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?

On a committee that I'm a member of, we used a meeting room at a local hotel. They let us have the room free on condition that we ordered drinks.

I went to take everyone's order for tea / coffee / wine & one man had brought his own flask. He then produced two custard creams wrapped in tinfoil from his pocket

I had another wealthy relative who would monitor the toilet paper...separate the sheets into 2 and then half them..!!...and it was that awful Bronco paper stuff....kitchen towel was also separated and halved as were tissues etc....at this point in her life, she owned appx 7 houses and had big holidays abroad so did spend !!

*@BlowDryRat**

hivemindneeded

@BlowDryRat - I'm ashamed to say I didn't really think that through. Thank you for explaining.

The only reason I thought about it is because I used to go camping at a site that allowed open fires but only with wood bought from their shop, for this reason.*

They were running a business, of course they wanted you to buy the wood only from them. Ecosystems have survived thus far with people collecting wood and making fires for centuries.
Growing up in the countryside, you don't just leave fallen trees where they are to rot. That's wasteful.

I don't understand how not tipping a workman who was paid to mend a lock is stingy. I don't think paying the advertised price for anything without a tip is stingy, I never tip for haircuts or taxis. Taking tips left by others is stealing.

@HumourReplacementTherapy

About a year after a woman I worked with retired, someone bumped into her on the top floor of our office building with a towel in her hand. She had kept hold of her door pass and come into town each day on foot and used the work showers, (which were not very nice anyway )

She also used to fill up two large water bottles every day and take the water home with her.

Do you think she was living in her car?

Ecosystems have survived thus far with people collecting wood and making fires for centuries

Except they haven't really. There used to be far more land for these ecosystems and far more fallen trees. There has been so much lost habitat over the centuries. Leaving a fallen tree to rot is far from wasteful, burning them is wasteful (obviously sometimes it is essential though).

I used to work in a pub and was having a fag break out the back which overlooked the back of Icelands. A guy in a jag pulled up next to the bins, opened his boot and proceeded to empty the Icelands bin in to his boot. It was full by the time he finished with cheese, ham, salad, everything!! I was so shocked but no wonder how he can afford to drive a jag!

I've often found that rich people are stingy, I guess it's how they got rich!

I now get really irritated with my DH for throwing away the dregs of a shampoo bottle rather than turn it upside down and squeezing it into the new one

I have a similar thing with washing up liquid - especially fairy liquid. I take the top off the bottle, add a little water and swish it round with the dregs - it’s still effective, but it doesn’t work so well with the cheaper, thinner washing up liquid.

@SoupDragon

If the loose veg such as carrots & courgettes are large, I'll open the expensive bags & buy the smaller ones.

So, theft.

I agree that is theft.

Empty a dog poo bag into an open public bin then pocket the used bag.

I've said this before on here, but it's always my first thought on threads like this:

Years ago (after A levels) I worked at a UK summer camp, in a fast food place. Spent a week on 9pm–4am shift. Was told when I took my meal break that I got a meal included, so got myself burger and chips.

Next week was on the shift before that –6pm–1am. Was told to take my break, got a burger and chips and ate in staff area. Manager came in while I was finishing up, stared in horror as if he'd caught me with my hand in the safe, said aghast 'You don't get a meal on this shift!' and took the chips off me.

On two day trips last year, everyone seemed to be separately tipping both driver and courier. I did not and do not. It meant that of everyone gave £2 to each, then each of them received £60.
I never tip.

I used to work for a beauty salon that specialised in waxing and the head office would measure out the wax, the spatulas, wax strips and cotton discs per appointment & if you needed an extra spatula then you would need to give reasons why…

This was a multi million pound business and they owned the distribution centre so wasn’t stuck for stock if we needed it!

That was my Mum. She takes a mini knife everywhere.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

My dad used to follow the coal wagon and catch what bounced off and follow horses with a bucket to catch manure for the roses

I can't see a downside to that at all. Instead of dirty/stinky stuff left all over the road, it gets taken away and properly used. Everybody is a winner.

A relative once told us how he switched off the pilot light on his boiler overnight - every single night - because, if you don't go to the trouble of remembering to go and switch it off/on a mere 730 times a year, it will cost you an extra £1.62 for that year.

On the other hand, I don't know if it makes me stingy, but my heart sinks when I see somebody using one of those Coinstar machines in supermarkets. Maybe not so bad if you only have coppers, but the illustration of 'spare change' on the machine clearly shows 50p/£1/£2 coins in the bag.

They take (IIRC) 8% commission for their trouble; I would never use one when, if I have a big bag of coins, I can simply feed/pour them into the self-service checkouts when paying for my shopping and let that machine count it all, without taking a single penny in commission!

A lot of the self service checkouts are now card only in my area. I used to do that

@Olderkids

Before our school Christmas Fair we held a non-uniform day and asked for a contribution of a bottle for the tombola stall. One poor child was sent in with an empty shampoo bottle. Embarrassing for the child - and the parent who thought he was being so clever. It certainly made us think carefully about the wording of future requests!

I don’t think this is fair. We never had this at our school and would have wondered what ‘a bottle’ means. A bottle of what?!

You asked for a bottle and got a bottle. But it’s good you clarified it next time.

I object to paying £3 for a pot of tea which is, in essence, 1 tea bag plus water and a tiny amount of milk in a jug or those useless uht thimbles.

A guy had mentioned to his girlfriend how tight his parents were. When they visited she found them quite generous - serving lots of food and wine. A week later the couple received an invoice. They had been charged for absolutely everything including toilet paper, costs of water, washing powder for the sheets, extra heating etc. Just about everything!

My BF’s 3 adult children (all privately educated paid for exclusively by him) and working (lawyers/boutique finance) invited him to Father’s Day lunch. Originally they wanted him to drive over to near their flats which are close together and go to a trendy place they wanted to try. He suggested they go to a local pub near him instead if they didn’t mind, and they reluctantly agreed but not particularly graciously. When it came to bill time they asked to split it, not only that but one of them started pro-rataing the amount as she hadn’t drunk much wine. In the end I paid for him because I felt sorry for him and he pinged his daughter the full amount of the lunch to stop her arguing for a reduction!

My son once received a birthday present from a friend that still had the price tag on. It had been reduced to 1p in the sale. I mean fair play for bargain hunting but that’s properly stingy.

On a flight from Germany to London I was in an aisle seat and the woman across and one row ahead took aluminium foil out of her bag to take the food she got on board along.
Admittedly, that was some years ago when you still got a sandwich or similar.

My grandma used to bring a few sugar sachets home from the bingo and empty them into her sugar bowl at home.

Also stuck slivers of soap together (I do this now)

And each time she takes a plastic bag to put loose fruit in at the supermarket she would ‘accidentally’ grab an extra couple to use as freezer bags.

My sister and I were having lunch. She didn’t want a starter but ate half of mine. When the bill came she refused to split it as she didn’t have a starter. It was so awkward …. She once made a chicken casserole for four with one chicken breast

@squashyhat

I guess this was a product of memories of wartime shortages but I remember when I was a child my Dad would stick the tiny sliver of old soap onto a new bar rather than throw it away. I now get really irritated with my DH for throwing away the dregs of a shampoo bottle rather than turn it upside down and squeezing it into the new one so Dad must have passed on his parsimonious habits

I do both of these!

My awful exh charged his colleagues £5 each for a curry night at our house…. despite having been round to many of their houses before. I was less than impressed when I found out. I emailed them all to say over my dead body would they be paying and he didn’t speak to me for about a week……
Thank god we are divorced!!