Are Indians in Western countries Thrifty and Smart or just Cheap and Misers?

Direct answer for this question its definitely 'Thrifty and smart'. Its in our DNA and im proud of it :-D. To add to it, its not just Indians..i have seen non Indians do these kind of things like someone mentioned here.

 

You look cheap to people above you! You look extravagant to people below you! (No matter what you do)

- Elementary analysis from someone who learnt a thing or two on different telly sets on reading this thread

 

No I dont believe the presumption that Indians are the only cheapskates. Only the topic of discussion is limited to Indians and their thrift or cheapnes etc etc.

Is that right DG or did I get that wrong?

 

That is funny I always get the thin crust as I like it better. Now I should go back to at least regular.... I frankly dont believe I have had deep dish -time to change that

 

My roomate was like this- she bought some veggies but all the extras were like this:

A pretty big cheecake calling us out in the store. She turns to me and asks "you want to buy this together as it is a whole big cake? Me: Sure. we split bill and I love sweets but really nibble on them as too much make me kind of sick. One piece will last me three days. End of week, cake is over and I only took one piece. This happened repeatedly. I somehow could never bring myself to tell her anything directly.

One day a friend got some some Indian sweets and I barely tasted it but she finished it. I asked her if she had seen it and she said she ate but she will get me some to replace. I did not say anything and she did bring it - the best part is she ate that too. Finally what made me blow my top was, once I had a few friends come over and I asked them if they wanted some icecream. When I looked into the freezer, it was completely gone. A big tub of icecream gone. That was it!!!! Told her never to touch my things. But she had some problems as she continued to do it behind my back just not as blatantly.

 

Like I said I don't understand much about such things, but I've seen them work in many friend's houses (at least 4). As far as I know none of them had any issues at all.

 

I think topic of discussion is limited to Indians.
I think OP should have mentioned that the topic should be restricted to those Indians who are financially ok or comfortable.It would be advisable to exclude lot of new-comers,students who have not settled properly and really have to stretch themselves.etc.

Here are few more intances of our brethren which I remember.

1.Few guys lived together and shared expenses for groceries,rent etc.Most of them were MBA or MS students.One was doing his residency.This guy used to go for a hair-cut to the Indian market .On each occasion,he used to get some chillies or some Indian vegetable from the Indian store.He used to put his bus fare under the shared expenses.
His main purpose was to go for a hair-cut.

2.Another family,hubby & wife both post-docs ,financially not that bad.Whenever they attended any pooja at someone's place,they used to eat Prasad like dinner.Also used to say,this is our dinner.Least bothered ,if everybody gets prasad or no.

3.One other person,I know, after her second child,used to get cereals,milk,eggs ,all free etc from a WIC Centre(Federally funded nutritional benefits program for Women/Infant/Child for very low income groups (poor and single women).Financially,they were okay,if not great.
They continued this for 5 years.How did they manage a doc written note for approval,GOD Knows.

There are examples ,aplenty.

 

:rotfl:rotfl:rotfl but I didnt get the thing about squint eyes...
Reminds me of my classmate n friends (very rich) saving rotis from cheap hotels (i wd understand if it was a star hotel ) during class tour to "eat later"... Their friend's group was arguing throughout the tour saying "You owe me two rupees, one rupee "... etc:bonk While we all spend for each other with our limited budget and did't even remember to ask each other after the tour..