penny pincher

A penny pincher is a person who’s very careful or stingy with their money—they don’t like to spend it and they don’t like to give it away.

The image is that of someone clutching tightly to even the smallest amount of money so it doesn’t leave their hands. Penny typically refers to a one-cent coin.

Penny pincher is synonymous with the word miser, but whereas miser is always used negatively (to refer to Ebenezer Scrooge types), penny pincher can be used either in a negative way or in a more neutral way to refer to someone who’s just trying to save money because they’re on a tight budget.

The same thing can be said about the related idiomatic verb pinch pennies, meaning to be very, very careful about how one spends one’s money—it can mean to be thrifty or frugal, or to be miserly.

Penny pincher is sometimes spelled with a hyphen: penny-pincher.

Example: Ellen’s rich uncle was such a penny pincher that he used to give her a pencil for her birthday.

The first records of penny pincher come from around 1900. But the synonymous (and now less common) term pinchpenny dates back much farther, to around 1400. (Although the term penurious, meaning “extremely stingy,” might sound like it’s related, it comes from the Latin pēnūria, which means “lack” and is related to the Greek penía, “poverty.”)

A penny pincher can be poor, rich, or anything in between. While terms like money grubber imply an obsession with making money, especially in an aggressive way, penny pincher simply implies that the person avoids spending their money. Sometimes it’s because they’re a miser, like Scrooge, who was also a money grubber and hoarded his wealth without spending it on anything, such as giving it to charity or even buying anything for himself. Other times, though, a person is a penny pincher because they have to be—they have a small budget and they need to be thrifty and economical to get by. Sometimes, such a person keeps their penny-pinching habits even after they’re able to spend more.

What are some other forms related to penny pincher?

• penny-pinching (noun, adjective)

What are some synonyms for penny pincher?

• pinchpenny
• miser
• tightwad
• cheapskate
• skinflint

What are some words that share a root or word element with penny pincher? 

• penny
• pinch
• penny dreadful
• penny stock

What are some words that often get used in discussing penny pincher?

• money
• spend
• stingy
• frugal
• thrifty
• economical
• tight

Penny pincher can be used negatively, but it can also be used neutrally or even somewhat positively to praise someone’s thriftiness. Frugal people might even apply the term to themselves.

I’m ngl I’m lowkey a penny pincher 😂😂 i HATE spending my own money. Especially when i don’t have to

— GIGI $AVAGE 🇳🇬🇳🇬✨✨ (@IAMGIGISAVAGE) January 9, 2020

Donald wouldn’t let me get a Mountain Dew at Taco Bell last night because “we had drinks at home” his new name in my phone is penny pincher

— madison love (@madison_love) April 9, 2020

It's that simple. Try it. No matter how hard it is, no matter what kind of a penny-pincher you are, give $20 to someone poor/homeless/distressed/unemployed and then tell me what occurs. I've seen it work even the same day, with my own eyes, because it's happened to me.

T13/417

— DrWaShing (@DrWaShing) April 18, 2020

Which of the following people would most likely be called a penny pincher?

A. Jessica saves money when she can, but she loves going out to eat with her friends and buying them nice gifts.
B. Tom always buys new stuff on payday.
C. Debra uses coupons and would always rather cook at home than spend the money to get takeout.