diff --git a/lib/config/load.js b/lib/config/load.js
index d950bb7a..b3a88be9 100644
--- a/lib/config/load.js
+++ b/lib/config/load.js
@@ -93,8 +93,7 @@ function load(settings, options, config, callback) {
       // if we didn't pick up a nodemon.json file & there's no cli ignores
       // then try loading an old style .nodemonignore file
       if (config.loaded.length === 0) {
-        // TODO decide whether this is just confusing...
-        var legacy = loadLegacyIgnore.bind(null, options, ready);
+        var legacy = loadLegacyIgnore.bind(null, options, config, ready);
 
         // first try .nodemonignore, if that doesn't exist, try nodemon-ignore
         return legacy('.nodemonignore', function () {
@@ -118,11 +117,12 @@ function load(settings, options, config, callback) {
  * @param  {String} filename   ignore file (.nodemonignore or nodemon-ignore)
  * @param  {Function} fail     (optional) failure callback
  */
-function loadLegacyIgnore(options, success, filename, fail) {
+function loadLegacyIgnore(options, config, success, filename, fail) {
   var ignoreFile = path.join(process.cwd(), filename);
 
   exists(ignoreFile, function (exists) {
     if (exists) {
+      config.loaded.push(ignoreFile);
       return parse(ignoreFile, function (error, rules) {
         options.ignore = rules.raw;
         success(options);
@@ -172,6 +172,12 @@ function loadFile(options, config, dir, ready) {
   }
 
   var filename = options.configFile || path.join(dir, 'nodemon.json');
+
+  if (config.loaded.indexOf(filename) !== -1) {
+    // don't bother re-parsing the same config file
+    return callback({});
+  }
+
   fs.readFile(filename, 'utf8', function (err, data) {
     if (err) {
       if (err.code === 'ENOENT') {
@@ -188,7 +194,9 @@ function loadFile(options, config, dir, ready) {
 
     try {
       settings = JSON.parse(data.toString('utf8').replace(/^\uFEFF/, ''));
-      config.loaded.push(filename);
+      if (!filename.endsWith('package.json') || settings.nodemonConfig) {
+        config.loaded.push(filename);
+      }
     } catch (e) {
       console.error(e);
       utils.log.fail('Failed to parse config ' + filename);