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.

My DGS (age 10) would eat one on his own, as would most of his friends!

It's not weird not to have wine in your house.

3 kids is hardly a horde. And a cuppa soup sachet doesn’t have the calories to keep a sparrow alive let alone a 10 yo child.

Oh this reminds me of another one. Same family (ExH)

His mum was in hospital and we drove up to see her. We went straight there on the first day because of visiting hours, his dad and sister were there too. They asked if she wanted anything bought to her and she asked for some smoked cheese (that sausage shaped one) and some lucozade so maybe £5 in total.

The next day we’re all in town and all day it was the dad and sister saying
“well deb if you’re going into WHSmith, you might as well get some lucozade”
“Oh no it’s right at the back”
”Dad if you need some milk you could pick up some cheese when you’re there”
“I don’t need milk I have enough for my morning tea”

On the way to the hospital that evening I said “Oh we haven’t got your mum’s stuff that she wanted” and they said,
”Oh it’s too late now, we’ll miss some visiting time” etc

I dropped them at the hospital and went to the supermarket, got her stuff and a magazine and some hand cream and drove back to give it to her.

I didn’t even like her that much, she was as bad as all of them but I couldn’t have someone in hospital not getting the small things they’d asked for. and the most annoying thing was the dad and the sister, instead of being shamed, saw it as a win.

God they were SUCH DICKS! I’m so glad I never have to see them again. I don’t know how I put up with them for any time. This has been cathartic!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Nah it was her stingy interpretation of hummus and pitta bread.

I also think @Popworks's story is by far the worst so far: it's quite haunting me. I cannot fathom how anyone could do that to a child.

I’m sorry @Feelslikeeverest but if I was your aunt and heard that, I would have emailed them a substantial bill for the 10 days childcare but said I was willing to overlook it in exchange for the tea bags.

I'm pregnant and hormonal but this made me tear up a bit
Bless you !

I cooked for a week for ILs and supplied all the food. They'd both been ill. When I left MiL reminded me I'd used three rubbish bags, please.

The saddest story is the poor 8-year old girl at the sleepover. I just can’t imagine esp having hosted so many and my DCs gone to so many as well. 😞

You wouldn’t cook roasties for a Sunday lunch? Sounds shit.

My brother and his wife are wealthy, urban sophisticated types who live in another country. Me and DH visited a decade ago, and were invited to their swish apartment for dinner. Dinner was one package of those fresh raviolis you get in the supermarket, divided between four adults and a child. I’d have happily chewed the cardboard tray with some ketchup if I was let.
While staying with my parents last year, the brother and wife offered to cook dinner one night. Dinner was one steak, divided in five. This was at least in my parents’ home, so my mom was able to smuggle bread up to her bedroom afterwards 😅

I would always invite my friend over with her partner, and they would never invite us over. Once they did, and just made any excuse for us not to go over, then said they had nothing to do so went to another friends for dinner. These types of people just take take take

Were they German or Swiss by any chance? 🫣

Haha! @DoorPath you could cook as well as Gordon Ramsey but no roasties and I’m not sure many would agree with your estimation of your cooking. I know: we are terribly reductionist but roasties and Yorkshire puds are so intrinsic to a good roast.

No, neither

They are lucky she didn’t faint.

Went to stay with an elderly friend. Room was dark when I went up and realised light bulb was missing. Went down and asked for the missing bulb. Friend got it out of the cupboard and handed it over, but asked for it back the next morning.

I went to a wedding like that ... best wedding ever

Basically we don't want gifts ... second marriage got everything we needed.

Bring yourself , tipple of choice and a dish. Email the maid of honour so that everyone doesn't bring crisps.

Basically the idea was we are getting hitched, we are hiring a villlage hall... thats as much organising as we are doing . Enjoy

We used to have some family friends with 2 boys of a similar age to me and my sister. We'd see them every few months or so for a walk and lunch at ours, theirs or a pub.
If it was lunch at their house it would often be roast pork -yet only the father was given the crackling (I.e. the best bit) - it wasn't offered to my mum or dad (although they might have had some if they asked), and certainly us kids were not to have it.
Very odd behaviour.. we all laught about it now but I think my parents ended up quite riled by it and eventually lost touch with them!

My MIL had cooked half a portion of a meal, then complained when I was eating some of .y partners cake. Baring in mind, I was breastfeeding, so I was always hungry

ExBoyfriend invited me to his mates wedding as his plus one. He was best man. Charged me half the cost of the gifts, the meal the day after, the fuel (despite the fact another friend of his also was in the car, had the front seat there and back several hundred miles)
Yet happy to eat, drink, sleep, shower, watch TV, at mine without offering any sort of contribution. So dumped.

Not sure if this is stingy in the gist of the thread but I have just cancelled a stop over by friends of DH who invited themselves to stay along with their grandchildren. We don’t have young children or toys anymore to entertain them.

the main reason being is he doesn’t like what I cook (roasts, soups, slow cooker meals etc) because he says it’s what his mum’s generation cooks. I actually do not know what he likes to eat as I have never been invited to have a meal with them at theirs…

secondary to that is last time they were here, DH had to leave mid way for a pre arranged issue. Was only gone for an hour, but the male guest told his wife to get up as they were going. Myself , SIL and his wife were all in conversation so it’s not as if they were being ignored.

thirdly, we hosted a big do for DH at a very nice venue and had them it had accommodation options. Most people came back to ours for supper which was soup, breads, cheese and fruit platter and he made a point of not eating anything and complaining about the cold basket of breakfast items they were served earlier in the day. Other friends sitting at our table looked at me rolling their eyes, so don’t think it’s just me.

so I’m being stingy with my hospitality towards them and not offering to host them again any time soon except perhaps meeting up somewhere else for lunch.

They’re not supposed to be funny. The one I contributed still astonishes me and it was years ago.