What’s the stingiest thing you’ve ever seen a friend do?

[zappp]

I have an (ex-)friend who is very stingy. She earns plenty and is happy to splurge on herself and show off, but when it comes to others, she is mean with money to the point where I’ve felt really taken advantage of on multiple occasions. It’s almost like it’s a game for her; seeing how little she can pay and how much she can extract from others.

The friendship fizzled out when I started calling her out on it and stopped covering her costs (I previously didn’t want to make things awkward, especially in a group setting, but it got to a point where I was too pissed off to keep being polite).

Against my better judgment, I recently attended a group dinner that she was also part of - a mutual friend was in town and this was the only time we could see her. In the WhatsApp planning group, she’d enthusiastically agreed to the restaurant choice - it was definitely a nicer place, but not extravagant.

When she got there, she claimed she wasn’t hungry and didn’t order any food, only to ask the waiter for an empty plate and help herself - rather generously - from everyone else’s food!!! She also asked for a glass for the wine we’d already ordered, which would’ve been fine, except guess how much she chipped in to the bill…? Exactly, zero.

It was also a bit embarrassing towards the restaurant; it’s hard to get a reservation and the group was small enough that it was strange for one person not to be eating at peak dinner time, especially as we were seated at a big table.

This time I didn’t even bother calling her out - it was so brazen that she basically called herself out.

I know you never truly know someone else’s financial situation, but she’s certainly spending enough on clothes, holidays, and skincare to make me think she could afford a plate of pasta and glass of wine…

Anyway, rant over, I want to hear other stingy stories!

My father (who is a millionare) once loaned me 5p

I forgot all about it until a week later,when he asked for it back

He's the only person I know,that during covid,never wore a mask

Because he never went into a shop-he hates spending a penny

He sulked for months when petrol went up and he couldn't fill his motorbike up for £3 (im going back a few years)

He walks around with string holding his trousers up,boots with holes in them and the sleeve is half hanging off

He would rather freeze to death than put the heating on

He'll leave a fortune when he dies (I won't see a penny) but most will go to the tax man

Buy Halloween items on 1 November because they were reduced in price ready for the grandkids next year. The reduced stuff wasn’t even that expensive at full price.

@Stardancerintheskye oh wow, that is truly extreme. But at least he’s not a hypocrite, I guess, if he’s spending as little on himself as others? 😅

Went for a nice spa day. We got in the car to go home and my friend proudly showed me the packs of toilet rolls she had stolen from the loos.

A family member brought over some cake as a gift when staying for a few days. Then clearly thought better of it and took more than half back home 🤔 After availing themselves of everything in my cupboards. Oddball behaviour.

I have a friend who I've know 30 years, she is incredibly stingy. We sometimes go for a meal together and she is lovely, entertaining and fun. She has always had a good job, own house, no kids, drives a great car... but she will always work out if the bill is better to split or whether it's better (for her) if we each pay for our own.

Since I don't see her often I don't mind, I treat it like a quirk. A couple of weeks ago we went to dinner and true to form she suggested that we split the bill 50:50. But we chatted a bit longer after the meal and I just to see what would happen I ordered a final coffee as I knew this would change the billing arrangement. Then of course it was better to pay for our own. Seeing her face when she realised this was very funny - all over a couple of £. Anyway, she said she'd made a mistake on her account and could we change to each paying for our own just to help her "this time".

I previously didn’t want to make things awkward, especially in a group setting

This is exactly what these people rely on - well done for not standing for it.

I had a friend who had a good job and was married to an obviously well to do man. We went out to an exhibition and stopped off in the restaurant to buy sandwiches and a drink. She dropped her sandwich on the cafe floor and I commiserated with her. No problem, she picked it up from the floor of the middle of the cafe and ate it rather than buy another one!!! 😫

@Hamela I hate that. I always thought it was a bit strange when people brought booze to a party only to take it back home with them if it wasn’t finished - maybe fine for students but found it a bit odd when someone did it to me a few years ago, especially as they’d had plenty of the wine I’d provided…

The fact it was cake in your case is just weird!

@FlapperFlamingo they sound like two peas in a pod! I’d love to see your friend and my friend get dinner together and find out how they split the bill 😂

@AWeeCupOfTeaAndAnIndividualFruitTrifle yes! I spent way too long falling for it, but once I saw what she was doing, and how, I couldn’t unsee it. It’s a shame as she is a fun, interesting, and intelligent person to be around, but it was happening so often and to such an extent that it poisoned the well.

After our A-levels a group of us from 6th form arranged to go to the Hacienda (big Mcr nightclub back in the day). One girl who had left at 16 to go to a different college asked to come along so we said yes. I was a bit surprised as she had a rep for being tight, and it was an expensive night but hey ho.

In the pub we were drinking in before we went to the club, she gradually worked her way around each of us in turn, explaining that a "friend" had given her flyers for another club, it was cheaper to get in and we should try that first, and then go to the Hacienda if the first club was rubbish (it was Brahms and Liszt ffs!). She managed to get her own way, we went to B&L, the music was too commercial, the drinks were watered down, and it kicked off from the moment we got in - three fights and a stabbing by midnight - and by the time we got to the Hac it was full and we ended up going home. Turns out her friend had given her the flyers and promised her free entry if she went and took five mates. Then she got out of the shared taxi without handing over her share of the fare. 35 years later we're still mates, but I'm like a hawk when we're arranging stuff.

I had a friend (who is almost certainly a millionaire) gave me a tv. Which they had also got for free. They proceeded to show me the remote was a bit 'sticky' by putting in batteries - fine no issue. They then proceeded to take the batteries out of the remote and handed it back to me. My gob was smacked. This and other behaviour is why they are a millionaire 🙄

That’s not only stingy, she’s a low life thief.

My ex partner is totally stingy to the point it's worrying.
When we lived together the teabags/sugar/toilet rolls would all be stolen from work (he earned 6 figures), we split all household costs (except mortgage as it was in his name) 50/50 despite him earning 3x what I earned. Even if we went on holiday, he would take what he spent out of the joint account as soon as we were home, there wouldn't be enough in there until payday for me to do the same, so I'd have to wait the following month(s) depending what bills we had, often incuring bank charges/interest for the privilege. His house was a doer-upper. He went to the expense of getting architectural drawings and planning consent, 6 years after I left it still sits decaying around him (literal broken windows and damp) It's so short sighted, it will be worth nothing in it's current state.
He also forgot to pack pants on holiday once, instead of buying some while we were there he rinsed the pair he wore on the plane in the bathroom sink every night and dried them on the radiator. He also washes his hair with shower gel and takes all the toiletries he can from hotels, he never uses them, they sit in a drawer in the falling apart kitchen.
He would tell me off for being extravagant with food if the (small undercounter) fridge was full after the food shop (there were two adults and 1 child in the house). Now he will bulk buy tinned fruit and custard, they sit on the kitchen work top not in the cupboard, and buy up all the reduced items in the supermarket (not leaving them for people that need them) He would not let me use the tumble drier, so I would have to walk the towels and bedsheets to the laundrette in winter as it would take weeks to dry in the 200 year old damp, falling down house.

I could go on.

I think a lot of them must still be sulking that the old "Oops, I forgot my purse/wallet" grift doesn't work anymore, now that the vast majority of people pay electronically, and have easy access to their bank accounts on their phones.

It must have been extremely entertaining when two 'purse forgetters' unwittingly ended up dining together!! I wonder if these people just think they'll try it on and hope for the best, or whether they actively dine out knowing 100% that they most definitely cannot/will not end up paying, come what may?!

Just awful. What's the point of living llike that, and letting it go to the tax man.

I was seeing a chap, mature, nice personality I thought. He was a regional sales manager, well turned out, nice car etc. and lived alone in a very upmarket part of Greater Manchester in a beautiful large 4 bed house and generally seemed very affluent.

He took me back to his for the first time for a night in. There was practically no furniture in the house, for instance only a TV and a sofa in living room. No dining room furniture or table in the (big) kitchen. The bathroom cupboard was full of those mini bars of soap from low end hotels like Premier inn. And the heating was off. I was really cold.

We'd agreed on Chinese takeaway which he insisted on paying for. One main and rice between two, no prawn crackers and a bottle of beer each. In those days I didn't drink much but all the same. Coffee was supermarket powder, just nasty. What really left me gobsmacked was him putting the lids back on what was left in the takeaway boxes and into the (empty) fridge. I paid for my own taxi home.

Talk about all fur coat and no knickers.

I have to ask @zappp did everyone just happily give your friend things from their plates? Did no-one mention she’d decided not to order a meal but eat other food and drink the wine they’d bought?

Went away as a group of 6 recently, one of the six arranged a Tesco shop to be delivered to our Airbnb (although nobody else was consulted about what should be ordered!) and sent a message to the group chat asking for £9.78 exactly, followed by another message a few minutes later that she had miscalculated and it would be an extra 13p each

She has a good job (£50k+) and her husband earns at least double what she does, so she’s not short of a few quid!

I've got one of these. Tedious.

She also tries to nick my points if we shop together, even if I'm making the purchase aand have a loyalty scheme in that particular shop!

I cba anymore!!

He must be my ex's long lost twin! I remember when we first started dating he would order a take away, eat his really quickly and then stare at me eating until I said "I'm full do you want the rest" just to stop feeling awkward!

It was so strange, his first gift to me was a city break to Budapest. As soon as I moved in, the wallet completely closed.

Not a friend but an ex-colleague from when I worked abroad. He lived along the corridor from me in an apartment block and would wait til he heard me ping for the lift, magically appear at his door and then share a taxi with me and another colleague into work. Nothing wrong with that except he NEVER paid for the taxi, there was always an excuse (no money til we get paid, I’ve only got a large denomination note etc etc). The lift was obviously the trigger so I started taking the stairs down a floor and getting the lift from there. He was most put out to miss his free taxi 🤣🤣🤣🤣

My Ex boyfriend once spent an hour snd a half online trying to claim back a £3.50 rebate from a power company. Eventually I offered to give him the money myself because I was bored and I wanted to go out. He actually said yes! And took it!
he was tight AF. Despite earning about 80 grand a year, no kids, no mortgage, he refused to go out for more than a pint here and there on the grounds it was ‘too expensive’
He became an ex for a reason.

Not friends but I could bore you all rigid with stories of DH's parents and sisters.

Let's just say, the three children remember being hungry as children and on holiday having to share a cornet between three.

When FIL died, there was over a million in the bank!

We were out at a restaurant for a friend’s birthday. All paid our fair share, all chipped in cash for a reasonable tip. Girlfriend of a friend of birthday friend stuck her hand in to take money from the tip just as the last of the group were leaving saying it would pay for her taxi home.