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!

I would consider this savvy not stingy. I buy all the children’s Christmas jumpers in the next sale for the following year. I am a single mom times are hard. I’m certainly not stingy in any way shape or form though.

I had a spa day booked for two but the person who I booked it with couldn’t come for very genuine reasons. It was booked and paid (£120) for so I asked a friend if she would like to take the place and she said yeah it’s free it’s a no brainer . Anyway we went had a nice time and then she asked me how much the car park was and I said £6 and she said she would halve me the car park fee !!!
I declined and she said ooh thanks, we’ll have to do this more often !!!
needless to say we haven’t done it again

Went on a hen do. I only knew the bride but most of the rest were great apart from this mother & daughter combo. Daughter was the MoH. She arranged a hen do completely against what my friend would like but they had been friends since primary and my friend clearly had rose-tinted glasses/a massive blind spot for this woman and her shitarse mother.

We went to a restaurant with cuisine the bride had never been a fan of (I'd only known her 4 years years and knew this!). I wasn't a fan either but you do as you're told on a hen and I ordered a starter to have as a main and a glass of wine.

This diabolical pair ordered starters and mains each including some performance piece where the chef brough hanging meats to the table. They then decided they didn't like them and demanded they be replaced (I'm not sure if the original mains were added to the bill but assume so as they had thoroughly tested them before deciding they didn't like them). But they were very vocal about how they weren't drinking (alcohol) because they wanted to savour every minute. Lots of cokes and fruit juice, though.

Bill comes, she pronounces we're splitting the bill equally and covering the bride. Obvs this was massively unfair to me - I'd spent around £12 but I think the split was around £30 each. I did not care - completely accepted and expected it, it's a hen, it's obligatory to pay through the nose because they have found a husband 😂So I put down my money in cash and a bunch of pound coins for a tip.

Then shitarse mother stands up and loudly declares (pointing like they do in Invasion of the Bodysnatchers) "SHE HAS HAD WINE and I will not pay for alcohol". She finds the menu and says I need to add another £4.95 for the wine. Very embarrassing and absolutely infuriating. Those dickheads had had 2 x starters, 2 x mains, 150(ish!) x soft drinks each while I had had one bastard starter and a wine. But there was no way of saying something without going head to head with the brides bestie and her 'second mum', so I laid down another £5.

Everyone else did the same, I think about 10 people - all generous with the tips. MoH and mum, didn't put down anything but volunteered to take the platter full of money up to the cash register area round the corner. I knew, just as I know everyone reading this knows exactly what they were about to do...use the tips to cover their bill. I caught them!! Crept up behind them balancing platter nowhere near the register and counting it all up and offered to give them a hand - they declined so I said it was table service, bring it back to the table and the waiters will come over. They put up a bit of a fight so I just started counting it and lo and behold, it was about £17 short of the full bill even though around 10 people had put it £5+ tips each. I said we need to go back and get everyone to explain what they have paid and they just said they will cover it - go and sit down. There was attitude there and I just wasn't brave enough so I went and sat down.

I have no idea if they put in properly or just paid the £17 and left no tip but I can guess. Two total fucking cockheads.

Some other highlights from the night:

We went to a comedy night (sooo not the brides thing) and they topped up their glasses of lemonade from bottles of wine other hens had bought to share (because there was a performer performing, no one could talk to object).

Said all the female comedy performers were awful because women weren't funny.

The mother told me about the time an elephant in India stood on her foot and it rotated 180 degrees so she can't work now.

Started to argue with me about the brides's age. She was born in 1984...I worked with her, was her friend, was the same age. But the daughter insisted she was born in 1986 because she was and they were in the same year at school and the mum backed it up. They were wrong.

Said she never left the house without wearing a wig. Was not wearing a wig.

My friend was so naive and easily impressed despite being 30ish but I can't believe even she fell for such bullshit people. But she did.

Sorry, that got long!

My estranged father bought 1 Christmas card for my mother, and kept getting it out each year so didn't have to buy a new one!
A few years ago I lost my job, which also had a house with it, I was distraught, I rang my the bf to tell him, he came home from work early to see me ,we didn't live together. Obviously knowing I was going to be homeless, couldn't rent as I was jobless, he never offered me a place to stay at his till I got on my feet, plus handed me a bill because he lost 2 hrs pay for coming to see me!! I think it was something like £28!

I would always, always call out this cf behaviour. No matter who I was at the meal with.

My mum passed away first and the headstone would obviously be used for dad too
My db and I payed.
Is that unusual ?

he didn’t ask I should say. We just sorted it out ourselves

I think that is just appalling, did anyone else at the table say anythng? At the time or after?

We knew a family who were keen on gathering people. If you turned up with a bottle of wine they would 'kindly' take it away to open it. You never got your wine, only a cheaper wine. My husband got to the point where he used to take a bottle opener in his pocket!

Went on a hen do and a woman (hadn’t met b4) wanted to stay seperate as she didn’t want to pay for accommodation… you guessed it, she rocked up and stayed for free without paying a penny towards!!

Once went out for a meal, I was heavily pregnant so didn’t drink and barely ate as horrendous heart burn. One couple ordered double mains, two bottles of wine - oh let’s just split the bill, isn’t it reasonable… yea cos my main was about £15 and you’ve just asked me to pay £50! And then they went oh don’t worry we’ll get you a drink in the next pub…

The guy I was dating at university had graduated and had a very well paid job. I was in my final year at university and was struggling financially
I was a student in Birmingham and he lived in Wolverhampton
One day I asked him to come and visit me as I was feeling a bit unwell and was suffering from exam stress
He came over and at the end of the night presented me with a bill for £2.50 which was half the petrol cost .
Dumped him immediately
I Just thank God that I didn’t sleep with the stingy asshole

That is bad! And hilarious!😀

I used to have a great aunt and uncle who used to peg their used tea-bags out on the washing line to dry. Some they would reuse themselves and the rest, when they'd accumulated enough, would be packaged up and posted to missionaries in Africa, poor sods.

I had a good friend that dropped on hard times.

We met up monthly and I would always pay for her lunch, parking etc. and listen to her troubles (I'm a qualified therapist and could charge a decent hourly rate! 🤣).
Anyway one day one of her other friends came in to the restaurant, came over to our table and said " ooh how was Bali?" The whole family of her, DH and 4 DC had just returned from a 3 week holiday.
Whilst we had been camping in Dorset.

Turned out they went on a lovely exotic holiday every year.

Went out for lunch with two friends. It was the turn of friend A to pay. She put down enough money to cover the cost of what we'd eaten (about £50-worth) almost exactly. I put down £10 for a tip because I knew she wouldn't. I went to the loo and came back just in time to see her pocketing most of the tip I'd left.

I'm seeing her again in a few weeks' time and I will call her out on this behaviour if she tries it again.

This is hilarious!!!!

I had a strange incident that I’ve never known if it was a weird thing for friends to do… they invited me
to a surprise meal out for my baby coming. I had no idea until they collected me. Then when the bill came I had to pay for my own share. Is this strange?! I’ve always thought so! Maybe it’s me
being strange but if I surprised someone with a baby shower meal at the last minute I would make sure they didn’t pay…

A very good friend i lived with for years, i would lend her money, give her money, act as gaurentor on stuff she had bought, always getting her out of financial messes, anyway fast forward a few years and i had no money and she inherited a house which was sold and she had the money, she came round and as usual wanted a lift home, i said no for gods sake youve just got this money learn to drive or buy a car or get a bloody taxi home, i said i have zero money and you still want favours from me , anyway never heard from her again...years id supported her it would have been nice if she had turned up with flowers and said thankyou for your support over the years but no she wants a lift home as thats what i do!

One of my dh's best friends is stingy and married to an even stingier woman. Dh insists on seeing them a couple of times every year so sometimes we host sometimes them. They are def much better off than us (big house and also owns appartments they're letting out and he's a v high earner at work) but you wouldn't believe it when you come to their dinner table.

I make sure to eat before we go because as a vegetarian (they know this and say we thought about you) they give me some cherry tomatoes and a potato with nothing while the others have some dish mixed with meat. Even crisps are hardly dealt out. She shakes the bag and puts out a fifth. Even dh goes home hungry! I have now said that I'm not going there anymore- life is too short. But it bugs me to see how DH makes an effort with cooking and presentation when they come to ours😒

Yes I remember reading something like this. He was a massive CF and the comments on the thread were very entertaining 😄

Also DS got invited to a birthday BBQ at a school friends house where the parents are a bit erm casual.
I worried that they wouldn't cook the food properly so sent him with some lovely lamb chops that I thought were less likely to make him ill if not cooked through and strict instructions not to eat the sausages or burgers.
He came home starving, the Dad had put the lamb in the freezer and gave the kids crisps sandwiches.

Not a friend, a colleague, at a breakfast as part of a course. Each bacon roll had two rashers in it. She took a roll, opened up two more rolls, added the bacon from them to her roll and put the empty barns back on the display. She's utterly utterly hideous.

I don’t think this is that bad, unless it was food that will go out of date.

I actually did that once with an old friend I’d not seen for years (apart from a reunion dinner) and who lived in Dubai. I’d left my purse in my office. She chased for the money asap even though I told her I’d pay straightaway. She thought I think that I just wouldn’t pay her which is nothing like me.

I had travelled to stay with a guy I was dating. Arrived late on a Friday night having come straight from work (he lived 4 hours away). I hadn’t eaten. He said he was a bit peckish too and was going to make beans on toast. He made it for himself, nothing for me. I ended up having to go to the corner shop for some snacks for myself.

Friend is married to a multi-millionaire. Every time we go out for a drink or a meal, the bill is calculated to the penny. Not one penny more and no tip. Last time she miscalculated the bill and I ended up paying more than my share plus a tip. I’m not doing it again.

My kids grandmother is tight as a ducks arse.
The worst is probably that she refuses to make me a mug of tea when i take the kids to visit her. She wouldnt see them if it wasbt for me.