The World’s Cheapest Millionaires & Billionaires

What if you had billions of dollars sitting in your bank account right now? What would you do? Would you buy a private jet to fly across the world and have a fancy sports car waiting to take you to your next destination? Would you eat lavish meals, sleep on luxurious sheets and wear fancy jewels?

While that’s how most millionaires and billionaires live, a few of them live very frugally instead. Some of the wealthiest people will do just about anything to save money. No, it’s not saving a million on a mansion or a couple hundred grand on home renovations. Think about the difference between a $0.39 can of soup and a $0.89 can of soup. That’s the extent of some of these millionaires and billionaires penny pinching ways.

We found the world’s cheapest millionaires and billionaires who are keenly focused on living well below their means. A few of them are only cheap with themselves and donate generously to charities. Here’s our list, starting with the most extreme of cheapskates.

Victoria Hunt ($5 Million)

Victoria Hunt comes from the capital city of Columbus, Ohio. While in her early 20’s, Hunt struggled to get by as a single mother. She collected food stamps from the state and lived in a trailer park. Hunt got back on her feet and has since become a millionaire by investing in real estate. However, her wealth hasn’t stopped her from saving every last penny, just as she did over 25 years ago.

Hunt only spends $12,000 a year on expenses, which astonishingly includes groceries and insurance. People who make $25,000 per year live paycheck to paycheck in most cases, but not Hunt. Hunt has been featured on “Extreme Cheapskates” and takes her cheap ways incredibly far, including watering her garden with her own urine to save water (ew). Instead of dining at fancy restaurants, Hunt goes dumpster diving for food.

Aimee Elizabeth ($5 Million)

Much like Victoria Hunt, Aimee Elizabeth has made her millions in real estate and was also featured on the show “Extreme Cheapskates”. Elizabeth was homeless when she was just a teenager but rose from the ashes to gain great wealth. Elizabeth doesn’t go as far as watering her plants with her own urine, but she gets pretty close in the ‘gross factor’ if you ask us.

Elizabeth owns just one sponge and one knife, claiming that the knife never touches water. After cutting something, Elizabeth towels off the knife and puts it back in the drawer, which makes her susceptible to a lot of germs. Elizabeth has even ‘hitchhiked’ in a private plane instead of paying to take a coach flight on a commercial airline, all to ensure that she could attend a business meeting in Los Angeles. Now that doesn’t sound frugal, that sounds amazing!

Shailene Woodley ($9 Million)

Shailene Woodley is the youngest person on our list at just 23 years old. Woodley is an actress who landed her first major role on the show, “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”. That performance led to her starring roles in “The Descendants” and the “Divergent” franchise. Although the paychecks are growing for Woodley, her expenses most certainly are not.

Woodley can afford all of the fancy clothes that any girl could ever want. However, you are more likely to see her at a thrift store, where she exclusively buys her clothes. The clothes that Woodley wears to movie premieres are given to her from designers who are looking to get their name mentioned on TV

David Cheriton ($1.1 Billion)

David Cheriton is currently working as a professor at Stanford. You might be wondering how a professor has a net worth of over $1 billion. While a college like Stanford pays well, it’s chump change in comparison to what Google pays. Cheriton introduced the two founders of Google to what would be their biggest investor, and in return, received a nice sum of shares for his efforts.

Cheriton has only taken one vacation with his Google fortune. When he returned from his Hawaii vacay, he was very upset with himself for the money he spent. Cheriton hates the idea of mansions and buying things that he doesn’t need. His biggest expense to date has been his Honda minivan, which isn’t a luxury vehicle by any means.

Azim Premji ($12 Billion)

Azim Premji is the owner of Wipro (a massive tech services company). Premji makes sure that his company is not wasting any money, and even keeps a record of how much toilet paper is used in a given time period. His focus isn’t solely on toilet paper, as he also frets over the electric bill, making sure that his workers don’t leave the lights on at night. The people that work for him say he’s by far the cheapest person they know.

Mark Zuckerberg ($34.6 Billion)

For how much money Mark Zuckerberg has, you wouldn’t know it by looking at him. The founder of Facebook (the only social media site to survive more than five years it seems) will never be caught dead in a suit. Instead, Zuckerberg typically wears a t-shirt and jeans, both of which look like they were purchased at a thrift store.

Zuckerberg also doesn’t like to spend money on fancy restaurants, as he opted for fast food on his honeymoon in Italy. We didn’t know that McDonald’s had a strong presence in Italy, but Zuckerberg proved that they did. He also drives an Acura, even though he has enough money to buy the entire line of any luxury car in the world. Even Zuckerberg’s $7 million house seems modest for a person of his wealth.