14 Celebrities Who Aren’t Used to Spending Money on Themselves
We think of celebrities as people who only eat at posh restaurants, drive exclusive cars, and wear haute couture clothes.
However, Bright Side found 14 world-class stars who live surprisingly modest lives despite their incredible incomes.
Jennifer Lawrence
The Hunger Games star makes it a habit to spend money with care: she drives a Volkswagen Eos, keeps an eye out for sales in stores, and uses discount coupons. There’s a children’s hospital in Louisville, the actress’s hometown, whose cardiological unit bears her name: the Jennifer Lawrence Foundation Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (Kosair Hospital). Jennifer donated $2 million to it.
Keanu Reeves
Even when Keanu rose to the Hollywood heights, he preferred to stay in hotels or rent apartments. He doesn’t have lots of stuff or any security guards, and he travels by public transport. The actor gave away 90% of his payment for The Matrix (about $80M) to the backstage movie staff, and 12 stuntmen received a new motorcycle each as a gift from him.
Sarah Jessica Parker
The actress is very careful with her money, and she tries to teach her children that. Sarah sews their clothes herself, only buying shoes, and she loves secondhand wear. She sold her Carrie Bradshaw shoes at an auction and donated all the money from the sale to a school of music and arts.
Kate Middleton
The Duchess of Cambridge often wears the same dresses for different occasions and loves inexpensive brands. For instance, the jacket and the blue dress on the left are by Zara, and the dress on the right is by Hobbs, which she got for about $45. Kate is all about charity too: one of her latest projects is called Heads Together, and it’s dedicated to the psychological health of young people, war veterans, the homeless, and other people at risk.
Vincent Kartheiser
The star of Mad Men doesn’t want to buy a car, uses public transportation, and lives in a very modest house. As the TV show’s popularity grew, Vincent began feeling annoyed by the huge amounts of things around him, and he decided to get rid of them by giving them away for free.
Christian Bale
Even for a long time after fame found him, “Batman“ lived with his family in a one-room apartment and didn’t have a cell phone or bodyguards. ”Wealth doesn’t mean anything to me. If a robber broke into my house, he’d burst into tears," the actor said in an interview. Christian also gave all his royalties from The Promise to charity.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Already a well-paid actor, Leo used to drive a Toyota Prius, and he still prefers commercial flights over personal airplanes. In 1998, the actor founded his own charity fund, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, and transferred over $15 million to 30 different charities, including Amazon Watch, National Geographic: Pristine Seas, Save the Elephants, and the World Wildlife Fund.
Jennifer Garner
Jennifer somehow manages to balance being a Hollywood star and a housewife. She often goes to a market nearby for goods. The actress has also been involved with the Save the Children Foundation, dedicated to children’s rights and education, for 10 years now.
Keira Knightley
The actress sets a monthly limit for herself, and if she wants to buy something over it, she thinks really hard if she needs it that badly. She says that a luxurious lifestyle prevents you from understanding people who live otherwise. Keira also sells the dresses she wore to various events for the benefit of different charities.
Russell Crowe
This Oscar winner could have led a life of luxury, but instead he decided to move to Australia, buy a ranch and an old jeep, and is perfectly happy now. Russell regularly transfers large sums to various organizations including the Jewish school in Montreal that suffered a terrorist attack in 2004.
Hayden Christensen
Anakin Skywalker decided to move to a farm — he even plows the soil himself on his own tractor. Hayden also cares for the environment: his farm runs on solar energy.
Reese Witherspoon
The actress spends carefully and has a habit of putting away money. Reese thinks luxury can’t be justified, and she tries to raise her children the same way. She takes part in a campaign for collecting clothes for deprived children in the USA and Canada. She and Matthew McConaughey organized a charity screening of Sing and raised $100,000 for charity funds.
Jessica Alba
Jessica is a thrifty mom and the founder of an eco-friendly diaper company, The Honest Company. She doesn’t get rid of clothes her elder daughter becomes too big for — instead, she gives them to the younger one. Forbes included the actress in their Top 100 richest women in the USA who made their fortune themselves, yet still Jessica isn’t ashamed of buying inexpensive clothes and using public transport.
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin’s hobby is collecting movies, but he’s totally indifferent to cars. The red Chevy Malibu (the one driven by John Travolta in Pulp Fiction) was his, but he actually wanted to get rid of it, saying he liked the Geo Metro much better.