I've found that my own attitudes, goals, objectives, opinions, etc are so drastically different from most peoples' that when it comes to lifestyle discussions like finance I just have nothing to gain nor contribute - so I don't hang out on those reddits

Let's take this very post for example, people assume I'm a cheapskate because I pay $30/mo for my phone but that's not at all what it is - the fact is nobody makes a tolerably decent slider phone anymore so I bought the last halfway decent one outright and I never talk to anyone verbally if I can avoid it so T-mobile offers unlimited everything but talk, BYOD for 30 bucks a month, why would I do anything else? I guess I could finance the latest phablet on a $100/mo plan or something but my mom only dropped me on my head as a baby like 20 times, tops which is still not quite enough to make me do that.

Similarly I'm not a cheapskate because I pay less to own this house (including insurance/tax) than I'd pay to rent a shitty studio, I just saw the housing bubble for what it is and refused to buy a shitty house for a quarter million dollars in 2007 like everyone else was doing. I waited till the market took a shit a year and a half later & I bought this house for $63k when the previous owner defaulted on a $300k mortgage for it. It's a nice, comfortable 2-story in a decent neighborhood with mountain views and a 20 minute bike ride to work. That's not being cheap, it's patience and being ready when a good deal comes along.

I'm not a cheapskate for wanting a luxury V8 SUV whose traction control doesn't just consist of brakes and whose throttle doesn't nanny me... it just happens that they only build those things in the past so that's where I went shopping, conveniently allowing me to not have big payments. I truly own the vehicle I want to own. I'm not a cheapskate for being the one person in my extended family who knows how to repair cars so when my 17 year old 2nd cousin (whom I had never met) smashed the car she was given, they called me and asked me to haul it away "Gramma says you work on cars, right? want this shit we broke?" so a trip to the junkyard and a couple weekends later I own another car with no payments..