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.

I do four per person, and then an extra load for anyone who wants seconds, so on average about six per person. I eat about 3 but DH and adult sons eat about 8 each.

No it’s not! Serves the gluttonous guest right!

Definitely round our way in the 60s you didn't stay to tea unless specifically invited - we all had barely enough to feed our own family let alone random playmates. That said, all our regular playmates lived on the same few streets, we played outside (what, go inside someone else's house! No!) and any friends from further away, we played in the local park then all dispersed to our own homes for tea.

That actually doesn't sound too bad if they were given food and drink, and most especially if they knew beforehand of course! One theme on here is the surprise large bill for mediocre food/drink, presented at the end of the event!

@Svalberg they weren't hard up just excruciatingly mean with food.

Invited a friend over for dinner. They brought a bottle of wine over, drank a glass of it and when they left, took the half empty (or half full) bottle home with them. 😝

I think there’s a difference between not knowing the etiquette/struggling financially and being deliberately tight, and I like to think real friends at least would be aware of this difference. Perhaps I’m being naive though. (I’ve also turned up to dinner parties empty handed because I didn’t realise you were meant to bring a gift/wine...)

I hope you never invited them again?

Why didn’t you just leave.

That is beyond tight.

It is weird!

I assume they were on a meter, but even so . . .

My mother and i were staying with my sister and her husband (who is the meanest person we know). She commented that we were using too much toilet paper and that we were only allowed to use 2 sheets per visit. If we used more than that, we'd have to buy our own.

Needless to say, we never visited again!

I hope you never host them for Christmas, Easter etc? They sound awful!

Other side of this. I had relatives come to stay for a week and one was picky about what tea she “could” drink. Wrinkled her nose at all the options ( there were quite a lot!) but she really only liked one type of tea from one brand. Luckily I had half a packet of one she thought acceptable. She used these all up, then as she left to go sightseeing one morning she said “ by the way we need more of x teabag.” Took great control not to say “ oh perhaps you can pick some up as you tour the city today, given I’m working from home and you’ve used them all up.” It wasn’t that I minded her having tea, but if you’re going to be particular…

I dont know anyone stingy in my family circle or most of my friends but for one schoolmate whom I have known for decades. She is richer than me but so stingy, even towards her husband and two sons. Every (incredibly cheap) thing she does for someone is described in dollars and cents. It is an illness. Not all rich people are stingy of course but the stingy ones I have met have never been poor.

If you check the original post, this was just one of several dishes @Marssuri served

Here, have a . That's for you, not for @AInightingale , who I guess wants something other than .

I hope you never invited them again?

Did they measure the roll after you'd been, or stand at the door handing out sheets?

Cannot quote those that quoted me re gluten free - it's more when they come to visit us we get a massive list of things to buy for him and her and we always get it all - he also manages to use our toaster when he visits with no issues so maybe he isn't coeliac just intolerant 🤷🏻‍♀️ but they made a big deal out of making something the toddlers would like ( spaghetti bol) and gave us the stingiest portion of terrible pasta - as I said this was 20 years ago - these days it's really fine - they had nothing for the kids breakfast - obviously no cereal ( didn't expect lots of different cereals) and as I said no toast it was a very difficult 7 days with hungry kids - and after they had asked what they should get in for the kids for breakfast and lunch - they then ignored all requests got absolutely nothing a normal toddler would eat - some lettuce for lunch,,,, so as I said we went to the pub a lot

Sadly that was my life at that time. I thought I was standing up for myself by telling him how wrong this all was but I see now that it was all part of the abuse. He would tell me that "she could be such a good friend to you if you'd let her" while making sure it was the last thing that would ever happen, for both of us. He was and still will be very manipulative. And totally fucked up.

I can be tight with myself (grew up poor). E.g. I don’t treat myself to coffees / lunch out etc, even though I am a high earner.

But I love hosting people and feeding them well. People often ask for my recipes and look forward to being invited again.

This happened in our family too, and it wasn't due to money, it was just how people did things. You ate in your own house, where someone might be expecting you back for tea. As I got older and friends came from further away, they couldn't just drop round so they'd get a proper invitation and stay for tea.

So glad you didn’t pay half! Did you really not have money? Because if you had money and had the nous to no then you are even more masterful. 🙌🏼

Do they smell of poo?

At gatherings with DH's family it's traditional for whoever hosts to offer a full cooked breakfast on the Sunday morning to set everyone up for the journey home. This has happened for many years and it's an established part of the gathering. I wasn't there for that particular visit but when DH's brother hosted, someone asked about breakfast and the brother said 'You can have a bowl of cereal' and offered nothing else. DH and his uncle went out and bought breakfast makings themselves. The brother and his wife refused to have anything to do with it and went and sat in the living room while DH cooked and everyone else ate the breakfast. This couple have eaten many cooked breakfasts on family visits so it felt really off that they were so ungracious about doing it for others. As others have said, they could easily afford to provide a decent breakfast, but chose instead to sulk in another room.