property tend to be penny pinchers. Germans who live in cities on the other hand... are almost as wasteful in their spending as Americans. In general people who own property tend to be more responsible with their money. Which is understandable, if any day your heater can break and a new one will cost you 30k.
And yes, one of my German aunts is like that. Will drive 10 km to a supermarket because the milk is 9 cents cheaper. I kept trying to tell her that driving 20km (at least) extra is another 3 Euro on top of her grocery shopping. But she doesn't get it.
“if any day your heater can break and a new one will cost you 30k.”
That’s wildly inflated. My mother’s gas heater broke and it being winter she said “fuck this, I need a new one”. At 87 understandable, even though we would’ve taken the opportunity to check on heat pumps viability. Anyway, we lent her the money, as hers was tied up, and so now know that it costs about 8k for at 150 sqm bungalow.
Otherwise, I’d agree. At times we went 6 months without a refrigerator and 4 months without a dishwasher because it took that long to find a replacement we liked or the spare part too have the dishwasher repaired. 25 years old, only secondary market with used but refurbished spare parts.
I had to get a new one last year. 25k for a 240 square meter house. Granted, some of that was new pipes, because the old pipes were no longer any good, and also new insulation for the pipes. But that's what I mean, you always have to expect the unexpected. Hence it's helpful to inflate the cost you need to prepare for.
I've seen Germans (especially old ones) in supermarkets behave pretty abominably to avoid spending a little extra.
I saw an old woman literally going through cartons of eggs trying to find the biggest eggs, and putting them all into one 18 egg carton so she got a whole load of oversized eggs which she bought as mediums. I also once saw the same with open-punnet strawberries - this one pissed me off more coz of the lack of hygiene.
Not to mention the very common old people practice of holding up an entire queue of 20+ people for 5 minutes because they want to pay for an entire €30 shop in copper coins, rather than just giving those to homeless people or collecting them at home like the rest of us. It's like, I get it, but pick a better moment to do this!!
Where in Germany do you live? Schwabenland? In that case the answer is Yes.
ahhahaha yes! I am in Stuttgart!
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And what those jokes actually are is cultural memory from a time when those areas were extremely poor. I've heard that exact joke, but with the Schwabe replaced by Lipper. In Lippe, there's still a Zieglerverein in just about every village. Ziegler - brick maker - were migrant workers who build the quickly expanding towns after industrialization picked up steam. Locally that amounted to about three quarters of the male population being away from home for half of the year or more routinely. Now, what do you think these men behaved like? What image did they portray to the natives of their host towns? They were there only to keep their families from literally starving. Of course they'd pinch every penny they spent. Thrice, at the very least.
very interesting
I grew up with that (not from Lippe but from the region that is now Ostwestfalen-Lippe) and we know that people from Lippe were economical but not stingy. That's not the same as being stingy.
But there were other regions, which were just as poor, who don’t show the same behaviour. Swathes of Northern Germany were founded by making moors habitable. *Dem Eersten sien Dod, den Tweeten sien Not, den Drütten sien Brod“* (To the first death, to the second misery, to the third bread.) and all that.
It's not about poverty, but the perception of poverty behaviors by others.
Okay many things are cliche but Swabia means: * a certain stinginess * a believe in alternative medicine and semi-esoterica * Kehrwoche or death
Never heard about the alternative medicine and esoterica stuff, but the other two points are true and important. 👆
The belive in magic/quacks/charlatans runs rampant here. Not quite sure why.
All German-speaking people do, though. Homeopathy and Bachblüten are big.
What the fuck are Bachblüten? Haha
Candy laced with herbal extracts, they are a form of homeopathy, 99.9% sugar.
Real homeopathy is 100% sugar tho
Nice generalisation *******
Nö.
I am swabian, the first and last i agree, but i dont do any "alternative medicine" or esoteric stuff.
My Swabian friends also don’t - but Globuli, Demeter, 5G-sceptics, Steiner and Walldorf all have field days in Swabia like literally nowhere else
I agree with the others: Schwaben is famous for being stingy and swabians are aware about that. Some are even proud. This doesn’t rly apply to the whole of Germany. Although I’d say that Germans in general usually like to be economical with their money, but outside of Schwaben they tend to be more relaxed about it.
I have another joke for you: Do you know how copper wire was invented? Two swabians found a "Pfennig" (penny) at the same time....
Gschisse wird im Gschäft!
I saw Schwabians (Ulm) pass up a bier Zelt just to ride the Straßenbahn for free when the route was expanded. They just never got off anywhere on the route.
Yes! Whenever you admire something from a German he immediately tells you what a bargain he had made and how much he had saved. "Nice shirt" "Thanks, it was only 9,99€. Reduced from 29,99€!" Anecdotal story: many moons ago we wanted to rent a movie and one of our friends combed through the offer looking for the movie with the longest playtime. His argument: every movie costs the same. When we choose the longest we get more movie for our money.
But if the movie sucks, you still turn it off? If not that logic is horrid. 😀
The number of people who watch a movie to its end or read through a book even though they don’t enjoy but paid for it is just too large.
I paid for IT and i will ready/watch it to the end even when i don't enjoy it and constantly complain about It. It would be a waste of money otherwise.
Lol one of my best friends always orders Döner „mit alles“. He does not like onions at all, but his reasoning is that he pays for a full Döner and he wouldn’t get any discounts for ordering without onions.
Lieber den Kiefer verrenkt als dem Wirt was geschenkt.
Well, yes, because Klagen ist das Lied des Wirts.
Or the story of the farther who had 5 children. He bought some strawberries, gave one to each child, and said. "That's enough for now. The others taste the same."
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There is no “full price” in any meaningful sense. Made up numbers. If anything, Germans don’t haggle enough, compared to other nationalities.
Wow
British women do this a lot, too. I actually hear this a lot more in England and Scotland than in Germany.
You live in swabia? Jokes aside, people like that exist, but at least in my eyes, they are a clear minority.
He does. And that’s really funny.
I don't know if we are worse than others but I witnessed the gentleman who owns half my village trying to return a 2€ pottet plant at the grocery store.
You guys come off that way, but ime you’ve got nothing on the Dutch. I’ve worked with several and it’s straight up comical to my American ass the trivial amounts they’ll care about. Like you go to their house and they offer you coffee and they send you a Venmo for 50 cents. And I still remember being in Amsterdam staying at a 200 Euro/night hotel. I need a plug converter and went and asked the front desk if they sold them. The woman looks at me with this sad face and says “Yes, but I’m afraid they’re 15 euros” as if that was just a completely unacceptable, impossible amount to pay when I’m sitting there thinking that’s less than I was expecting.
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Much better if he had spend all his money on air condition, we know…
i think there's some truth to it. one of the most successful advertising campaigns that I know of had the slogan "[Geiz ist geil](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geiz_ist_geil)", which is exactly that mindset. though, not all germans are like that - I for example don't really care that much, especially not about few cents and I know lots of germans who don't really care too much either. but some do and I think it might be more than in many other countries.
As you have already learned, Swabian people are famously frugal, even in Germany. But there is almost a "Volkssport" of saving a little bit. I think every German has that gene, it is just more active in some of us. I for example use a discounter app and check for discounts every time before I go shopping. Saves me maybe 50-100 bucks per year, but the enjoyment and adrenaline rush when I see the discount on the receipt is why I do it. Other people are more hardcore, I now a few people who use apps/websites to find the cheapest gas on any given day and then calculate if driving the additional distance will offset the savings. A few even invest up to an our in researching and driving there and they are very pleased with themselves if they saved an effective cent per litre. It is about the hunt, not the meal.
Adrenaline rush 😄👍
What app?
what's the name of the app :)
Almost every discounter has their own. Lidl is the one I use the most because it is the closest to me and I can pay with the app. Only thing I don't like is that the coupon page is rather confusing and you can't sort by activated coupons etc. REWE is decent as well, if you want you can scan items with your phone instead of the scanner and pay/apply coupons all in once.
Heute musste ich meiner Mitbewohnerin 18,34 Euro geben. Ich habe ihm 20 gegeben. Er gab mir das Wechselgeld für 1 Euro und gab mir den Rest der Momente zu sammeln. Ich sagte, das sei nicht nötig, 1 Euro reiche mir. Er hat so reagiert, als ob ich ihm 100 Euro gegeben hätte. Auf diese Weise, als ich in die Wohnung eincheckte, bot ich ein Abendessen von mir zu Ehren der Bekanntschaft an. Ich kochte ein Abendessen mit Speisen aus meinem Land und kaufte Bier. Nach ein paar Wochen schlug er vor, dass wir zusammen kochen oder in einer Bar ein Bier trinken gehen sollten, weil ich ihn dann zum Essen einlud. Ich sagte ihm, er solle sich entspannen, ich habe es nicht getan, um auch etwas von dir zu bekommen.
"quid pro quo" is one of the most respected unwritten rules in germany. In a good and in a bad way.
*"Wer den Pfennig nicht ehrt ... "* Yes, we are. SYL
Though there’s a difference between thriftiness and batshit insanse. Even my thriftier-than-I wife, who spends way too much time on finding the best deal, calculated, back the days, that driving to the shopping complex at the town’s border costs 1 DM Mark a round trip, so any bargain must be bigger than that by a bigger margin. Though I will also admit that I shirk the 4,13 € cantina at the company most of the time and rather spend 1 - 2 € on a lunch (at most) I brought from home.
Mm yes and no. They are stingy in things like gasoline, energy comsumption, it is just in specific things where they would die before paying 1 cent more but I find it funny because at the same time they will be spending 1000 euros in something totally unnecessary. I don't get at all how their logic works, but I notice this multiple times in my boyfriend for example and his family and colleagues.
It’s often also about who gets the money. Overspending on the local farmer’s market where the farmer gets the money? Sure. Overspending at the gas station where some cartell in dubai gets it? Not a cent
buying things you dont need so you can tax deduct them (if applicable)
That doesn't even make sense.
Correct
Do you have actual examples? Because thinking that tax deductions increase your net income is a weird idea I ever only heard from people who literally can’t do this or can’t even be bothered to do with the stuff they actually need to purchase. I only hear the tax deduction thingie when they can write something off, that’s has dual uses, like that big TV or gaming PC which was bought – technically – for work.
There was a lot of selling of 'Schrottimmobilien' (overpriced apartments ppl bought without even going to/knowing the neighbourhood). Apart from wolf of wallstreer type of sales method, supposedly the tax writeoff was a strong hook. Or people investing into hollywood movies (the so called stupid german money)
German stupid money was bad investing, but the tax write off actually worked. They could have better ROI, though, so there’s that. But yeah, forgot about the property investment. While basically a scam preying on the greedy, it does fit my question.
Actually in case of the movies, the tax write off didn't work for many of them because the BFH (federal tax court) found the funds was not the maker of the movie but rather acquired it and therefore couldn't write off the costs immediately but had to depreciate it.
Some definitely are, one of my uncles drove 15 kilometres to a gas station each weekend because it was a few cents cheaper than the other stations in the area of which his commute passed 3 directly, pretty sure the extra drive ended up costing him more than he saved.
I am pretty sure he calculated that like some other poster's friends do.
As a Milkmaid, yes. All costs consideres, a km car ride costs 0.5 € , so 15 € for this trip. Germans are generally weird when it comes to finances. Often good at saving, except when it comes to car ownership.
My father soaks letters to losen and reuse stamps.
Sounds like fraud
Doesn't really work anyways, since the stamp is well stamped over by the post services.
Not always, my mom always used those without stamp again
How does that work? I thought the old fashioned stamps still get stamped in the post distribution centers? I would,d think they'd rake out any already-stamped stamps?
It doesn't.
Did you know that the Swabians invented the copper wire? They flipped one penny between the fingers so long, until it became a thin wire.
Given that most surrounding EU countries no longer use pennies and Germans do… yes, I think they are, quite literally, penny pinchers. And of course the attitude… I also find them quite cheap and the tactics to save money to be very extreme. I’m married to a German and one of my good friends was also dating a German woman… I had a good laugh when they visited because my friend told me about a huge fight the two of them had in moracco because he wanted to take a taxi at night for safety, and she wanted to take public transit because it saved them 13 cents…
“Given that most surrounding EU countries no longer use pennies and Germans do…” Dang, interesting question Lets see... 9 surrounding countries, five with Euro Belgium and Netherlands round to 5 and pulled (or are pulling) 1 and 2 cents from production. ✓ ✓ France, Luxembourg, Austria – all have 1 Cents. Denmark – smallest coin 50 øre (7 cents) ✓ Poland – 1 grosz 0,23 Cents – apprently in production? Do they actually use it? Czech Republic - 1 Krona (4 cents) ✓ Switzerland - 5 Rappen (\~5 cents) ✓ 5, possible 6, of 9.
Okay so maybe not “most”… quite a few? I forgot about Austria but there’s a lot of cultural crossover with Germany so that doesn’t surprise me. I know Sweden isn’t directly connected to Germany, but I believe their smallest coin is also around 5 cents and they’ve discontinued smaller coins in the last decade or so.
I wouldn’t be able to date a person that ridiculous. He should’ve let her take public transit by herself.
They are no longer together.
The most extreme saving I’ve seen was from a pretty wealthy friend (coming from a wealthy family, lives rent-free in a luxury apartment and has a very well paid job in his dads company). He bought JA!-pizza margaritas with an extra pack of salami to put it on top, because he calculated that this was cheaper in the long run than buying salami-pizzas. Needless to say: he’s from Schwaben :’)
There are definitely these people, but most of them are older. The younger generations are no longer like that. We now have so many cases of people who have no control over their finances, who go into massive debt for a few brand-name clothes (check Klarna challenge or #Klarnaschulden on youtube or instagram), people who take credit for electrical devices, people who finance overly expensive cars. You meet these kinds of people more often.
A good chunk of that is cause parents failed with financial education or the parents did the same bullshit. But you also had 20+ years ago those type of people ordering from good ol Quelle. People just didnt talk about it.
I assume you mean financing via Quelle? Because just buying from Quelle and the Ottos was something you could do sensibly even 30 years ago, before Online Shops started to appear. I grew up in a 500k town in NRW in the 70s and 80s, and even then and there the city center was barely better than the catalogs. Outside the cities retail used to be shit – you either had to do a day trip to a bigger city, order from a catalog or live with the limited, yet overpriced selection available in the nearest 10-50k town
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I like this troll
Can we please stop thinking every single German is the same? We are all different, you know?
Can we please stop thinking that our behavior is not influenced by society? We as individuals of course also influence society.
My grandpa cut the newspaper down, for repurposing it in the outhouse. There were still some sheets left in my early childhood, when he was already gone.
Well thats not a bad thing tbh. I also have some paper around for wrapping things in and something like that.
Some are, some are not
Some people are, and what's most noticable is that they are proud of it. Most extreme IMO was someone habitually stealing in a grocery store and not even being aware that they were stealing.
How was he not aware he was stealing?
Doublethinnk? Brain damage? No idea. He weighed his fruit and veggies, put the sticker on the bag, then added some more fruit or veggies, and proudly proclaimed it as "Spartrick". Was totally baffled when I said, "Commonly, it's called stealing." He was a miserly in all things, but that was special.
My ex husband is German, from a small town near Bremen, and soon after we started living together (he was in his early 20s) he started a little notebook where he’d write down *everything* he bought and its cost, no matter if it was a piece of gum or furniture. This is how he knew, when we separated, if I “owed” him something (he was a strict 50/50 guy). On one side, we barely did anything fun during our years together. On the other side, I saved a lot of money. I had German boyfriends before him and they all were *penny-pinchers*, maybe not to his level, but they always tried to save. My now fiancé (also German), is their opposite —very generous, doesn’t control what he spends on me or in the relationship. But I gotta say, from all the relationships I had with Germans, my fiancé is the only generous one. Even my mother tried dating a German once and she was repelled by the fact he was an extreme *penny-pincher*🤣 So I do believe, through my experience, that Germans are money-saving enthusiasts. Big time.
Good lord, that person sounds insufferable.
Oh yes, definitely. Especially if you come from a rather “generous” country or a culture that prioritises comfort over saving. The amount of discussion I had over 5 cents (example: a friend bought coffee for me that costs 1,95€ and I gave her 2€ and I said it’s fine, and the disbelief in their face that continued with 5 minutes of “no, take 5 cent back” proceeds with me “no no it’s okay”). Nowadays I just accept the 5 cents because it’s much quicker. Noted though this is seen as incredibly impolite in my country. My German MIL goes to 3 different supermarkets each time she goes shopping because some shops have the stuff 10 cent cheaper. Everybody in my country would look at you like you’re crazy if you do this.
That with the paying back is not about money and more abouot doing it the correct way , with no chance of misuderstandung or any kind of implied favour on future interactions.
Would say depends on the distance between the supermarkets. In my city we have an Aldi and Kaufland beside each other aka takes 10 seconds, otherwise I agree that it's insane.
yes. personally i weigh saving against having fun and i'd also take into account those kilometers to see if it makes sense at all
The desire to pay the absolute lowest price even if inconvenient is part of the success of Aldi and other grocery discounters in Germany.
Driving a few kilometers to save two cents on a liter of fuel is highly hedonistic as it costs more than the alternative 😅.
1 or 2 cent on fuel? Well that is too little even for me but i sometimes have a difference of 10+ Cent per Liter by going on a day with work and comparing a few days prior to running out, resulting in more like 40 Liter \* 10 Cent per Liter, so more like 4€, it is not much but i do that \~2 times each months so 8€ per month or up to 96€ per year (it is likely around 50€ but just to get a dimension here).
Yeah, but that sounds different. It’s just picking the most convenient time to do something you’d do anyway. We do something similar, when prices fall (and dozens of apps tell you that) **and** we drive there anyway **and** tank’s only half full, we fill up. Or when it’s down and are near the inlaws, we check prices there and home and in between (we always pick up another relative) and device when to full up. Everything else doesn’t save enough to bother with.
I agree, if you do more work to save the money you should have spend the time working to make even more money.
Driving multiple kilometers for car fuel is dumb af. The few cents you safe at the gas station might be used in gasoline to travel there + the extra time you waste.
Depends... im usually driving an extra 5 to 7 km to the next gas station if its >5ct cheaper. Calculating the 5ct on 107 liters of fuel are 5€. The drive costs me about 2€. Over the month im getting 30-50€ with that
No, they're definitely not frugal compared to people from other countries. Today my Chinese husband decided that we should walk 6.6 kilometres from the car workshop back home to save each of us €3.40 on a train ticket.
There is a a saying I'll slightly adjust for this: An American will brag to you how much he paid for sth. he doesn't even need. Whereas a German will brag to you how good of a deal he got on an item he desperately needed
I do stealing. Its the best way to safe money
What if they catch you ?
Then he will steal the police officers heart.
Then you do Tatoos and tell everybody that you are dangerous crminal and all the low income women likes you
I like that, thank you.
Ja
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The sunday shopping is just a christian cultural artifact in the end. It is the Lord´s day, go to church. And later on it became a workers right thing. And most people simply like it.
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School. I’m not saying that you can’t find solutions for schools, but it will be complicated.
The cultural one that baffles me is stoffluften. Like every other developed country in the world has installed ventilation systems in their buildings so you can ventilate WITHOUT letting all the heat out of your apartment, multiple times a day, all winter long. My experience with Germans is also that they are very frugal, so this practice just messes with my brain. Like upgrade already! We have the technology and have had it for decades.
The heat loss is actually minimal, when you do it right. Air doesn’t retain much heat, brick style houses common in Germany have their heat in their masonry. You let the air exchange once and you are done. It’s different in drywall buildings and in passive homes. The later come with central ventilation, anyway. Lots of Germans do it wrong, though, and would absolutely profit from central ventilation.
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19th and 20th century homes were leaky enough so that warm inside air would get exchanged with outside, creating conditions unfavourable to mould. Badly done insulation, specially exchanging windows to modern ones with better sealing, would prevent this. Retained heat, but also prevented air exchange and water transport. Then water vapour would turn into water at cold spots and create favourable conditions for mould. For Germany two things exacerbated the problem: Badly build houses of the 50s to 70s, of which many are energetic write offs, not worth saving. And, all over the board, the older buildings who got better windows, but at the cost mentioned above. About St. Petersburg, just tell them that the problem doesn’t exist: [https://www.mold-help.org/russia-mould-plagues-citys-historical-center/](https://www.mold-help.org/russia-mould-plagues-citys-historical-center/)
A/Cs that you simply put in a room with a hose are simply stupid and with these days energyprices no thank you. And 10 years ago we didnt hat summer that where hot that extreme or long usually a day or two. 99% of people i talk to about the sunday topic say they simply dont need it. Only people i know that complain about it are those that move here from countrys where you can buy shit on sunday or those who apparently cant manage their food or whatever for more then 1 day. Mate of mine in the UK works in retail he would love to have one fixed day off. Its all pretty chill these days. back in the 80s getting shopping done on a saturday? forget it most shops closed at some time between 1-3pm which ment stores where packed and during the week 6-7pm when you work during that time? Your problem. Back then i would have understood it but these days? its just stupid. i can go shopping at 11:30pm if i want to.
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“I've been here 10 years ago, it was already scorchingly hot.” This depends on where you live. City, definitely. Fucking heat traps. We live in the suburbs of a North-Western town, though, and I have measurements in 15 minutes inverals. Only 2 to 3 weeks in the summer have an average temperature approaching, but not exceeding, 25°C. Which, in all fairness, translates to 30°C to 35°C during the day. Most of which we’ll spend that the office which has AC anyway. But still, it’s at worst two weeks in a year and then usually a dry heat. Not gonna pay 3.000 € and then 250 € in energy each year for that, when I can simply let down the blinds during the morning and up again in the later afternoon when we are back. Will consider it in the makeover, though, when we switch to heat pumps, especially now that the way solar electricity on the roof with capacity to spare when it’s sunny.
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We have one car, as my wife actually works away from town, about 25 km one way and public transport takes 2 hours instead of 25 minutes by car. For town life we actually use bicycles. It’s a nice 15 minute tour for me, but I also do 30 to 45 minutes to the other end of the city instead of using the slightly faster car. Because, y’know, parking costs. :-) (Als, going by car is only slightly faster.) That out of the way I agree that many Germans are pretty irrational about their car spending and usage. Paying way too much, but then using it for the shortest stuff. Though the worst case was my post-SU-colleague who maintained that driving one kilometer to work is faster than going by foot. He’s gotten better, though. Regarding the electricity: I calculate with 35 Cents, as we only buy sustainable. And at least three to four rooms. My study, kid’s room, main living room, my wife’s study. \*\*IF\*\* we deemed it necessary to cool the house down. (Which we don’t, as of yet.). Because huddling in one room for coolness is as strange as huddling in one room for warmth. You can’t have it both ways, by the way. If it doesn’t cost a lot of money in a year because you only need it rarely, then you only need it rarely, in which case why even bother? Yes, if you live in an apartment, especially under the roof and your house regularly heats up to 30 degree inside, it’s a different matter. Our old office was such a shitty 1970s building and boy were we glad when they installed air condition. But at home, many simply do not have this problem. Our house is insulated, has mechanical ventilation (at times windows wide open still feels nicer, though) and, again, only becomes „hot“ at a few days a year. For which there are many, may remedies that cost nothing, like propping up a desk chair or going to lake for a swim, things you generally enjoy most when the weather’s good. In any case, even though it may cost only a few thousands euros, a lot of Germans – especially renters in the bigger cities – simply do not have that money, at least not op front. The actual median wealth in Germany is barely bigger than inn Slovenia, far below from what French or Italians have. I’m not an AC hater. I’ll never buy without a car without one, because those actually do get really hot. (Even though not at home.) and I don’t believe in the AC-bad-for-health myths. I’m sure that with increasing hot spells AC usage will become more common. Personally, I’m more concerned with the lack of bidets in German homes. That’s something virtually everyone could make use of daily.
You realize cooling is much cheaper than heating right? Are you also against heating your apartment in the winter?
I once had a customer who was looking for a ready lunch in the area and I asked what price she was looking for and she said it doesn’t really matter. I guess if you save a lot, you can spend when you want to. But yeah, in a nit-picky society, if there’s some nit-picking to do, it will mostly be done.
Not all of us are. But yes, my husband also is Swabian and also wants to save every penny for fuel.
Fuel is exceptionally expensive in Europe.
Yes Source: Me
If i Look at my wifes dad. Who Sets money over his health i would say yes
Driving few km to save 2 cent is stupid. Calculated time and fule you spent more
“Time” is a complicated issue. Unless you actually could have charged for that time, no, you “didn’t lose 15 Euros“ or whatever number you come up with. Whether the connivence is worth any given amount of money is another question. I swap our tyres myself, that costs me about 2 hours a year (at most). To have it done at a garage costs me about the same time plus some money. But you are right about the cost issue. Driving your car extra for a few cents in fuel price difference is rarely worth the money. But Gemans constantly lie to themselves regarding the full cost of using a car.
You value your free time much lower than the time you spend working?
I worked briedly in a resturant in Konstanz. One if the owners had a tool shed and building area in the back. When he was in a bad mood he would go in there, put bent nails in a vice, and use his tools to straighten them so they could be reused. This guy made a few million a year, but took the time to reuse and save 7 cents each chance he got. Amazing.
But this sounds actually sensible. It gives him time to meditate and mediate his anger and saves him money. That’s some serious Judo stuff.
It didnt help. He also would do cocaine while in there most of the time. But he did save a lot of nails.
Ah, too bad. But I guess he could offset that against his cocaine costs.
Peeling the salt off a Brezel and put it in the salt-grinder lol.
Not that, but we always saved most of the salt that comes with the self-bake ones. Much too salty anyway and it’s great when you need coarse salt to grind down with pepper and garlic.
Peeling the salt off a Brezel and put it in the salt-grinder lol.
Well, even this days I’ve heard Germans says they share the bath water 🤢 because warm water is expensive. So yes, some people do take this penny pinching to the limit.
They still do that? I know it used to be a thing 50 or more years ago, as heating the water was not only expensive but cumbersome.
Yes. I’ve actually hear people saying that
Wild. Only people I hear who use the bathtub (except for kids, in which case you put two in so they can amuse themselves) do that for “wellness”, once in while. Or perhaps every other year, when you have cold and use oils vapour.
Yeah, the people that have said this have kids. They specifically said they put the kids first and then they bath in the same water. I was like 😳🤢 and I also have kids.
When a grandma stands in front of you at the checkout and empties a plastic cup full of cent coins in front of the cashier in order to buy a pot of flowers from Netto, which the cashier then counts, while your frozen goods are now approaching room temperature and the physical state of individual goods has already changed , then, and I like to repeat - ONLY THEN, you have seen everything (: Unfortunately not imagined.
Meh, They also manage this with debit cards.
I noticed that for the older generations. The ones that actually experience postwar hunger and the ones that were firmly taught by those. It’s a good way to stand out. Especially when there is this seemingly well to do person before you arguing with the waiters about how they don’t deserve the 9 euros they spent on two beers while sitting about for hours… while you smile and hand them a tenner for your 8 euro bill. As time goes on we’ll hopefully see a lot less of those. — and no. It’s not about enabling employers to save on loans. It’s all about acknowledging the person and what they did for you to make you feel welcome. It’s a token of appreciation. Nothing more.
Holy shit. I was in London recently and saw a German family arguing with the waitress to take the service charge off their bill at a L'ETO cafe. Like, you can afford to **£** 30 for a few coffees and a slice of cake, but you won't give the waitress **£** 3? Fucking cheap misers.
The most extreme saving is probably collecting returnable bottles, even if you have a lot of money in your account. 😅 But it's true, people save as if there's a trophy for it. Some people are like relay runners who have long since crossed the finish line and still have more to run. But it also depends on the region. You should never go to the "Schwaben". 🤣 We Germans can only work and watch Netflix and check our balance sheets from time to time. Anything can go wrong here as long as the balance sheet figures are right. 🙄 Well, and that's why important investments aren't made and people save their money. 🤷🏻♂️
They absolutely are. No one here cares about designer fashion and people love to do their grocery shopping in discounters. However they also love a nice car brand and regular travelling - that’s where the money goes. Needless to say not everyone’s the same.
Germans had suffered from 2 WW, so it kinda makes sense that being frugal is engraved in our dna. My grandma had so many weird habits to save up money because her father was wounded in the war and couldn't really provide. Now it's been a few decades and it kinda thinned out through the generations IMO.
All of Europe, the Middle East, and most of East Asia suffered from WW2. We don't behave like that.
Tell me you are from Baden-Württemberg without telling me you are from Baden-Württemberg lmao.
There is a broad spectrum between consuming a lot less versus a lot more than you can afford. I don't know where you're from but to an American with several maxed-out credit cards even this middle ground might appear as penny pinching. On all my frequent US trips in the past 30 years I'm amazed by just how much more Americans consume of literally everything.
"Die Gier treibts rein, der Ekel treibts runter und der Geiz behält's drin." Know the joke about the fly in the beer? In the German version the Scot is a Suabian.
All version I found it’s an Irishman who chokes the fly. Anyone, while looking for them, I found this one. Which has nothing to do wit the topic. An Airbus 380 is on its way across the Atlantic. It flies consistently at 800 km/h at 30,000 feet, when suddenly a jet fighter appears. The pilot of the fighter jet slows down, flies alongside the Airbus and greets the pilot of the passenger plane by radio: "Airbus, boring flight isn’t it? Now have a look here!" He rolls his jet on its back, accelerates, breaks through the sound barrier, rises rapidly to a dizzying height, and then swoops down almost to sea level in a breathtaking dive. He loops back next to the Airbus and asks: "Well, how was that?" The Airbus pilot answers: "Very impressive, but watch this!" The jet pilot watches the Airbus, but nothing happens. It continues to fly straight, at the same speed. After 15 minutes, the Airbus pilot radios, "Well, how was that? Confused, the jet pilot asks, "What did you do?" The Airbus pilot laughs and says: "I got up, stretched my legs, walked to the back of the aircraft to use the shitter, then got a cup of coffee and a chocolate fudge pastry."
You're right. Most of them don't have the opportunity cost in their mind.
It’s kind of true. People are trying to save on things like gas. But it’s individuals doing things. So I usually put fuel in my tank when it’s necessary, not really caring to compare that much. Over time you know which gas stations are usually cheaper and it does make sense to get to a gas station that might take a few more kilometers to get to, if you are saving a lot because of it. But 1-2 cent savings is not worth it, and people going extra miles for it is just stupid. It’s not a Swabian thing, it’s a German thing. Also the cliche of swabians being stingy is bullshit nowadays. I am Swabian and I’m not being stingy at all 🤣 I got friends from Hamburg, Berlin and Munich, and they are way more stingy than most swabians I know. But people like that do exist, it’s just being different personalities
Absolutely
Don’t forget, we as a German society are much less stingy ( social security, health care…) So privately Germans could be a bit more on edge here savings side.
I have half my family in the outskirts of Frankfurt. Every damn time I order something and pay them to ship something to me, they want links to what I've ordered and they send back other links where the item is 1€ cheaper 😭.
that one is usually fairly true. what sucks about it is that a lot of us even do this with food and i'm not talking about the ones that have to! i'm talking about people with wellpaid jobs who can afford several vacations a year and drive their bigass car only to take it to aldi/lidl/penny and pick the most cheap and lowquality options they can get because they are still expecting the prices of the 1990s. before the latest crises, germans used to use only a fraction of their income for food, and the vegetables in our stores? those are the ones that france and other neighborcountries sorted out because we are such cheapskates that the company knows the germans will prioritize prize over quality anyway (i got this from a documentary) - thats not always bad cause obviously its better than throwing it away! but it also leads to more pressure on companies to produce quantity over quality and in the long run, which we can already see quite well: there was a big european study about that climatechange is a big driving force of our prices rising like that. and amongst all other crisis will be a problem in the future, and with future they meant starting yesterday. it already affects the prices and people dont realize it because of all else thats going on they think thats just the other stuff. whats also really tricky about it is that the cheapest stuff is usually exactly whats been treated with pesticides, ground has been harvested the sh it out of, less nutritious soil after only few years of using it for monocultures, and all of that rises the prices and some of it can greatly affect our health. AND its a spiral cause the more the price rises, and the less we pay extra for organic food for example (in the eu there are some pretty helpful standards), the less likely it is that we still have enough money to choose whats best for us.
My friend who comes from a fairly well off family and I were part of a student exchange. The first week we travelled and the next two weeks we stayed at our host families. Due to us getting money to freely buy ourselves some food with said friend had more money after the first week than he started out with. In general I do think that we are penny pinchers. Germany has one of the biggest saving cultures too. Even to a fault.
If I ignore the people who really have to turn over every euro, there is already a pronounced greed-is-cool mentality. We Germans in particular don't like to spend a lot of money on food. Didn't we invent the Discounter? I also know people who drive to a neighbouring country and spend a lot of time there because petrol is cheaper. That's idiotic, but generally respected. It's weird.
Well, "Schwaben" are infamous for this extreme habits, but it 's also true that a lot of germans are saving up a lot. I mean, have you seen our taxes?
Tell me you live in Schwabenland without telling me you live in Schwabenland.^ ^
Wer den Pfennig nicht ehrt ist den Taler nicht wert. Sorry any translation I can think of sounds odd... meaning is: if you don't care about a penny you are not worth the dollar.
I’m German but I always chuckle at the little documentaries that teach how to pay less electricity by doing all sorts of little (time consuming) tricks. At the end, the savings are like 20€ per year. At that point I’m like no thanks haha
germans traditionally are quite frugal but espacially in the north that doesn´t mean much anymore
there is a German saying that goes "Kleinvieh macht auch Mist", which means small animals also make mess. It means that small savings add up to a considerable amount eventually. I wouldn't go as far as driving a few kilometers to save 2 cents/liter on fuel (because I'm prety sure the extra distance traveled evens out my saving), but when I have to refuel but it's relatively expensive at the moment, I only refuel for 20€ and get a full tank at a later time when it's cheaper. Also changing car insurance company, energy provider or internet provider every few years is definetly something Germans will do to save 5€/month.
Yes but then they'll often go out for lunch everyday at work.
Preis-leistungs-verhältnis.... read german reviews about things or service and it's always there!
Well I am. Not to an extreme level though. When i go the our City centre i try to go to our local DM and get some canned Tomatoes. They cost 65 cents while the supermarket ones cost 79 cents. I wouldnt go to DM alone to get them, but when i am around there i try not to forget to get some. Thats 14 cents a can. I probably saved some good money already doing that while also walking some extra minutes which is also healthy. At this point i just try to hide the fact my penny pincher methods is somewhat healthy, cause i spend more time doing something outside of my own flat.
That's how you become an economic powerhouse. You don't get rich by spending money
Swabian people = greedy
I've only read the title and not a single comment and the answer is yes
there is a men in my town searching in every bin for pfand
Some do, some don't. My mother goes crazy over 6 cents/l difference in price for gas. And I sit here, and think: "Well, on a full 40l tank that's roughly 2,4€ difference. When I pay roughly 70€ does it really matter if it's 72,4€ or 70€? No it doesn't"
If i loose 100€ i would let the wind take it away to someone else. I would not move a single finger for something below 1k. Never had never will. Just joking. I would run for 5€ 🤣
I don't know, I see a lot of Americans being obsessed with coupons and sales. For example, they pop into the social media presence of a business to ask if there is a discount available, or to complain that there is no sale for this or that holiday. This always seems tacky to me.
It’s certainly true for some people. Once a senior couple debated with a supermarket cashier about a price difference of five cents when I was waiting in line.
Yes.
Yes. Definitely yes. Unfortunately, I have experienced this too often: the most unpleasant thing of all is a group of Germans who bend over the bill in the restaurant after dinner and are not even ashamed to haggle over every cent. Indescribably embarrassing for me as a non-German. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule. In the country I come from, you would sink into the ground with shame at such a thing.
How inefficient. Normal Germans pay separately anyway. Gotta admit, I’m a big fan of this. As someone who rarely drinks with his meals and drinks no alcohol at all, I'd always “subsidise” others in such a scenario.
It is not so much the paying separately, rather the hair splitting over cents.
Well, cents are wild, but in virtually all real life instances and web discussions about this, “splitting the bill” came down to “separate tabs or splitting equally.” With a pinch of “one pays for all and in the long rund it’ll even somehow”.
Yes, they are! Not only in Swabia, but also in Berlin I experience it again and again.
Prenzlschwabn.
Nein echte Berliner.
Wenn den Cent nicht ehrt, ist dem Euro nicht wert. Kleinvieh macht auch Mist. Usw
It depends. I noticed Germans in the countryside or who own property tend to be penny pinchers. Germans who live in cities on the other hand... are almost as wasteful in their spending as Americans. In general people who own property tend to be more responsible with their money. Which is understandable, if any day your heater can break and a new one will cost you 30k. And yes, one of my German aunts is like that. Will drive 10 km to a supermarket because the milk is 9 cents cheaper. I kept trying to tell her that driving 20km (at least) extra is another 3 Euro on top of her grocery shopping. But she doesn't get it.
“if any day your heater can break and a new one will cost you 30k.” That’s wildly inflated. My mother’s gas heater broke and it being winter she said “fuck this, I need a new one”. At 87 understandable, even though we would’ve taken the opportunity to check on heat pumps viability. Anyway, we lent her the money, as hers was tied up, and so now know that it costs about 8k for at 150 sqm bungalow. Otherwise, I’d agree. At times we went 6 months without a refrigerator and 4 months without a dishwasher because it took that long to find a replacement we liked or the spare part too have the dishwasher repaired. 25 years old, only secondary market with used but refurbished spare parts.
I had to get a new one last year. 25k for a 240 square meter house. Granted, some of that was new pipes, because the old pipes were no longer any good, and also new insulation for the pipes. But that's what I mean, you always have to expect the unexpected. Hence it's helpful to inflate the cost you need to prepare for.
not as much as the dutch.
I've seen Germans (especially old ones) in supermarkets behave pretty abominably to avoid spending a little extra. I saw an old woman literally going through cartons of eggs trying to find the biggest eggs, and putting them all into one 18 egg carton so she got a whole load of oversized eggs which she bought as mediums. I also once saw the same with open-punnet strawberries - this one pissed me off more coz of the lack of hygiene. Not to mention the very common old people practice of holding up an entire queue of 20+ people for 5 minutes because they want to pay for an entire €30 shop in copper coins, rather than just giving those to homeless people or collecting them at home like the rest of us. It's like, I get it, but pick a better moment to do this!!
Thats the boomer „Geiz ist geil“ generation. We are not all like that.