He rolls up outside my house in Tremont riding a 1970s-style scuffed-up bicycle. He’s a tad winded. The 50-year-old guy just pedaled here from Toledo.
He calls himself America’s Cheapest Man. He passed on a rental car or a bus, as well as a hotel room. He asked to stay on my couch for a couple days, finding me on a couch-surfing Web site for travelers who prefer to stay with locals.
He wrote The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches, published by Random House, and he’s out promoting it. He’s calling it his “Local Cheapskate Makes Good Tour,” as he grew up in Northwest Ohio and his wife was born in Lakewood.
Despite what you might expect, the book is not about how to save pennies that add up to dollars that add up to an early retirement. He’s not peddling a get-rich-quick scheme. The “Riches” in his title doesn’t really refer to money: “Maybe you don’t need to be rich to be happy. Maybe you’ll be happier if you’re not rich.”
