The definition of Mingy

"Mingy is a fine old Scottish word that rhymes with stingy but doesn't mean quite the same thing. . . .
"There are ways and ways of being mingy. For instance, you can outfumble your friends at parking meters, or sidle up your stairway carpet to save wear and tear in the middle, or you can pour cheap liquor out of a good bottle.
"Clearly, these things save you money. But people are bound to find you out. They'll eventually notice that you never have any parking-meter nickels. And you might start sidling up your friend's stairways as well as your own, through force of habit, which will look odd. As for the liquor, they're bound to notice how the empties of Old Cutthroat pile up on the back porch, while the label on the King Charles Pride 'o the Regiment Scotch becomes increasingly streaked and yellowed with age."
-Peg Bracken, The I Hate to Housekeep Book, pages 69-70

Hopefully we will be able to discover ways of being mingy that do not involve too much potential embarrassment.