So how does one eat in a pitch-black restaurant? Guests are led conga-line style to the table by their waiters, who explain how to navigate through the dining room. Once seated, waiters instruct guests on the finer points of dining in the dark, such as pouring a glass of water. Since there is not enough time to learn Braille before dinner, meals are pre-ordered—and once the meals arrive, things start to get interesting.

Growing up, Lauren Weber rationed shower time, wore extra sweaters indoors to fend off the chill of her faintly heated house, and was driven around town with her father using hand signals during turns to extend the life of the car’s lights. Weber’s family was neither poor nor eco-conscious ahead of its time. Her family was, to put it bluntly, cheap.

Weber’s In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue, inspired by her own (under)spending habits and childhood of scrimping at the behest of her “maniacally cheap” father, traces the pendulum swing between frugality and conspicuous consumption through American history.