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!

Saving butter wraps, or being generally frugal - absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. In fact being profligate is out of fashion .

It's being tight-fisted with others which is the problem. Regarding the dementia thing... there is something in that because I think that old age and certainly dementia magnifies some personality traits, so if someone is quite mean, then when demented they can become manic about saving money, which can spill over into as good as stealing from others. At least this is my experience of mil and fil.

Some of the stuff on here isn't tight it's outright abuse and/or theft.

Same person, two examples.

We went out for a meal with him. Us and two others. We paid and left a small tip. He said he’d pay the rest on his card. He scooped up the lot and paid for his using the tips! Do you know the worst thing, he then CLAIMED FOR HIS MEAL ON EXPENSES!!

My DH, him and 2 mates went to the pub and DH drove so no alcohol. Tight wad is always last to the bar so by the time it was his turn, he’d had 3 pints bought. He asked DH what he wanted and DH said ‘a pint of orange juice’ Tight was said that was too expensive and came back with a half pint of coke! Bear in mind he’d had a free lift to and from the pub from DH.

1 of DH's friends. When a group of us meet up for a party/get-together we all bring some food to share the cost (Jacobs join type thing). When it's our turn in summer we usually hold a BBQ. He will turn up with his 2 kids and a small tub of coleslaw, eat everyone else's food (burgers, sausages, pasta dishes, kebabs) and then try and take the coleslaw back home.
He's not broke, moved 4 times in the last 12 years, each house bigger than the previous one, highly paid job, new cars, multiple holidays a year.

@Figmentofimagination stop inviting him.

Doormat 247...

He was trying to win you back, brought you a box of chocolates and left the receipt on top...
Wow!

I know an MP who is a total skin flint. On one occasion after an election, he invited everyone round to his home for a celebration but then charged everyone £5 entry.

Will be back with some.

I also grew up with an awful mother. I was an unplanned child and she made it very clear that I was an expense she didn't want. Every single item of clothing I wore was a hand-me-down that was often a tatty second-hand purchase originally so was in poor shape when it got to me. Even my underwear was second hand, including my brother's pants if my sister hadn't out grown hers yet. When I was 9 our dad said he was moving back to Australia and I announced I was going with him. My mum put up a bit of a fuss then realised it'd save her money so let me go. My step-mother was so appalled with the state of the few clothes my mother packed for me she immediately took me to the shops to stock a whole wardrobe.
I have minimal contact with my mother these days but she's just as tight except weirdly with her grandchildren. I got a book with the 'buy one get one half price' sticker still on the front for last Christmas but my nieces and nephews had an absolute mountain of presents.
She's another one who begrudges buying coffee or tea in a cafe because she could make one much cheaper at home and would rather go hungry all day than buy a meal. She will re-use a tea bag at least 3 times and makes passive aggressive comments if you use 1 per cup - including in my own home. She was never poor then one of my step-father's left her extremely well off but she refuses to spend any of it.

We had a chuckle about the bloke who asked if dsis would like to go out to dinner. When dsis agreed, he said, "I'll look out for a 2 for 1, then."

The 2for1 didn't transpire, but they met for a pub lunch. He didn't order anything because "he had some brisket in the slow cooker". This was someone who was 40, not 80.

Many years ago when I was at college I paid a friend, who had a reputation for being mean, to look after my children. Despite paying her I found that she gave them nothing to eat all day so I would always send them with food. One day I had a late session at college and sent them to her with some lamb chops and asked her to give them dinner. Later, when I collected them, they told me that they were hungry. I asked if they had eaten dinner and was told that they had had half a sandwich each, cheap white bread spread with dairylea. I asked my girls if the family had eaten with them and was told that they had settled down to a dinner of lamb chops. No guessing where they had come from.
Also, this same person would buy cheap coffee with chickory and re-use teabags. If we ever used the toilet there without fail she would call after whoever was going “2 sheets” just to make sure we didn’t use too much loo roll.

My former boss made Scrooge look generous. He refused to buy his kids (teens) a Christmas tree and told them if they wanted one they have the one out of the office and walk a mile home with it. He didn't allow his wife to have her own money and although she worked in his office he didn't pay her.

Omg if I found out some bastard had eaten my kids dinner, I’d be delivering them lamb chops with laxative, for some extra spice.

I hope you stopped sending them to her @Happyadventurer ?

Transform thats abuse not being tight-as are many of the pp its quite sad really why have children at all

Oh yes, Mephisto, and she was under no illusion why they never went again. I’ll put up with a lot personally but mess with my kids and you risk losing your windpipe!

I’m glad. Sitting down to dinner whilst only giving your kids horrible sandwiches was bad enough, but stealing the lambs chops was just heinous.

Meanness is SUCH an undesirable character trait, I can't help but equate meanness with money to meanness of spirit. I'm sorry for all of you who have been affected by parents/partners/siblings/friends who are this way. My Dad tends towards tightness (he's from Yorkshire after all!) but as a family we just don't stand for it

All of you who married a tight-fisted man, how do you cope with it?
My father was tight and my dm has always told my siblings and I that we should not marry a stingy person as we would be miserable

I agree that meanness with money = meanness of spirit. I know some people have said on this thread, "Oh, X is a lovely person except for their stinginess..." but I can't say I've met anyone who is really tight-fisted who is also a really decent human being. I think that the trait of meanness is allied to jealousy, greed and a good dose of schadenfreude too.

I agree that meanness with money = meanness of spirit. I know some people have said on this thread, "Oh, X is a lovely person except for their stinginess..." but I can't say I've met anyone who is really tight-fisted who is also a really decent human being. I think that the trait of meanness is allied to jealousy, greed and a good dose of schadenfreude too.

My dad and my FIL are polar opposites in terms of this.

My dad is incredibly frugal personally (reuses teabag 3x frugal), but he is generous with money. Gave us 10k for our wedding, after he asked and we said if he must, 5k would be wonderful. Asked incredibly politely that his siblings all be invited to the wedding as my sister didn't invite them all to hers, but said that we mustn't worry if we couldn't accommodate that (we did invite them all).

My FIL - well, I've posted upthread about him. Personally happy to spend on himself but with everyone else is a tight git, clings onto every penny, lies about it, sneers at our things.

@thecatsthecats Your dad sounds ace :)

There's definitely a difference between being frugal, even neurotically frugal, and taking advantage of other people.

I always found this quite interesting about the Getty grandfather during the John Paul Getty kidnapping. Some of the things that came out... if you wrote him a letter, he would reply in the gap above what you had written so as to save paper. He had a pay phone installed in his mansion for guests and hand washed his clothes so he didn’t have to pay for someone else to do it!

An ex boyfriend. Always got laughed at for notoriously never buying rounds, always hovering for other people to. I didn't really notice it overtly when I was with him (we were late teens) but as the years have rolled on he's now 40, living with his parents, with, and I shit you not, 500k in the bank. He literally has zero hobbies, hardly goes out with friends anymore, and just works his guts out. Never been married, no kids, not even a sniff of a girlfriend (or boyfriend).

500k would buy him a fuckoff massive house where he lives. He doesn't even like his parents (or didn't when we were together). Whenever I went over there (rare) nobody would put heating on in an ancient house which was frozen, so I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree!