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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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:
sockunicorn · 03/12/2018 16:27

@pookiedo
He has had 2 hefty inheritances over the years has blown them all on himself
he gave me some of the inheritance

Hmm didnt blow it all on himself then if he gave you some. however asking for it back is out of order and i would be telling him to go away.

thecatsthecats · 03/12/2018 16:28

Oh, and I'd like to make an honorary mention for my mum for failed skinflint behaviour.

They live in the Lake District. Miles and miles to shops. Many beautiful places to walk. We had plans for a day out. But wait, we need bread.

There are many, many places in which to buy bread. But no. Booths is too expensive. Spar likewise, and village shops. She wants to go to Aldi, plum in the wrong direction. Throws a shit-fit at how wasteful my dad and I are buying expensive bread is elsewhere.

20 mile round trip extension later, we are in possession of a single loaf of a slightly cheaper type of bread. I kind of blame my dad for pandering to her. She doesn't drive, and when my husband makes any such barmy request (also a non driver), he is invited to take a taxi.

PookieDo · 03/12/2018 16:51

@sockunicorn

I meant ‘blow it’ that he received 3 large amounts of inheritance, 2 of which were a joint marital asset. Fine. He then spent it or gave it ALL away. What he gave away was a small fraction of the overall inheritance. He could have bought his house outright, he didn’t. He then also remortgaged once it was spent.

He then became widowed and hadn’t invested anything into his mortgage. There was also an insurance situation (that didn’t pay out). So he has no savings, no insurance payout on his mortgage that was remortgaged (because of telling lies on insurance)

The only place he has to look to is the people who shared the inheritance with, no written agreement to claw it back to help himself out of his hole of debt. Which includes a step child who lost their parent

BlueJava · 03/12/2018 16:56

Sometimes I meet up with a friend for dinner, I don't drink but I may have a desert. She does drink but usually doesn't have dessert.

I have come to the conclusion that she calculates whether it is cheaper for her to split the bill equally or for us each to pay for our own individual food and drinks. This will go down to the last 20p! She certainly isn't poor as she earn 6 figures and has no debts (paid off mortgage, no children etc.) I never worry about it, but I do think it's funny.

LoudJazzHands · 03/12/2018 17:36

I used to do a bacon butty run for the office every friday, even when heavily pregnant.
Butties were £1.48 each but I collected £1.50 which most people were fine about. One of the managers carefully counted out the correct money with the words "...because they are actually only £1.48 and not £1.50, aren't they?"
He glosssed over the part where it was my petrol into town and back to get them and that the sauces he dolloped all over his butties where paid for my me. All from the extra 30p that I was "stealing" from them all each week.

stopinthenameoflove · 03/12/2018 17:55

@OJSquash
I do that with my dd I was fed up of her using all my expensive conditioner so I hide it Grin

BreakWindandFire · 03/12/2018 17:56

Years ago I was in a houseshare of 4. Sensibly, we decided that rather than clog up the fridge with multiple cartons of semi-skimmed milk, we would take it in turn to buy communal ones each week.

After several months, one flatmate sat us down and said that we were deliberately drinking more milk in his week - he'd been marking the cartons and keeping tabs for months.

19lottie82 · 03/12/2018 18:01

OJSquash, I do that to re the expensive shampoo and other toiletries, it’s not stingy!
My 2 x teen DSDs use a huge bottle of shampoo and condition between them each week, so I buy them Aldi specials..... no way are they getting their hands on my £8 a bottle stuff!

19lottie82 · 03/12/2018 18:01

PS the same goes for my Clinique face wash!!!

MonsieurBing · 03/12/2018 18:11

My ex makes my two kids share a chocolate advent calendar

FairyFace · 03/12/2018 18:38

My bil and his wife ( husbands brother) are very well off and quite snobby, for Christmas last year, I got their kids lovely gifts for Christmas, I should have known when I handed him the giant santa bag filled with gifts for his kids that he was mortified handing me his two little parcels for my two kids, he scuttled off and my kids opened their presents, 2 for £15 section toys, one was a tiny tractor and the other was a naff bead bracelet set that literally felt like there was nothing in the box. I was fuming as sil had shown me what she got for her godchild, her friends kid, the week earlier, and it was very extravagant. Needless to say they will be getting the same this year. Mean fuckers

QuackPorridgeBacon · 03/12/2018 19:25

Hippee What was she doing with the apples? Confused

NotCitrus · 03/12/2018 19:31

I had a housemate who decided that I and the other woman in the house should contribute more to the house toilet roll, and spent a few days counting everyone's toilet trips and guessing whether it had been a high-use event...

All of us including the other two lads told him to get over it!

MIL always writes on a post-it so birthday cards can be re-used, and gives us cards to cover for the next few months every time we see her, to save on postage. But that's a quirk not stinginess, as there's often generous cheques to go with.

QuackPorridgeBacon · 03/12/2018 19:31

My ex makes my two kids share a chocolate advent calendar

That’s cruel. Poor kids Sad

Threadastaire · 03/12/2018 21:55

When I was in my late teens, I got a Saturday job in the older ladies clothes shop that my mum worked in. They sold comfy cardigans and pleated elasticated skirts, you get the picture. In November they'd expand their accessories section to incorporate Christmas gifts, like fleece dressing gowns with imagery (hearts, angels etc) scarves, fluffy hats, socks with Scotty dogs on them, naff beaded broaches, biscuits.... We knew that, being Christmas only items, they would be discounted if not sold.
My mum used to choose some items then hide them in the stockroom so they wouldnt go out on the shop floor. I used to work Christmas Eve, mum would come in and buy the items she had snuck back onto the shelves, (usually with me serving her) and her gleefully exclaiming about the price when I rang them through.
Yep you guessed it, Christmas Day and I would open my gifts to find a selection of company branded candy canes, scarves and garish socks as she told me about how much she had saved on them. Because of course, what does a 17yr old want if not the tacky concessions range she's been putting sale stickers on for the last two weeks and trying to upsell to OAP tourists?

AjasLipstick · 03/12/2018 22:32

Apparently he didn't think ds 11 months would eat chocolate!!

Well I wouldn't buy a baby of 11 months a selection box either!

Sarawish · 03/12/2018 22:43

I shared a flat with a friend. We paid half the rent each. The first year the rent was something like £600.45, so £300.23 for one and £300.22 for the other.
As her name was first on the agreement she paid 1p more for 12 months. The next year the rent was an even amount, something like £600.42p so an even split of £300.21 p each.

She nearly bust a brain cell trying to work out how much more she had paid them me. It was 12p so I gave her 10p and told her to keep the 4p change.

She was still scratching her head to see if she had been fiddled months later.

lisasimpsonssaxophone · 03/12/2018 23:09

One of my best friends’ housemates at uni was the tightest person I have ever met. And like many of the people mentioned on this thread, she was also loaded. She was constantly coming home laden down with shopping bags full of her latest purchases and would always go out to incredibly expensive bars with her rich friends, yet whenever she came out with us she would inexplicably turn into a total skinflint!

My favourite story is when she and my friend went out to a bar and my friend bought the first round, with this woman saying ‘I’ll get the next one!’ of course. Then they bumped into a guy that she knew, who insisted on buying them both a drink. After they’d finished their drinks my friend asked if she wanted to get another and this woman said ‘sure!’ and looked at her expectantly. After a moment of confusion she explained that she was ‘counting’ the drinks the guy had bought them as ‘her round’ because he was her friend so that made them even Shock

She also once drank a third of the bottle of wine my friend and I had ordered at a big group dinner for another woman’s birthday, and then looked hurt outraged when we asked her to chip in for it when the bill came. She insisted it was our wine (my friend’s and I) because we had ordered it and she didn’t think we’d mind sharing Hmm

LegoAdventCalendar · 03/12/2018 23:28

yet whenever she came out with us she would inexplicably turn into a total skinflint!

I hope to god you called her out on this. I went to uni with several like this. I was not underprivileged myself, but would never countenance this at all! 'You haven't put in enough, you put in more.' 'This is your round.' 'You haven't brought your purse? What a pity! We'll have to do this another time. Tootle pip!' We had one flatmate like this and we ended up locking our cupboards and bought small fridges to keep our food in our rooms. She was more affronted she could no longer poach our scran. Bitch. 'I can't believe you behave like this!' 'I can't believe you're a thieving skinflint when you're totally loaded.' Shrug. She soon moved out. Good riddance.

TheQueenSnortsAvocados · 04/12/2018 00:02

Someone offered me his ticket in a car park once as there was an hour left on it, I thanked him and he then asked me for a contribution of 20p towards the cost.

Maybe this explains the funny look I got last week!

I had a day pass for the Metro, but was done traveling by about 5.30, so I offered it to someone heading for the ticket machine. Instead of a thank you, I just got a weird glare - maybe she thought I was about to charge her.

AriadnePersephoneCloud · 04/12/2018 00:07

Oh I have one. I went out for a meal with a group of friends and when the bill came we split it but each rounded up to say £15 rather than £13 so there would be a top. Anyway friend X got her purse out and replaced one of the notes with a heap of change and then sat there giving us all the right change back. By this point the waitress had arrived back. Friend X told her she hadn't earnt a tip and counted the exact money into her hand. I was mortified. Honestly the waitress hadn't gone above and beyond but she'd bought food over and checked everything was okay which I thought was good enough. Never eaten out with friend X since!!!! Oh and amazingly she works in catering!

BeenThereDone · 04/12/2018 00:52

At a works Xmas party, sit down meal and drinks. So a colleague and I decide to buy a bottle of wine between us. The manager wants in but then backed out when we decided on an expensive one. Then proceeds to help himself and offered it to others beside him. Was not impressed when we asked him to buy another one as he had drank most of it.

LaBelleSausage · 04/12/2018 01:12

Nothing can compare to my sisters ex who was an absolute...yorkshireman when it came to money.

On one of their earlier dates he asked if she was ok to split the bill, then produced a 2for1 voucher and said that was his half covered.

Why she didn’t turn and run at that point I’ll never know!

BasilFaulty · 04/12/2018 01:19

@flowerfae your husband has never bought you a birthday present or a card? That's quite sad. Sad

Greensweets · 04/12/2018 01:37

I secretly get really upset if someone gives me a gift in a fancy gift bag and they have written on the tag... I have a huge collection of these and I love reusing them.. sorry!

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