HE'S REALLY CHEAP!

By JUSTIN KENDALL

Every week, on the morning of trash day, Larry Roth digs through his neighbors' recycling bins.

He knows exactly where to find The New York Times. "And they're really neat about reading their paper," he says of that particular neighbor. "I'm impressed."

Roth isn't ashamed of his actions. After all, the Sunday Times costs $5.

Once, when another homeowner caught him in the act, Roth explained that Price Chopper had a sale on dog food and he was looking for the $3 coupon in that morning's paper. Fortunately, he says, the woman understood a good deal.

His behavior might seem extreme to outsiders. But it also might qualify him for a title as Kansas City's biggest cheapskate.

Roth started living cheap about 25 years ago. He moved to Kansas City in August 1978 to work for the U.S. government in the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement, which regulated coal mining and cleaned up abandoned mines.

In 1981, when President Ronald Reagan appointed anti-environmentalist James G. Watt as secretary of the interior, the office of surface mining was "doomed," Roth remembers with a laugh. Its staff went from 100 people to 14, and Roth wasn't one of the 14.

He moved to Burbank, California, where he spent two years working for the Navy, overseeing government contracts at a Lockheed aircraft manufacturing plant. That's when he decided to start living cheap. He didn't want to have to move again if he lost another job. Whenever he got a raise, he plowed it into a savings account. His income rose, but his spending didn't.

In 1989, Roth published his experiences in a book called Living Cheap: The Survival Guide for the Nineties. A few years later, after reading a Wall Street Journal story about frugality newsletters, he thought he could write one that was better than the others. He started Living Cheap News in January 1992. Later that month, a New York Times reporter called him for a story about penny pinchers.

In the Times story, Roth talked about not giving Christmas presents to his friends. "If one of us wants something, we buy it for ourselves," Roth said. "The stress caused by worrying about gifts is gone. And we enjoy each other's company. To me, that's what Christmas is for."

Thanks to the Times' story, Roth says, "I had subscribers all over the country and a few outside the country."

At its peak, about 3,000 subscribers paid for Living Cheap News — $12 a year for 10 issues packed with Roth's secrets. He preached that they should never buy new if used would do. He has since revised the motto: Never buy at all if you can find what you need on the curb.

Roth retired in 1995 and moved back to Kansas City. He'd saved enough — and invested wisely enough — that he never had to work again. He discontinued the newsletter in 1999 (it was becoming repetitive, he says, and subscriptions had fallen off as the economy rebounded). Over the years, though, Roth self-published three books — Living Cheap, Beating the System and Political Frugality — and put out two with commercial presses: The Simple Life (Berkley Publishing Group) and The Best of Living Cheap News (Contemporary Books). All of his books are available from living cheap.com and Amazon.com.

On a cold day after Christmas, with snow falling in Kansas City, the thermostat inside Roth's spacious, three-bedroom home in Waldo is set to a cool 60 degrees. It's not uncomfortable, but Roth offers to crank up the heat for a guest.

"I keep the house fairly cool in the winter, fairly warm in the summer," he explains. "It's good for the environment. That's the altruistic way to put it. It also saves me money."

The 59-year-old Roth is wearing five layers — T-shirt, sweater, sweatshirt, vest and fleece. He got most of these clothes at neighborhood giveaways and online at kcfreecycle.org. "These don't fit great," he says of his jeans, "but they work as far as walking the dog."

When he has to look a bit nicer, he wears dress clothes left by his father, who died a couple of years ago. "And they actually fit me."

Roth's cheap week starts with the Sunday paper. He clips coupons, then browses the ads for sales. On Wednesday, he scans the grocery ads. For grocery shopping, he recommends combining coupons with sales. "You just don't want to go buy stuff because you have a coupon," Roth says. "But if they have something on sale and you have a coupon that makes it a good deal, then you can buy it."

As of December 1, his grocery bill for 2007 was $1,588 for one person and a dog.

He admits that his tactics aren't always popular at some stores. Once, when the Thriftway at 40th Street and Main had a sale on peanut butter, Roth tried to use a coupon. The store refused to take the coupon, he says. So he wrote to the Star to complain. The store manager eventually sent him two jars of peanut butter — along with a letter asking Roth not to come back.