Great idea/alternative, Liz! On occasions when I’ve been out travelling and needed to use the restroom but didn’t need anything to eat or drink, I’ve struggled with this. Now I will look for a donation box at the cash register before leaving. Thanks!

My wife and I both read the same copy of the last Harry Potter book, was that stealing from the author? Should I have purchased my own copy?

Really these arguments are ridiculous.

first of all; to all the people saying the coffee shop needs the money for rent or whatever etc.
it was probably starbucks or something of the like, and they really aren’t going to miss that $6, nor is their product worth $6, and people need to realize that. and also, they got their money either way, because even though the author of this article didnt purchase anything, the person that went there to meet with him might have, thats one of the reasons why places like starbucks or what not give free water, or free drink coupons, or free wifi, in hopes that you either bring a friend, who will purchase, or be tempted to get something else, its all about bringing the customer into the store.

and second, recording a recipe on his voice recorder, is not theft, nor is in immoral. think about it, say its a large cookbook, about…cupcakes? okay, well say you bake cupcakes all the time, and have other cupcake cookbooks. but, in this one cookbook, there is a special recipe you’ve been looking for, and the rest are recipes that do not interest you or you already know…should you pay $30 dollars for one recipe and then let it sit on your shelf collecting dust? no… i’ve personally done something similar with the camera on my phone. most bookstores have couches, and people go and read the whole book, or magazine while there, once again, all about getting the customer in the store.

and i’m not even that frugal of a person, sure, i combine coupons and loss leaders, and cook cheap meals. i stay in as much as possible, but the money i save usuallu only half goes to the bank, the other half is spent on designer clothing sadly enough.

There is always a fine line between being cleverly frugal and being cheap. The restroom example is a good one. A PUBLIC restroom is one in a park that is provided for (here anyway) through local government, paid for through rates. One at a fast food establishment or gas station is not a public restroom as it were.

I HATE McD’s and refuse to spend money there, but sometimes, when you need to use the bathroom it’s the only place around. So, I use their restrooms and then put a donation into their “Ronald McDonald House” box. They still benefit from my being there and I’m not supporting their ethics or buying their rubbishy food…

Just my $0.02

My comments here have been intentionally sharp with the hope that you will re-think the ‘me’-centered perspective of your expressed views. We’re here on this planet to be CREATIVE and to SPREAD AROUND the good things that our creativity produces. The beneficiary of our creativity is not only our own enjoyment in being creative but in sharing the benefits of our work. The fallacy of clutching to your heart those “little green pieces of paper” as Douglas Adams put it, is so dramatically illustrated in life and nature that it’s shocking that you’ve managed to get this far without realizing the obviousness of it. Dollars removed from the economy lose value and thus prevent the good things from happening when others re-spend (or ‘invest’) them in support of their own situation. Food, when withdrawn from the normal cycle of preparation and consumption ROTS, and is of no value to anyone other than the rare wise person who can creatively re-inject it back into that cycle.

Please don’t get me wrong on this: being *frugal* is smart, it’s wise, and it’s the right thing to do, but it’s got to be *balanced* in its exercise. Just as much as too loose a financial hand will bring down your house, too tight a hand will choke off the love and creativity you were born with and are expected to pass on to your family and those others around you. The “Law of the Harvest” is in full effect in this situation, and the better we understand it’s application, the more likely we are to be generous without being stupid, and frugal without wishing we didn’t have to pay the negative consequences of being too “anti-generous”. “The Law of the Harvest” is universal, and simply stated, says that you get back the same stuff you plant, after you plant it, and more than you planted. When you disproportionately cut back on what you plant, it should not be a surprise when your harvest drops precipitously. If it drops too far, then you don’t have enough to eat, and then you die, as surely you should. Then you get to *really* understand the fallacy of the “stuff” game: “The one who dies with the most STUFF wins.” Wins exactly WHAT? because you can’t take it with you. And all the work you put into collecting it goes pretty much to waste as I’ll probably buy it on eBay for 10 cents on the dollar, and hopefully when I’m finished with it, I’ll be able to find someone who can make good use of it and GIVE it to them.

‘nuf said.

How many people criticizing Trent for copying something from a book are piggybacking on their neighbor’s WiFi? (What, *none* of you? Sorry about that then! ;)

Seriously though, the chances are more than even that any book you pick up on a bookstore shelf is going to wind up pulped anyway. A little more predation from people who just might be tempted enough by a bit of ‘shady’ browsing isn’t going to thin the herd any too much, and it might just see a few more books sold. Wise booksellers know this.

Did anyone read that story a few months ago about a certain college bookstore stopping students from noting book details because the students were using the, er, knowledge, to acquire the books at a more competitive price elsewhere? I was vexed.

I don’t know the issues relating to intellectual property, but the store is a for-profit industry. Unlike the library, which is supported by taxes, the bookstore is a for-profit business.

So the only way that store is getting money is from the books it sells. So when you copy from the libary, the librarians still get paid. When you copy from the bookstore, the clerks don’t get anything. And it’s not even like a coffeeshop, which can expect a even an hourly sale of the same product: you can buy the same item for as long as you can stand to drink it. But once you’ve gotten the information from the book, you don’t need to buy it anymore.

Browsing the book to see if you like it (even if you decide not to buy) implies that you would buy something if you liked it. Reading a book you like so you don’t have to pay is totally different: you don’t plan to spend money there at all. And then sending it your Amazon list is worse: now the sale isn’t even at the store you were visiting. So not only is the clerk not getting paid, but the city isn’t even getting the tax revenue.

It’s not any more difficult to make the trip to the library and get a library loan…so please don’t confuse the two. A bookstore, no matter how comfy the chairs and how nice the staff, is not a library. If people keep treating bookstores as if they were (not to mention outsourcing the sales on Amazon) you’ll just see fewer stores around, or less workers in the stores you do see — when sales are down, the easiest way to cut cost is by cutting payroll.

So use your tax dollars wisely if you want to be frugal, and support your local businesses if you want to see any* of the money recycled back into your community. Please don’t encourage your readers to confuse the expected use of these two types of businesses.

Even a big box store is better than the out of state one, just from the jobs it employs.

That’s a black and white issue – no shades of grey there – you owe the fine even if no one caught you.

If you want to impose such an exacting standard on the OP, the rest of us expect you to live up to it as well.

Every step of this list leaves no room for value judgements – either it’s essential to your survival or it’s unnecesary. You don’t come off as ‘frugal’ here. At best you’re downright miserly cheap. At worst maybe a habitual small-time thief.

On the other hand, on a library tour in Toronto I learned that in Canada, libraries DO pay authors some money, based on either holdings or circulation (I can’t recall what the metric is), so perhaps you’re thinking of a different system.