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.

Just wow! @Whereareallthemillionaires Sad that your brother has split from his family. She sounds jealous with a massive chip

Thank goodness, Thought I was going mad as I was sure I'd heard Billy Connolly tell it!

Has anyone else tried matching someone for meanness? I've done it with 2 stingy rellies & both times it resulted in a competition to see who could go the lowest.

With one family, we used to exchange vouchers & I started to notice that they always gave half as much back to us. So one birthday I matched what they always sent & - hey presto! - they sent half of THAT for the next birthday (which was 6 months later, so they remembered for all that time). I matched that for the next birthday on their side, & they sent half & we swiftly arrived at a point below which you couldn't buy any vouchers. To me, it had become a game at this point, so I sent something which cost me £1 & looked it, & then they started sending me things from around the house, even things I'd given them years before, & sending DH bizarre stuff they'd bought in M&S sales (I know, because we tried to return them a couple of times).😂

With another family, I sent cards & gifts & they sent a free ecard, every time. Eventually I sent an ecard, thinking maybe they didn't actually want any real cards or gifts. For the next birthday on our side, they just sent an email saying 'Happy Birthday'! 😂Once again, & even when it was free, they had to feel they were getting more than they were giving back.

I don't think you can ever change the stingy.

My flat mate and I hosted a housewarming for work colleagues. We were not flush but put on a huge buffet, loads of home made items, and bought all kinds of beer, cider, wine, spirits and mixers(think like you would at Christmas, being embarrassed if so and so asks for a rum and coke but you don’t have it). More than enough for the number of invited guests. Or so we thought.
Guests arrived and got stuck in. We were young so didn’t realise it was rude to not to bring a bottle of wine at least, but several people did just that, as was noted by an older colleague. A lovely, charming guy, let’s call him Mike.
We ran low on drinks part way through the evening, and some more people had by now arrived empty handed.
A short time later it became clear we had been drunk dry. Mike turns down the music, announces this, and says he’s off to the shop as Geller and flatmate have already been such generous hosts. Mike then looks certain people in the eye and declares he’s taking them with him to carry it all back.
He persuaded them into contributing in the off licence. Thanks Mike.

I like Mike!

Staying with my sister and my (Australian) BIL - any alcohol was bought by us, as was lunch & takeaway dinner, even an ice cream for their small child! Meanest people ever, and a weekend I'd never repeat ... while they boast of their properties & travel, but never turn the heating on 😱

My oldest friend came to stay for a week last year. We've long since stopped exchanging gifts, at my suggestion, because she sent me absolute crap. So she came to stay and gave me a tiny plastic plant in a glass pot. I've since seen something nearly identical for sale at £2.99. So I was the host that time, but I'm going to stay with her later this year and I am stuck as to what I can give her that is as small and crap as what she gave me. She's a very dear friend whom I've known for decades but she really doesn't like spending money.

@youngestsister how do you think they afford all that? By being mean.

The stealing tips thing happens a LOT.

Pre Covid I used to run restaurants and saw it many times. Trouble is that as staff there is nothing you can about it until the money is actually handed over to you, so you cant call it out.

Told this story before but its my favourite "tight git gets their comeuppance" tale. Friend and I were working when a large family group came in. Lovely family, except one guy who we hated, they came about every 3 months or so. He would always act the big host, big gob and thought he was fantastic. They would collect up the money for the bill and he would say he would take it to the bar as he was paying on his card. Except he would pay with the tips others had put in for us, it always came to more than the bill and he would pocket the rest.

My friend decided enough was enough and took a 20p piece out of the till, put it on the tray and took it to the table with the bill. She said "You forgot your change" and he airily waved it away with an "Oh thats for you love". She was at the opposite end of the table from him said "No thank you" and put the tray down in front of the man next to her, we think it was the father of the family, FIL of billy big bollocks. He was surprised, looked at the bill and realised that it had all been paid in cash, BBB had not put a penny onto his card. Asked us about our tip and we said we had not received one.

It was CARNAGE. FIL came to the bar and confirmed that we had never received a tip on any of their visits. Long story short (too late) after a huge row, BBB was made to cough up everything he had pinched and then some, and the next time they came he wasnt with them! We took some money home that night!

@HamSarnie, found the gift for your 'friend' 🙂

Might I also suggest taking your own loo rolls, emergency food & drink?

https://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/assorted-embossed-pots-394664

@MarkWithaC
That would have been all very well, I wouldn't have minded that at all, but it was her suggestion that we all pay for our own food! And obviously because she'd suggested and agreed that, we all put around £20 into a collection and I went out and bought a specific gift, something she was "into"!

Yes :) I would rather not see them, then spending my time and money on them. If they want to see me, they need to organise

I absolutely agree.
He is and has always been extremely week.
However my previous post was regarding bad hosting and my example referred to her. I was then asked re backstory, so I gave one.

And yet it is wrong to discriminate using derogatory words and indeed to assume all people of a certain class or wealth are the same
which they are not
and which was the point the poster was obviously making.

I know.
I just don’t get it.
My mother and her mother saw the worst of it and said my db used to run round her like a headless chicken not knowing what to do for the best. He eventually stopped taking his nephew home and used to stay in a flat near his first wife when it was his weekends.

As an aside someone here mentioned my db had kids with her. He didn’t. They both had kids separately.

Typo
not his nephew……my nephew

My sil never hosts anyone.
My db used to do it all cooking cleaning shopping etc.
He was away working and got back the night before and she had said she’d buy whatever was needed. She didn’t.
So my db arrived home, woke up and it was too late to go out. They aren’t near shops.
We turned up. She’d gone and db didn’t even have food in the house to feed himself let alone us.

Despite all the hate he’s had to put up with
He’s such a lovely guy. Always was as a child too.

Her kids have turned out to be really really quite nasty.

My mil and sil often meet people on holiday and then go and stay with them afterwards. They have not once invited those people to their homes.

Oh I just LOVE your Mum.

Mine would have told me I could do with losing weight and it would have done me no harm.

Did it affect the girls friendships at school at all?

An EGG?

YOU GOT AN EGG!!!???

I didn't get an egg.

I LOVE the word minge bag as an insult.

It's not really 'stinginess' but as some have posted about people who serve meagre portions so people won't 'overeat', I'll share this. My aunt was a very generous (and delicious) cook whose motto was 'Eat up! There's more in the kitchen!!". Except when it came to her DD. She fed her according to her current weight. When my Cousin was an 'acceptable weight' she fed her like the rest of us. If she was overweight (she yoyo'd, as have I) she gave her tiny portions. If she took seconds her mum would say "Do you really need that?". It was embarrassing, not just for Cousin, but for the rest of us.

This is the same aunt who, when she'd talk to my mum, one of the first questions she'd ask about me was if I'd gained weight or was I still thin.

Food issues I guess rather than money issues.

He was always built like a racing snake

What brilliant expression! 😂

(As was a slightly later one - "a bone, a rag and a hank of hair")

<- (not envy)