Frich Confessions: What's the most egregious ways you've ever saved money?
Our mission at Frich is to normalize talking about all things money. So we're launching Frich Confessions - it's exactly what it sounds like 😉
Once a week we will release a new drop of The Spiciest Money Confessions from our community.
Why? Because there's no shame in learning about money through making mistakes! And by sharing our mistakes (or sneaky secrets), we can help each other out. Sharing is caring so drop your Confession here.
THIS WEEK'S DROP: What's the most egregious ways you've ever saved money?
🤫 marrying for money sucks and I do not recommend it
Married a 40 year old when I was 19. Started dating when I was 17. Yes, it was gross but that's what happened. The only reason he married me is because I was hot. The only reason I married him is because he had money. I actually do have other redeeming characteristics but he married me because I was hot. I know this. Everyone knows this. It doesn't feel great but I can deal with it. We've been married 20 years. 4 kids. So we are stable and we have lots in common at this point. And we do love each other. But if I could go back and slap myself I would.
What nobody tells you – or they try and you don't listen because you're a dumbass teenager – is that marrying like this means you will fucking owe him. For everything. Every goddamn day. Not just in the bedroom but in every other matter in your life. The stuff you never imagined someone else trying to decide for you. And you don't just owe him for the money. It's a lot heavier than that. He'll never say it out loud. But you'll know the deal. Fundamentally unequal. He'll pull rank at the most random times and it will make you feel like you're falling through the floor.
I don't hate my life or anything. I accept that I made this bed and I have to lie in it but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. My oldest daughter is two years younger than I was when I met my husband and I can't imagine.
🤫 I gaslit my college library out of late fees by returning my own books
Back in college (00's) one semester I took out several books for a big research project. This was back when internet research was not admissible, and you needed to properly cite all your sources. School & life got away from me, and I forgot about them for a while. That was until the end of the semester when I got a late library dues bill in the mail. I think the fees were 25 cents per book per day – if not more – and I had at least 10 books over a month late! I didn't have any money, and if you had outstanding library dues, you could not get your grades/transcript for the semester.
Instead of sheepishly returning the books and paying the fines, I put the books in my backpack, smuggled them into the library, and returned them all to their correct places on the shelves. I then called the library the next day and questioned the validity of the letter regarding my overdue books. The librarian left me on hold for a few minutes and returned to the phone apologizing to me that it seemed the books had in fact been returned!
Library dues were erased and they didn't hold back my transcript!
🤫 I call fake orders in to a pizza place to get free pizzas.
My husband works at a popular pizza chain. We'll call it "Piece of Butt" for the sake of rhyming. If orders are messed up or carry out orders don't show, the employees get to take the food home. Sometimes I order pizzas under fake names and give the numbers of local businesses as callback numbers, and then purposefully never show up to pay for it. 9 times out of 10 my husband brings home the pizza I ordered. This is sinful pizza, yes I know. But sin pizza tastes better than honest pizza, inexplicably.
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🤫 They fired me months ago. Most of my meals still come from their break room.
I used to work at a small ice rink as a zamboni driver. I'm a broke college kid and a few of the other employees were broke college kids, so they often had pizza, hot dogs, ramen and things of that nature in the break room. The thing is, they "fired" me in december. By that I mean they never said I was fired but they never scheduled me for any more hours and completely ghosted me.
In doing that though, they never told me to give my keys back. The keys that opened the break room. So every week, I bring a tupperware, go through the back entrance, and steal as much food as I can. What can I say, I'm jobless and can't afford food. There's no cameras. Who's gonna stop me? I technically work there. I'm invincible and my food comes from their wallet.
🤫 I got free coffee from Starbucks for about 6 months
About 15 years ago I was working in NYC and I would take advantage of the free refills that Starbucks had for drip coffee. The offer was really meant for people sitting in the store but I would buy coffee in the morning and then bring my cup back around 1 or 2p for another cup. Apparently in NYC, they weren’t allowed to actually refill the cup for health code reasons or something. So they’d throw out the cup and give you a new one. That’s when I realized there was a loophole here.
I kept five cups and brought them home. Then I started bringing one in the morning to Starbucks and I’d get a free “refill”. I’d do this every day and I’d end up with 5 gross paper Starbucks cups at work and then I’d bring them home on Friday and repeat the next week. I did this for months, not paying for coffee at all, until one day I brought in my cup and handed it to the barista for a refill only to realize that all of the cups behind the counter were different. It was getting close to the holidays and they’d switched to their holiday logo cups. Well, color me embarrassed. I started paying for coffee again after that. It was a good run though.
🤫 I've scammed McDonalds for over 100 free hamburgers
When you sign up for the McDonalds app, you get an offer for a free hamburger/cheeseburger when you spend at least $1. I learned quickly that you can just log out of that account in the app and create a new one very easily.
Since then, I have signed up for over 100 different accounts to get over 100 free hamburgers this way, and I have never even been so much as questioned about it.
It's piss easy to do, and I feel absolutely 0 remorse for this.
Editing to add this because people won't shut the fuck up about this and keep trying to "GOTCHA" me.
I get coffee from McDonalds most every day on my commute to work, so any time I wanted a hamburger I'd just create a new account and then get it for free along with my coffee. I'm not going out of my way to go there all the time to buy stuff just to get the free burger. I'm getting the coffee anyway, so the free hamburger is just a nice bonus.
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