Both involve spending less, but the underlying orientation is different — and the difference affects whether the habit is sustainable.
Living frugally
Deliberately optimizing spending toward what you actually value, and cutting what you don't — frugality is about intentional allocation, not minimizing every number. A frugal person might spend freely on travel while driving an older car, because the tradeoff reflects genuine priorities.
Living stingy
Minimizing spending as an end in itself, often at real cost to relationships, health, or things the person would actually value if they let themselves — stinginess optimizes the number without regard for what's actually being given up to hit it.
Why the distinction actually matters
Frugality, tied to genuine priorities, tends to be sustainable for years or decades because it doesn't feel like constant deprivation. Stinginess tends to either burn out (leading to a rebound of overspending) or quietly damage relationships and quality of life in ways that aren't visible in a budget spreadsheet.
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A useful check: are you cutting things you don't actually value to fund things you do (frugal), or cutting nearly everything indiscriminately, including things that would genuinely improve your life (stingy)? The test is whether the spending you keep reflects real priorities.
Yes — underspending on things with real return (health, key relationships, skill development, even reasonable home maintenance) can create larger costs later that a purely spending-minimizing mindset doesn't account for.
Not necessarily — 'cheap' often implies indiscriminate spending avoidance, closer to the stingy end of this spectrum, while frugality specifically implies a deliberate, values-based allocation of spending.