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!

Not cooking one of the pizzas I brought so they could have it for tea the next day was pretty mean imo.

A former friend who, when her MIL came to babysit, removed the fuse from the electric fire so that it didn't work and the woman had to sit all evening in the cold. She told me this quite smugly.

My friend and her DH came to stay all weekend. We provided all the food, like cooked breakfasts, slap up home cooked meals, and all the wine and beer. I was miffed they'd turned up empty handed. Anyway, on the Sunday as they were leaving, she said "OMG, I left our booze in the boot!".....she trotted over to the car and presented me with ONE miniature bottle of Budweiser!!

Not the first stingy thing she's done, but that one was so brazen.

No so much stingy but annoying..
DH has a friend that would track us down if we were brunching. Invite himself to our table and start picking food from our plates every single time.
Like thanks for crashing our date but at least buy your own!

Came to a festival with us once, didn't buy his own food but helped themselves to mine.

Also we had a 2nd party as part of our wedding celebrations for those who couldn't make it. Uncle knobhead and wife came along poured two huge glasses of wine, stayed 15mins grabbed some food on the way out and left. Didn't even get us a 49p card from card factory.

Oh, and another who squirrelled away the nice wine we'd brought and produced a 2l bottle of cheap shandy for us all to share, saying "This is great stuff"

My friends husband has always been tighter than a camels arse in a sandstorm.
Whenever I'd visit i would always treat them to dinner or my friend would insist she'd pay etc We basically shared it each time.
After about 10yrs of this (and knowing that she and her husband had separate finances and he never paid for ANYTHING and was happy for her to get into thousands of pounds worth of CC debt bailinghim out when he quit his job) I called him out and said that he should get the bill this time round since his wife and I bank roll him so much! Well, talk about throw your toys out of the pram! He changed his order from a 3 course to one of the cheapest mains only and refused the coffee (that he would always have) at the end.
He wouldn't stop huffing and tutting at our orders and commenting on the cost that there were cheaper dishes available. Face like thunder when I enjoyed every last mouthful of my 3 course meal and wine!

Was at a acquaintances house years ago. We both had toddlers at the time. She made me a coffee, asked if I wanted milk and then poured the remains of her toddler's bottle into my coffee but gave herself fresh milk from the fridge. I know some people probably wouldn't mind this, but I really didn't fancy it and it's not something I would do.

ex-SIL producing a big fancy shop-bought cake for all the kids to sing happy birthday at my niece's party, then sneakily sliding it back into the box ready to take back to Tesco for a refund. I saw her. She saw me see her. She tried to laugh it off and say "well why wouldn't you? nobody will notice".

Several years ago, I did advise a friend about money / inheritance / tax, , I am an ex hmrc employee,....i spent about 3 hours doing some research, later we popped into a cafe and she asked about how we are going to pay for it, i said i had cash and was ordering xyz...No offer to pay the measly £8.50 order of mine...she later put the money elsewhere, ignored my advice and now moans its dropped in value !!

Does your ex friend ever try to make dates to meet up? If so, what is your excuse?

My boyfriend’s best mate had been super interested in my best friend and wanted to go out with her . Eventually after much persuasion she agreed , as long as the four of us went out together. I knew there was never going to be a second date when we decided to go to the pictures and he said to her that if she bent her knees , they could both get away with a child price. Obviously there was no second date.

There was an amazing thread a while back about a more senior male colleague who would regularly invite himself to team meals out, order extravagantly and then expect the junior colleagues to split the bill. The OP had clocked his behaviour, waited until the next occasion and then asserted that everyone would pay for their own meals. I seem to remember him hitting the roof and trying to make trouble for the OP at work, which I think massively backfired. Does anyone have the link to the thread? It was one of the best things I’ve ever read.

@Lifelover16reminds me of when my parents went away at the start of Covid (before we knew it was a pandemic!), and saw the news of panic buying and toilet roll shortages. They came home with a brand new suitcase, piled full of toilet roll!

That happened recently with a family member. My DH paid £50 a head in a local restaurant for 10 of us to celebrate a big birthday. We all went back to our house for champers etc and before she went home the offender ran into the kitchen to grab the £4 bottle of Nosecco she had brought along but hadn't drank. My gast was flabbered.

Dh’s old aunt had plenty of money, but was so tight I used to call her Queen. Midas.
I was once with her in her local wool shop, where she wanted to buy some Jaeger mohair (relatively expensive.).

The bill came to something like £12.11p (many years ago!) and she spent ages trying to bully the assistant into knocking off the 11p. The poor woman kept saying, ‘It’s not my shop - I can’t make reductions!’ but Queen Midas kept on for ages. So embarrassing!

Then she used to get her long suffering cleaning lady to do her shopping (no extra pay) and then moan like mad because she’d bought the butter at shop A instead of going specially to shop B, where it was 0.5p cheaper.

At her funeral, dh (speaking) said that if she’d known what her funeral was costing, there would have been a massive screech of ‘HOW MUCH???’

Everyone burst out laughing- they had all known her too well!

My MIL is very well off but mean with money. We took DS1 to the fabulous sensory room at a local community centre, it's free to allow struggling families to use it but if you can afford it they ask for a £2 donation. She had parked her brand new car outside and declared that we won't be paying anything. I went to the loo and snuck back to reception and paid. I used to be scared of her and was newly postpartum.

She tried it again at our gym which has a little tea and coffee station with an honesty box, she said to the lady next to her 'it's only a spoon full of coffee, no one will know', the lady looked at her and said 'No, if everyone did that, we will lose it' and stood there to make sure MIL paid up!

Another time we took her out for tea at a restaurant we went to regularly pre DCs. The staff there were lovely and knew us as regulars. They were really attentive and the meal was wonderful, they even gave us a round of complimentary digestifs. As we were walking back home MIL handed DH the tip he had put on the table telling him not to waste money. We took it back.

For other reasons we are NC so I don't have to deal with her shit anymore!

Years ago we were invited to a 40th birthday, maybe about 50 people there. It was in an Indian restaurant so curry karaoke type thing in a private dining room. Not an Indian buffet in the sense you had loads of choice but more like a party buffet, few pizza, chips, pakora buffet that would be priced per head (like £10pp, typical party buffet prices). At the end of the night, the person that organised the party went around collecting everyone's share of the cost and had included the cake cost etc 😂

On my 18th birthday, my dad re-wrapped the £20 harmonica he'd gotten me for Christmas 5 months earlier. He said since it was a big gift it should count for both events.

He bought himself a new car and went to Tuscany with his friends the same year.

(I was 18 in 2011 so it's not like it was the distant past and £20 was a huge amount, FTR.)

Apart from not checking what people wanted, I am not sure what the lady did wrong here. It was presumably group provisions so why should she pay the full amount?

My elderly relative went on a Caribbean cruise with her husband and insisted my dad join them to help them out (her husband was losing his sight so needed quite a bit of help at the time!). At the end of the cruise she refused to pay any tips. When my dad snuck some in to the cabin before disembarking, she went back in and removed the cash he had put there.

I don't agree with the American tipping culture. It would never occur to me to refuse to tip though! Specially when they make it so clear just how much they expect you to tip even before you get on the ship.

She then repeated the exact same thing a few years later on another cruise 🙃

Friend.

Arrives early for the pub and buys herself a half
Me.

Arrived on time and offers a round. She orders a pint

Next round when I’m less than half way through my pint she offers a round. I’ve still got louds left so no for me, she buys herself a half

Next round is mine. I’ve now finished my pint. She’s finished her half and surprise surprise she orders a pint again

and so the evening goes on

Family event
my brothers wife’s family
Meal out
Everyone arrives and sits at the table in a pub.No one gets up to order even a drink ( it’s bar service).
Me. I arrive. Everyone’s drink less and twiddling their thumbs. Stingy lot don’t want to buy a round
Fed up with being taken advantage of I Order everyones drink and put it on a table tab 🤣🤣🤣
Im not a complete sucker all the time

Oh and I was invited to a 40th birthday party last year. It was at a restaurant. The birthday girl tried getting us all to transfer £80 each to her account a month before the event to cover the cost of our meals, and then she would just pay the restaurant on the night.

The restaurant charges £50/person.

Meal with db, their kids and dsil. Plus me dh and all our kids

They said Theyd cook for us but couldn’t be bothered. Ended up in a Toby carvery type place ( not great since we don’t eat meat)

Had the meal
They sent all the kids out to play on the swings and ordered themselves dessert !!
Nothing for the kids !!!

that’s just nasty

We have a largish group of friends and get together regularly over the year at each others houses, bbq’s etc that sort of thing. We all take our turn hosting except this one couple and now we have all realised that its been like 5 years since they hosted. They are also known for taking home drink but we havent always been sure what theyve brought or what exactly they took home.
That is until at our house recently, they came with 6 cans, drank wine and some spirits and still managed to take a btl of wine home!
Other friends who are closer to them have since told the rest of us its the same when its just the 4 of them. So anyway, us along with some of the others will not be having them back as like other pp they are banking on us all being nice and say nothing but its went on too long.
They are in no way short of money, certainly more than DH and I, but how embarrassing!

Someone once wrapped up a dish sponge for me as a birthday present. Frankly I would have preferred no gift! We're not friends any more surprisingly....