It’s a fine line, but different for everyone. My definition of cheap is when you make saving money the primary consideration to the exclusion of your comfort, while frugality involves a balance between saving money and increasing happiness, as DebbieM mentioned above.

By the way, I’ve done this a couple times myself — except generally I just put the sandwich in our office fridge and have it the next day for lunch, instead of transporting it in my purse.

Interesting post!

Great little thing to notice and blog about it. I’m all for frugal thing but ofcourse not for cheap part. What you did is no way cheap even though some lavish people might look at it so.

Best Wishes,
D4L

That said, here’s another vote for not cheap. Cheap would be if you (or your wife!) were allergic to something in those sandwiches and you brought them home anyway. Or if a special dinner was planned, but you changed your mind at the last minute because you wanted to eat these sandwiches instead. Or if you had driven an hour out of the way to get them (negating the savings with gas costs plus adding extra air pollution into the world).

To me, frugality is about using resources to maximize happiness. Because you both enjoyed the sandwiches and they would have gone to waste otherwise, I’d call that frugal.

Furthermore, my husband and I are both cheap, frugal, thrifty. Whatever you want to call it. We don’t like to spend more than we have to on anything. On the other hand, because we are cheap, we can afford to be generous with our charitable contributions.

Bringing home leftover food is a long tradition in our household

When I worked at a law firm, we had fresh flowers delivered every Monday morning. Friday night (with the firm’s blessings) I would pick out what flowers still look good and take them home. Sometimes those flowers still had another week left in them. Might as well be decorating my home instead of the garbage can.