This week’s reader comment of the week shocked me. When I first read reader Julie’s response to the guest post, 17 tips to keep it cheap in Vegas, I didn’t understand why she was so upset over a total stranger taking tissues and toilet paper from a hotel room. The author of the guest post, a longtime reader and Vegas-aficionado, recommended others take home these items at the end of a hotel stay as a way of saving money. Julie’s comment reads:
Just have to jump on the bandwagon — please, no more posts including info like “take the tissues and tp.” I come to this website to get info about frugality, and be inspired by other people’s smart ideas, not to become a cheapskate and — yes, I’ll say it — total douche.
Mind you, I don’t take home tissues and toilet paper – lotion and soap are enough for me – but I don’t care very much if others do. To each their own, right?
But Julie’s passion troubled me, so I brought it up with Hubby.
“Why is she so upset?” I said. “And another reader threatened to break up with me for the post! I don’t get it.”
Hubby wasted no time.
“Because taking tissues and tp makes frugal people look cheap.”
Ahhhhhhhh. Yes.
The fraught relationship between frugal and cheap, otherwise known as the difference between swiping lotion and taking tp.
Who know toiletries could cause so much distress?
Here’s my take on being frugal v. being cheap. Being frugal is making choices to conserve money in your own life, like riding a bike instead of driving, renting a movie instead of going to the theater, brown bagging your lunch instead of buying it.
Being cheap is forcing your frugal choices on others: buying a gift on sale even though it is the wrong size for the recipient or insisting on ordering the cheapest bottle of wine at a restaurant.
Being frugal feels good. Being cheap leaves a bad taste in your mouth (and it ain’t the wine)!
Does taking tp and tissues leave a bad taste in your mouth? Does the hotel expect guests to take these supplies? Certainly the cost of providing them are built into the room price. Perhaps more importantly, what does the hotel do with these supplies after a guest checks out? Are they tossed out or left for the next guest?
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
They are NOT tossed out… if you’ll notice, half-used TP is folded in a “v” when you come in. Maids unroll it a bit so it’s sanitary, but it’s been there for another guest. Same with tissue: the top tissues are taken out and thrown out, but the box stays. I would add to previous comment: taking those things amounts to Theft, not just cheapness!
It may make frugal people look cheap but I look at it as stealing. The box of tissues will be left for the next guest. The miniature shampoo once opened will be tossed so you might as well take it.
I don’t think taking TP rises to the level of a criminal act–it is more in the realm of taking ketchup packets from fast food restaurants.
Is it cheap? Probably. Is it frugal? Doubt it…I mean, how much can one person save stuffing a suitcase with a few rolls of TP? Then again, I hunt TP deals all the time with coupons because I hate spending money just to…well, you know what it’s for. The debate rages on.
Anything taken which is not paid for is called stealing.
Exception: If it’s a gift.
I was raised with morals and being frugal. I don’t recall being told to take things from people’s homes or business to ‘save’ money.
I take exception to what Veronica says. Not all things are stealing. Toiletries are provided as part of your room stay. Even if I don’t use them, I take them and donate them to the homeless shelter. I do not, however, take tissues or tp, just the toiletries.
I don’t take the tp and toilet paper – I think of that as cheap and on the border of stealing too. I usually bring my own shampoo, conditioner and lotion but I still take the little bottes – not for myself but I donate to my church. They put them in boxes to be sent to some soldiers who greatly appreciate them. I figure they were meant to be used but I use them for a different purpose.
Morals 101 tells me that removing tp and tissues is stealing–same as taking towels, robes, ashtrays. The small shampoos if you’ve opened them, will be discarded so those can be taken and used at home or donated to a shelter. Do these same people help themselves and take all the paper towels, tp and tissues when at a movie theater and using the restroom? a school? restaurant? It’s really the same thing–you buy a meal and the restaurant provides a stocked restroom for your comfort–but not for you to take home toilet paper!!
One distinction is that the shampoo & lotions are for individual use, but the box of tissue & TP are not consumed in a single use; they are shared by multiple users like the bottle of ketchup in a restaurant. Anyone who takes the bottle home after using some would be considered a cheapskate bordering on thief…and if everyone did it, the costs would increase (ever so slightly) and eventually be passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices. I don’t take the TP & tissue and teach my kids not to.
i love ro read passionate opinions about guest tp and tissues.
Many years ago, my friend managed one of the glitzy hotels on the Vegas Strip. The stories he told were wild and weird.
Every item in the guest room that wasn’t chained and bolted to the wall was stolen by a guest, sooner or later. .
One disgruntled gambler unbolted the bed, chandelier and color tv. He took them as a memento of his trip.
Vegas is a town like no other. People lose money and want to get even with the hotel that “forced” them to gamble. .
They believe: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas…except for the furniture, fixtures and plumbing. YES. Someone stole a toilet/bidet.
Taking toiletries in Vegas is strictly for the novice, who has no space left to stash the fridge or the minibar.
At many hotels, the toiletries have the hotel’s name, web address, phone number, etc on the bottles. They know people are going to take the shampoos and lotions and have built that into their advertising budget. There is no advertising on tp and tissues. I can’t imagine stuffing either into my suitcase.
Wow — I’m so thrilled to have inspired this discussion! Your husband was much more articulate than I was, and I agree with him. I am proud to be frugal, but I would hate to be thought of as a cheapskate.
Often wondered who was the person that removed the pen from the chain. Did they really need it that bad?.
Having spent the past few days in hotels in Japan and Guam I have come across many bidets. It might be good for the environment if Americans adopthed this practice. It is refreshing and you can get yourself much cleaner using soap and water =)
When you go to a friends house or restaraunt, would you take all the candy from their candy bowl?
Do you pour out the salt shaker into a baggie at a restaraunt?
Fill a bottle from the milk at starbucks ?
Stop at McDonalds because you need napkins at home?
@mimi — you made me snort! And frankly, I agree 100%!
The toiletries in a hotel room are samples for you to take home (unless you have opened and used some), they are there as a courtesy by the hotel and they still belong to the hotel. Packing these things in your suitcase (or hiding them on the chance the housekeeper will leave more) on the way out is not just being frugal or cheap, it’s stealing. These little things add up and hurt rybody because the hotels have to raise rates or slip you a bill for parking. Dan was absolutely correct. Kudos Dan.
Sorry, major typo: The toiletries in a hotel room are NOT samples..
Taking tissue and TP boils down to stealing as far as I am concerned. These items are not removed and then restocked by the person cleaning the room unless necessary. Therefore, you are stealing. The shampoo and lotion, if opened, are thrown out. Keep them. Unused bars of soap should not be taken either. All these add to the overhead for the innkeeper, and thus, increased costs to customers.
Taking TP or Kleenex or towels or robes is all stealing and raises the cost of a hotel stay for everyone.
Please insure that your comments are money saving, not going to cost us all extra.
I agree this is definately a form of stealing not to mention a path for price increases; which by the way the consumer has to pay for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Hotel/motel totally knows and expects guest to
take the little bottles of shampoo etc.they were for use by the customer. I either take them according to my needs or I don’t. I think donate them is a good
thing but. Just to stay on the good side of a moral
compass, I’d say leave em’ unless you have
actually used them.
taking the toilet paper is weird. But then they know
people will “steal” them. see I used the word steal
them and it was natural to say that..So on that
note I would say taking the TP is stealing in my mind.
i take all the toiletries provided, because i hate lugging around big bottles of shampoo and conditioner and a full bar of soap when i go camping! and c’mon those little lotion bottles are the perfect size for purse wearers!
now i must say i have taken a box of tissues before. only because i had allergies and was in a rush to get back home .. would you still call me a theif, cheapskate or frugal?