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.

That's not just cheap; it's downright nasty. Why would it even matter to her if your DS ate some of the cereal available in his own home when, presumably, you would have bought (and paid for) more cereal once it was needed anyway?

Sorry, I have to agree with this. The hosts presumably already have a plan for what to serve before, during and after dinner. Maybe my gift will get added in, maybe it won't, that's up to them. Either way, I don't waste that much mental space checking around to see whether they did or not.

If you ask what you can bring and host says for example snacks or dessert, then that's for all guests to consume during the event.
If you decide to bring a gift for the host, a bottle or box of chocolates then that's a gift for host and not for sharing, unless they choose to.

I cant believe I'm writing this but as I've said,my mother is unbelievably cheap

When I was a teenager,she refused to buy me basics like shampoo,clothes,school stuff,food and san-pro

I had to work from being 11/12 to buy basics and that was normal at the time

Anyway I would buy always pads (or boots own) for when I was on my period

She would buy the superdrugs own at 15p a packet-they where awful-it was like wearing a brick in your pants and they would leak (and God help me if id ran out-i had to buy some of my own or just bleed)

One day while she was on holiday she came on and didnt have any pads/no superdrug nearby do she bought some always (while squawking about the £1 they cost rather than the 15p for a bigger packet)

She commented to me how much better they where and didnt leak

I didnt give it any more thought until I met up with ds yesterday at a Christmas fair

He commented on the smell (from when he was younger) when she was 'drying them on the radiator'

'Drying what on the radiators?'

It turns out that she accidentally washed one years ago (she'd left it in her pants somehow and it had made its way into the machine-i mean i cant talk,ive done the same with a nappy once when he was tiny and i was on my knees with pnd and knackered)

It has come out spotless so she'd dried it and reused it! (the sticky bit had gone but she wears massive knickers and pinned them into place so it didnt really matter)

Apparently they where 'not as good but still did the job'

Dp and i couldn't stop gagging at the thought

I hadn't seen them as I'd never really gone round-shed pick the kids up and drop them back home

Apparently my brothers where amazed this wasn't a thing when they met girls!

I knew she was cheap but this was taking the piss!

Edited to add I've been nc with her for years

When my swimming club has their Christmas party, the members get an invitation about four to six weeks in advance. On the invitation they ask how many people are coming and if people would be willing to donate a cake or something for the raffle.
The raffle donations are usually collected at the swimming sessions and then kept in someones home until the day of the party. One year, for some reason, the person who collected the raffle prizes didn't unwrap one of the donations until the day while setting up - it turned out to be a half finished knitted scarf with the knitting needles still in.

Maybe I'm old fashioned about people asking before helping themselves but no one who knows me would say I'm tight.

Are you sure it's not squirrelled away because it is inappropriate to serve to guests? Unless it is a pot luck, I never serve what people have brought because the meal has already been carefully and thoughtfully prepared and everything is organised to go together. I'm not serving some random wine or biscuits that someone brought unless it absolutely goes with the meal which quite often it does not. Sometimes people bring stuff which I wouldn't dream of serving at a dinner party - like random grocery store snacks or antipasti. I think it's really rude to demand to eat what you have brought. If you attend a party, you eat what the host serves otherwise host your own party.

But you know what, you're right it isn't the biggest deal - maybe I was overeacting. I'm definitely not tight though.

Absolutely this! Some people clearly haven't grasped even the very basics of hosting!

I'd imagine it is!

I'd still think a donation can be anything you want really, unless you make it clear it's instead of flowers.

Yes, I probably wouldn't have really asked for the money back if I was the bridesmaid, but I don't agree with the principle that you tell someone to buy an exact shopping list that you've decided on and then expect them to pay for it, so the bride is more at fault.

Lol !

Ex used to scrap the food off of plates and put it back in the fridge. I didn’t realise this until he hosted a family gathering and then I saw him doing it afterwards. Around 20 peoples leftovers mixed together to be served again…

My ex best friend of over 20 years I dumped her 10 years ago but one of her tightest things

she phoned me and begged me to help her as she had finished with her boyfriend and was supposed to be going on holiday with him
I paid for the name transfer on the flights and paid for what I was told was half of the holiday £500 (20 years ago) and went on holiday.
double bed so I slept on the pull out bed

later found out he had paid for the holiday entirely
dumped her but agreed to pay for the transfer of names to my name to soften the ending.

My £200 for the name transfer and £500 for the half of the holiday was actually used by her for all her spending money. I paid for most of the food and drinks out (5 star all inclusive)

when I dumped her years later I honestly could have laughed at my stupidity she was always forgetting her purse or whatever. Always don’t be so tight etc

I feel sick reading this!

When my dd was born I had been in hospital over a month. My husband had used up everything he could to be around to care for our three year old and 18 month old.
I didn't drive and there wasn’t public transport so visits were in the evenings whenever we could get a babysitter, which we couldn’t always (and was costing us a fortune). So not only were we struggling, but probably being judged too.

Everyone was kept in hospital for 7-10 days back in the 60s & 70s - it was just the thing then. Strict visiting hours too so the Mums could rest - it was an hour in the afternoon for anyone and an hour in the evening just for Dads.

In the 1970s (and earlier) I believe that married men could claim tax relief for each dependant. When I left school at 16 and started working (& paying my mam for my keep), my tight-arsed git of a father worked out how much extra tax he had to pay & took it out of my wages. Gospel truth.

When my MIL saved up for and bought a piano, her dad (who was adamantly opposed to her being a musician, and had made her get an office job) charged her rent to have the piano in the house. He’d have got on well with your dad, @DebbiefromDurham.

There's a difference between a formal dinner party and other types of gatherings people have. The last thing I went to was drinks and nibbles. I opened and drank (and SHARED obviously) my own Prosecco because that's what I wanted to drink.

Yes what I came to realise before she moved on was that she was nasty.

She used the cereal situation as an example as to why I didn’t supervise my children properly. I had left my then 8 year old to help himself to cereal while I got dressed or whatever and this was shocking parenting apparently.

It was a total mystery to her why she was alone most Christmases (despite not having a shortage of local family members), had never managed to hold down a job for any length of time (despite being a qualified teacher), and most of her friendships didn’t last either.

It was always someone else’s fault…

In an office I used to work in, the main phone line rang, but I couldn’t transfer it to my phone like normal so rang to her desk to answer the phone, I saw under her monitor on a post it that she had noted that I owed her 5p, as I went to the shop the day before and she gave me cash for an item but was 5p cheaper than thought. I paid by card for everything and didn’t have the 5p in change, but she had crossed it out as I had paid her that day.

I did owe her 5p but couldn’t believe that she had noted it down as she earned more than double what I did and I know her mortgage was just over half my rent (it came up in conversation), and she couldn’t just keep a mental note over 5p that had she forgotten, probably wouldn’t have been the end of the world. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’d have given her 10p and told her to keep the change because she was obviously a bit hard up.

On a family holiday, can't remember where, there was a famous scenic train journey. We went to get tickets. My mam lost her shit at the cost and made us go on the bus................ WTF was the point in that?