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?

@Mary54

Not understanding why some people think it is stingy to rinse out bottles, use the last piece of soap etc. surely it’s simply avoiding waste?

I don't use soap, but I cut open bottles and squeezy tubes. There's so MUCH in them, you realise once you start doing it. A couple of my tubes of things are quite expensive brands like Dermalogica, too, so I'm absolutely going to get all the use I can out of them!

I totally agree re over-using of teabags, so very mean! I've had coffee at a friend's house (pre Covid) she gave me a small cup, whilst she had her large mug! A friend, always gives a slither of cake, which falls apart when meeting the plate, why bother! (On the plus side, it is good if you are dieting)!

@Dontwanttolivewithmylover

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.

Wow

My late aunt went to visit her very rich sister and her dh in Canada

Dh stopped to get coffee for the ladies, came out with one coffee and one empty cup to share it out into!

@SE123

Oh and one day we stayed over there many moons ago and when she was changing the bed covers the mattress topper was heavily stained, turns out she got the topper from next door who had died and the stains were blood.

Gaah! That's awful!

@TheYearOfSmallThings

I once poured a cup of boiling hot tea into a jar of Nutella that was waiting to be washed out. I let it sit for a couple of minutes, then drank it from the jar. The jar was pretty clean, and no Nutella got wasted.

I would only admit this on an anonymous forum.

My husband makes "milkshake" with leftover Nutella. It's a fight in our house to see who gets it!

I use Dr Bronners Castile soap bar for my hair and body. It hangs in the shower in a little mesh bag so I can use every last bit.

15-20 years ago in the USA I was mocked for washing out my ziploc bags and reusing them. I still have and use plastic tubs that I bought ham in from that time.

I am even more frugal than my mum....and she taught me how to penny pinch.

@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.

That sounds to me as though she had no water supply at home ☹️

According to some of these examples, I’m a tightwad, I am in my 50’s but remember so many money saving things from my parents and grandparents that had obviously been the result of wartime shortages.

My DF is a tightwad though, admittedly we were poor growing up during the 80’s as he’d been made redundant but he put in a pay phone, and took the plug off the bath! I got round that one though by buying a replacement plug 🤣

@TheDogsMother

Well I didn't think it was stingy I was berated by the decorator I was making a cup of tea for because I used the teabag to make two cups. Both his and mine at the same time, not reusing later.

I mean...

@MinnieJackson

Saw someone snapping the ends of broccoli in the veg shop before weighing it. My Gran always used to tell me not to tie a knot in the plastic bag when you put it on the scales there because it weighs more

Omg as a child I got screamed at for doing this ! Dm told us to snap them (we helped with the shopping each week) she didn’t have much money and wanted to get veg, I had no idea it was ‘wrong’ but a woman started shouting at us and I cried I think I was about 11/12?

I went to school with someone whose parents insisted on buying her 'child' portions until well into her mid teens. I didn't fully realise this until they invited me on holiday with them (my parents paid them for my place/food, but they'd offered and we thought it was very nice of them). We were expected to eat a shared child's portion at each meal. We were teenagers! I was bloody starving!

I look back and realise they were considerably better off than my parents and just very, very, very weird people.

Most of these seem about saving and not wasting things rather than being stingy.
The old war time strategies seem very pertinent to our climate change times.
I’m all for not wasting as well as re using and recycling. It’s a mind set. Not a meanness..
Taking lemonade and drinking wine is stingy and cheeky.

Goodnight Grandma.....
We had the carpet protector in the hall for our dog's muddy paws! Easier to use mop, than having mud marks on carpet.

When I was a child I literally peeled an orange in my pocket - I had never even heard of it. I wasn't very bright; the trail of orange peel following in my wake alerted my mates who then demanded I share it.

In our shopping Center you get parking free if under 2 hours and you spend £20 in a particular supermarket. My aunt buys something in said supermarket for £20 to get the free parking and then returns the item the next time she’s in. She’s really quite proud of it.

@ConstantCougher

Someone told me they ‘steal’ packs from inside packs at the supermarket and add it to theirs eg paracetamol from one carton and add it to another so they only pay for say 16 but get 24!

Bliddy hell!

That's appalling!

I also worked for a hospital consultant who had his car door held together with duct tape and at the staff Christmas party stiffed everyone with his portion of the bill for dinner.

@Theunamedcat

Weigh the veg on the machine THEN bag it

Collect pine cones use them as firestarters

Collect branches on every dog walk year round burn them through the winter

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

My nan bought a heart for my moms dissection lesson at school she was sick that day so they had it for tea instead

All but the first aren't mean, they are green, reducing waste is a good thing

Our newsagent was selling last year's Red Noses half price - not sure if the proceeds went to Comic Relief..

When I first started working at the age of 15, we used to buy a scratch card once a week ,only 25 pence then. Two of the stingiest salesmen we had would share the cost. 12.5 p each and they won.

@IntermittentParps - I do this too and always have done. I stand up especially washing detergent to get last drops out of them.

My brother and his wife will split everything 50:50. Both very comfortably off but if one pays for lunch etc then they will say you owe my £10 or whatever. Once I was out with them and they did this, then SIL said to DB ‘oh by the way, you still owe me £3.60 from the other day.’ I get that they keep their finances separate but I found it quite odd, especially as they are married

Years ago my boyfriend's dad cut a Mars bar into ten pieces to share among the family. I don't think it was mean, more they didn't have much money . . . there were ten kids! The main thing that stands out is the feeling of anticipation and excitement.

Any rental house I've lived in, the previous tenants have removed toilet roll and lightbulbs. I am pretty tight but make a point of making sure there is toilet roll in the bathrooms.....and I leave all the lightbulbs.

Some years ago, while playing in an amateur orchestra, one of my violin strings broke. A lady gave me a spare string she had and, noting that it was a cheap make, gave her £3, telling her if it cost any more to let me know. The next week she came up to me to inform me that the string had actually cost £3.25 so, as our coffees in the break cost 25p, she would put in 5p and I could put in an extra 20p. Of course I owed her 25p, but for that amount l seriously would not have worried about it or mentioned it if it had been the other way round.