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!

Dh has a mate (I really can't stand him now). We went for an evening out. His (now ex) wife was on double vodkas in the pub (2 rounds, 1 per couple but she also had a third which my dh also paid for) and then in the restaurant she kept ordering double vidkas. Dh & friend had 2 pints. I had a bottle of water as I was driving.

We all had chosen the same meal. Dh said we may as well split the bill. It'll be £x per couple. Mate started moaning about the cost. Dh pointed out his dw had drunk far more than anyone else, & if he wanted to pay for exactly what they'd had then it would be even more. He shut up after that. My car, my fuel, 3hr round trip (we lived rurallly) no offer towards fuel or even buying me/us an extra drink. As a couple they earned more than us.
Never went out as couples again.

Previously we had helped this mate move in with his future wife (vodka woman). After all the moving we were sat in the kitchen diner whilst he put the kettle on. She asked if we would like some chocolate. Both said yes please. She went over to a side unit where there was a basket of a number of different bars. She picked out one Yorkie bar & snapped it into chunks. Then opened it & offered just one chunk each! I was so gobsmacked I just said no thanks. Dh said I'll have hers. She actually hesitated giving him a 2nd chunk!

Oh goodness that is extreme? Was he brought up in poverty? He was obviously successful, why do you think you won’t get a penny?

Good for him. I hate tightness.

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

But what is meant by millionaire? Because having a million in house and pension is completely different from having a million in the bank.

I don’t know if this falls under ‘stingy’ but it’s one of the most shocking things I’ve witnessed relating to money. We were at a gala for a charity and a relative stood up and declared someone else’s donation 😱 The donor was new to auction-style donation and didn’t think anything of the relative asking how much the donation was (£3,000 in the early 2000s, so quite a lot of money) and promptly standing up and calling out the amount to big applause from the room. Even though I was only a teenager at the time, I instantly knew it was the most utterly disgraceful behaviour. It goes without saying that the relative did not donate a penny themselves…

I have a friend who likes to boast about living in a very large house in a nice area. When we go out for a meal sometimes she will ask the waiter for some tin foil trays so she can take home any leftovers. However these will be everyone’s leftovers, and will have everyone pass their plates over so she can scrape everything into the trays.

It does sound a different circumstance - my MIL and FIL were only in their early 50s, and the kids all still quite young as well. My FIL actually produced an invoice to show the kids their share.

For a “loan” of 5p, does it really matter?

A friend who is a multi millionaire will always volunteer to take free clothes for her daughter over the rest of us who don’t have even a tenth of her wealth, (probably way way way less, probably like 2% if I work it out her house is 7 million)

it’s annoying as in our chat we have a midwife; teacher, and admin worker etc we all have very average jobs. She sits in her mansion with her freebies from us peasants

The stuff was available the day before. She saw the grandkids on Halloween. She was too tight to buy it for them at full price. She’s caked up with money (and no wonder)

Start telling her “no”?

Visited a friend of a friend whose husband wouldn’t put the heating on as there were a few of us and “body heat will be enough “. It was snowing outside and so cold we kept coats on.

My friend collects all the butter pats from everyone on the table who don't use them .

Yuck

This is small fry compared to most examples on here, but it's stuck in my craw for a long time and I've had no one to moan to. Now is my chance 🤣

I get the train to my work's head office roughly 4 times a month. A good friend of mine gets the same train 3 times a week for her commute but gets on two stops after me, so when I'm commuting I'll save her a seat so we can chat for the journey. There's a coffee cart at my station, i usually treat myself to a latte for the journey and always grab one for her too. She's been happily accepting this coffee 4-5 times a month for 4 years, always says thanks, never offers me money but i wouldn't accept it anyway. One morning, I got to the station and the coffee cart was inexplicably not there. I whatsapped her saying "arggghh coffee cart isn't here today fml 😭". Two stops later, on she gets WITH ONE COFFEE JUST FOR HER!! I was like "you've got yourself a coffee?" She replied completely nonchalantly "yes, thanks for warning me (about the cart) so I could nip in Starbucks!"

She just happily bought herself a coffee and not one for me after me buying her one approximately 500 times. Really changed how I view her and our friendship.

Horrible ex colleague was always getting others to buy her lunch in town. She queried the change someone had given her and accused them of stealing 6p. No one would get her lunch (turned out the price had gone up).

An ex friend who is always trying to give the impression she is so wealthy and doing well. Always selling things like her kids books on Facebook for 20p. Why would you bother.

We had a round dodger mate. I remember as skint 18 years olds we went for a night out. We all night a round except her, we all stood there looking awkward with empty glasses and she was oblivious, so I went and got another round as did everyone else again apart from the round dodger.

On the way home my anger kicked in and I said ‘x I think you should pay for the taxi as everyone else bought drinks apart from you!’ She looked at me like a piece of runny shit she’d stepped in and sneered ‘I was going to!’ I retorted ‘that’s weird as you never fucking mentioned it just like you didn’t buy a round!’ She was entitled in general though and I have other stories!

I have a cousin who deliberately brings some gross snack item that he knows no one will want to parties, then when it is inevitably left unopened, he will collect it at the end and save it to bring to the next party. I think he once brought the same bag of weird biscuits to parties for a year.

To him, though, he’s getting one over ‘the man’ by living like an ascetic.

Agree, this one’s fine.

Ditto the girl on the night bus with her tub of mash - she maybe just hates waste

My pet hate was always round dodgers who’d take a drink every other round but then not get themselves one when they were finally forced into getting a round in

Wow. 😮

My parents did similar for my 18th. I needed new glasses and frames as I’d grown in the previous 6 years from when I got bought new frames! I was duly informed that they weren’t expecting this cost and so they would be my birthday present. I’d worn glasses since I was six, was very short sighted and couldn’t function without spectacles.

When I left school to start work DF insisted I go out with him, DM and my younger DSis on a Friday night (before I’d been paid) as he didn’t want me ‘mucking around at home’. He asked what I was drinking - I asked for a Coke. He then insisted I paid him for it.

I’d have called her out on that, cheeky fucker

There was a woman I was at university with who was incredibly tight fisted. She graduated and got a very well paid job in a big 4 consultancy. After a few years, by which time she was no doubt on a six figure salary, they paid for her to relocate to New York and she was living in an apartment that the company funded. When another friend went to stay with her she charged her a fee per day to cover the water bill! I couldn’t believe the stinginess, she was as tight as a duck’s arse.