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!

[MsMustDoBetter]

Friends of ours, really do nit pick and often forget all the generous things we have paid for. Makes me feel mean around them as I know we always end up worse off.

[ProfessorPootle]

My flatmate at uni was more of a CF. She'd come out to the students' union and stand by the bar while I ordered a drink then just say she didn't have any money and could only drink tapwater. I fell for it at the beginning and would get her a drink. In 3 years she never once bought me a drink, I bought her a few and then left her with her tap water. Thing was she had rich parents and a Saturday job so was probably the richest student on campus!

She'd also go in my room and help herself to my belongings. Caught her wearing my best white cashmere jumper that my mum had bought me for Christmas, she was painting in the Art Department while wearing it!! I made her take it off there and then. On a night out she told me she had helped herself to my wonderbra, despite being a few sizes smaller than me. Then there was the time I got back to find papers all over my floor. She'd tipped them out of my portfolio as she wanted to borrow it!!

[goldplatedtoilet]

The escalators in the shopping centre story sounds like my prick of a father. He's done many, many things in his time, too many to list.

Some of the highlowlights include:

Making me take a loaf of bread back to the shop because I had brought thick sliced instead of medium sliced. There are 2 extra slices in a medium sliced loaf

Used to take us to funfairs. But only to the outside to look at the funfair. We were never allowed in.

We used to get a can of campbells meatballs as a 'treat' for saturday night tea. Except he used to rinse the gravy out of the tin and add it to the cooking pan. Even now just the thought of canned meatballs makes me heave and I wont have them in the house.

Funny how he always had money for the bookies or cigarettes. And I've been nc with him for many many years now.

[tiredgirl123]

Oh gosh.. my ex..
Would bring drinks to mine (for himself , nothing I would drink )on a weekend then pack up to take home on Monday AM..he would have been eating for free at mine all weekend.
Complained when my kids ate one of his bagels he had left in my cupboard. Again, having been fed with no contribution to the food bill all weekend.
"Borrowed" £3.50 for a chicken meal and only put back £2.50..(he left the drink in my fridge tho, so perhaps that's why?? ) I was too weirded out to ask.
Earned less than me but due to free loading every weekend ( 2 years worth of free washing/food) has managed to save a lot, at my expenses.. yes he is an ex for a reason!!

[PontinPlace]

I am 30 and still get a cheque from my grandfather for my birthday every year...

....for £5

I hasten to add that he is loaded. I am not ungrateful, but honestly in the time it takes me to pay the bloody thing in he might as well have not bothered.

[5foot5]

My ex had a very large windfall 20 years ago and gave up work. A couple of years ago he realised he was running out of money, and got very mean.

This reminds me of someone I knew years ago. I was friends with his SIL and she gave me all the gossip. Apparently when he married his wife was the only daughter of a reasonably well off man and she inherited her father's money. I don't think we are talking millionaire standards here but a tidy sum, enough for the husband to give up work. However, this was only affordable if they were very careful with what they had.

By the time I knew him he was well in to his 60s and was widely known for his tight-wad behaviour. When his brother died (my friend's DH) he had the cheek to ask if she had got rid of his clothes yet and could he have any remaining during the reception after the funeral

[hanahsaunt]

A colleague died suddenly and unexpectedly. Colleague with whom they had worked closely submitted an expenses claim for the 3 mile round trip to the funeral. I remain utterly appalled.

[QuizzlyBear]

My DM. I spent my whole childhood in second hand clothing from the local humble sales. We lived in a village and I was a bit small for my age so this meant that every time I wore a 'new' top one of my friends said 'that was my top, didn't my mum dump that?'

All haircuts were done by my stepdad with kitchen scissors. All birthday and Christmas presents were from the charity shop. All wrapping paper ironed and reused. No holidays that weren't camping in the U.K. I could go on for days...

They retired when he hit 50 and now take frequent long haul holidays, we've never seen a penny from them.

[neveradullmoment99]

Sadly, my ds. He is quite well off in the sense he only has himself, an excellent well paid job and because its abroad pays no tax on it. He came over for a visit and only brought himself without any clothes [he didn't want to pay for luggage] then proceeded to borrow everything from everyone!
He is a lovely boy though and is good in lots of other ways but really!

[Zaphodsotherhead]

XP was tight. Not super super tight to the extent of some on here, but enough to make life feel like a miserable struggle.

So, we'd go into town to shop. When he was staying over at mine, we'd go out, shop, pop into a cafe and have breakfast (I'd pay). When I stayed over at his and we went shopping, he'd look at the menu outside a cafe, say 'robbing cunts' and we'd go home for coffee. He would NEVER willingly put his hand in his pocket, he would just hang back and wait for me to pay. He'd then say 'well, it's tax deductible for you'. Well, some of it might be, but not food, and, critically not his share.

[neveradullmoment99]

He came however with his clothes on ha ha ha....

[DelphicOracle]

Ha - some of these are making me laugh! DH sister is the tightest person in the world - probably squeaks when she walks...

She is not poor at all. Once gave DH a little box of Celebrations for his 30th birthday - wrapped up and posted.... but they were 2 months out of date, so probably left over from her Xmas hall 3 months earlier from the pound shop.
She bough DH step mum a pair of leather trousers from M&S for her birthday - we all though that was really extravagant. Step mum is a size 8 - trousers were a 16 - so she took them back and said they were a gift, she didnt have the receipt but could she exchange for something else. Poor staff at M&S had to tell her they had been bought 2 years earlier in the sale for £2.00 (they could tell from the bar code).

When it was her DF birthday she bought him a "teach yourself golf" VHS. Yes thats right a VHS tape and on the back was a sticker from the British Heart Foundation for a £1....

Thankfully we have nothing to do with her anymore

[neveradullmoment99]

..and I mean everything - phone, money, clothes...

[lyralalala]

Group trip to Barcelona and everyone organised one element of it. Friend J had been before so she organised the travel to the race track. It involved a 5am start the Metro, Train, Bus and a 25 min uphill walk and cost 8 Euros a day...

We discovered on day 3 that she'd opted for that over the option that would have been Metro & Bus (no 25 min walk!) because it was 2 Euros per day cheaper. So for 6 Euros over the weekend we all started ninety mins early and hiked up a huge hill. She also knew that one of our group has a disability that means the hill walk was really, really difficult for them and she didn't even tell them about the other option.

Needless to say she's never been allowed to organise any part of any trip ever again.

[5foot5]

Perhaps the best example I can think of is someone I used to work with. His hobby was car boot sales and he went through a phase of buying second hand electric kettles and then re-conditioning them. He even made himself a special tool to open up one particular brand. I enquired what he wanted with so many kettles and it turned out he gave them as presents. He was at that age where lots of his friends were getting married or buying a first home so they would be presented with one of his kettles as a house-warming or engagement present.

[Daffodil2018]

A girl I used to be friends with once invited a couple of us round for dinner. We turned up with wine etc. We ate whatever it was (fajitas I think) then at the end of the meal she said "ok, you each owe me £2.40 for the food". I thought she was joking and asked if she'd take a cheque ... but she was serious!

The same girl went on to be a management consultant and for a few months on secondment she lived in New York, in an apartment paid for by her company. She only had to pay for her bills and I'm sure was on a six figure salary. She invited people to come and stay with her but would charge them a fixed amount per day towards electricity and water. Like $4 a day or something. Why bother?!

[TheSecretJeven]

I know someone who does a 'sensitivity analysis' on any spending which is at turns amusing or annoying. His house is fully paid up, plus various investments are stashed away so he's not short. He once paid about £8 for a pint in Manchester's Northen Quarter and moaned about it all night. As I often socialise in London, I wanted to tell him to STFU but this would have caused a bad atmosphere so I had to grit my teeth.

[urbansprawl]

Oh yeah, a friend of a friend. His parents have just bought him a house (a whole house) in a fashionable part of London - fine, he's extraordinarily lucky. But being a trust fund beneficiary doesn't fit with his image, so he's pretending that he's saved up for it by being 'frugal'. His frugality includes never buying rounds (but pressuring unemployed friends into doing so); finding thin excuses not to contribute to stag dos (but still turning up and drinking); and turning up to parties with half-drunk bottles of budget vodka, spending the evening drinking whatever nicer drinks are on offer then taking his 'own' drinks home again because nobody will go near them.

He is tight and a CF. He must have a lovely life though!

[MountainDweller]

I had family to stay for a week, two adults and two young children.

Fed them breakfast and dinner every day and some lunches, paid for them to do an activity.

DH had to pay for everyone when we went out for lunch because they had no local currency.

After the lunch I took the husband to the shop because I needed a few bits and they needed nappies and other stuff for the children.

He divided the shopping up (was almost all theirs) and said, don't worry, I'll pay for our stuff.

I was left to pay for a bottle of wine that he drank most of and a food item that their son ate.

I actually didn't realise they (most likely he) were tight until they came to stay.

[Passthecherrycoke]

Oh yes a family member. She is extremely tight in every way, but her wedding was stunning. She send a facebook save the date which included her bank details for cash gifts. Then no invite followed: turned out none of us were actually invited, she was having a tiny ceremony and we were invited later to a “wedding party”.

The wedding party was in a nice community centre. She got cousins to decorate it with pound shop decs whilst she got married and the food was mainly donated by various people. She even had her hair done for free by calling in favour.

The best thing though was how she kept going on about how they were having a wedding to reflect their personalities. It really did, maybe not in the way she intended 😭

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

This is interesting reading.

Some of these, you can almost see that the behaviour has been ingrained, possibly from when they were children, possibly through the war years - when everyone did hoard as much as possible, and spent as little as possible, because you never knew when you were not going to be able to get stuff.
My Dad is a bit like that - he's not poor, but he's not rolling in it either - however to listen to him, he's nearly bankrupt. He definitely was brought up in the war and rationing until 1953 (or whenever it stopped) so it has had a big impact on his mentality around money and "waste".
When we were children, food waste was a big issue - and if anything went mouldy, we just cut the mouldy bits off and carried on. I even remember him washing slimy bacon and then cooking it!

Now he's husbanding resources, because he doesn't know how long he'll live and what money will be needed to "see him out" (he's 86) - but it's to the point where he'll only buy Sainsbury's value everything and whinges if it goes up by 1p.

Some people do make their wealth over jealously guarding every penny though, so it's not a given that my Dad's situation is applicable to everyone else his age.

[Passthecherrycoke]

Oh and I used to work with someone who put pennies in birthday/ wedding/leaving collections. 10p, 20p. Completely understand if you don’t want to contribute at all but her mindset was really odd. If 10 people all put in the same as her the collection would be £1,£2 🤦🏼‍♀️ How can you get a present out of that

[Needadvice12]

My cousin. We use to go for summer drinks at my aunts and my cousin lives over the toad and when she wanted another drink she would go over to her house, get one can of whatever it was she was drinking and come back with it lol no offer to anyone else but she happily had her share of other peoples drinks and shots lol

[Lemonysnicketts]

Ah I can’t resist these threads. My friend is generous to a fault and hosted a bbq especially for her brother and his friends, it’s the sort of person she is. He turned up to the bbq with one beer, for himself, because he was driving. Nothing for anyone else, no hostess gift, no thank you. I have so many examples of his behaviour along these lines.

My best friend’s parents are pretty generous with others she says but not themselves; they reuse teabags, save bath water to flush the toilet, don’t flush it unless it’s been used multiple times and if they have to shower they time it so they don’t waste any water and turn it off when they use shower gel etc. Staying there isn’t much fun as they expect their guests to adhere to these rules and hover to check nobody is showering for too long or boiling the kettle to often or being wasteful with teabags. Don’t even get me started on the heating; or lack thereof. They are of the ‘wear thermals and six jumpers’ generation, never mind your blue fingers and frozen face.

[cricketmum84]

@PontinPlace my step-dads mum sellotapes 2 £1 coins into birthday cards 😂

And she is loaded. Like £1m house loaded.