Cheapest thing a person has ever done

[Unorganisedchaos2]

Inspired by the children's birthday party thread, Im sure this has been done so many times but humor me as Im stuck at home with a poorly DD...

Our family once knew a couple who were convinced that the baby they were due to have shouldn't cost them any more than the family allowance and a grant I believe you used to get in the early 2000's. Some of the things they did:

• Commented that it had worked out well that the baby was born 2 months prem as they had been able to claim family allowance but he hadn't cost them anything yet as the hospital were providing nappies, milk etc.
• Refused to visit the baby until the hospital had issued a free parking pass then only visited 3 times a week because they were tired and as it was a 30 minute it was already costing a lot in petrol.
• Did a separate food shop for him of all supermarket own brand food and £1 meals, she actually had "his money" in one of those money bags the bank used and made the checkout person run it through as two separate shops.
• Spent hours in charity shops buying up the next few years with of clothes for him, at his second birthday they were asking us to buy clothes for 7-8 year old.
• Asked my mum to register as a childminder so they could claim childcare but expected my mum to do it for free (not honestly sure how that was ever going to work out)
• Not child related but he refused to drive above 50 MPH because he believed it was uneconomical, even if he was late for work or holding up a queue of traffic.

We went away with friends for NYE about 15 years ago. We rented a big house for 2 nights. Friend that organised it asked everyone to chip in for groceries to cover breakfasts and snacks and soft drinks (£10 each I think and about 8 couples). I asked for some veggie sausages for my breakfasts as I was the only vegetarian. I was told "no they're too expensive". This would have been because he could buy a pack of 10 cheap meat sausages probably for about £1 and mine only had 6 in a pack. So I said fine I'll bring my own but I'm not putting in for the kitty and I took all my own stuff. Same friend at lunch that weekend wanted the bill split evenly (which I don't have a problem with) but they had ALL had steaks and 3 courses and we had eaten what we could afford (and my veggie meal was substantially cheaper) as I'd been made redundant and I was on a low paying admin wage. Another couple were told they could just pay what they owed due to recently having a baby. My BF (now husband) was mortified that I called said friend out on it all.

I remember I was at a Grand Prix once and used a toilet in a local cafe before I went up to the track. Last minute I knocked a huge toilet roll from the loos, good thing I did because there was none at the track and people selling it for €2.50 a sheet!

This isn’t universal though.

Not commenting on the neglect mentioned but not everyone has the experience you describe, it shouldn’t really be incredible to think that hormones affect everyone differently. In fact if you have a c section what you describe is unlikely to happen at all.

I was recounting my own experience and going off of that, and what I have observed of women around me. The OP's first post isn't about a mother experiencing pnd is it? I mean she might have been, but Both parents seem negligent. I was commenting on that post, a very specific set of circumstances. Who are you to judge what I find incredible?

Years ago I did the Hearst ranch tour in California and the guide talked about the dinners where the rich and powerful were invited (they stayed in bungalows in the grounds). Apparently it was paper napkins and Heinz ketchup on the table, this being the home of one of the richest men in the world. The actor David Niven said 'the liquor flowed like glue' so not only cheapskates at our end of things.

Because you said they were being obtuse, maybe? 🤔

Years ago when my DD was at primary school she had a friend who came to our house for tea once a week. The family had moved right across town and the girls went to Brownies in the school at 5PM, her mum said it would take ages to get her home and back in time so I offered to have her each week. The play dates were seldom reciprocated. Anyhow one day during the summer hols they offered to take my DD to a fairly local theme park with them. I initially assumed this was there treat, but they asked for £15 for the entry fee. Fair enough , I think and hand over the cash. DD had a great time so all was good. Only the next day I bumped into another classmate's mother who said that her DD had gone to the same theme park with the same family the day before mine had gone. She told me that the the entry fee at the park allows free returns for the next 7 days. The 2nd mum said that as she couldn't return that week she offered the wristband to the the 1st mum, so that if they were revisting they could take a friend. WTAF!!

I have also remembered my very stingy boss from a Civil Service job 40+ years ago.

I was 21, straight out of Uni and was really nervous about meeting the boss. There was a fantastic aroma of fresh coffee in the corridor and one of the staff tells me that the boss has a coffee percolator in his room. After leaving me to cool my heels for half and hour (because he is big and important) he invites me in.
"Would you like a coffee?" he asks.
"Yes please," I reply.
He rummages in his bottom desk drawer and produces a chipped cup and a tiny jar of Tesco cheapest basic instant coffee (the old powder - not even granules).
"Here you go," he says. "There is a tea point two floors down" (like a giant hot water urn).
So as I trudge out with the chipped cup and cheapo instant coffee he is pouring a freshly brewed cup from his personal percolator.

That is hilarious 😂 You're mum is a female Fagin.

Quote failure! My post above was for @Achewyhamster& I can quite see why you were cross with mum training her grandchildren to steal.

Have I understood your post correctly? Are you suggesting that women who have C-sections don't experience immediate love or protectiveness of their babies? That was absolutely not my experience.

Work big boss- about 12 years ago. He had an allowance per staff member for £5 each to get us a bottle of wine each for Xmas. All his direct reports.
The three of us lowest on the totem pile shared an office. Last day he goes round giving everyone else their wine, then is seen putting 3 bottles of wine in his car then presented us 3 with a 99p Freddo selection box thing between us. Colleague with great presence of mind handed it back to him , saying " I think you need this more than we do if you have to steal wine" .

This has been the most jaw dropping thread ever on MN. I think it deserves to be a Classic.

I hit the roof

You've been teaching my dc to steal!
But this stuff is free!
No they are not!
They are!
No,someone has to pay for it
Don't be silly!
It's because of you,prices are going up!
Don't be silly!
Plus your teaching MY dc to steal
It's not stealing tears
It is!
No it's not
Yes it fucking well is,it's theft
No it's not more tears
It is-and if I catch you training them up again,you'll never see them again!
even more tears

It's like she doesn't have a moral compass-a freebie is a freebie (she used to save up the sugar to make their birthday cakes but the sauce packets end up getting binned as they go out of date)

The rest of the family stuck up for her!

haha, I thought initially he'd given you the pictures as a temporary measure and you'd be getting the actual items eventually, he'd just mucked up in not ordering them early enough, but realised no, you never got anything other than the pictures!

I would have been tempted to make it into an annual joke and got him a picture of something he'd really love next year. "Omg sis, you got me Oasis tickets?" "No, I got you a photo of someone else's Oasis tickets, couldn't get the real thing but after all it's the thought that counts!"

My husband still fumes about his uncles funeral which was about 4 or 5 years ago now. Some of his cousins turned up for the wake only and as some money had been put behind the bar, they ordered a bunch of whole bottles (whiskey etc) and hid them poorly beneath their suit jackets as they left early.

My late husband told me that his mother sometimes did B&B to earn a bit extra money. It was, apparently, not uncommon for guests to empty the sugar bowl on their last day - not sachets, by the way: they must have emptied the sugar into a paper bag. (This would have been post-war.)

It's totally nuts isn't it!

I think the only difference between my emotion with a plan section and a vaginal birth is that I didn't have a sense of relief from the pain being over, or feeling of exhaustion, because I hadn't laboured and wasn't in pain!

The rush of love on the other hand, that was phenomenal.

My parents bought a house where the top floor had been divided up into a small two bedroom holiday home. Mum decided to rent it out for a couple of years and sometimes bits and bobs would go missing - nothing too extreme - then a single man rented it for a week (unusual in itself) and when he left he stole all the feather pillows from the beds - about 8 altogether.

Bloody hell!

I've have had to say something like, "it was nice of X to give you her wristband wasn't it, so both our girls got in for free. So, you've still got the £15 I gave you, then?" (hard stare)

I found this post reassuring, because I had a c-section and whilst I fondly thought my baby was very beautiful, I was happy to leave her with my parents or the nurses whilst I had a shower or popped to the hospital shop.

I've posted this before on a similar type of thread. Many years ago before flat screens etc, my mum was given a TV and the sound went but the picture didn't. She was given another TV and the vision ceased to work but the sound didn't. She'd kept the old TV without sound and stacked them up to make a working unit like a TV tower. There was an elaborate process with the remotes to get them to work & sometimes they were out.of sync. I used to sing Bowie's 'Sound and Vision' to her as the remote ritual was initiated. My parents and their eccentricities were legendary & still chuckled about by my kids, family and friends. They had the money for nice things but preferred to make do and improvise. Mum thought I was profligate for wasting money on fripperies like clothes for the family, nice furniture and all mod cons.

We married locally, a taxi home under £20 not an over night stay, my hen was a local night out that I arranged a mini bus for and her partners outfit is nothing to do with me (or her since he was just a boyfriend at the time) But yes she would have had to pay for drinks I concede that point.

Good on her.
If you want to put on a breakfast, you pay for it.