Earlier in the week, I was at the ICPAS Accounting and Finance Show. I am always amused by some aspects of the show. CPA’s tend to be very cheap lot, and the vendors of the show know this, and as a result, many of my brethren stock up on all of their pens needs for home and office, as well any tote bags they may need for the coming year.
Now this may sound like me being petty which may be true, but I have heard from an owner of a firm stating that he was looking in one of his staffs desk drawers and found too many pens. He then went through everyone’s desk collecting them except all but two pens from each employee. He proudly proclaimed that from that point forward when anybody needed a new pen, they had to give him the spent pen and he would in turn hand out a replacement pen. My staff always finds this story amusing when I threaten them with it.
Years ago, I was working for a true cheapskate. This joker even considered post-it notes to be a frivolous expenditure, because when they were given to staff they had the audacity to use them for notes. How dare they! He gave a small stack of small post-it’s as a Christmas present if the employee was really good, no everyone got them.
I was amused when I was handing out the new calendars this week and someone saw my flash drive (they were a give away at my open house), and they wanted one. Unfortunately, I only have a few and we use them with our clients. I am too cheap to order a new batch. I’ve also had a client comment that they didn’t like the expensive giveaways because they knew that they were paying for them indirectly, so we stopped the more expensive giveaways.
What is your cheapskate story?