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!

Stinginess is such an unattractive quality. I had a friend who bought a single can of beer to my party, drank quite a bit of what myself & others had bought then proceeded to take the can home!!
Another friend burnt a CD for me & charged me for it - probably cost him a couple of quid at most. His wife gave me a jumper for my birthday one year which was obviously pre loved & had a hole in it.
One of my oldest friends gave DH & I a wedding gift which we found out later was £3 in a sale. She must earn close to 3 figures. It wasn’t even something we would use!

Family member bought a packet of biscuits for her dying step father, waited with her hand out for the 34p she’d just spent. He gave her 30p and she asked for the additional 4p… she’s a millionaire

That is the post in this thread that really stuck out to me - and they are children!!!

Always went deaf and stood at the back when we were paying to get in a club , let someone pay for them said they'd pay them in a min but went straight to the dance floor. Never bought a round when it was her turn but always accepted drinks. Found out I had a sunbed so came round twice a week (to use it. )for a cuppa.If going to a party where everyone took drinks and food turned up with one can of cider. Never wanted anything when we ordered a takeaway (group of us) but always had a tiny bit (loads)of everyone else's.Haggled with the lady in a charity shop to get 50p off an umbrella. Before mobiles were cheap always rang the landlines from her mobile asked us to phone her back then talked for ages if we were paying. Always looked for cheap food in shops but she paid out for her hair done at the best hairdresser and always had the best clothes.

Just to flip the thread entirely I was at a conference today and the woman next to me was clearly unwell. She said she had a terrible headache so I offered her a strip of paracetamol tablets. She took one,then asked if it was ok if she had two...then offered to pay me for them! I declined,obviously,but was touched.

Did you stop getting her one after that? I'd be fuming!

Stingy couple I know...in a hotel in Spain that had a nice rooftop restaurant. Too tight to pay to eat in it so they went to nearest convenience store and bought cheap wine and snacks, which they then took to the nice restaurant and proceeded to eat, at a table, like it was the most normal thing in the world.
I was speechless and really disappointed that they hadn't been asked to leave! I would have taken great pleasure in chucking the CF cheapskates out

I also need to know if you stopped buying her one! What a CF!

My non drinking DB had the same as this with his now X-SIL. DB is very wealthy but just found the meaness so funny. Her drink was a spirit plus coke and - in a round you were basically buying her 2 drinks. More expensive than a G&T.

Anyway one time, he deliberately delayed so that her DH was forced to buy the first round. 'You know what' she said ' I think I'll start with a sparkling water'. DB saw straight through her ploy, but he found it hilarious. He couldn't stop laughing as he told me the story,

So would I! I'm glad you got your chance to moan @BloodyBoilingInHere and I hope she sees this.

Another one…

My friends boyfriends family used to have a massive party every summer and every Christmas.

My friend is over generous and a great host so would take loads of food, drinks, decorations etc as a contribution to the party. None of which she thought was expected.

Fast forward about 3 years so 6 parties where she probably spent over £1000…. She had cancer and they were financially struggling as they were also hit hard during COVID and my friend was on SSP.

They told boyfriends family they would love to attend the party that was coming up but wouldn’t be bringing anything as they couldn’t afford it and probably wouldn’t stay long this time due to friend being so unwell - THEY WERE UNINVITED.

So would I!! I’m cross on your behalf!!

Ah, yes - that one was truly something else!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5010734-aibu-that-our-friends-are-much-richer-than-theyve-let-on

A friend asking me & friends to an Airbnb for her birthday and then charging everyone for a meal she decided to cook which was weird. Her parents are stinking rich £5 million pound London townhouse

Wow, that's utterly, utterly shameless. It's bad enough when people like this are coy about it - strongly 'suggesting' that splitting would be much simpler for everybody, or even assuming that you will in the absence of dissent; but actually angrily telling you that you are going to split, whether you like it or not... laying bare their premeditated intention to steal from you, without any possible ambiguity!

Am I missing something here? Was she not asking just to make sure that there would be enough for what everybody wanted, but maybe also not wanting to buy more than would be wanted, to avoid waste?

Or was it her way of making sure she got a response from you that she found acceptably low?!

In fact we did this with the couple who brought two bottles of wine and two bottles of champagne! The stingy CF hadn't brought anything bar the Nosecco but drank champagne and prosecco! I didn't want their drink it's just the principle. She has form for being tight

How on earth did you get that from what she wrote? It was very clear in the telling: the 'friend' would either pay for what she'd eaten if it was less than half of the total (completely fair); but would want to grab a sub if her own cost more than half of the total.

The whole idea of splitting is supposed to be to avoid the faff of adding everything up when everybody in the group has had roughly the same - so you might pay an extra couple of quid one time and a couple of quid less another... but this woman was actively going to the trouble of adding it all up specifically so that she could take advantage one way or the other.

Have you ever seen the episode of Father Ted where Ted kicks Bishop Brennan up the arse?! People are just as disbelievingly flabbergasted as the bishop was!

Just the way I read it I guess!

I don’t get the mentality of being tight, what’s wrong with abundance instead ?

But it made perfect sense in Porridge, as the screws were clearly 'the enemy' and so Fletcher hated them, or at least held them in complete disdain. By stark contrast, the majority of posts on this thread involve CFs who seek to rip off/steal from family members or supposed friends!

Totally agree, my parents will spend loads of money on yellow sticker items in the supermarket that they couldn’t possibly eat in time and ends up in the bin, or tat from outlet villages, but they‘re horrified if I buy something that I need at full price. If it doesn’t have a ‘discount’ tag they’re not interested even when it’s clearly not a real discount, it’s obviously the feeling of getting a bargain that they like rather than saving money that they like.

Isn't that just being a canny shopper? Like buying Xmas cards in January for the following Christmas.

My ex sis in law was notorious for being tight , a few things she did : Got banned from Tescos for cutting out coupons from magazines when she thought she couldnt be seen , (she didn’t buy them ) security caught her on camera 😂, always got her elderly mums shopping in Waitrose so she could take advantage of a free coffee as a Waitrose card customer and while she was there also bought her own weekly shop with her mums card (only got found out when another family member went through their mums bank statements ), we all went out for a family meal and when she realised we were all paying for ourselves and not on her ‘ mums card’ as her mum who had dementia always offered to pay, she said she would just have a coffee and sat and watched us all eat (about 25 of us there)