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Original poster

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

900 replies

Teadrinker11 · 12/01/2022 21:03

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

OP posts:
MopaniTree · 15/01/2022 01:13

Went out for pizza as teenagers and this friend divided the cost of the pizza not by how many friends, but by how many slices she ate, to the exact penny. She is now extremely wealthy so her stingy ways paid off!

NotABeliever · 15/01/2022 01:19

@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!
This is so funny. My mother did something similar aged ago and we're still laghing about it. My brother had left a genraous tip in coins and as the waiter was about to take the tray with the tip, she was removing coins from under his nose!
ToffeeMamma · 15/01/2022 01:41

My brother ex with Fe came back to collect her belongings and took everything including dirty cat litter, toilet roll my brother had just bought (she'd been left for months). Irony of it was that she put it all in same bag

StressyWoman · 15/01/2022 02:42

An ex’s sister gave him a reduced mini Christmas pie for his present. They were a very well off but tight family so he wasn’t offended even though he’d got her and her kids nice presents.

jamandmarmaladethesecondcoming · 15/01/2022 04:58

@scoobydoo1971

In my younger years I gained a lot of weight due to metabolic failure (rapidly in months). My 'friend' bought me...drum roll...a weighing scales as a birthday present as I was in the middle of hospital care for my conditions. That faux par was bad enough, but there was a dent in it suggesting it was used. She gleefully informed me that she was skint. and it was left behind at a weight watchers meeting her mother ran (she was a group coordinator I believe). The family had made a decision that as I was a 'big' girl, it was the best present for me. I never saw her again nor her family, so lost 9 stone of toxic friend and went on to lose 4 stone of weight in the next year. The tactlessness of some people is breath-taking.
@scoobydoo1971

I am really sorry that you went through all that and the 'friend'. That sounds horrible and counterproductive. Well done on your achievement though.

Did you tell her why? How did she react?

mjf981 · 15/01/2022 05:39

Stayed with a family friend when i was younger and on a work placement. Single middle aged male - very well off and in a highly paid job. He was showing me around the kitchen. He had a condiment drawer with thousands of McDonalds packets in it - tomato sauce, mustard, salt, pepper. Said it saves him buying his own, he just steals them from McDonalds!!

Mothership4two · 15/01/2022 06:12

When we moved into our new house when I was a teenager we found the previous owners had taken all the light bulbs, the light wall switches, ceiling roses and curtain rails. Really pathetic. As we had travelled 90 miles to get there and were pretty knackered we were royally peed off.

I think people eating grapes as they go around Supermarkets are super stingy/basically thieves!

Mothership4two · 15/01/2022 06:22

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!

This is so funny. My mother did something similar aged ago and we're still laghing about it. My brother had left a genraous tip in coins and as the waiter was about to take the tray with the tip, she was removing coins from under his nose!

I had a notoriously stingy ex-friend who did similar. We went out for dinner with her and her husband and split the bill paying by cards, but when my dh added some cash to the tray afterwards as a tip, she looked horrified and said "that's too much" and took off (and pocketed) £10 of OUR money. We were gobsmacked and, stupidly, didn't say anything - afterwards we said to each other "did that just happen?"

ufucoffee · 15/01/2022 06:36

@Mistysnow

Not sure if its the stingiest but it really irritates me... my partner everytime we go out for a meal or even to the chippy he insists we just share whatever i order rather than placing two separate orders... as its cheaper. I am a massive foodie this annoys the life out of me plus im veggie and he doesnt care so i order my thing and he just asks for 2 plates with it HmmBlush
This is really stingy. Just say no.
HangingOver · 15/01/2022 07:09

It's beyond me how genuine stingers ever get dates. It's one of the most fanny drying qualities I can think of in a partner.

teraculum29 · 15/01/2022 07:17

@OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow

A friend on moving day, caught her dh removing lightbulbs. She made him put them back.
Thank God for That,

Few years back, my partner worked as a removal guy, on one of his job in the winter (when its already dark after 4) they came to the house to unload the van. They opened the door tried to open the door and....nothing not a single light was working. They thought that it was the fuse, ect and they looked at lights, Every single light bulb was missing.

The first thing what the new owners had to do on their removal day, was to buy light bulbs as the previous owners removed every single out.

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 15/01/2022 07:49

@HangingOver

It's beyond me how genuine stingers ever get dates. It's one of the most fanny drying qualities I can think of in a partner.
I'm intrigued by the term genuine stingers it suggest to me that there are people out there who try and pass off as being stingy whilst in reality they're not! Confused

An example, I suppose, could be someone who refuses to to leave a tip at a restaurant but sneaks back later, when no-one is around and offers one. Grin

coronafiona · 15/01/2022 07:50

I used to work in a pizza restaurant in the days of the "all you can eat" buffet. Two mums came in with a LOT of children, i and too open the extra seating area for them all.l there must have been at least 15 people. They paid for two plates and asked for three jugs of two water. The buffet was £2.49 so they fed all those kids for just under £5 Shock

KatherineJaneway · 15/01/2022 07:59

Yorkshire tea most definetly makes 2 very decent cups of tea.

Maybe that brand might but PP said 'a' bag and, unless you like pissy tea, most bags don't make two decent cups.

Warpedfrailty · 15/01/2022 08:02

One was a post on MN. The MNer went to North America and ate out quite a bit but never tipped. Others tried to explain that out there a lot of wait staff depend on their tips and it was expected but they said 'I don't tip, end of'.

rookiemere · 15/01/2022 08:02

@coronafiona but surely only those who have paid for a plate are entitled to eat at a buffet.

Hathertonhariden · 15/01/2022 08:09

@Toocoldtocamp

Agree that we could all take a leaf out of the older war generations book... for the environment for starters. I recently helped clear my Nans house out when she went into a home (she's just over 100). She'd kept and still used so many things from 50s, 60s and 70s. She'd not been well off but was comfortable in retirement and always well turned out. Well...dangerous electrics, out of date condiments and cake making ingredients (she still used them periodically). A soup maker that looked like it would fry you alive. Nothing was well washed up because i guess she wasn't able. We brought loads of things back home to use (and sadly had to bin a lot for safety) and my DC wouldn't as they said that the dishes looked dirty and unhygienic. They did. But then Granny is still alive with her questionable hygiene and attitudes (to food use by dates, and 70s electrical appliances, drying hands on dirty towels, no antibacterial in sight. Cleaning products with a 1/4 left and were old labels....)... but aged 100 so who is right?!
Granny will have a great immune system because she hasn't been suppressing it by over using antibac.
coronafiona · 15/01/2022 08:20

[quote rookiemere]@coronafiona but surely only those who have paid for a plate are entitled to eat at a buffet.[/quote]
@rookiemere yes. The kids weren't entitled to eat. But eat they did.

CorsicaDreaming · 15/01/2022 08:58

@Deadringer

I have posted this before but a man i know used to have only one light bulb in his entire house. He took it from room to room as he needed to. He was an accountant on a good wage, just extremely stingy.

That one takes the prize as the most truly bonkers example on the thread! 😆

MondayYogurt · 15/01/2022 09:13

I heard someone in Dubai haggle to get their Porsche SUV washed at the car park. Trying to save 80p.

2ddandabump · 15/01/2022 09:21

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, my Nana gave me £10 for my birthday, I went shopping with her and bought a beach towel with a fun design on, it was £7 so she took the £3 change and I wasn't able to spend the full £10. (My nana is/was a wealthy woman so it wasn't because she was struggling financially she's always been a bit tight)

GodfatherofCoaching · 15/01/2022 09:38

Guest at a wedding, me and DH were sat with DH's sister and her husband. When it came to BiL's turn to buy a round I asked for a soft drink (driving). He returned with everyone's drinks apart from mine and said 'I'm not paying thirty bob (£1.50, he's quite old) for a glass of lemonade' then sat back down, leaving me without a drink.
I'm still appalled at his behaviour.

Runnerduck34 · 15/01/2022 09:40

Went to the cinema with a new boyfriend, he dropped a 50p when we sat down, after the film he wouldn't leave until the lights came on then spent 5 minutes scrabling around on the floor looking for it.

redchicken · 15/01/2022 09:41

@Doubledoorsontogarden

Went out for a meal with a friend, my DD didn’t eat much, friend asked to take it home and divided it up over the next three days for her 2 DC. Friend and DH are wealthy barristers.
I don't think that's stingy - I would always ask for a doggy bag for the next day if I had eaten less than a third of my meal! Avoids food wastage surely?

This is totally normal in the US by the way because of the gigantic portions that they serve. (I'm not in the US but work there a good bit)

Bertiebiscuit · 15/01/2022 09:45

When I moved into my flat the previous renters took all the light bulbs