To ask about the tightest person you've ever met

[GunpowderGelatine]

I'm not talking about skint people, frugal people or those doing good for the environment - but who have you met who is the biggest tightwad without the need to be tight?

Mine is my mum unfortunately. She's just been for a week-long visit and I swear she gets worse with age (though she's not even 60 so not old). She's well off enough that she retired aged 47, hasn't had a mortgage since 2002 and her husband earns a very good living. She wears designer clothes and has lovely jewellery, so I don't think she's secretly skint or anything.

We went shopping in town one day during her visit and both got the odd thing from places like Primark, Superdrug etc ie nothing expensive. Because I had DS in the pram which is awkward round small and busy aisles, when coming to pay one of us took the others' stuff up with them to pay whilst the other one of us waited by the doors with the pram. Stuff we bought cost us each no more than a fiver altogether. We then went for lunch in M&S, mum got a table whilst I went up with a tray, got toasties and coffees and paid then and there. Cost about £19 for the 3 of us to eat and drink.

At the end of the day I figured we were probably even in what we'd paid for and I would've said nothing more about it. However 10 minutes after getting home she presented me with 3 receipts for places where she'd gone up to pay for stuff, with my stuff highlighted (she must've brought a highlighter with her as I don't have one in the house 🤣) and the amounts written on - the amounts were £2.99, £2.62 and £1.49

She then said she wanted to "treat us all" to the cinema as the kids wanted to see the Lion King. So off we went, I packed some mini bags of popcorn from M&S and some bottled drinks as otherwise I'd be spending around £20+ for the equivalent in the cinema. I packed enough for everyone (this is allowed in our cinema). When we went to buy the tickets, she bunged me a fiver (the cost of her ticket) - so much for treating us! And then I thought we were going into the cinema but to my surprise she proceeded to get a large popcorn, large coke, a hot dog and Maltesers for herself. Which cost her £16.99. We had to all carry something as she had so much 😂 I was and thought it's a good job I have a sense of humour. She then wouldn't let my kids have some of her maltesers because "your popcorn is enough you'll get sick" - and then left a half full packet on her chair at the end

I don't think I've ever known such a tightwad! She's like this with other people - she gives her elderly neighbour a lift to the supermarket when she goes, and takes petrol money off her! Even though she's going anyway.

And no I didn't ask for money for lunch and what I paid for in shops, or for lunch, because i refuse to be like that. I also didn't want to mention about her treating us at the cinema because she'd no doubt say something passive aggressive like "oh I didn't know you were skint" 🙄

Cheer me up please by regaling me with your best tightwad stories!

DB's workmate once picked a half pence (I'm getting old!) out of a men's urinal.
Meanness is such an ugly trait. I go out once a week with girlfriends for lunch. It's becoming very noticable that one never buys a drink, despite being bought many by the rest of us. She is a business owner with no dependents, whereas one is a single mum who only works part time. I'm comfortable but it leaves me cold when I see her taking from someone who has much less than her.

My sister can be bad for this. My mum will frequently describe her as 'tight as a ducks arse'. A few examples include;
If you go out for food/coffee/drink we all pay for our own and go up to order individually. My sister will always tag along with me or our mum and say 'you might as well put my order on with yours to make it easier, I'll give you the money later'. Of course later never happens. I've now taken to asking her if she's left her purse at home and when she says no telling her there's no reason she can't pay for herself then.
My mum asked if she could use her amazon prime account to order something that had a hefty postage charge. (My mum very very rarely does this) sister says yes. My mum orders it putting in her bank details so my sister isn't paying for it. Orders it and then thinks better delete my card information now so logs back in to find my sister clearly adding items to basket with mums card lined up to pay for it all!
Will always try to get in on any joint presents being bought for christmas/birthdays but is incredibly elusive when it comes to actually paying her share. You have to ask and ask and ask until eventually she snaps at you like it's you being a nuisance and transfers the money in a really annoyed manner. I won't go in on gifts with her anymore.
She lives a few hours away and when she visits she stays with our mum. She will not pay towards food in the house at all. My mum provides it all. On one occasion she requested nice steak for dinner. My mum was nearing payday but at the end of the month and told her she couldn't afford it. Sister says she will treat everyone to steak dinner. They go shopping and my sister reluctantly chooses steaks while making passive aggressive comments about not being fed while at home. Comes time to pay and somehow the steaks end up in my mums pile of shopping and she just stands there letting my mum pay for the food she requested knowing full well she can't afford it. I refuse to let her stay at mine. I don't think I would be able to bite my tongue and not argue with her if she tried it with me.

I love her to bits but she's a nightmare with money. She's not skint either! Has a job that pays well with plenty of bonuses. She's just tight!

Back in the 70s our family knew a couple who ran the business next door to our stall.

The father was notoriously tight. No heating even in the depths of winter, (big Victorian house in a rough area), sparsely served out food that was reheated if anyone left some
Every single penny had to be accounted for.

Children left home at 16 just so they could put the heating on
We were round their house one day when he came back with a pint of milk.

“That’ll be 4.5p Sylvia” Sylvia duly went to get her purse and counted out the 4.5p to him.

He made a lot of his money in things that weren’t strictly legal and didn’t have a bank account.
Sylvia was a worn out shell of a woman

We moved and didn’t see them for a while.

A few years later a car pulled onto our driveway and looking out of the window we were all trying to workout who this well to do looking woman was who had hopped out of the car.
It suddenly dawned on us it was Sylvia completely made over. Hair done, make up perfect.
She opened the passenger door and out stumbled her dh.

Apparently he had a stroke and whilst in hospital she had torn the house apart.
No floor board was left in lifted. No picture frame was left undone, no jar, can, book was left unopened.

There was tens of thousands.

He was too far gone to know what day of the week it was.

She ended up putting him in a home and took the money and went to live in Spain

All the tight people I have known end up on their own.

Aaaw well done Sylvia!

FIL was the only person allowed to have a bath in their house. Everyone else was only allowed a shower every other day and he'd stand outside the door and start knocking after 5 minutes to tell them to hurry up.

He never worked and used to treat himself to very long, hot baths twice a day. The only upkeep he put towards the house was the gas bill. DH (then DP) used to call to mine for a shower on the days he wasn't allowed one, at the time he was contributing more in housekeeping to FIs house that FIL was.

I once had a boyfriend who after we had sex, washed the condom out to re-use!
According to him there was another 3-4 goes left in it. Er, not with me there ain't buster!!
He also asked me if i wanted a bag of scraps from the chippy ( scraps were free ) for lunch.
He had a very well paid job and lived with his parents! Needless to say after the condom episode, he was dumped.

@Oliversmumsarmy Me too. Both tightest people I know lost not just their partner but family and friends in the end too.

1. DH who told DW he only earned 16.5k a year despite being director of famous public company. When he went into hospital, she discovered hundreds of thousands hidden in bank accounts abroad, which he'd deposited on business trips.

He'd also stolen inheritance from his own children.

The 'Back from Hospital' welcome wasn't quite what he'd expected. Neither was the rest of his life.

1. Woman who inherited loads of farms, just before property and land prices went up. Kerching. Wouldn't marry in case she had to pay a divorce. She used to make family book expensive holidays, force them to pay for her every coffee and magazine by saying she couldn't work her debit card. Because it was still in the envelope at home. Refused to pay them back.

On the upside, when dementia inevitably hit (haven't you noticed how all tightwads get dementia) she lost £1, 000, 000 cash to care fees. It was the only time anyone can remember her spending anything.

When that ran out the family politely declined to contribute, pointing out she already owed them money. Off she went to the local, nasty, state care home.

@RussianDolls did you go out with my ex?!

slyvia has made my day!

I once went for drinks with my office mates. The pub closed early and the one guy who was well-to-do and lived downtown invited us all over to his place. We went, of course, and had a couple of drinks he offered from his liquor cabinet. The next Monday, he presented us bills for the amount each of us had imbibed - he had been keeping count, and he even measured the amounts left in the bottles!

an ex bf of mine. in my defense he didnt last very long and i was young. we would go to the pub and he would insist on "rounds". his £3 pint to my £1 pepsi. he would down his pint and start the "come on, come on, your round. stop trying to avoid getting a drink in" while i still had a full glass. even when i moved onto tap water (nobody can drink 6 pepsi's in an evening) he would still insist on rounds.

we got a few taxis places (his request) and he would just jump out once we got there. i cottoned onto that quick and started suggesting walking or the bus.

one day he insisted on going to our nearest big town "for an evening out". we met at the train station (my suggestion to not be footed with a taxi bill). while waiting for the train he dropped a pint on himself. made us both get a taxi to his, which he paid for, and got changed. we then got a taxi back to the train station, which was apparently my turn as he paid for the last one . yes for a completely your fault trip back to your house. we then got to the train station and he requested 2 tickets at the window...and walked off. stupidly i paid. got there, had a meal (which he ordered many courses) and he then told me "well i cant pay, im skint after paying for all the taxis". . by this point i had spent around £100 on one evening.

i paid it and he wanted to go round the bars as it was only early. i declined and said i wanted to go home. went home in silence. he knew i was pissed off. he then messaged me further that evening, asking me to go out the next day. i just said no, no reasons. he then replied "i will have money tomorrow, i promise". so he knew what he had done!!!!!

absolute freeloader. didnt see him again.

An ex-boyfriend's family used to reuse teabags, they kept a dish in the kitchen for said tea bags. They refused to pay for anti virus software on their computer then wondered why they got malware . I'm still not sure if it was for economics or noise reasons but I flushed the toilet once overnight.... this was wrong. Apparently it should have been left until the morning for flushing (supposing you'd had an upset stomach or your sanpro had needed changing?) I think after this episode, I suggested that his parents should only use the stairs once each way (down in the morning then up at night) everyday, in case the carpet became worn out from "overuse", like the old guy in Carrie's War. Worst for me was when his mother got sickness and diarrhoea but they wouldn't go to the pharmacy, just up the road, as it would cost money for imodium. There's being careful then there's beung a complete miser.

I know someone who is a multi millionaire but is the cheapest person I know. He once took dead fish(naturally dead for at least a few days) from his pond to a barbeque! The host then had to get rid of said manky fish and then the CF part-there was lots of food left. He literally hunted around in their kitchen, found their 'good' tupperware and filled up most of the leftovers! Brazen as hell and announced he was doing them a favour as their fridge was too small!
Same guy hides all of his bills/accounts information and pleads poverty to his adult kids-they give him a standing order each month to pay his mortgage and bills. Him and his wife love the fact that these kids do not know the true extent of their wealth, think in the region of 10m plus. The guy doesn't wear nice clothes and when his very old car packed in nearly 5 years ago-he didn't replace it.
He waits at the supermarket for reduced products and forages in other peoples gardens for food.
I just don't get it! Why have all this money if you don't enjoy at least some of it?!

I once was on holiday with a man who made his wife spend the last day washing and ironing all their holiday clothes because it saved electricity when they got home!

I just got distracted by the amount of times you mentioned M&S.

Back in the day when Friday nights were spent in the local. Most of us smoked and nearly all fag packets/lighters were on the bar or table.

All of us would offer the others a smoke and one guy always took one, no biggie you’d think. Until we realised that he had a new packet in his pocket and he had managed to get the cellophane off, open the pack, remove the foil, take out a ciggie and light it without any of us being any the wiser.

Was actually rather impressed by his dexterity, but bloody hell!

I’m a bit tight with myself, but generous with other people if that makes sense.

My son has asd, and selective eating and has to have the “posh” on the vine tomatoes in his packed lunch (it’s the colour, shape, texture etc). When they go too soft,I don’t chuck them, I use them for me in a stew, and get him some more.

Worst tightness I saw was, whilst we were at uni, we all went out for a meal. Everyone had pizzas at Pizza Hut, except for myself and a friend who had the buffet because we were on a diet. We had a separate bill because it was easier. The people at the table kept nagging us to bring them salad and pasta from the buffet. They didn’t want to spend an extra three pounds for a buffet but they wanted the extras to go with it.
Then came the bill paying. My friend and I paid our bill and tipped as well.
Then the group tried to get us to pay part of their bill as well. There was a massive argument because “we could of had a slice if we wanted to”. (There was pizza at the buffet, but I had all salad, friend had buffet pizza and salad).

A former friend of mine wanted to have a party on her rooftop so told us to bring food and wine. Fair enough, we thought, and brought a feast for for royalty. She brought... a single pillow for herself to sit on.

*fit for royalty

Someone I used to work with who was wealthy and a lovely guy, but he was well known for being a meany. He told me once that he took the batteries out of his clocks when he left for work in the morning, when he got home he would put them back in and reset the time!

My brothers partner is very tight, when her first child was born 15 years ago I went out and bought some outfits from Debenhams for the baby, when my first son was born 2 years later I got a card and a balloon, we met up with them in a shop a couple of weeks later and my brother picked up a teddy for my son, she gave him this sideways glare and he put it back. When my twins were born 4 years ago, (2 days after her birthday) I didnt even get a card, she came down collected her birthday card held one of the twins and then went, her sister is currently pregnant and she has bought her a brand new pram.

I used to work in a pub where the manger would fine us for phoning in sick and make us bring our own toilet paper

My DM and her friends would go out for food occasionally, her one friend would always insist on taking the payment up to the waiter after everyone had put their payment and tips together. Turns out it was because she would use everyone's tip to pay towards her meal..

My DP was really tight when we first met, I remember once when we hadn't been together long he decided to take me out to the cinema and when we were at the counter buying the tickets, the worker was like that's £20 please.. There was a long pause and my DP just stood there and looked at me waiting for me to pay.. He would also ask for my card when we were out so it would look like he was paying.. He earns more than me! He's actually quite generous now though..