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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask your stingiest stories?

428 replies

iLoveFoood · 02/12/2018 21:07

Tell me some of your stingy stories. The ones where you've had a friend out to dinner and they inspect the bill down to the last €0.20.... or the guy at the office who refuses to bring in the Friday biscuits but eats everyone else's! Grin

I know a guy at my work who is a full time smoker but never has a box of cigarettes. Just asks someone different every time. He gets away with smoking ten a day, one off a different person every single day!

I asked him for one before after giving him my last few a couple of times and he said 'no, these need to last me 2 days' 😆

OP posts:
MsHopey · 03/12/2018 04:58

Office manager was a complete bitch but ruled with an iron fist. People acting like they liked her, or at least I thought it was an act because she is the most unlikable, sour faced cow I have ever had the misfortune to meet. We were all on NMW but she must have been on a lot more because of her role.
There was a raffle for a Christmas hamper for charity, all the staff brought a few tickets, myself included.
Comes to drawing the raffle, someone wins, the manager is clearly peeved it's not here, and the next breath after the winners name is tinkly laugh "your not going to want the basket and wine though, right?" In front of everyone.
See her leave the office later with both the basket and the wine 😐
Seems being a tight, cheeky fucker will get you what you want.
So glad I quit!

schnubbins · 03/12/2018 05:10

My SIL invited us for Brunch and called us beforehand to ask how many sausages each of us would eat.She wanted to buy the exact amount.

Years ago when the kids were young she offered to take my kids out for the cinema for their birthday.She came to pick them up but asked me for the money to pay their bus fares.Single and earning well at the time.

alreadyinchristmasmood · 03/12/2018 05:19

Oh God, these are horrible.

I have a recent one. We went to visit the ILS as we're not going to their house at Christmas (they live 5 hours away and we're spending Christmas with my parents). We bought them each a perfume (100 ml each-about £100 a bottle) for Christmas.

When my FIL received the gift, he unwrapped it and said "I hope it's not a 50ml bottle AGAIN".

And then a day later: "so are you mailing my actual Christmas presents?"

..... speechless! And he's VERY well off.

MissedTheBoatAgain · 03/12/2018 05:21

My brother in law is tighter than a duck's arse

And that's water tight.

At a wedding Uncle of mine asked his wife for some money for the church collection box. She give him a pound. He puts a 50p in the Box and brags how he made 50p

Same guy used to run a shop. Customer came in and asked for a small turnip. So he cut a large turnip in half to avoid losing the sale. The half that remained in his shop went off and had to be thrown away.

StealthPolarBear · 03/12/2018 05:32

Buttered ghost what happened then with friend B? Did you refuse?

claraschu · 03/12/2018 05:37

My father was very frugal about small things. We were taught that if a flame was already alight to reuse a burnt match to transfer the flame- things like that.

However, he was incredibly generous with large things- would pay for people's education and never mention it again, and would rent out the other flat in our house way below market value for years on end.

To me there is an enormous difference between trying to take advantage of other people and just choosing not to waste small sums of money. People who hate waste will often be just as keen to save money for their friends as for themselves.

Reusing wrapping paper and clingfilm, and saving water by taking short showers, is a matter of not wasting resources and not destroying the planet- totally separate issue.

I hate it when people are mean and ungenerous, but I admire people trying to be careful with resources.

SkullPointerException · 03/12/2018 05:40

Was working out of a temporarily rented project office near my then client's location, it was a sub-letting arrangement with another company that had extra office space.

Use of the coffee facilities was included in our rent - but apparently not of the fruit basket contents located next to the coffee facilities.

I got a lengthy letter of complain and a bill for one (!!!) banana, which the receptionist had apparently spotted one of my employees taking from the basket.

The rent on that place was several thousand a month for two dingy rooms thanks to it's prime location.

mummysmummy · 03/12/2018 06:14

My story is slightly different. For many years I was the main person who organised activities for a group of my friends. Mainly concerts, theatre tickets etc. So I would be the person who booked the tickets and the friends would give me the cash at a later date. No problem. We would have these activities several times a year and between six to twelve friends would go.
Of course when booking tickets, there’s always a booking fee and often postage of tickets. When I gave the tickets to the friends, I would work out precisely how much the tickets including booking fee was and they would pay me. Years down the line, one friend confided in another in the group, who then told me, that she thought I was a bit mean and underhand as I always asked for more than the face value of the ticket. For years she had assumed that a £70 ticket for a show cost £70 and that the £2.50 extra I had asked for, the booking fee, was for me, as a reward for booking the tickets.

Butteredghost · 03/12/2018 09:10

@StealthPolarBear I was embarrassed and said OK we'll split it! In retrospect I wish I had laughed (light-heartedly) and refused.

StealthPolarBear · 03/12/2018 09:12

Thanks for the update. What a cf

tequilasunset · 03/12/2018 09:33

@MaryDollNesbitt why wouldn't you reuse wrapping paper?? Saves money and saves waste, so is better for the environment.

To be honest, many of the things on here are good ideas!

The only ones I agree are stingy are when people save money at a cost to others.

Neweternal · 03/12/2018 09:45

I think it's stingy when I was younger and friends would suggest you go out and "find a man to buy you drinks all night!". I have found this so embarrassing and refused any drinks to be bought out of principle. It's not a date it's like being a hooker. Have some self respect and go out with the intention of paying for yourself.

LakieLady · 03/12/2018 09:55

At one place I worked, a group of us would go to the pub almost every lunchtime. One guy always made sure he was never the first to arrive, so he didn't have to buy a round. He would stand with an inch of beer in his glass, untouched, for ages rather than get a round in.

One day, my mate and I spotted Tightwad walk into the pub before we got there, but when we got in, there was no sign of him. He was hiding in the bog, waiting for someone else to turn up and start buying the drinks. On another occasion, we spotted him duck into a phone box on the corner by the pub, so he could wait there until someone else arrived.

Every now and then, I would call him on it and just tell him it was his turn to buy a round. He never had his wallet on him, naturally, so I used to lend him the money. In fairness, he always paid it back the very next day.

He eventually got together with a friend of mine, who was also notoriously tight. We used to joke (privately,of course) about how the hell would they ever go for meals/drinks when they were both so mean.

One day, they rocked up at the pub where my ex and I were having a drink. We struggled to keep straight faces as they proceeded to argue, because they had both left purse/wallet at home. She blinked first, and "found" her debit card in the pocket of her bag and paid for the drinks.

What was weird about him though was that he was very generous in other ways. He'd do anything for you, came and helped me decorate, looked after my dog when I had to go to hospital, was happy to give lifts even if it was out of his way and stuff like that. It was just the buying drinks he was tight about.

Roussette · 03/12/2018 10:18

Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with being frugal, I hate waste... for instance I re-use those bags that have zips across the top, I wash them and dry them! But my frugality came from my DPs and it doesn't affect anyone because in other ways with friends and family I am over generous.... first up at the bar, would buy a second round, pay extra on a bill for a meal, spend over and above.

My funniest one is to do with a shared voluntary thing. Once a year we'd get together after a training session and there'd be about 40 plus of us... everyone would bring homemade cakes and delicious treats of all sorts. One guy used to try and turn up just for the food without doing the training but that was stopped.

He'd keep on and on... when's the tea and cakes? He'd stuff his face stupid. Last time was the classic. He said... there's a lot of homemade cakes this year, good job I brought 'this' with me. He then reached into his pocket and brought out a big piece of folded tinfoil, spread it out and proceeded to pile it high with homemade cake.

I said 'what on earth are you doing, you can't do that, some people haven't even had a slice of cake yet'. He ignored me, filled his tinfoil parcel and left. Shock

Munchkingoat · 03/12/2018 10:23

Dsis at Christmas a few years ago - I was hosting and had bought all the food and drinks etc, calls me on xmas Eve to ask if she can bring anything - obviously everything had already been bought by now so I said everything's sorted but could you possibly bring a bottle of gin as that was the only thing I hadn't thought of and quite a few of us like a g&t.

Anyway, we have xmas day, dsis doesn't lift a fucking finger to help cooking/clearing/washing up and basically drinks all day long - wine, sherry, port, beer, cava, prosecco, Bailey's etc. The gin didn't actually get opened as everyone drunk other things.

Boxing Day comes and she's too 'poorly' to come over (i e. Hungover) and she asks if a plate of food can be brought to her - she only lived less than two miles away. Anyway, my parents took her a huge platter of food I'd made up for her of meats, cheese, pickles, salad, crackers, sweet things etc... loads of lovely things and when they handed it over she said "Didn't munchkingoat send the gin back"

TryItAndDieFatLass · 03/12/2018 10:33

When we moved into our last rented house, the smoke alarm began beeping so we changed the battery. The one we took out had the date it was installed sellotaped to it, so they knew they were getting their money's worth. My Landlords owned outright 6 houses for family to live in and ran the local garage, they are absolutely loaded.

Rattinghat · 03/12/2018 10:39

I get the trauma of going out with work colleagues and having to buy an expensive round for people you wouldn't even choose to have a drink with it it was up to you. Drinks are so expensive these days. I wouldn't avoid it but I might leave early to avoid paying for a second round. Or if I knew some people would arrive in a minute I would offer to get the first round.

Youmadorwhat · 03/12/2018 10:53

I once had a cousin ask me to join her on a long drive (she had something to do in another city, and didn’t wanna go alone)... there and back...I had no other plans that day so thought ok I’ll go. Half way up motorway we stopped at the services and she got petrol. She proceeded to ask me for my contribution towards the petrol because she was “bringing” me up. WTAF! 😡

Pinkyyy · 03/12/2018 10:55

Love these threads! Trying to think of something to add but definitely can't beat most of these

MamaLovesMango · 03/12/2018 10:59

One year in the 90s, a Christmas present from a relative was the free CD with a couple of demo computer games, off the front of a computing magazine that cost £2 max. It was for me and my 2 siblings to share, one of which was too young to even know how to use a computer....

katseyes7 · 03/12/2018 11:07

My friend's brother was notoriously tight. He used to buy Christmas presents for her and the kids from charity shops. l can understand that if you're genuinely hard up, but he wasn't, far from it. One year her 'present' was a video (not dvd!) of Princess Diana's funeral. The kids got nothing, but he always bought a proper 'doggy stocking' for the dog! He'd also turn up at her house a meal times, and stay for hours afterwards, looking pointedly at his empty cup, and coughing. lf she was brave (or daft!) enough to get out the biscuit jar with the coffee, he'd sit and eat the lot.

Jengnr · 03/12/2018 11:16

@hippee Tbf I buy nice apples for me and cheap ones for the kids. They take about three bites then leave them somewhere for me to find later. It would break my heart if they did that to my pink ladies :)

QuackPorridgeBacon · 03/12/2018 11:17

katseyes7 Jesus. That’s awful.

Hippee · 03/12/2018 11:32

Jengnr - not the case in their house - her excuse was "they'll only eat them"!

lidoshuffle · 03/12/2018 11:35

Two of a group of four of us colleagues chipped in £20 each for a gift and a card when one of the group was ill. The fourth refused to contribute, though we still put his name on the card as it would have looked odd otherwise. He was the only one in the office who had any stamps on him, and he demanded the money back for it!

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