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.

Request from a family member to do childcare of their 4 kids for 3 days.
I was told my petrol cost would be covered, ( 300 kilometres round trip from my home ), there was plenty of food in the house and I'd be left money for extras for the kids- 3 teens, one younger.
On arrival, offered nothing, they went to a shop and bought lunch for themselves and ate it in front of me, not even offered water.
Off they went, I checked the cupboard and found one loaf of bread and a few school lunch snacks.
Nothing for meals.
They had left me 20 pounds for everything, including my petrol.
I fed and did the multiple schools runs for 4 kids, quite an expensive exercise on a single pension.
I've never been back .

This happened when I was a teenager... got yelled at for using more than two squares of loo roll when staying at at a friend's house for the weekend.

My Uncle is the stingiest person I know, I have never seen him pay for anything or buy drinks. It is so obvious we would joke about it as children, we used to meet at a pub when we were kids and he would always make my dad pay for the round of drinks, never had change to buy a pack of crisps for his own kids. At my sisters wedding he tried to add his hotel breakfast/charges to my brothers bill, announced he had no cards with him so couldn’t chip in for the 3 course pub meal he had eaten, couldn’t pay for a cab to the venue had to make someone drive back and get him, walked round the room at the wedding asking everyone to give him a lift back to the hotel and on and on. My sister took a few people out for lunch the next day, on top of everything she had already paid for he was the only one who had pudding, he seriously made 20 people wait and watch him eat, including the poor couple who had been cornered into giving him a lift. He is a nasty little man who seems to exist solely to see what he can coerce other people to pay for.

Visited my db and sil, prearranged and a four hour drive for us.
My sil went out clothes shopping before we got there
There was
No food.
No hosting
No offering even a cup of tea
I made everyone a cup of tea. My db ate the cake we brought.
We left.

@Whereareallthemillionaires is that normal for them, because it sounds like a very deliberate snub by your SIL?

I wonder how many of these stingy rich people think they're above the "lower orders". I'd like to know how they would treat people they think are worth sucking up to.

At the time We didn’t really know her she is my db second wife.
She had been to our house once after meeting him and she told my cousin we are snobs because we have 1. Too many books , 2. We are architects and 3. Our kids went to private school.

So yes my sil has always hated us
A classic example of what she gets up to for example
……She put my parents house up for sale before we had even had my dads funeral
……She used to throw away birthday cards and presents we sent to her stepson ( my nephew )
Honestly The list is endless…

Shes a local councillor pretending to be a lovely person to all the locals and yet

she would make dinner or a bedtime hot chocolate for her kids but give nothing to her step son. ( He was only one when my db and her met ).He had to spend every other weekend with her treating him like that.

She is a cruel person.

I havent seen db as a result for over 10 years, since my dads funeral and neither has my nephew seen her or his own dad.

So yes, a very deliberate snub

I find this post rude and discriminatory but I suppose it can work both ways

Ans1
The same number as stingy poor people looking down on anyone wealthier than them as if they are the only ones worthy of a little respect.
Ans2
They’d treat people worth sucking up to Probably the same as stingy poor people because that’s human nature.

But he married her, had more kids with her and allowed her to treat his son like that so I would say that he is worse.

I don't think so. We've seen several examples in this thread of people being poorly treated by "superiors" or people who are better off than them, while treating people in their own circle better -such as expecting junior staff members to subsidise their meals.

Well-off people treating guests like crap has been a recurrent theme in this thread. There haven't been many cases of poor people being stingy in this thread. It's perfectly reasonable to wonder how often ideas about class are a factor.

There was no generalisation about wealthy people at all. 🙄

Try reading that again... she wouldn't cook a roast at all...

The NIBBLES were non-existent! If someone said drinks & nibbles then I would expect that. And what’s more I would not expect it to include a sales pitch for whatever rubbish they were trying to sell. The poster is not the stingy one in the scenario at all. The hostess was. It seems fairly obvious.

🤣🤣🤣

There were weddings where people went hungry?!?

What! How!

I don't have much in right now except weird protein shakes and bars, I've dipped into underweight due to stress and trying to get a few pounds back whilst my digestive system struggles with spice, dairy, veg, pulses, grains and basically everything good. I can hear spirit of my Iraqi grandmother whispering in my ear "What if someone comes! What will you offer? Why aren't you cooking?" and I'm about to go buy dairy milk and biscuits for when the guy comes to move my old sofa.

I'm not even a particularly generous person, its just deep deep cultural conditioning!

@Downunderduchess But "nibbles" is likely to mean crisps and nuts. It is really odd for the PP to complain that they were left "starving". You're not supposed to arrive starving when nibbles have been promised. It's gauche and grabby.

@changeme4this

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.

That's not you being stingy though. It's keeping yourself clear of demanding oicks who seem to have left their manners at home. Just make sure, if you meet them in a public place that you and your husband aren't seen as hosts and, therefore, paying for them all. 🌹

The most ridiculous thing is we've had them here since. I'm a total mug.

I bet if you asked them for "share" if you invited them to a takeaway at your home they because and/or have no money.. 🌹

When I read things like this I wonder what kind of man puts up with someone treating a child like this, let alone their own child. Doesn’t compute.

She doesn't sound the sort to be embarrassed. 🌹

I wouldn’t have paid anything, I’d have considered my contribution enough. What’s she going to do, call the Police?!!

@Wineatfiveisfine

2 days later, he sent me a bill for his hotel room and dry cleaning because he had thrown up so much, the hotel room was a state and so were his clothes.

I hope you sent him off with a flea in his ear with no "refund", rude beggar, and marked his card for his next appraisal. 🌹

😱oh wow! I didn't realise you meant leftovers from half eaten plates! Leftovers from the original food all piled together would be fine (although perhaps a bit odd depending on the food!). But half eaten food? Bleh!

Christmas morning at my mom's boyfriend, we opened our presents, i got nothing from her just a comment that she will buy me one when the January sales are on, still waiting for that present 25 year later.

I nearly spat my coffee out reading this!!! That chocolate would have been snatched right back with multiple swear words being thrown in his direction!

Apologies if this has been already asked as haven't rtft yet but would you be able to find that thread please? I'll queue it up after reading this one 😂 thanks x