OH meanness people being thrifty is so funny, when you read about it.
I dont know if you do over there, but we use the term "tight" when we refer to someone who is thrifty or mean with their money. And when speaking about them, we say they are "tight as a fish's arsehole".
The thriftiest story I ever heard, was about my friend's mother in law. A stay at home mother for 40 years, never earned her own income, raised a family of five children on the housekeeping allowance from her husband's wages, which was in the middle income bracket.
They turn 60, and are working out their finances for retirement, when the wife comes out with a bank account where she has been saving her pennies for the past 40 years, un beknown to her husband. She had a nice little nest egg of $150,000...I kid you not, this is a true story. She is Scottish, so that might have something to do with her "thrift".