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.

Grim 😧

A more eclectic one but MIL and FIL again. Whenever they came to stay, they opened a new bottle of milk for breakfast - so FIL could have the cream at the top. I found it selfish and greedy. I always shook the bottle so everyone got the same, not least the children.

MIL always had/has a dig about only children being spoilt and unable to share. I am an only child. In reality I think she, from a large family, found sharing and socialising hard. And her daughters must be up there with champion free-loaders.

Ultimately I think she was as mean spirited as she was mean with money/material things. Her classic after three mc's and losing ds2 at 27 weeks was "it's such a shame you can't perform".

That's incredibly disgusting. Fuck me.

He was wealthy, hosted many dinner parties, had worked in professional kitchens before and didn’t seem like someone who’d have poor food hygiene standards so I was shocked when I saw it. I’m far more cautious on who’s cooking I’m willing to eat now.

Don't blame you!

I was already annoyed, but the last paragraph? Jesus Christ. I am so sorry you had to experience that.

Ultimately I think she was as mean spirited as she was mean with money/material things. Her classic after three mc's and losing ds2 at 27 weeks was "it's such a shame you can't perform".

No words ... I'm so sorry. That's like something out of the Handmaid's Tale.

Re the bridesmaid and the breakfast. I was a bridesmaid and refused to pay £15 for something, I’m quite sure the other bridesmaids and friends of the bride have been given a tall tale about me being tight. In reality the wedding had cost me an absolute shit load of money, well over a grand, and I’d got to the point I needed to put my foot down as the bride was taking the piss. We’d been friends since the age of five and now no longer talk at all. For some people money is their god and their priority over anything and everything.

I can't imagine going up to my colleague in the office and asking her for the 5p she owed me as a one-off. How cringeworthy. Where is this person's self-respect?

He really isn’t a “nice man”. Particularly Disgusting behaviour to make his young dd pay for her own food and drink on holiday. What the hell?!!

Just telling my dh about this thread and the man who dilutes crunchy nut cornflakes with regular corn flakes and he wants me to add to the thread that he buys supermarket own brand bran flakes and adds bulk-bought nuts and raisins instead of just buying fruit and fibre.

He is proud of this and wants it documenting! (He is a very high earner btw) 😂

What about if they have other children?

I used to live with 2 friends (just after university). One of them was very tight, and would do things like water down the milk and orange juice to make them go further. She also calculated everything to the penny, so if she bought milk for £1 she’d insist that we each gave her 33p (fine) but she’d make a note that she’d paid the extra penny this time, so the next 2 times one of us would have to give her 34p instead.

The other girl and I wanted to have a kitty where we just put in a fiver every now and then and used that for communal stuff, but she insisted that “people would take money out for other things” and refused to do it.

Now see I think that's economical but not cheap. I've found those fruit n fibre type of cereals can be very stingey on the raisins, coconut etc so fair play to DH cobbling his own together.

What a life! To be ruled by money to this extent must mean that his quality of life is very low!

Another minor one - my SIL went to her DCs’ school fair and avoided the entrance fee by arriving at the door and pretending the child needed the toilet (so rushed in without paying and then never went back to pay). She was so proud of saving herself the £1 entrance fee (which was going to school funds). She frequently gets into things free simply by walking through the turnstiles with confidence and not looking at the person on the cash desk. I think she just does it for the satisfaction of “getting one over on someone else”.

For our office Christmas lunchtime buffet, everyone used to bring food in to contribute. Some used to bake something, others would bring in bought goodies. One guy had attended a funeral the day before, and filled a Tupperware box with sandwiches, sausage rolls etc. from the funeral wake, then contributed them to the office buffet the next day!🙄

I don’t see a problem with that.

"One guy had attended a funeral the day before, and filled a Tupperware box with sandwiches, sausage rolls etc. from the funeral wake, then contributed them to the office buffet the next day!"

Well, if they would go to waste anyway, I don't see the problem.
Obviously, if he took them before the other people at the wake had a chance to eat, that's different.

About 20 years ago, when my DD was aged about 20,she and I went to a Christmas bring and buy sale with my DM. My DD won a basket of toiletries on the tombola. She gave this to my DM as they were not the sort of things that she used. 7 months later guess what DD got for her birthday from my DM?

🤣 An extended family member did that when my partner's mum died. Came armed with numerous Tupperware containers and proceeded to fill them up as the wake was winding down, not asking if anyone else wanted to take stuff. Now, I'm all for zero waste and all that but this showed preplanning & entitlement. Taking snaffled wake buffet to the works do is beyond the pale. Hilarious really.

@RosesAndHellebores - we had FIL’s funeral on Wednesday, and there was food left over at the wake - but we had organised for it all to be boxed up and taken to a homeless charity that my FIL had supported. I would have been upset if I knew someone had helped themself to,a load of it because they were too tight to buy food to contribute to a work pot luck party.

I had my DD in 1983 and 10 days hospital stay was the norm then for your first baby! People don't believe me nowadays when I tell them this!

My brother’s girlfriend owned her own beauty salon. She gave my sister a voucher from her salon for a massage for Xmas. My sister came to use it months on and she said ‘oh sorry babe this has expired now’.

Put like that, I entirely agree with you.

Condolences.