funny examples of when people have been extreme tightwads / tightfisted

[Sensisoul]

i recently fell out with a friend who is known for being exceptionally tight with money.

They have no kids & do anything to scrimp and save so they can afford a champagne lifestyle at the drop of a hat. They buy expensive beauty items with free gifts and then take the items back for a refund afterwards and not return the free gift!

This is a light hearted post about examples of tight friends, partners & family members who have either gone out of their way to be tight or given terrible birthday/ Christmas presents over the years.

NB- This isn’t a criticism on saving money, being mindful of money to stop hardship etc. It is great to collect coupons and vouchers and I do the same. It is more a lighthearted look at how tight some people can be:

Tell me what happened and when & is that person still in your life?

I’ll give a few examples:

this friend requests vouchers from people at Christmas
but always buys people “presents”. These presents can be anything from some old used nail varnish to free beauty samples sachets.

Their family now insist that they buy them gift vouchers as they no longer want their version of “presents”

Only orders hot water in a restaurant/bar- so drinks are always free. sometimes brings own tea bag and milk if they fancy a cup of tea.

Insists on walking everywhere and is spitting feathers when they share a taxi with anyone. They would sooner walk home on their own at night and potentially risk their own safety, than hail a cab and get home safely.

Order the most expensive luxury drink at a bar and then complain said drink is flat and that another fresh bottle is opened. They would then complain again and get another drink free!

Arrange to meet for lunch/dinner at the venue of their choice & then not order anything at all from the venue & say they are getting something from the burger van nearby afterwards. Then watch me eat my food that was ordered from the venue while they sip on a free cup of hot water. ( the hot water was free btw)

Insist on always getting a child’s portion at any eatery. whether this is chips
from a burger van or a posh restaurant.
This person always has to have the cheapest bill at the end of a meal.

Send a sympathy card when my auntie passed away & have the text in the card crossed out!! God knows what the original card said 😂

I also think that a lot of elderly people, post war, who knew extreme poverty are reluctant to splash out on what my mother would call "frivolities" , I guess if you have known extreme, grinding poverty you wouldn't want to go back there

Tight aunt who always charged us if we went to her for a lunch time spread (baguette, cheese, cheap coleslaw, no booze). When we hosted (proper Sunday lunch) she wouldn't even bring her own plate from the table.

Christmas she'd give £5 and say "get something nice for the kids".

She died with just over £1m in the bank.

One of my old bosses, an equity partner in a law firm so with an income of around £200k was sooo tight. He was always borrowing money off his secretary (who probably got paid about 15% of his salary) to buy sandwiches or get taxis because he'd forgotten to get cash out. Meanwhile she would bring in sandwiches from home for herself to save money. He'd always "forget" to give her the money back.

She was gutted when someone told her he put the receipts on expenses anyway and still wasn't giving her the money.

My immediate boss (same firm) knew I kept a book of stamps in my purse. He often asked if he could "borrow" one. Over a couple of weeks I realised every single stamp in a book I'd bought had gone to him. Next time he asked I said "no sorry I don't have any left, you've used them all". I expected him to apologise and buy me a new book but no he actually seemed really annoyed that is had the audacity to run out!

Yet another boss (not a law firm) would ask me to pop out and get her a sandwich, a newspaper, can of Coke whatever but never offered me any money. It was my first job and the salary was really low. One time I asked for money to cover all the bits I'd bought that week and she had a massive tantrum, tears and all, yelling "Oh for God's sake, it's only a few piddling quid!". I stood there staring at her thinking if it's only a few piddling quid you can pay it back can't you.

Mean bosses!!!

I admit I like a bargain and hate wasting money but I don't think I'm mean and I don't scrounge. When I bought a new car they wanted to charge me an extra 80 quid for car mats. I said no thanks and got some free carpet offcuts from a friend and cut them to shape. They were quite comfy! Whilst surfing Amazon in lockdown I found I could buy a set of car mats for about £15 (which I did). Quite pleased I said no to the garage's ones!

Some of these are funny

think there is a difference about being frugal in your own life

vs

people who try to get others to pay for expensive things for them

vs

people who try to get others to spend as liberally as them when the other person is the frugal type then try to make them feel bad

This happened to us at BILs . We were charged and brought lots of extra stuff.
served a tiny Christmas dinner, none of the extra treats. SIL pulled a face about the whole thing.
she served her family a massive spread the next day from all the uneaten stuff. Put it on Facebook.
they call everyone else cheap all the time. I’d be embarrassed to be them

That's true.
I know of situations though where people denied themselves even the most basic of comforts. I'm not talking luxury items, of any description. That's entirely up to anyone's own choice.

But they left huge amounts of money after them. Sad way to live, imo.

Used to go to a fair number of gigs to see a friend's band, anything from 20-50 miles trip. Would give another friend a lift, and she never once offered to pay towards the petrol. I then also realised that I would always end up buying the first round, the one that contained my only alcoholic (read expensive) drink of the night, then friend would buy 2nd round, when I'd gone on to soft drinks. She would also have soft drinks during her rounds, but alcohol during mine.

I didn't mind too much as I earned a fair bit more than her, but years later the roles were reversed. I was out of work, deep in debt and was going to have to sell my lovely car to survive. She was doing very well at that time, and had inherited a fair chunk from a relative.

She asked to come and stay for a couple of nights, which I didn't mind. She parked up & failed to put the hand break on, so her old car rolled into my pristine one that I had to sell and dented the front. She then settled in for the evening & it became obvious that she expected me to cook dinner, and seemed disappointed that all I could offer was scrambled eggs on toast (using up 3 days worth of eggs) - whereas if I stayed with friends I would always buy a take away. I had literally about £5 to pay for food for the following week at that stage, which she knew.

I told my DSil (also a friend of hers), who called "friend" and suggested that maybe she could at least pay for the repairs to my car, or the amount less it was now valued at.

Another friend borrowed a couple of hundred from me when I was doing OK. Later, when I was stoney broke she was telling a mutual friend how she was going to spend the windfall she's just got on expensive replacement stuff for her hobby - mutual friend suggested that a 2 year old debt to a friend in dire need should come first!

My immediate boss (same firm) knew I kept a book of stamps in my purse. He often asked if he could "borrow" one. Over a couple of weeks I realised every single stamp in a book I'd bought had gone to him. Next time he asked I said "no sorry I don't have any left, you've used them all". I expected him to apologise and buy me a new book but no he actually seemed really annoyed that is had the audacity to run out!

This reminded me of a meeting I attended years ago. A very senior guy asked if anyone had painkillers for a headache. I produced a pack of ibuprofen and handed him one of the blister packs. He asked in a weak little voice, if he could keep the rest.
I don't think it was a full blister pack, maybe had two more tablets apart from the two he used. I graciously said that he could. There was a pharmacy across the road from where we worked... he could easily have bought some for himself.

I always have stamps and funnily enough work colleagues know I do and often ask for one and offer me money. I always refuse and ask for the stamp to be replaced.

A friend of mine started seeing an old family friend romantically but soon noticed that despite him living with his parents and her being a single parent he never paid for anything.
Every time they went out she covered his food, drinks, admission etc.
She pointed it out to him and he said that as they always spent time at her house (not his parents) he had to pay for petrol to get there, so she should cover the first £3 of anything he needed then he would pay the rest!
She broke up with him after that.

He lived about 15 min away.

Very much this. My mother grew up in poverty conditions - her father died young, and my gran was left with 13 kids (yes, 13) in a 2 room house with no income. The eldest kids did a lot of heavy lifting but there was little money to speak of.

She remains the kindest person I know and extremely generous with her time and money, but she utterly, utterly abhors waste - people throwing out things that can still be used, dumping food containers when there’s still a little bit left or one day left on the date, etc. Every time I go and see her I end up clearing out some stuff from the cupboards that’s all out of date.

@rookiemere noooo you put your leftover chippie chips in the freezer then have glorious oven chippie chips on demand! I always buy a size bigger for this exact purpose 🤤

@sarahann1211112 you can't even imagine how people can rationally think they're correct to adopt such an attitude, can you?

I definitely think the war generation (early Baby Boomers) were brought up to be frugal even if relatively comfortably off, and it's just 'stuck', even in comfortable retirement.

I definitely agree but this guy was like 25!

God I thought I knew tight people until I read this thread!

My Dad was a bit funny about loo roll, I think he just hated spending on it and couldn't believe how much we got through as a family. Growing up the spare rolls were kept on a cupboard shelf only he could reach so he could keep track of how much was being used. I've gone the exact opposite way as a result and get a bit worried if there's less than three spare rolls in clear view of the loo.

@sarahann1211112 he has no excuse and won't be finding a girlfriend any time soon with that attitude.

My sister! She once gave my husband a gift and then asked him if she could take it with her to use when she went on holiday the day after. I said "NO".

I have successfully ditched everyone I know who is the least bit tight when in my company. They can do what they like in their own time, but not on mine! It is very liberating and empowering.

I have older relatives who are frugal and don't need to be, that is not the same. They are not mean and tight in company. There is a difference.

I'm convinced that a lot of extreme tightness is a personality disorder or similar. These people have hides like a rhinocerous, which the vast majority of us don't have. We would be mortified to be thought of as mean or tight, right?

In the older generation, unnecessary frugality often stems from insecurity, as others have said, they have had tough hard lives and never want to go back there again.

It's good that everybody here knows the financial circumstances of the people concerned.

Personally, I always felt humiliated if I had to explain that I had a chronically sick DP, I'd been desperate for a job so accepted the figure I was offered even though the employer knew it was taking advantage of me, I was up to my overdraft limit within 24 hours of being paid and the reason why

I refused to chip in for gifts, cards, milk and sugar.
I only drank water at getogethers unless somebody offered to buy me a meal or drink
I said no way when the 'let's split the bill' meant the scrimped for £35 that I really couldn't afford but had been under pressure for 'not being a teamplayer' turned into £180 due to other people ordering Champagne and cocktails where I'd had the single drink included in the £35.
I took uneaten refreshments home after watching people paid eight times + my salary were catered for to the tune of about £890.
I went to buffets quickly because I needed to get as much 'proper food' in as possible, rather than waiting for a handful of crisps and a couple of mini sausages.
I couldn't afford a tenner tip when I'd only had water all evening, claiming I wasn't hungry, and would be walking 3 miles home rather than sharing a cab because I couldn't afford 25% of the cab fare.
I didn't have 'just a fiver' to put into two collections a week.
I nicked toilet roll. And took home sachets of condiments and sugar.
I wouldn't do the Secret Santa ('only twenty pounds').
Refused to buy things and claim them back on expenses.
Made excuses to not attend social events, Christmas parties, or anything that might require either the spending of money at the time or in advance to meet with a dress code or expectations fuck off with your wear a Christmas jumper or pay a tenner.

was because I had less than nothing, was paddling like fuck to try and not lose my home and pay for both mine and DP's prescriptions (as on paper, I earned £2.84 too much and there was no way to afford a pre payment certificate) and would have loved to be in a situation where any of those things would have been manageable.

A couple of people noticed and were very kind to me. But a significant number were absolute dicks to me when I dared to admit that I really couldn't afford it - I was insulting the employer(s) by suggesting that they weren't paying me enough; they weren't. And sometimes it's nice to not have to grovel for permission to be poor. Even when you're skint, it can be nice to feel as though you've got some privacy or dignity rather than be the office Poor Person.

As I said, it's very fortunate that everybody here knows that none of the people they describe are nothing like me.

My relative once sold a lamp on Facebook marketplace and removed the bulb before handing it over

Finally Here
I had the exact same thing one Christmas. A group of us, mainly people we used to work with, would meet each year for Xmas meal in a restaurant. At the end, one person who had fairly recently joined, said she would sort out the money, so we all gave her our different shares: some vegetarians, some non-drinkers, some had kids meals for their DC, some were singles, etc. so different amounts. We all put in the right sum plus 10%ish for a tip. She counted it all out, it came to nearly what the bill was without her share, so she just paid the extra small amount, and the staff got no tip. I was livid when I realised what she had done. How low can you go?

@NeverDropYourMooncup - I'm really sorry people treated you horribly because you were less well off than them. What utter dicks.

I'm in my 30s, from London and I know it means thirsty. It makes no sense to be angrily spitting feathers. It grates on me the same way 'I could care less' does.

Yes you can be thrifty but not at others' expense