As a guest, what's the stingiest thing you've ever experienced?

[Marssuri]

Just that!
I'll start

I invited friends for dinner at mine. I made traditional dishes from where I'm from, sausage rougail, chicken cari and dessert.

A few days later they text me telling me to come to theirs for some food at dinner time.

I show up and bring a small jar of chilli peppers. One of the people who invited me goes "is that all you're going to eat?". I was confused and asked what they meant. They replied "It's everyone brings their own food."
I told them I thought they had invited me for dinner and they go "yes, we invited you to come to the house for dinner!".
They saw my face and said "don't worry, we can share some food with you!" before cutting a couple of raw carrots, aubergines, cherry tomatoes with some white sauce and putting them in the middle of the table.
They then served each other the meal they had made for themselves and digged in.

Note from MNHQ - we've had lots of nominations for this thread to be moved over to Mumsnet Classics and, as we're very generous hosts, we've done exactly this.

🤣

Another one which was weird instead of stingy.

Invited to a BBQ. I am not a fan, I’d mentioned it before, but she pushed as they’d bought meat from this specialised butcher’s.
Got there, BBQ on, they bring out the fancy stuff, but then cook really really crappy burgers and sausages. Now I don’t know if the nice stuff was meant to be seconds, but personally one burger, one sausage butty, especially horrible ones, I’m done. So they put it back in the fridge. I still hate BBQs.

I don’t know because so many weird guest experiences I’ve had have been cultural differences and although I’ve on occasion been a bit grossed out , I’ve loved them mostly.
We had a host who used to take leftovers from all plates (meat/ bones veg) and put them back into her big stock pot. But she organised the best evenings I’ve ever been to and ultimately she enriched our lives in a country where we were struggling to find our feet so I love her and her recycled stock pot, even if I had to sneak the soup to my partner on occasion.

Did they know you were coming? Did they think you were just stopping by quickly? To be honest based on what you said it sounds like bad communication and misalignment on your part.
I wouldn’t have lunch ready to serve people if we hadn’t pre discussed that they would be coming for lunch otherwise it may just get wasted.

A friend asked me if I'd babysit her two DC for the night whilst she did a night shift. She was short of money as her partner had left her, so I wasn't expecting any kind of payment.

I arrived at 7.30pm and bought some sweets and crisps, as didn't expect she'd be providing any snacks either. She asked me to give her DC cereal for breakfast, and said the milk was in a jug in the fridge. Went to make myself a cup of tea later on, only to find there was no milk other than a very small amount in the jug which was barely enough for the DC cereal!

Just thought it a bit mean that she didn't think I might want a hot drink at least before I left in the morning to go to work, and would even have bought some with me if she'd said.

Not sure where the sneaking of the soup fits in but I see nothing wrong with this. In fact kudos to her!

I wasn't being mean btw @listsandbudgets! I love a good wine filled night myself

As a girl in primary school I was invited to a friends house for tea, it was a slice of processed cheese in two slices of white bread.

The family were rich, so I was surprised, and it was the worst sandwich I have ever eaten out of politeness.

My children have been invited to friends houses for tea too, and given a plate of pasta and butter.

It's not that I think it's 'ok' it would just never occur to me to plan and buy an entire lunch for people who are just popping by at lunchtime unless I specifically invited them for lunch.

I can see myself nipping to the corner shop for a box of mince pies to offer round with a cup of tea.

Does everyone have fully stocked kitchens at all times?

own mother. husband ( then boyfriend) was away for my birthday. invited me up for cake presented me a half price peppa pig cake from tescos ( think was mid twenties ) when going home cut one small slice for me abd then proceeded to put the rest away my own birthday cake.
same mother requested 12e back when asked to buy a dress from primark. hounded me for days to pay it back she got 12e posted through the letter box in 20 50 cents and 1e coins
same mother who paid for me to see doctor when was a student ( husband was away at time too ) (docs not free in Ireland) and was very sick. few weeks layer asked my what wanted for birthday said hair voucher please said to me remember paid for doctor fir you a few weeks ago instead of paying me back use that towards hair. said to her use common sense mother if didn't have money to pay for doctor what makes you think I have money for my hair and hung up on her. she can't understand why I have a distant relationship with her now

My stepfather from hell was so tight it caused him physical pain to open his wallet. He found an off-licence where they sold really nasty cheap sherry from a barrel, so he always made sure he filled up using bottles that had previously contained expensive brands, people always accepted a glass, but no one ever drank a second glass.. My deluded mother asked him to buy some coke for my half brother and his friends to have for a bbq. He came back with a single litre bottle. When challenged he claimed he thought coke was like squash and had to be diluted with water!

To be honest, that’s all I would have offered too. I wouldn’t have a lunch ready unless I’d invited you

@chamename i just couldn’t stomach the soup, which was the special stock with little pasta in always served as a starter. I’m sure it’s a sensible way to do things but for me food scraped off other people’s kids plates was a step too far. Lots of people wouldn’t have an issue with it I realise!

Has to be my great aunt and uncle when I was a kid. My mum was in hospital and, for whatever reason, I couldn’t visit with my dad. So, I was sent to aunt and uncle’s house. At dinner time, they proceeded to sit me in the corner whilst they got on with their dinner. I wasn’t even offered a drink!

It wasn’t me who posted the story but given that its her mother, it’s Christmas, they brought lots of expensive gifts (this was mentioned) I would 100% expect they knew the PP is coming over.
You wouldn’t have any food/treats ready for your child and her family unless it is expressly pre-agreed? On Christmas no less? Because “it may get wasted”?

sorry im afraid you are one of the stingy people 🤷‍♀️

I think I can win this thread. Years ago we had a lovely but very eccentric elderly friend of the family who had land and who who used to let us swim in her lake. She was notoriously stingy whilst not being unkind in any way.

One day my Dad, my sister and I were invited to go over for a swim in the lake and have a picnic.
I would have been about 10 and my sister 12.
We drove the 1.5 hours to visit her and she greeted us warmly, checked we had our swimming things and said she wouldn't join us at the lake as it had gone a bit chilly but we must take the picnic.

Off she went and returned with a plastic bucket covered with a tea towel that she handed to Dad, patting his arm and saying "have fun my loves!". And off she pottered to light up a cig in the conservatory.

Dad pulled back the tea towel to reveal the picnic.

Reader, it was about 20 halved oranges that had already been squeezed on a juicer and were folded in half with their remaining soggy flesh flapping out like soggy labia. Worse still, we had foolishly brought no other food and this was pre- takeaway delivery and in a remote spot. We went down to the jetty, had a swim, and gamely sat down to our already squeezed orange peels.

That was when we found she must have made the juice some days ago or left them somewhere hot, because what flesh remained had fermented.

We buried the peels, returned the empty bucket and drove away rather sooner than originally planned.

Some of these stories are shocking.

Who are these tight, nasty people?

@MrsWentworthIPresume

you also wouldn’t offer anything else to YOUR CHILD coming over on Christmas to bring you Christmas gifts??
you are one of the stingy ones too then.
i don’t even understand “invite for lunch” when it is about your own children and their family. Like, someone WOULDNT?

I wish i had but i dint drink. however i'm on strong meds and i forgot a s
dose today and you can tell!!

was a lovely evening r
Though

No. My god, there ARE two of them! 😳
Reading this thread, mind you, it looks like there are several of both sexes. They Walk Among Us!

My BIL is VERY rich. We are normal. MIL and FIL normal too. We have a lot of gatherings at our house, football matches, bbqs etc. MIL always asks did BIL 'come with his arms swinging?'....basically did he co.e empty handed. Love that phrase.

WHAT?? That's a completely deliberately insult, isn't it. Most of these stories speak of ignorance, stupidity, cupidity and selfishness ... but this is overt cruelty.

I was part of an event, I gave a lift to the person doing the supper for 40 volunteer, they went off to shop and I met them at the till, I was shocked that for £200 they had so little food, all top of the range smoked salmon , expensive cheese, ECT.
I had been told to pay and would Have the money paid . I refused to pay. They walked back, while I got all the makings for a ploughmans for 40.

I haven't rtft so apologies if I'm the 5th person to say this, but he sounds like he gets his portion advice from some of the weird food threads on here.

That's so tight there just has to be another explanation! Did she think she was making way for your own stuff or something? So bizarre!