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!

Someone I used to be friends with (X) did something with a girl (Y) (dinner, drinks, can't remember) and Y let her know at the end that she owed her 25p but it was ok because she could give it to her the next time she saw her! Y earned more than X too.

I have an ex-friend who never puts the heating on, so if you go to her house you have to keep your coat on. Never heats the water as she has a heated shower and uses kettle for hot water. She and her husband are on decent wages but she has always be known for being tight (since childhood). She very much wears the trousers in her marriage and although her husband has hinted about the heating, he absolutely would not dare make a fuss.

She uses emotional blackmail to strong arm friends into making her godmother to their children and then pays her godchildren no attention whatsoever other than buying really cheap crappy presents (few pounds, less than £5) at Christmas. She will justify this by saying that as she has so many godchildren then she cannot spend a lot on them (has less than 10 and is not in contact with all of them) or, if the godchildren have siblings, that it wouldnt be fair to give one child in the family a nice present but not the others.

She can be a CF and pushy and will try engineer invites to friends and friends of friends houses for holidays, but will not expect to reciprocate or even ask them in for a cup of tea if they are nearby.

My last straw with her was when her SS was struggling living with his mum and sister and wanted to come and live with his dad (due to distance he would come to stay with them about 2 weeks a year). SS stayed a few days over Christmas and she told me that they made it really miserable to discourage him, including not opening all their presents when he was there. They also delayed their wedding by about 6 years so that her salary would not be taken into account with child support.

Despite being close childhood friends, I haven't had anything to do with her for years, cannot bear the selfishness and tight gittedness that was becoming more rampant.

This is just the tip of the iceberg - there was loads more.

@flyingspaghettimonster why didnt you just pay for yourself.And let the other person sort out their bill.

This thread is making me recall so many things! Just remembered an ex boyfriend who was training in Glasgow for his grad-type job, all found bar alcohol, in a hotel. I travelled up to see him by train from London (didn't know about budget airlines then) and when I arrived, he took me to his room then disappeared to eat his supper in the restaurant as that was paid for by his company. When he came back to the room afterwards, he complained about me using the hot chocolate sachet on the hospitality tray. In the morning he rushed me to the station to catch the train to Edinburgh, so no breakfast either. Easy to say in hindsight but now I'd have followed him down to the restaurant for my supper instead of waiting obediently in his room.

I was seeing a guy I met online, maths teacher from Bristol, let’s call him Terry, cos that’s his name 😁. He insisted on splitting everything down the middle, to the last penny. Stressed how important it was to him. We went for a takeaway, his card wouldn’t work so I paid thinking I’d pay for food he could get hotel, there was a difference but he earnt about 3-4 times as much as I did without a lot of the financial responsibilities of rent and mortgage eg.

While we stood waiting for food he worked out the exact split and transferred it to my account then asked for my half of the hotel but I don’t have online banking so said I’d do it the next day but forgot. He chased me for two days for £25.

My Mums ex used to fill up his bathtub with kettles of boiling water rather than turn the hot water on. Ironically worked out more expensive and time consuming!

Another guy I knew used to know years back used to insist on sharing a takeaway cup of coffee from Greggs with his wife rather than buy one each or drink indoors , he was absolutely loaded.

I have a mate who will always try to explain why we shouldn't leave a tip on any restaurant bill. Will often to try and invent reasons why we shouldn't pay it. We always override that though!

We all went to stay at her house for the weekend, paying long distance train tickets to get there - when we arrived, there was almost no food or drink in the house. No juice for breakfast, half a carton of milk, no snacks or booze. Me and another mate got up early on the Saturday and went to buy loads of food and drinks - just everyday stuff like bread and coffee! No word of giving us any cash for it.

Thing is, she's a wonderful, wonderful person in practicality every other way, so we forgive it all. Just really bloody tight!!!

My ex once charged me £10 petrol money to visit my Gran in hospital after breast cancer surgery (it was before I could drive) Bearing in mind the hospital was only a 15 minute drive away. When we were leaving my lovely granda, who always slips us something, gave my ex £10 for petrol. When I asked him if I could get my tenner back, he refused! The prick made a profit from visiting my sick Granny!

(haven't you noticed how all tightwads get dementia)

How horribly horribly offensive.

KnickerBockerAndrew

Offensive maybe

True though

Oh this is easy. Going out with friends whilst a student at university. We all ordered main courses but my friend was the only one who ordered dessert. She asked me to try so I took 1 teaspoon full of it, no more than that, and when the bill came she charged me for the 1 teaspoon!!!

6 of us lived together in a house in my 2nd year at university. We agreed to take turns buying “household essentials” like milk, loo roll and cleaning products, which we’d then all share.

I shared with three others and, because I was the one with a car and who would actually bother to remember to do it I offered to get the communal things in if we had a 4-way weekly kitty to cover them. This was things like coffee, milk, toilet roll etc, but it gradually expanded into other foodstuffs we all ate. It turned into me having to go out three or four times a week (people would use something up and not think to tell me, only moaning later on when I hadn't kept it in stock). I never factored my petrol costs and my time in to it, but these really mounted up.

One of them was great - handed his share over immediately when asked and actually thanked me for getting the stuff (not that I expected this) and regularly asked me if I was sure that was enough to cover it all. He was also the one who hardly used any of it anyway and seemed to live on fresh air.

The other two really resented my doing them such a regular favour. With the mission-creep of what it included, the kitty amount had had to rise, but it ended up that I often subbed it extra myself as I knew they'd complain if it went up another 50p - so I was quite a bit out of pocket.

They still continued to suggest that I must be making quite a tidy sum, pocketing the (negative amount) difference between the actual cost of the 'few bits' (most of our staple foodstuffs and household supplies) and the 'huge' amount I 'charged' them each week. In order to offset my 'ripping them off', they decided that they'd make sure they got better value for their money - drinking multiple pints of milk each day that they probably didn't even want, inviting groups of friends around for meals using our house food supplies and taking some of the communal foodstuffs to their bedrooms to reserve for themselves.

Until I finally put an end to it (which made me feel bad for the nice housemate - he was generous to a fault and always more than paid his way, but useless at shopping or remembering to get any food in; I once saw him buy and eat a dozen-pack of chocolate mini-rolls and nothing else for his evening meal), it was costing me a tidy sum, but they were still convinced it was a racket and that I was coining it in. I think they believed I finally ended it because they'd seen through my little scheme and thwarted my fiendish deeds; they seemed to have no idea at all that it was because of their tightwad CF-ery.

She's not tight because she buys extravagant things for herself she just begrudges spending on others... that's just selfish.

My friend is like this. She thinks nothing of upgrading her car every 5 years and paying £200-£250 per month but complains about paying £2 to park or spending more than £5 for a lunch date.

She also thinks nothing of spending £100 on an outfit but still complains she has no money.

I don't care to be honest, it's her life and her money so I just ignore her behaviour now.

Last year though I paid for us to have afternoon tea as a Christmas surprise (we were due to meet for lunch anyway) and she complained about having to pay for parking: needless to say I made my feelings clear.

Many years ago I was out of work and thanks to an ex running off owing money he'd spent, was paying off bailiffs each week. I'd pay them and have maybe a tenner left to last me the week before food.

My mum had paid in advance for driving lessons and a test a year before for my birthday. It cost her a lot and was a really generous gift.

I was booked to take my driving test one day and my lift's car broke down so he couldn't get me to the test centre. I called a friend in a panic as it was an emergency and I needed a lift. She told me I'd need to pay for fuel. Working out the mileage I knew it would cost less than a fiver to which she agreed to. I handed my only £20 note to her at the petrol station making sure she knew to take a fiver for the fuel. Getting back in the car she told me she put £20 fuel in and would give me the cash back when she got to an ATM. Upon arriving there was a car park charge which she told me to pay for. Fine. That's understandable. So I gave her the £1.80 I'd had in change. I passed my test and came out. I needed a drink and had about £1 left. Knowing I was due £15 change from my friend so that I could pay for my gas that week and some food I went to buy a drink. She told me to pick her one up too as she'd driven me there. Again, she didn't pay.

We got back and she didn't give me the money but said I'll pop back with it. I borrowed a neighbour's phone the following day and called her. She put her boyfriend on who said laughing, "Fuck off, she's not a taxi!" And put the phone down.

I spent the next week with no heating or hot water and I had a bag of potatoes and two frozen chicken breasts in (and thanks to passing my test, a driving license which eventually enabled me to get a job). This was the days before online banking so it's not like I could have phoned or texted my mum for financial help even if I did have a telephone.

I never spoke to that friend again. She knew I was poor and hungry. She knew that was my gas and food money whereas she lived with her parents and was quite well off.

A relative of mine was notorious for watching the pennies. He was like a less generous English version of Tam from Still Game.

He once explained that he turned the pilot light in his boiler off every night and then re-lit it the following morning. He'd calculated that this would save £1.62 per year and he was genuinely astonished that most people couldn't take the trouble to add two extra tasks to their already-busy days to save half a penny a day.

My family and his were at the seaside on holiday once and his young son was desperate for a go on something in the amusements that cost 10p a go. He grudgingly gave the lad 5p and he put it in a different machine, having the luck to double it so that he now had the 10p he originally wanted. Until his dad asked for his 5p back. They also stood outside in the pouring rain sharing 2 small bags of chips between 6 of them rather than pay the very reasonable prices to sit in the no-frills cafe.

He was aghast at the family phone bill, in the days when you had to pay for all individual calls - probably no higher than an average family phone bill back then - so first he got a lock for the family's phone handset (remember the old ones with a dial?!) and made all the children and his wife ask him to use the key to unlock it. Their needs for using the phone would be interrogated and frequently denied. Later on, fed up with the entirely self-imposed hassle to him, he hit upon the idea of swapping it altogether for a pay phone! Again, he kept the override code to himself and made his wife and children stash supplies of coins and sit in their own home feeding them in so as to be able to use the phone. I gather he also set the charged tariff at significantly more than the actual cost of using it, enabling him to be able to make a nice additional profit.

enabling him to be able to - good use of language there!!!

Fuck off, she's not a taxi

A taxi would have been cheaper

I do often wonder what happens if a super-tight person encounters somebody just as bad as (or even worse than) themselves. They're brazenly acting as if what they do is perfectly reasonable whilst knowing all along that their behaviour wholly depends on others not only not being tight but also subsidising them.

If they're beaten to it by somebody else 'going to pay the meal bill' and stealing everybody's tips to score themselves a free meal - or getting to the buffet before them with tupperware boxes three times the size of theirs - do they bow to the expertise of their fellow tightwads, bump fists and show admiration, or do they call out outrageous behaviour shown by somebody else even though the very same behaviour is their own standard operating procedure?

@Oliversmumsarmy had the boyfriend not put the phone down I would have said that too. That day cost me almost £25 when it should have cost about £4 in fuel and £1.80 parking. This was the same girl who pleaded poverty yet owned ponies, the latest fashions, a free car with insurance paid by parents and had a timetable of local pubs and their bargain nights for students on her wall and would be out socialising every single night.

(haven't you noticed how all tightwads get dementia)

How horribly horribly offensive.

It's in no way scientifically provable, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is a correlation. Note that nobody has ever suggested for a moment that everybody who gets dementia has done so because they are a tightwad.

Some of these behaviours must surely be a result of mental ill health. Insisting on splitting a meal bill when you've had the lobster and champagne and they've had the salad and coke is one thing, but the obsessions about saving literally a penny or two which take over and ruin the person's whole enjoyment of life, making them lose all friends they ever make and causing their families to go NC - for the sake of saving £9 over the course of a year to add to the £5m they already have in the bank?

They're demonstrating that they don't actually understand what money is at all, living sad, obsessive lives and often wrecking their kids' childhoods by refusing ever to dip a little into their very sufficient supplies of money, just so that they will die leaving a massive fortune still in the bank. It's referred to as currency, meaning it's designed to flow - otherwise there's no point whatsoever in having it in the first place.

My Dsis. Any family do's would sit there toying with an empty wine glass looking meaningfully at my DH and any other make relies.
Any joint present giving or flowers she would be guaranteed not to tip up her share. Iv learnt now. If she says ' what are we doing about x gift flowers' I just tell Iv already sorted it and paid mine.
At my other Dsis silver wedding party she and her adult daughter arrived with not even a card and then proceeded to try and bum drinks all night.
She once told us that she couldn't afford to buy us all Christmas gifts so she would make us something. Nothing wrong with that at all. Until we saw her in an expensive gift shop buying gifts for her posh friends

Went to a friends house, she offered me a banana. I ate one and she asked for 9p.........

One near Christmas my df called round as usual on a Monday.
On leaving he left a carrier bag behind the sofa with me a quick nod it was the dc's gifts.
After he left I moved the bag to a better hiding place and could tell they were selection boxes.
3
I had 4 x dc.
I rang df and he said he didn't think ds 11 months could eat chocolate!!
Not grabby but df had won life changing amount on the Pools a year or 2 before...
I got a bottle with a label that was addressed to him on - he had gotten from a customer. He was a gardener.

This was the same girl who pleaded poverty yet owned ponies

Are the horses, another common denominator

@FionaOgre that’s awful. Did she ever try contacting you again?

Congrats on passing your test!