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!

My aunt is the most CF tightwad in the world. She isn't short of money too.

I play her at her own game now. She used to 'forget' to bring her purse out no matter where we went. She tried it on with every single family member and I made sure they all knew what she was at. It became a running joke in the family that she was going to 'forget' her purse.

The funniest thing now is that she still does it even though her children went NC with her over issues with being a CF including the purse example.

If she doesn't bring her purse We don't offer to buy her lunch, drink, entry fee. We don't offer a penny. She's sat in the car whilst my family attended more events. It happened on Saturday. She knew we were attending a flower show. She needed £5 for the entry fee. She 'forgot' her purse and we left her in the cafe whilst the rest of us went in.

She's not a bad egg otherwise I just don't understand why she does it and how she isn't embarrassed. I am the only person who bothers with her now and she makes it so difficult to want to bring her places.

Friend for 20 years, always skint as a student, I’d buy her drinks so she could come out etc. as she was suffering from depression. Paid for haircuts and colour when she was depressed about how she looked, spa day when having trouble with husband and needed a break, put her and her kids up, feeding, paying for entrance to days out, lunch on days out etc. Arranged cheap hen do (she just had to pay for train ticket) so she could come. Would pay for meal out etc when at hers as a thank you. Last visit she didn’t even bring a bunch of daffodils or cheap bottle of wine (but tucked into my nice stuff). Turns out she has paid off her 500k house. Along with enough other stuff (complete snob, v rude about my DH amongst others as a result), I’ve now cut her out. She got in touch recently wondering if it was on purpose! Sorry I’m not bank rolling you any more!

My DH's (from) work colleague would never buy a round, and when it came to divvying up a meal would order the most expensive and then insist that the bill 'just be split equally as it's easier'. He'd also NEVER put in money for his share of the tip (US). He'd sign cards and 'forget' to put money in the pot for gifts. It was also suspected that he stole loo roll and other household products from work, but no one ever caught him at it.

At work potlucks his 'contribution' was always a bag of (day old) rolls or some cheap paper plates. Then he'd be the first through the line to load up his plate as well as a good sized plastic container for 'seconds' which he'd take home for him and his wife. Once, they had a meal catered in by a contractor. There was a delicious pasta dish that had big grilled prawns across the top of it. He dished his portion by taking the serving spoon and pretty much just scraping across the top of the dish so he ended up with about 3/4 of the prawns on his plate and his 'seconds' container. All breathed a sigh of relief when this guy took another job. And yes, it's their fault for never calling him on it!

DH is now retired and the 'crew' (mostly retired) now gets together for monthly lunches drinking sessions. This person has now moved back into our area and someone mentioned to him about the lunches. DH told the crew that if they invite him it will have to be separate checks as he has no intention of subsidizing him.

My MIL. Mentioned once in passing I hadn't once been able find some cheap zoo animals for something. About a year later she messaged and said she was in a 60p shop (in another country, like poundland but obvs cheaper), did the kids still want some zoo animals? I said no it's ok, thank you, she got them anyway. Sent DH a bill for 60p. She does stuff like this all the time, or did, but we deliberately only see her once a year now so it's not an issue anymore.

(former), not (from)

My uncle’s wife is inexplicable. They regularly eat at my gran’s house with their kids, come empty handed and stuff themselves, and leave without helping to clean up. If my gran asks them to stop by the shop, even if it’s just a few quid she asks for the money. When gifts are being exchanged at family gatherings she leaps on them but rarely brings anything. They’re both lawyers but for some reason they are incredibly venal ( driven by her as he was normal before her). Here’s the worst one. When my gran was in hospital a few years ago with pneumonia they had someone come and value her house behind her back. There are no words.

I used to work with the niece of a very famous comedian. She told me that after being engaged for many years, her uncle’s fiancée was diagnosed with terminal cancer. When she had to go into hospital for the last time, she asked him to buy her a new nightdress, so he went to a department store in town. The shop assistants buzzed round him, showing him beautiful negligees and nighties they, but he told them he wasn’t going to pay a lot for something that wasn’t get to get worn much and bought the cheapest one they had!

I have a relative who stopped sending me cards & gifts; instead, she sent me free e-cards.

I carried on sending her real cards & gifts for years, then I wondered if I was actually embarrassing her & decided to follow her lead. I sent her a free e-card & no gift.

Guess what I got next time round? A plain email wishing me happy birthday! So it wasn't just about being tight, it was about making sure she got more from me than I got from her. We no longer communicate.

I once worked for a man with 2 sons. The family had plenty of money but, when Son 2 asked for a Scaletrix track for Christmas, my boss wrapped up Son 1's track and gave it to him. He also invited a few of us to his house. At the time, we were earning about £11k and year and he would have been on about £80K. He asked us to bring a takeaway with us...

My ex- friend had to ghost unfortunately.

Didn't shower after gym due to cost of utilities. Took her shoes off at my house ( pair of ballet flats ) and I'd never seen so many vivid colours inside a pair of shoes before.... orange, bright green & yellow smudges what I can only presume was mixed sweat, fungus etc you get the idea. GRIM she didn't have any feet problems that I was aware of, it was just a case of the shoes were years past their expiry date. Said friend stayed at mine rent & charge free for 2 month, gloated about 'rent' money she had saved from paying relative & also petrol monies saved from staying at mine then proceeded to put her hand out( whilst staying cost free in my house ) for £20 gym membership reimbursement that neither of us had attended that month ( she paid the full direct debit cost & i agreed I would pay my share in cash monthly which I always did ) The tight wad didn't think about the hundreds i'd saved her in letting her stay at mine cost free. I also came home from work to find her wearing a hoodie of mine as she was 'saving on washing her own stuff that she needed to take on holiday ' - so it's ok to cause me extra washing then : / Oh she also proceeded to use my gym water bottle presumably so she didn't have to buy her own I guess!

Said friend had thousands in bank, yes she was saving for a reason but neither a shower, new pair of ballet flats, or washing her jumper would have broken her bank.

Lots more examples of tight-wad-ness & taking the piss so I just stopped replying to her messages one & that was the end of that

This is outing but sod it. Longish story but relevant. My dad has his own biz, he supplies equipment let's say. He supplied approx. 2k worth of stuff to a business which received the goods then went bust, the guy owning it set up a new biz a week later under a different name and my dad lost out. Small family business, we weren't flush, but he's worked hard and does alright now.

Some years later I got a part time job for a woman who was a friend's mum's friend. A cleaning and laundry business. Let's call her K. She paid us, my friend and I, less than the legal min wage because neither of us drove, so she would drive is from one house to the next. The houses we cleaned were away from decent bus routes, all spread apart, big expensive houses (she only worked for rich people). So she drove us from one to the next (we were about 18 - neither of us could afford driving lessons, never mind cars, and I was at uni so already scrimping). Fair enough, I thought. K decided to go on holiday, leaving us without transport. She paid her stepson to do the driving work for us. She paid him a proper wage. She still paid us less than minimum wage, but told us we had to also pay him for the lifts. I refused, and left the job. She docked my last pay slip the amount.

Her stepson's Dad was the guy who had ripped off my Dad's business years back. She had set up the entire enterprise using his money. He was rich as fuck, so was she once she married him. The funniest part was when I told her to stick her job, she tried to ask me what had happened to the nice version of me. She told me she thought my boyfriend was corrupting me. Not that she was a tight bitch and that I was able to figure that out all by myself.

A place I used to work. Had a Christmas do each year. Nothing fancy, just in the office after hours. Everyone would bring either food or drink. The lovely Barbara would bring the same thing every year. A large bottle of water, half full, that she would clutch all evening and drink from while with her other hand she grabbed all she could eat from the buffet provided by everyone else. It became a joke after the first few years. I wonder what Barbara will bring tonight? Oh there’s a surprise. Half a bottle of water.

I have a travel ticket due to the carers benefit I'm on. Around about 5 years ago when my sister was living at home, I wasn't using the ticket so my sister used to take it and get free travel. We look alike being twins.

She had a large box of cornflakes in the cupboard. One night I got peckish and the cornflakes looked irresistible so I helped myself to a bowl. I helped myself to another bowl another night after that too. They were lovely with cold milk.

A few days later my sister started a racket and a storm over the corner flakes. I didn't know she was weighing the box of cornflakes after every time she had a bowl. She weighed the box of cornflakes and noticed it was considerably down in weight. To make her point she took my porridge and poured it all down the bin because I had some cornflakes. And yet every single week I was saving her money on travel expenses because she was travelling on my card.

I wonder if tight people actually realise or recognise that they're tight? In my experience they are usually quite angry people, always on the lookout for being "done" by others, when it's usually them that's doing it!

A lot of these 'tight' people are thieves.Who steal from friends and family.

When I was a student nurse, there was one girl who drank half a lager when it was her round and brandy and babycham (it was the 80s) when someone else was paying. She would also do the nipping to the toilet thing when it was her round. She'd never chip in for a takeaway but would still eat the food. She'd help herself to buffet food at parties and put it in tupperware containers to take home. When we all passed our finals, she'd saved enough money to use as a deposit for her first house. We got invited to her wedding and she was one of the first people (again in the 80's when buying a rolling pin/set of towels/biscuit barrel was the norm for wedding gifts) to ask for cold hard cash. Bless her, I lost contact with her years ago, but I bet she hasn't changed.

Some people I know are very tight with money. They all seem to be big fans of re-gifting presents and gifting free samples. Christmas is a real joyful occasion with the tatty Christmas tree on broken stand, string with only a few bits of tinsel still attached, lights from the seventies with most of the bulbs gone and the scavenger hunt for the smallest possible turkey. It's almost a competition into who can spend the least. There's a lot of judgemental crap about gluttony, people going overboard and spending silly amounts on their children.

Does any child in the UK actually get just an orange, torch and gloves and scarf these days?

FIL died about 10 years ago. DH had to deal with paperwork as it was very sudden. There was over a million in the bank. And their children remembered being hungry.

Omg! I hope it wasn't all just sitting there in a current account, or she'll be losing money on it...

I used to work with someone whose inlaws were always pleading poverty. When the 2nd died and her DH was sorting out the will etc, they discovered that they were multi-millionaires. They'd been trading in stocks and shares, very successfully, for over 25 years and were quite literally worth millions. They had 3 sons, and they inherited over a mill apiece.

But they'd lived in a house that hadn't had anything done to it for over 30 years, they never went away and all their clothes were patched and darned.

I don't get the point of money, unless you spend it. What's the fun of leaving it in the bank? Unless you're saving for something specific.

Worse than that - the pil always pleaded poverty. I can't tell you some of the presents we received, but one year we hosted them (as usual) for Christmas and their entire contribution was a (cheap) box of crackers, with two carefully extracted for their use at new year.

Anyway, when the pil had to enter a nursing home bil was flabbergasted to find that they had half a million in their current account, and a house etc. Do you know how much we inherited? After a few years of nursing home fees and the funerals - well, I think we got £2k each.

My ex

He has his dad cut his hair to
Save £6 at the barbers
Also, we went away for my birthday once and had to leave a day early due to a damaged building. The fucker wouldn't pay for a b&b room and made us sleep in his car in a Tesco car park for one night in November.

He has his dad cut his hair to
Save £6 at the barbers

what's wrong with that? Barbers is £12 to 15 here, if you go every couple of weeks, that's what, £300 a year? Pocket money for some, but it all adds up.

There was a now ex-friend who only took her taxi fare home with her on a night out. She was attractive and was happy to just walk up to guys and ask them to buy her drinks before just walking off once she had received said drink. In the absence of any blokes to buy her drinks she would just expect the group she was with to subsidise her evening. She would always try to share taxis home even if the person lived in the totally opposite direction without ever offering to pay for her fare. I eventually called her out on it one evening and she turned on the water works and tried to turn it around on me for 'being mean' to her. By this stage she was just taking the piss like ordering cocktails and champagne on someone else's tab. She was a lawyer for a magic circle firm in the city and easily earned way more then most of us. Can't believe we were mugs for so long

In general I'm a bit right myself but not with my family. I've just spent £50 on trousers and two tops for ds.

All organic too

You will find my Father in the Whoops section of the supermarket or alternatively he will be impatiently tailing some poor supermarket employee with the yellow stickers waiting for them to go on. If there is items the stickers arent on yet he will ask them to be applied as it's almost out of date or hot food that has been out too long (yes he looks at the tiny time on the front to say when it went out.)
He will refuse to go out for a coffee or tea or drinks as apparently he can have it at home cheaper and he isnt 'paying those prices.' He will go to buffets where you're supposed to bring a dish and eat food others have brought yet bring no contribution himself or if he does it'll be the cheapest thing on the buffet. He will come over to mine and proclaim he is starving and have me running around after him pregnant making him drinks and meals and yet when I go to visit him he never has anything in despite having plenty of notice that I was coming over. I have to bring my own drinks or snacks and food for my toddler as he wont get anything for us despite living next door to a huge cheap supermarket.
This man is very well off and has plenty of money, alot more than I do and yet he behaves like he is on his last penny and like everybody else is loaded!
He is the biggest tight wad I have ever known.