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!

Spot on, Irma. Skint is not the same as tight.

Nana and uncle (her son) - got fish and chips today, as he offered to get them while he was visiting. Thought it would be a nice treat so agreed, only for him to announce at teatime that he would have to get the money from us for our portions. Him and nana are both rolling in it (enough money to gut and renovate a house while still living in another) - probably because of being tight fuckers, but still.
I'm perfectly fine with reimbursing people when I've asked for them to buy me something, or paying for my share, but I'm of the opinion that if it's not a treat, you should make it clear you'll want the money back BEFORE it's paid for. Give people a chance to say no thanks, at least!

Ooh, I've just remembered a housemate. We shared food and cooking for various reasons including a tiny kitchen. I did the weekly shop and she would insist on splitting it down to the last penny, including remembering who'd paid more the previous week if it hadn't split evenly. This wouldn't have bothered me too much cos neither of us were earning loads and we lived in London but she eat so much food. On one memorable occasion I got home from work and said "I'm going to have a piece of toast and a cup of tea then do my marking" to discover she'd eaten a whole loaf of bread in a day plus most of the jars of jam and peanut butter making pb&j sandwiches. Another time she ate every chocolate biscuit in the house. She never seemed to care or apologise that I was funding her excessive eating. In the end I started buying snacks, hiding them in my back pack and sneaking them into my room but including them on our shared bill in order to actually get some. Probably should have just stopped splitting the bill and nowadays I would say something about it but I was young and stupid.

Tightest person I know is my ex best mate who turned up and my house on several occasions with a bottle of wine, drank 2 bottles of my wine and then took her bottle home with her. Soon learnt to hide the wine when she turned up.

When we lived in a military environment overseas we used UK stamps for post, pre electronic days, we wrote letters! A very very tight colleague read than the Post Office were promoting books of 12 stamps with a 13th one free. He was delighted with this bargain, he phoned his mother in the UK to go and buy him a book and send it to him. The fact that she had to use a stamp to send them was lost on him.
Someone else used to go shopping with a friend, if they got a 2 for 1 offer she thought she should always have the 'free' one.
Two well paid colleagues had an arrangement where they took it in turns to bring tea and milk to work. The one whose turn was that week had the first dip of the tea bag, they never used two!

Some of these stories are priceless. I'm almost ashamed that I've never encountered this Olympic level tightness in person.

My bil lives abroad and when he visits here he doesn’t bring any currency, so unless he can put it on a credit card he won’t buy it. So far, so reasonable. Except he doesn’t want to take your cash either so you can’t get him to buy a round and put it on his card and you give him the cash for yours, no, you end up paying for his drink. And his takeaway, and his restaurant meal, no cash you see!

My fiancé's older brother without a doubt. There are SO many stories, but my favourite is heating. He would let his body temp drop into the minus before turning his heating on. When he started seeing his current gf, she wanted the heating on sometimes because...it was cold. Just the odd occasion she was visiting his flat. AND HE CHARGED HER FOR THE HEATING SHE USED. They're still together,you couldn't make it up 😂😂

my sil ex never bought a round once walked out after a meal before everyone else so he didnt pay and used to come round my mil for dinner every night without being invityed-it made my sil start behaving this way

i dont know why noone ever said anything

Where do you draw the Tight Line?

To me, frugal is behaviour towards yourself - in others' opinions it comes across as either funny, quirky or fashionable.

Mean is behaviour to other people that they are too polite to call theft. Or abuse.

It's an awful truth that meanness isn't linked to money in the bank. Mean with money, mean with love ain't a cliche for nothing.

Will check through the thread to see if she’s here already and definitely tight not skint.....

• orders & only pays for side dish, shares everyone’s meal inc single & actually skint people & refuses to share cost.
• reg visits food bank whilst holidaying 5+ times a year.
• avoids playgroup subs - £1!!!!
• Takes a card to parties to put on top of the pile of presents - has actually stated hope that one of the presents is confused as her contribution (wasn’t joking).

Goddamn that feels cathartic.

I was babysitting fro a friend just a few weeks ago - she texted me when she was on her way home and asked if I wanted anything from McDonald's as she was going on the way back. 'Oh yes please, just a cheeseburger and medium fries' I replied then say rather excited about being delivered a McDonald's after midnight

She got back sorted through the food with her DH in the kitchen then brought mine through in the bag, handed me the receipt and said that will be £xxx (can't remember cost) please but don't worry if you didn't bring cash, just bank transfer me

Speechless I was, speechless. I drove home with my burger and chips and DH ate it in the end as I was so stunned I couldn't talk let alone eat

Yeah, if in your own home you want to use teabags several times and put your coat on rather than turn the heating on, that's your business. If you want to bring a sandwich rather than go to even a cheap caff on a day out, that's your business. It's only a problem when you are expecting other people to fund you while you have more than enough money to fund yourself.

I use to have this one friend..... who never paid for anything. She would invite you to lunch order for herself and then disappear when I ordered...which made me foot the bill each time. She did this to my boyfriend at the time too!!!! (Now husband and he still brings up that he bought her lunch three times before realizing she was a twat lol)
We were flat mates for six months. She worked made her own hours and literally worked the BARE minimum to pay her bills which was like 10 hours a week. She literally would have her mummy pay her way sometimes so she could get fast food and go on trips but only wanted to work enough hours to pay rent and utilities and grocery.

Meeting my husband was what made me realize how crap of a friend she was. We are no longer friends.

He's so tight about spending money on his own house that no building work has been done on it for 30 years, and the window frames are so rotten you can see daylight through the bits where there should be wood. I wouldn't be surprised if one just fell out onto the garden below.

He rarely buys new clothes, and for several months walked around with trousers that had a large rip in them. There was another incident where he had an accident, had one trouser leg cut off by the ambulance, and then sewed it back on again. My local Big Issue seller is routinely much better dressed than him.

Friend used to ‘manage the kitty’, when we went away on trips, until another of our group rumbled that the money always p seemed to be too much - we realised her managing the kitty was essentially a way for the rest of us to subsidise her share of bills and she had never paid in.
Same friend, we went for a meal and one of our group didn’t have the exact money for his share. So he overpaid, even including the agreed tip. When the waitress bought back the change, someone else said he could take his change now. Never mind, he said, they can have a bigger tip, the service has been excellent. Tight friend then took the overpayment for herself and said it would cover petrol money for the evening - she was driving him home, but he lives en route from the restaurant to her house!
Same friend, when she hosts us all, tells us exactly what food she needs us to bring, and if we say we can’t bring that (for example, bringing chicken, but we’re out all day and it will be dodgy by the time we get there), says never mind, I’ll get it and you can give me the money back.
She also refused to loan a friend 20p when she was short on a bus fare. Made her get off two stops early and walk the last part of the journey home.
She’s well-off, owns her home outright in a yummy mummy part of London, buys expensive clothes, car never more than a couple of years old, multiple holidays a year.
We are still friends with her, but her behaviour has changed over the last few years. We are not afraid to call her out now (in a non-confrontational way). She has kids now, and her husband is a very kind and generous man, so suspect it is his influence as much as anything. We still laugh about it now though.

I'm so sad I've reached the end of this thread. A lot of these aren't being tight but being abusive.
The only one I can think of is when we had a staff night out and I had just had my 3rd baby in under 3 years so things were very tight. I drove and picked up 3 of the ladies I worked with which was out of my way by quite a distance. The first annoying thing was that not one of them was ready when I arrived so waiting about then when we got to the restaurant I ordered a coke and salad from the starter menu because of the prenentioned lack of funds plus it was an Italian and I don't each cheese or cream. The 3 ladies I had collected had 3 courses and multiple (at least 4 each) cocktails. When the bill comes one of them calculated the cost of us all sharing the bill. They wanted £25 off me for food and drink that had totalled less than £8!
I sat there stunned and no one said a bloody word. I didn't pay it as that would have been taking food out of my babies mouths. I told them I wouldn't pay nearly 3 times the actual cost because of the drinks they had had. I took the receipt and said we will work out what everyone had actually spent and then we can all add to a tip.
They were so pissed off and one said that then she wouldn't have much money for their planned night out on the town.
It changed my view of them all, I didn't even get a thanks for the lifts.
We all worked in a bank and were well bloody paid.

My bil lives abroad and when he visits here he doesn’t bring any currency, so unless he can put it on a credit card he won’t buy it. So far, so reasonable. Except he doesn’t want to take your cash either so you can’t get him to buy a round and put it on his card and you give him the cash for yours, no, you end up paying for his drink. And his takeaway, and his restaurant meal, no cash you see!

I can't figure this out?

I don't get that either, CharityDingle. Most takeaways and restaurants take cards, even splitting bills if that's wanted.

After we moved into our house I invited some old school friends over for a bit of a house warming. We'd moved into the countryside so were about a 30 minute drive away from them. They turned up in taxi's as they wanted to have a drink. They brought a few drinks with them but we provided fizz, food etc. When it came to leaving, not only did they suggest we pay for the taxi back (we didn't!) they took the drinks that they had brought, but we hadn't drunk, back with them, half a bottle of wine and a can of beer!!

I invited my sister and family over for Christmas Day once, asked her to contribute by bringing drinks and a pud. She brought 2 cans of coke from a multi pack and a vienetta.

you end up paying for his drink. And his takeaway, and his restaurant meal, no cash you see!

More fool you then. He wouldn't get so much as a glass of water from me after the first time he pulled that stunt. 'I have no cash!' 'Of course you don't, you tight arse. That's your ploy to get everyone else to pay for you. Guess you're not coming out with us then, it's cheeky AF to expect others to pay for you.' Then you buy him nothing.

@Dilligaf81 I once went to a friend's wedding and chose to drive as I couldn't afford a taxi home (20 miles, no bus/ train route nearby). A mutual friend came to talk to me and brought up the fact that she lived near me and could she have a lift back? I'd never met her before and was a bit but thought ok, it's only 10 minutes out of my way. Cue her knocking back the drinks all evening and not buying me a single one - a £2 Coke would still have been much, much cheaper than a taxi back!

After I dropped her off she suggested that we stay in touch. I didn't bother.....

for 8 years I invited DHs family over for Christmas day and they never so much bought a bottle of wine. I purchased all the food, table gifts, peoples preferred alcohol, cheeses and deserts and PIL, BILs & SILs never offered help or brought a bottle. It came to a head when SIL complained 2 years ago that I had bought Sainsburys cheesecake instead of M&S like previous years and said "standards are slipping". . We now have a quiet Christmas while they fight amongst themselves about who is cooking. They look at going for a meal, kick off about the prices between one another and fight for 6 months. Its amazing to watch.

Another one is a school mum. Our DC are friends (I cant abide the woman but her DC is very sweet). 5 years ago when our DC were in reception she arrived at my DCs full class party and loudly declared "ooh, youve packed them in here havnt you - made your money back in gifts and got your monies worth!" . This was not my intention and 30 boxes of lego and plastic tat did not "make my money back". Everyone had heard so I was mortified they would think this was why they were invited. She then handed me a card and said "I havnt had time to go to the cash machine so the card is empty. I can go now if you want?" and looked at me. Already feeling grabby from her comment i said "Oh, dont worry about that". So she didnt bother. She then has pulled it EVERY year since at my DCs parties. She also does it to other parents I later found out. After the first 2 times I began just looking back at her and saying "whatever you want to do" out of sheer principal. She would then flounce off and make a big scene about how she would have to leave her DC under my supervision then while she went. No problem, hes busy doing the various party activities. She would then return with £10 and practically throw it at me.

I use to have this one friend..... who never paid for anything. She would invite you to lunch order for herself and then disappear when I ordered...which made me foot the bill each time. She did this to my boyfriend at the time too!!!! (Now husband and he still brings up that he bought her lunch three times before realizing she was a twat lol)

No she didnt make youfoot the bill.After the first time you pay for yourself only.Plus the lol at the end of your sentence says it all.

My ex years ago was on £60k to my £24k, I was struggling to keep on my house on after splitting with Ex-H, which had a £160k mortgage, to my boyfriend's £23k mortgage.

He never officially moved in, but due to us living 15 miles apart and me having a bigger house and two dogs, he spent more time at mine than me at his.

Admittedly, he could be generous when it came to socialising, he liked the finer things in life, wore designer clothes, love liked nice meals, drove a classic Porsche and I obviously couldn't afford to dine out, or go for fancy cocktails to the extent he liked to, so he'd pick up the tab 2/3 of the time so as to not miss out.

But when back at mine, I ended up paying for food shopping for both of us.

After a while he pretty much lived with me and his job enabled him to work from home as and when he pleased.

Rather than paying to commute to Canary Wharf, working from home saved him a lot of money on trains and he often only went into the office twice a week. The rest of the time, I'm at work and he's working from home, from my house.

Before long, my utility bills and shopping bills really started to increase. I was starting to struggle and he never offered me a bean. So I asked him to start contributing financially. He said he shouldn't have to, as he still had a mortgage to pay!

His mortgage was less than £280 a month to my £700 and inevitably his utility bills dropped massively as he was never at his house. Plus he was saving a lot on train fares as when he DID go to the office, my house was nearly 20 miles closer to London.

After lots of heated discussion, he started to give me £300 a month from his £2k disposable income, but begrudgingly so. You could see his face contort and mouth gnash as he handed over the money to me. He resented it massively.

He kept 'forgetting' to set up a standing order, even when I asked him to do so as some months he'd 'forget' to give me any money, which resulted in me having to constantly ask, making me feel like I was begging him for money. I told him as much that it made me feel like shit have to constantly ask him for the cash.

The salt in the wound was getting in from work most nights to find him in his PJs still at gone 5pm, sat on the sofa, laptop on his knees, drinking rum cocktails(!), with every light on and the TV blaring.

I ended up ending it. But we did limp on for three years! I'm older and wiser now, and in a much better paid job. My DP earns £28k less than me, but I only charge him £400 towards bills and take the lion's share of bills, pay for holidays and 2/3 of socialising, mainly as I'm able to and as he's generous and we don't tend to view our money as HIS and MINE. It's OURS and we've never fallen out, especially not over money.