Whenever you’ve got a hotheaded, testosterone-poisoned character, there’s around a 10% chance he’s going to go berserk and punch a wall. There’s Andy in “The Office,” Charlie in “Marriage Story,” Jake LaMotta in “Raging Bull” … we could go on.
On one level, media clichés like these are tiresome because you’ve seen them 100 times. But the pinchpennies on r/Frugal find tropes like these cringe-worthy simply because they flout the frugal lifestyle. After all, patching a hole in the wall can cost up to $200. Here are seven more media cliches, tropes, and stereotypes that make frugal Redditors shake their heads.
The Pregnancy Test Panic
If someone misses their period in a rom-com, it’s usually followed by an all-out pregnancy test shopping spree. One test? That’d be far too risky. You need at least a couple dozen to be sure. The reality, however, is that even the cheapest Dollar Store pregnancy tests are incredibly accurate, so you really only need one or two.
The ‘Dumb’ Father or Boyfriend
In the same vein, there’s also the ignorant father or boyfriend who fills the shopping cart with “every brand and size of every kind of tampon and pad because they don’t know what to buy,” as one Redditor writes. Don’t know what to buy? Take a photo of the box before you leave the house so you don’t waste money.
The Big Meal No One Eats
Have you ever noticed that food usually goes more or less untouched in TV shows and films? Frugal Redditors find it hard to watch. But there’s a behind-the-scenes reason behind the madness: Actors pick at their meals because they want to use the food for following takes. Even so, movie sets are still wasteful, generating as much as 72 tons of food waste per film, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Related: Waste Management: Save Money by Cutting Food Waste With These 25 Tips
The Puppy Present
Animals are cute, cuddly, crowd pleasers, so it’s no surprise that they frequently show up as gifts in films and shows. But given the responsibilities that a pet entails, one Redditor argues that this sets a harmful precedent, adding that “animals are living things, not accessories!”
Related: 13 Cheap Pets That Are Easy to Take Care Of
The Angry Cell Phone Toss
Infuriating phone call? Overbearing boss? In that case, you’ve got to throw your cell phone into the nearest dumpster or body of water! Never mind the cost. To be fair, however, one Redditor does point out that this trope could be dying out in the age of fragile, $1,000-plus smartphones.
Related: 6 Best Streaming Services, According to Frugal Redditors
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The Frugal Grouch
Ever since Charles Dickens penned “A Christmas Carol,” the miserly grump has been a constant in literature, film, and television. A frugal person isn’t someone who “patches their boots with cardboard” and “lives on canned soup,” one Redditor writes. Instead, living thriftily means being “good at math” and having “a nose for a good deal.”
Related: The 10 Movies, Series, and Books That Perfectly Illustrate What It Means To Live Life Frugally
The Last-Minute Flight
On the silver screen, it’s not uncommon for characters to buy a plane ticket on a whim. Whether it’s for love, a job, or a vacation, they’ll just waltz up to the counter in the airport, buy a ticket in coach, and be on their merry way. Of course, you can’t do this in the real world (unless you’re rich, which in that case, you can do almost anything). Not only are flights often full, but buying a ticket on the day of travel will cost you an arm and a leg.
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