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.

The first time I met my FIL it was afternoon tea time and he brought out a (smallish) chocolate muffin and cut it into 4.

Many years later they invited us over and I warned them we would be 15 minutes late as we had a prior commitment. As I arrived he was walking through the kitchen with glasses of Prosecco and he said “you don’t get any as you’re late”.

We had a great social group in work, (well after work😂) we would start out at a pub in town and then invariably end up in the local Indian or Chinese restaurant, we soon discovered a pattern. JC would disappear to the loo just as the bill was presented and when he came back 7/10 times he would profess to have forgotten his wallet, the last time he did it, it was Mexican (and he nearly always had steak) he went to the loo, we stood up and left (pre arranged with the manager) we had left more than the bill behind us. The manager then patiently waited whilst JC’s wife drove into town from their large house in sticks and provided him with the means to pay the bill.

The MD went back the next day and collected the overly large deposit, the manager said that if he had known the hilarity of watching JC realising that he had finally been rumbled the meal would have been on the house. Even the chefs came out of the kitchen to laugh.

We never invited him on a night out after that.

I went to something similar. Wedding, sparkling apple juice for toast/on arrival.

Food was 2 tray bake meals. One chicken veg Mediterranean style one vegetarian cous cous and peppers mostly. It was for 10 people on a table. The waiting staff actually said its one serving i.e serving spoonful each.

No other food except plates of extremely small brownies... one each and a cup of tea.

Everyone was absolutely starving and getting very very drunk.

The couple who were married are very well off and childfree. Not tee total either.

Jimmy Shand.

NC with my parents.

But they are wealthy, extremely wealthy and freezer, cupboards and fridge - heaving with food.

Roast dinner would be
one slice of lamb, one small potato, a couple of green beans and maybe a bit of gravy. 😂dessert would be a thin slice of cheesecake and I mean thin with my mother saying let’s not be piggy shall we future (I was a size 6-8). It would all be put away but then my mother would disappear and have a couple of lamb sandwiches- then I’d look in the fridge and the cheesecake would be gone. They both had huge trolleys of chocolate and would help themselves but huff and puff if I said I was hungry or my children. This is us visiting and having brought loads of gifts. Honestly it’s no wonder I had an eating disorder as a child …. Mother is overweight, but I was always the piggy….

There's nothing wrong with a pot luck dinner....as long as you know that's what it is of course.

Oh come on now. You're not even trying.

A fifth of a potato for each person and nothing else? That never happened.

I had a former friend who would come to dinner clutching a cheap bottle of wine and then she, the husband and child (late teens) would all get stuck into my wine collection and drink at least a bottle each. One night I had to prise my wineglass out of the teen’s hand as it attempted to get itself into the car for the trip home…after same teen had walked around the table as they were leaving and poured the dregs of each glass into their glass (red and white wine) which they necked back on the way to the car…They were all so drunk I don’t think they recalled anything past 6pm that night. But when we went to their home it was like boarding school- a small hunk of meat and 3 green beans each. Every time. And half a packet of crisps for 5 people. Dreadful people - now NC.

One loaf of bread and a packet of pate. Beat that.

This thread is reminding me of the Pom Bears dinner party thread. It spawned the Pom bear emoji

I'm on my phone so can't find it to link, but if you haven't read it do treat yourself. It will be under classics.

I don’t believe half of these!

I’m still reading though🤣

Omg that's triggered me. My ex had family up north. They thought we were rich southerners. We were far from it. A sister came to Tesco with me as she "needed a few bits". I was buying stuff for the next day Sunday lunch and more alcohol as they had hollow legs. She kept putting stuff in the trolley, think Tampax, various toiletries, a huge expensive box of washing powder, so on and so forth. I thought when we got to the till she'd grab her stuff and pay. No. She just stood there and let me pay the extra £50 for her shit. I was so embarrassed I just paid it. When we went to theirs, she ordered a massive takeaway and let us pay for it because "we could afford it". Utterly brazen. Never visited or invited them again.

We have been asked several times to bring mezze style sides, with a list specified, when neighbours invite us round and they do the main. It’s always something that cost a fraction of the price of the sides. Homemade takes hours and loads of ingredients which are collectively expensive so we tend to go for takeaway now and we pay £50+ to be guests, without petrol/taxi fare. We always insist “Oh let’s go out so we can all have a break” (but it never works) as it’d cost about the same for us - without slaving over a hot stove all day and the evening before.

Btw we both come from a different culture where hosting means feeding our guests to excess and say “Absolutely not” when someone offers to bring a pud. Not that this is cheeky of course but I do feel like anyone with the most basic understanding of the cost of food could work out we spend a lot doing the above.

A friend of mine her parents are retired now but they had well paid jobs high up in a worldwide company. Friend and DH are mid earners. They live in the south her parents live in the north. So they often stay with them a few days at a time.

So when they stay they have to go shopping to get their own food in for themselves and DC. They have to prepare separate meals to parents. They are allowed to use some of her parents food but they have to replace it.

When ex neighbours I meant to write

I hate saying this as I really liked the people - they were lovely and not stingy at all … but I found their set up for dinner a bit odd … I don’t know if it’s really the same thing as this thread , because as I say in any other aspect they weren’t tight at all ! But here you are anyway …

This was years ago- I used to go with my ex for dinner at his parents house every Sunday ( I’m grateful they cooked but I never wanted to spend every Sunday there but he was insistent) . His parents would sit at the table in the other room so I never saw their plates but my ex and his 2 brothers would have plates piled - meat - chicken and something else usually beef … this would be chicken from the bone and then beef like a joint of beef … they would have mashed potato , huge yorkies , masses of veg , roast potatoes - the full works , plates piled high, dark thick gravy you know the nice sort . But I would always have one chicken breast ( so not from the chicken , just a breast fillet ) , a few new potatoes , one small roaster and some mixed veg- you know the small peas , sweetcorn and carrot mix you get - and very occasionally a Yorkshire pudding , with a drizzle of very watery chicken gravy , It was tiny , I was always starving after and had to force the food down as it was tasteless , it was like a microwave meal . The portion was tiny! I never saw what his mom had but his brothers girlfriends came over a few times too and they had the same as me . Very odd

Don't believe as in "you're lying"? Because I've seen most of these shitty skinflints IRL.

Where are they?

I went to a pot luck style christening.

In the church hall next door. Everyone made a homemade cake or pastry or plate of sandwiches.

We all made paper chains and bunting at the young mums house the night before ...drinking wine and eating crisps. Her mum provided some nibbles and wine and we all brought a bottle.

They had next to no money. But their parents hired the hall and paid for the tea and coffee and some balloons. They bought the little ones gown and shawl too.

We were all happy to bring something. There was only about 40 of us.

It was a lovely day. I think because it was clear what was happening and unless we had all chipped in they would have probably just had the godparents etc and would never had asked. It came about from everyone wanting to do it and some of the homemade cakes were honestly so good.

We're you expecting to be provided with lunch?

Lol, I would have eaten nothing and left them with paying for food that hadn't been eaten. 😂

Sounds great.

The main issue with pot lucks is that you often end up with way too much food. If there are 10 people going, people tend to make enough for 10 so you end up with enough food for 100!

No, just a bit of squirty cream. Fuck sake.

My Mil invited us for Christmas. Knew that me and BIL are vegetarians. We offered to bring our own food over and over and she wouldn’t hear of it. Xmas day, she has made pork stuffing, cooked the potatoes in goose fat, Brussels with bacon, only beef gravy etc.

BIL and I ended up with a slice of dry nut roast and some carrots. It was so perverse.

For pudding she had used suet and/or lard in the homemade Christmas pudding and mince pies. She seemed quite proud of this. She gave us a satsuma each as an alternative.

We were a long way from our homes and staying for 2 days. Things did not improve. Now when we visit I take food for me and BIL.