In 2019, the US TLC channel launched a variety show called "Extreme Cheapskates" ("Super Miserly"), which specializes in introducing a variety of magical door-cutting characters. After the show's launch, a Japanese woman named Kate Hashimoto caused a heated discussion because of her unexpected slamming of the door.
The program team followed Kate Hashimoto to film her daily life and listened to Kate Hashimoto introduce various ways to save money.
This kind of "riot operation" of this high-level white-collar worker who looks glamorous but rummages through the garbage heap to eat it simply makes the audience lose their teeth.
(Kate Hashimoto on TV)
On the show, Kate Hashimoto told the host: "If I have to spend money, I will try to spend as little as possible." ”
New York white-collar workers who pick up leftovers to eat
Kate Hashimoto is a senior certified public accountant who has lived in New York for many years, and notes that in the United States, like lawyers and doctors, it belongs to the elite industry, usually with high incomes, and it is reasonable to say that Kate Hashimoto can live a very generous petty bourgeois life.
But Kate Hashimoto set himself a strict living budget, stipulating that he could only spend $200 a month. The $200 includes not only daily food, clothing, housing, and other expenses, but also real estate taxes, medical care, and so on.
New York is the largest city in the United States, the cost of living is expensive, and was once voted "the most affordable city in the United States." $200 is a normal person's basic expenses for only a few days, but Kate can spend a month, thanks to her budget-conscious lifestyle.
(Kate Hashimoto rummaging through the trash can)
Kate Hashimoto rarely spends money on food, and everything she eats every day is picked up from inside the restaurant. After graduating, Kate once calculated that she would spend about $20-25 a week on food after graduating from college, which would cost $100 a month.
This amount made Kate very distressed, and she began to pick up leftovers from restaurants.
Every night, the back kitchen of some high-end restaurants in New York always throws away a lot of unused food, some of which have expired, and some of which are due on the same day. Americans are notorious for their waste, and sometimes the back kitchen even throws away whole baskets of food because of one or two broken vegetables.
(Homeless man on the streets of New York)
Of all the food that was thrown away, Kate always found something to eat. She's picked up spoiled alfalfa, pasta, free-cooked lasagna, salads that hadn't been opened, and more. All she had to do was try to pick out as cleanly as possible from these leftovers.
Kate even "picked up leaks" to pick up the experience, in order to get food from the restaurant smoothly, Kate would sometimes change into a torn dress with holes to make herself look like a tramp, arousing the sympathy of the restaurant manager so that she would not be driven away by the security guards.
Many of the food picked up was expired or completely spoiled, but Kate told the program team that he had been eating it for several years and had no problems at all.
(Kate Hashimoto from the garbage heap for food)
She really treats the leftovers she picks up equally, not only eating herself, but also entertaining her friends and family with what she picks up. If a friend asks Kate Hashimoto to go out to dinner, she will never agree unless it is a friend.' This frugal approach has exceeded the limits of what ordinary people can understand, and has also made her popularity fall to the bottom for a while.
After the tv broadcast of Kate's story, once Kate's college classmates came to visit her, and they did not believe Kate as the TV said. But as soon as the students stepped through the door, a strong smell made them unbearable.
Classmates ask Kate to turn on the air conditioning and ventilation, but no one can break Kate's principle of saving money, she only opened the window to symbolically meet the needs of her classmates.
Immediately afterward, Kate served her classmates her carefully prepared delicacies: a pot of chicken salad with no raw materials. And this pot of food, she had just picked up in the upper West End garbage heap in the afternoon. The classmates looked at this pot of smorgasbord and felt very much like the "vomit" that had been stirred, and they were frightened and fled, and never dared to come to the door again.
Jaw-dropping door-slamming woman
In addition to eating, Kate will save money to the extreme in all aspects of life.
(Home of Kate Hashimoto)
At the time of recording the show, Kate Hashimoto hadn't bought a new outfit in seven or eight years. Some of the clothes she usually wears are bought by her family when she was a child, and the sewing and mending has been worn, and some of them are picked up in the garbage heap. If it comes time to buy clothes, she will choose to go to some charity stores to buy cheap second-hand goods, or go to free "idle swap" stores and exchange them for free clothes with things she doesn't need.
The program team once followed her to film the process of shopping in a charity store. The store is public-interested, selling second-hand goods to raise money for AIDS patients and homeless people, so the prices of goods are low.
(Kate Hashimoto, who bargains with people)
Kate walked around the store, picked up a piece of clothing and looked at it, and when he saw the label, he asked for $25 to change it immediately.
Later, she took a fancy to a black shirt, and at checkout, the cashier said it cost $10. Kate poured out a handful of change coins from an envelope, counted for only $5, and asked the cashier if he could get cheaper, and the cashier said that shirts could not be reduced anymore. A $10 shirt is already very cheap in the United States, but Kate is still reluctant to buy it.
(Kate Hashimoto buys clothes at a charity store)
To save money on water bills, she saves her clothes and washes them once every two months, or does a casual wash while she's in the shower, and then flushes off the foam with the bath water.
In terms of personal hygiene care, Kate has made full use of the "wool" skills. She never spent money on skin care or toiletries, and usually receives a variety of free samples by filling out questionnaires. Floss, contact lens care solution, toothbrush toothpaste, deodorant, razor, no matter whether the gift is suitable for herself, as long as she does not want money, she will not refuse.
In addition, Kate Hashimoto never went to the barber shop to cut her hair, she bought a pair of scissors, and when it grew, she cut it herself, eliminating the need to cut her hair.
(Kate Hashimoto who cut his own hair)
The most eye-catching thing about Kate Hashimoto's money-saving tips is that she never buys toilet paper, but takes home free hand paper from the public toilet, and even collects the toilet paper that has been wiped on her hands, dries it and keeps it for repeated use.
Usually, after she goes to the toilet at home, she rinses it with soap and then wipes it with the toilet paper she has saved before. This habit made the audience watching the show shout "disgusting" and "can't stand it".
(Kate Hashimoto with free hand paper from the public toilet)
The food was all picked up, and Kate's only expense a day was a subway ticket, so the price of the subway ticket increased at one point, which made her very angry. Sometimes when she goes to a place close, she will choose to run, and as for playing, it will definitely not be within her choice.
A house "picked up" from a garbage dump
In Super Miserly, the crew follows Kate Hashimoto to visit her home, which is basically a garbage recycling center. Although the house was bought by Kate Hashimoto herself, the contents were basically picked up by her or given away at events.
Usually walking on the road, the various garbage cans on the street are Kate's most concerned places, because every piece of furniture in her home comes from here. In order not to spend a penny on furniture, she pays close attention to every garbage dump around her. According to Kate Hashimoto herself, she saved at least a few thousand dollars in her home after buying a house.
(Kate who flipped through the garbage bin to find furniture)
The couch for entertaining guests at home was picked up from outside campus when Kate graduated from college and has been living with her for more than a decade, and after several moves, Kate carries it almost everywhere she goes. If a friend comes over for the night, this sofa can also be used as a temporary bed.
As for the bed in which Kate Hashimoto slept, she simply picked up the yoga mats that others did not want and folded them together, laid a layer of sheets, and slept on the yoga mat every night. In Kate's own opinion, such a "bed" is completely enough for her, and if she goes to a furniture store to buy a bed for hundreds of dollars, "it's just outrageous!" ”
(Kate Hashimoto shows off his bed)
The kitchen at Kate Hashimoto's home is also very simple. Although there is a dishwasher, in order to save water and electricity, Kate never uses, the dishwasher usually acts as a "cupboard" for storing dinner plates.
Kate's apartment stipulates that as long as the gas stove is turned on, a minimum consumption of $17 must be paid every month, and in order to save the $17, Kate simply gave up gas and instead cooked with an electric stove. Of course, this electric stove was not bought by her, but a free gift certificate. The phased-out gas stove also had its own value, and Kate covered the stove with a few books and used it as a table.
(Induction cooker at Kate Hashimoto's home)
After touring the kitchen and living room, Kate Hashimoto led the program team into the bedroom and began to show off his wardrobe and introduce his clothes to the staff.
According to Kate herself, the last time she bought underwear was in 1998, which means she hasn't bought underwear in 20 years, and socks.
The sleeves she showed had been badly faded, and traces of time could be seen at a glance, and some even had holes. One of the $15 pants, bought in 1999, had long since lost its elasticity, but Kate pinned a clip to the pants and wore them.
(Kate Hashimoto's socks are worn out)
In addition, Kate has made strict control over all the expenses required for the house.
She doesn't have a washing machine at home, let alone a dryer. Kate's last use of the washing machine was several years ago, and in her opinion, the dryer not only wastes electricity but also causes shrinkage and wear of clothes, and natural drying can make clothes wear longer.
"I can't imagine spending $3 to go to a laundromat, I really can't accept it. Even if you wash your clothes twice a month, you can save at least $6. ”
Her home is full of free supplies from various sources, such as free slippers, toothbrushes, toothpaste, travel clothes, cosmetic samples, tampons and deodorant and other daily necessities.
(Kate Hashimoto shows off his free groceries)
The inner uneasiness behind the door slamming
After the broadcast of this issue of "Super Miserly Ghost", it exploded on the Internet, and most netizens expressed their incomprehension and even contempt for Kate Hashimoto's strange behavior, and many people insulted her with bad words and personality insults.
In today's world of serious waste of resources, a certain degree of frugality is a good thing, such as the "breaking away" trend that has emerged among urban young people in recent years, which is to encourage people to minimize some meaningless consumption. But there must also be a limit to frugality, and ordinary people really can't understand why a well-paid certified public accountant can cut the door to such a point.
In the contemporary era of consumerism, Kate Hashimoto's behavior is indeed incompatible with that of women in general. This kind of psychology, which seems to ordinary people to be somewhat perverted, is related to her growth experience.
(Kate Hashimoto's wardrobe)
Kate Hashimoto lives in an extremely stressful family environment, her mother is a very harsh woman, from an early age to treat her as a burden to the family, insulting her as a stupid pig, an ugly woman.
One of the reasons Kate Hashimoto studied so hard was to escape from this terrible family of origin. After years of struggle, she finally gained a foothold in New York by her own efforts, but the harm caused by her original family could not be completely erased, and her obsession with money was deeply rooted in her bones.
After graduating from college, Kate Hashimoto had just found a job, and in the year of graduation, he encountered a financial crisis, and the streets were full of laid-off employees, and Kate naturally became one of them. Recently graduated, Kate Hashimoto was once very anxious, and although he later found a new job, his inner insecurity persisted. From then on she understood that only enough savings would give her a sense of security.
(Kate Hashimoto was once unemployed)
"No one can never lose my job, so I live every day with the mentality that I will never get paid at any time." Kate said. This is one of the reasons why she has always gone her own way and never minded the eyes and opinions of others.
The biggest reward for Kate after years of frugality was that she successfully purchased her first home in 2010 and paid off all her mortgage within 9 months. Now she lives in New York without spending money on renting a house, and only needs to pay a small amount of property taxes and property fees every month.
Kate Hashimoto is not alone, there is a group of people called "Freegans" abroad, who advocate minimalism, advocate not consuming items other than "survival necessities" to the greatest extent possible, and even save as much as possible on survival necessities. These people, like Kate, are lovers of trash cans, picking up leftovers, not buying clothes, and "rubbing" free items everywhere, which is the mark of their behavior.
(Kate Hashimoto tells his life philosophy on the show)
Everyone has their own way of life, and the people who criticize Kate Hashimoto hard don't understand her happiness. Whether it is worth it or not is like a person drinking water, cold and warm self-knowledge.
Although Kate's behavior is different from ordinary people, it does not harm the interests of others. As an Asian woman, she can buy a house in New York on her own, which is inseparable from every penny she saves from shrinking clothes and dieting. This alone is admirable.
Resources
Zhang Yang. How to live in New York for 200 a month? Japanese female white-collar workers have not bought underwear for 22 years by turning through the bins to eat. Jimu News.2021.8.25
[2] A woman in the United States did not buy underwear for 20 years, toilet paper dried and reused, she had only one purpose. People's News.2021.10.30
[3] High-income women in New York for 20 years do not buy underwear, toilet paper dried and reused: I want to save money. British Newspaper Sister.2021.8.28