What is the stingiest thing you've ever done / seen someone do?

[Teadrinker11]

Yourself or someone else, what is the most stingy, mean, miserable thing is that you have ever done or seen someone else do?

[MrsGHarrison87]

And I mean off the plates.

[MrsGHarrison87]

Went to a friend's for dinner. Her husband scraped mine and his wife's leftovers into a tupperware box to take to work the next day for his lunch.

[ilovebagpuss]

Not exactly stingy but what amazes me is people who live almost in poverty and then when they pass away are found to have about 2 million in the bank!
Friend's Aunty was like this ended up in a mediocre but nice enough care home then her will left almost 2 million to charity ! Apparently they never had a clue as she drove clapped out old cars and never even had her hair done.
I can't fathom having money and not sharing it and enjoying it whilst alive. I mean by all means leave some to charity but it sounds like it just sat there in the bank.
Another person I know at work who has plenty of cash will always be the first in line for any freebies or slight company perk. We had some hampers once and she badgered the boss for ages to be able to have the empty basket thing.

[steadyedina]

I've just accepted naked wines 'welcome back' offer of a case of wine for 21.99. I feel very stingy knowing I will definitely pause the subscription again, never to actually order a case at full price.

[Chandimum]

@HollowTalk

Years ago I went on a first date with someone. He paid for the meal (I travelled quite a way and this had been the arrangement) and he clearly wasn’t going to leave a tip. I put a £5 note down and when I put my jacket on I realised he’d stolen it!

Omg I can top this!
I was asked on a 2nd date 'out to dinner'.
He was texting all day saying he'd booked somewhere special, had asked me what I like etc etc, big build up & texts saying 'don't eat too much today or you'll spoil your dinner'.
I wasn't feeling great that evening, I had a headache so I didn't feel well enough to drive.
Instead of letting him down, I paid £20 for a taxi to get there.
We met at a pub first to build the suspense.....
Then he drove us to the restaurant...an all you can eat Chinese buffet 😬.
I was very polite and checked with him before ordering another drink while he went to the loo.
End of the meal I went to the loo, he was standing at the till, coat on, and said, I've just paid my half, now your turn!!
He'd even only paid for his own drink, so it wasn't even half he'd paid!
He drove me home as if nothing had happened, then 💯 expected to come in to have sex with me! To top it off, when I mentioned it he then complained that he'd had to pay £1.50 to drive to me, a kind of charge/toll if that's not outing my location.
Didn't see him again!!

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

@Alayalaya

In many cases people do these things not because they’re stingy but because they’re poor. I find it in really bad taste to criticise.

Maybe, but some people with plenty in the bank are just unbelievably tight. Dh’s old aunt was one such - she absolutely loathed parting with any of it. She’d make her cleaning lady/shopper go to a different shop just for the butter, where it was 1p cheaper.

When she finally had to move to a care home, she flat out refused to pay the fees directly herself - ‘If they find out that I’ve got money they’ll find a way to steal it’ - so dh had to pay, then he’d have to get her to sign a cheque each month to pay him back. And each time there’s be a screech of HOW *MUCH??!!’ - and virtually an implication that he was diddling her.

[Goodmum1234]

Millionaire family with big business, big house etc used to host an annual bbq for the church.
Bring your own……..meat, sausages, cobs, chairs, cups, drinks 🤣
I decided to have my own bbq at home with the family.

[hesbeen2021]

Exdh and I were very young and renting our first ( unfurnished) flat in late 70's
His very wealthy parents were changing their sofa as there's was from 60's, white floral plastic job. They asked us if we'd like their old sofa adn we were thrilled. We arranged and paid for collection and delivery and phoned to thank them once it had arrived. MIL only then suggested she would collect £20 for the sale when she next visited.
I was a student nurse, ex worked in very poorly paid shop job, there was no help with rents or top up benefits back then and we lived from hand to mouth. £20 was a fortune to us
I never actually forgave her for this

[Everydaydayisaschoolday]

@Letsbekindplease

It was my friends turn to get a round of drinks so she started making herself sick and dry heaving so she had to leave the pub and sit outside. She missed her turn but it was the most pathetic, stingy thing I’ve seen

This reminded me of an incident nearly 40 years ago!

I used to work in a very posh shop in Regents Street and we would often go out to the pub after work. One particular colleague had a reputation for never standing his round. I was a very young woman, not used to pub culture but even I knew this was unacceptable - if you can't stand your round either don't go out or don't get caught up in a round. ( I always bought my own, it was the only way I could afford to go out). However Pete was happy to drink at other peoples expense but never reciprocated.

After a few sessions my colleagues had had enough. They all agreed it couldn't go on any longer. They hatched a plan where as soon as we sat down in the pub the round rota was agreed on with "Pete' being allocated the 4th round. As he finished his 3rd drink he began to make excuses to leave but was shouted down and told very forcibly "you never stand your round. It's about time you started coughing up' etc.

'Pete' was very indignant. He insisted he always bought his round and went up to the bar to prove it. He came back with several bags of crisps and threw them on the table declaring 'There you are. There's my round. Crisps for everyone!'

[Everydaydayisaschoolday]

My mum is literally a millionaire but she lives as if she is still the war baby child of an immigrant labourer and cleaner. I've recently had to clear out her house and she had over 50 Ikea pencils stashed in various hidey holes. Also several jars of sugar sachets acquired from coffee shops over many years, some so old they had solidified in their paper tubes.

She moved from her big house into a flat into a very 'naice' flat in a development for the over 60s. It includes a beautiful residents lounge with tea/coffee making facilities. She constantly pinches the branded mugs from there and brings them down to her own flat. She also takes the complimentary biscuits and cakes. She doesn't need them or want them. She just takes them because they are free and fobs them off on me. I then have to sneak up to the lounge and replace them without the concierge or other flat owners catching me.

[Gherkinslice]

A "friend" found out I took my child to McDonalds sometimes (she never did) and asked me to steal her packets of sugar, salt and sauces each time I went in, so she could stockpile them in her cupboards. I did not! Another time she said she would bring us a choccie biccie when she came round (she never bought biscuits) so I thought it was a bit weird and mean that she might be bringing a Club or a Penguin, but no, it was literally two chocolate digestives in the bottom of a packet (one each), it was so embarassing. She would meet me in a Brewers Fayre, sneak her two kids free in the soft play area, telling them to run in when the assistant wasn't looking, and she would pay for one coffee and literally sit there drinking refills for hours but not buying her kids a single drink (she would take plastic bottles of water for them from home, and they would stare longingly at our drinks). Once she asked if they could drink from my child's refill soft drink. She was not poor by the way, they lived in a 4 bed detached, and I was a single mum. There was so much more, it just got too sickmaking being her friend, so I had to withdraw from it, Once a cobbler told her to take her shoes back and throw them out as he could do nothing with them - she had worn them out literally, there was nothing left to repair them with, and she had been given them free by another friend about 15 years previously. Mortifying!

[AuntMary]

My sister went with her friend and the friend's kid to a Santa village thing.
At the end the photos with Santa were already printed in cardboard frames and were priced at a tenner.
My sis asked what would happen if they didn't buy them and the girl working said they'd be thrown out.
My sis asked if they were being thrown out anyway could she have the pics for free and got them.
Don't know if I admire her balls or not.

[SchadenfreudePersonified]

@RedPandaWanda

My in laws were beyond tight. They would collect rainwater to flush their toilet down, it was grim in the summer because the water would contain gnat larvae 🤢

Hell's teeth!

They hatch out all the time -the bathroom must have been full of gnats.

We learned this the hard way when I used to catch mosquito larvae for a treat for the goldfish (I used to buy live daphnia for them, but you can't get them now). The fish would always miss a couple and the bliddy things would dive bomb the house.

[Youdoyoutoday]

@PyongyangKipperbang next time you go to this pub, remind him to bring cash or simply say no, that's not right. He knows what he's doing here

[Mothership4two]

@Teadrinker11

Took our son and all his stuff to his new student house-share for the start of the year. I made sure to take tea, coffee and a load of Penguin/KitKat type of snacks for everyone as we unloaded cars and so on. Offered a hot drink and a choc biscuit to the mother of the next guy to arrive, she looked horrified and went into a huddle with her son

She was calculating the mileage rate her owed her for the lift to uni. and holding out her hand for the money

My ds asked me if we could take his friend along with us to a uni open day a few years ago. Her parents wouldn't take her (or pay towards it), so she was funding her own uni visits and going by public transport. They didn't help her in any way to get into uni and she had to arrange everything herself (loans, moving in, etc).

Gobsmacking

[PyongyangKipperbang]

It isnt about being bad with money, its a pub specific thing.

Our local has only started taking cards in the last couple of months.


So if you go out with (say) £30 and then want another drink, there is a lot of subbing/borrowing. Its fine, we as mates all pay each other back. I've borrowed and loaned, its all sorted and not a problem. Its the fact that I will let it go with HIM on the basis that he will pay for my drinks another night, even though my total cost will be about (say) £14. But when I owe him, he wants the full £20 back. Or if I am paying for the drinks, his will add up to more than what he borrowed.....

[CSJobseeker]

It means he's bad with money. An adult who earns 4 times what you do (so will be on a decent salary) shouldn't need to be subbed all the time.

[PyongyangKipperbang]

SHould add that when I say "skint" talking about going to a pub that is a free house that didnt until a couple of months ago, take cards so if you didnt have cash you didnt get a drink. Not necc actually skint in the "I have literally no money" sense.

[PyongyangKipperbang]

Musing.....

Say he is saying he is skint and you lend him £20. You dont live together, so bf/gf and no shared finances. OK and then he pays the next time you go out, even though probably your "spend" is less than the money you lent, its ok because it evens out.

Then he lends you £20 and then on pay day "Can you send me that £20?" even though he out earns you X4. Treats you sometimes, money isnt really an issue although he does have bigger outgoings due to divorce, single man bills, CM (over and above) .....

Stingy? Or....something else?

Not asking for a friend.

[Dizzib1]

My ex used to tot up how much dates or days out were & we'd pay half each, If he happened to buy one more drink than me then i was presented with a bill of said drink.

We stayed in a family room for 2 night's as he wanted to go away, even though i said i couldn't really justify spending money on it, he then presented me with a bill for 3/4 of the room as my 2 children had come too!
He also used to charge me half the petrol & parking wherever we went, though he didn't think about paying me when he stayed weekends eating & drinking at me expense..
Well rid

[GloriaSicTransitMundi]

Just to clarify, new to him piano, not brand new.

[GloriaSicTransitMundi]

@Whatiswrongwithmyknee

I went with a professional musician friend to a piano studio, he was looking to buy a new piano and spend in the £20-25k price range. He'd been once already, seen something he liked, and booked the rehearsal room for an hour at a charge of £75 to be able to play the piano properly in private and get a feel for it to decide if he wanted to buy, not have just a few minutes playing time out in the showroom. This was all discussed, arranged and paid for in advance with the owner. We got there 15 mins early, the place was empty except for the owner. She said 'you're early, you can go across the road for a coffee and return when it's time'!

I do have some sympathy. Moving the piano, leaving it to settle and then paying for it to be tuned before doing the same after he's finished will cost a lot more than £75.

Piano shops have in-house movers and tuners otherwise they wouldn't be able to offer that service. Which to be fair, not all do - two places we went to with rehearsal rooms had permanent pianos installed, and if you wanted to buy rehearsal time, you selected from what was available.

Also, if a piano's only moved a short distance ie from showroom floor to private room and stays in the same temperature and humidity conditions, it doesn't need much if any settling time or retuning. I certainly know a lot more about pianos than I did before I accompanied him on his shopping expeditions!

My friend selected this particular piano shop because it had both the piano he was interested in, a Bosendorfer, and the option to trial it in a private room. It was his second visit so the owner knew he was keen enough to pay the charge, but she was so mean spirited in sending him away because he arrived early - in London with public transport, you're usually either a bit early or risk being a bit late - then denying him the full hour he'd paid for, she lost the sale.

[GloriaSicTransitMundi]

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

GloriaSicTransitMundi

The piano woman sounds utterly clueless about business. She reminds me of these shopkeepers who stand there all day blocking their own doorway, following people around and glaring when they carefully pick up the goods to look at them properly - and then get genuinely amazed when their business fails and they have to close - probably blame that on the customers too.

I'm astonished that a shop selling £25K pianos doesn't already automatically include the free use of a private practice room for an extended period. You wouldn't expect to buy a car without an opportunity for a good, thorough test drive - and the pool of potential buyers for £25K cars is much larger than that for £25K pianos.

Did she expect him to just point at one at random and sign up to buying it on the spot - like it was a packet of crisps he fancied from the corner shop?

Having been to several other piano shops with him, I've never seen this behaviour before. In fact, the others all encouraged extensive playing, and usually (not always) had a hospitality area with free tea and coffee where you could rest and refresh while keeping the hot drinks well away from the pianos. Based on your expressed preferences they would recommend particular instruments then leave you to to get on with it, being available if needed.

BTW, the 25k one he bought was a second hand Bosendorfer, if new would have been £100k plus so his purchase was towards the lower end. I imagine piano shops don't sell every day or even every week, so most of them have rehearsal rooms for hire, usually with a dedicated piano eg Steinway concert grand already installed, you can see what's available at what hourly rate on their website. I was fascinated to hear they make a good deal of profit this way from regular customers, or people who want to record something on a better piano than they have at home, or just experience playing a concert grand. It's a whole other world out there!

[Letsbekindplease]

[quote Youdoyoutoday]@Letsbekindplease did she recover in time to carry on drinking when someone else got a round in?[/quote]
No. That was her. Out the game. She still gets slagged rotten for it.

[Youdoyoutoday]

@Letsbekindplease did she recover in time to carry on drinking when someone else got a round in?