what does to "nickel and dime" someone mean?

Answer 1

cost them alot of money...

like with bills, collection agencies.. taxes... garnished wages things like that...

Answer 2

The simple answer means to end up costing a someone a lot of money though an accumulation of small amounts. Even though it may seem like insignificant amounts, nickels and dimes, in the end, it usually adds up to a lot of money.

Answer 3

When you constantly charge them small amounts of money that add up to a much higher cost. Like when I hired someone to paint my house- They gave me a price of $5000. A week later he came back and told me that he needed an additional $100 for wood putty to fill in the bad spots that he found after stripping off the old paint. A week after that he needed a special additive for the the paint for another $40. A few days later he needed more masking tape- another $10.

I didn't mind the overall cost but I was getting sick of the hassle of having to think about how much this was costing me every 3 to 4 days. I would have preferred that he charged me $7000 rather than "nickle and diming" me to death!

Answer 4

What I have always been taught, is to "nickel and dime" someone means when you get charged little by little or you charge someone little by little to the pointe of irritating and can become costly.

Answer 5

I think it means to keep a tally of every money you give, pay or charge someone..or to overcharge someone for everything///

like if the handyman is charging for tools, nails, paint, etc, he is nickel and dime-ing you!

Answer 6

To cut corners. Like, going the cheap route when it comes to paying someone the salary/benefits they deserve. A great example is Wal*Mart: they use nickle and diming as a company policy.

Answer 7

Often it has to do with charging someone more than they anticipated through the use of many small costs. For example, you might buy a car that is supposed to only cost 15,000 but then you have license and registration, warranty, taxes, etc. Suddenly the car costs a lot more than the original 15,000.

Answer 8

Sometimes also expressed as "nickel and dime someone to death". It refers to constantly charging someone paltry little sums, e.g. to fix their car, rather than charging them one big amount and doing all the repairs at once.

Answer 9

It means to fritter money away needlessly on small expenses, when by making one large purchase (or perhaps repair) you can save a bundle.
It can also mean to extract small amounts of money from someone on a regular basis so they don't realise how much money they're actually giving you.

Answer 10

Normally, it means when someone keeps asking for small amounts of money, to be paid back someday, but something you never see.

Answer 11

when someone is constantly asking for small amounts of money. $5 here, $10 there until it starts to add up to a lot