Sprite Stitch Board!

For those of you who are cross-stitching small things, like the pokemon, and the patten calls for just a single X of one color, how do you anchor it?

I'm a cross-stitch beginner and have dutifully followed the method of stitching over the starting tail on the back to hold it, and then tucking the ending tail under other stitches at the end, but this seems... inefficient? when doing just one X?

Is that clear?

rather than stitching over the starting tail and anchoring the end tail...

I just stitch the X with the head and end tails hanging...then anchor the end, pull the needle out, rethread the unanchored part, and anchor it.
(this probably makes no sense)

Id also do the single Xs at the end, so they are easy to anchor under other stitches.

Makes sense. Seems that would waste a lot of thread, but it's not ALL that expensive...

I've never had a problem with anchoring single stitches in the same manner as the beginning of a row. When I frame something I always stick it to a backing so there's rarely a risk of it coming loose.

If I have a bunch of single stitches scattered about I often thread the floss through my previous stitches in the same manner as finishing so I don't have loose threads hanging all over the back. And I always save them for last too, even if I've already used that color elsewhere.

I do that, go through the back of previous stitches. You don't need to go through many either, just 3 would do. And I do them last. I'm glad I'm not the only one who does it this way.