What's the most extreme example of effort to save a few pennies you have heard of?

[wineoclockthanks]

Lighthearted!!

Mine is someone who buys shirts/t-shirts and asks for the hangers, then returns the clothes minus the hangers.

I did mention that Wilkos sell 10 wire hangers for £1.75 but she was adamant it was worth it.

Please can I stress this is lighthearted, I am also on a tight budget and count my pennies so not judging at all.

[specialsubject]

not wasting stuff, theft and economies-that-aren't are three different things. The Darwin award is something different again.

I do like the story of the guy that got a lift home with his takeway, though!

[GloriaV]

DM took the bus 15 miles to next town to buy a Xmas Annual for DGS's Xmas. Cheaper as she had a bus pass and bigger shops in big town were cheaper (makes me wonder how many over 60s do this thus, greatly contributing to the closing of shops in small market towns).

[ZilphasHatpin]

Oh extreme cheap skates gives me the rage!! There was one guy who was trying to be a professional wrestler. He had an audition. He tanned himself with tea, and taped his boots up with duct tape. They didn't give him the job.

I thought it was normal to turn all plugs off at night. I used to but got lazy.

What do the people without the fridge for half the year so with their food??

[cjt110]

My MIL would prefer a 12 hour bus ride from one end of the country she is in to catch a cheaper flight home rather than just pay for 2 flights....

[Asmoto]

When I was a child in the 80s, my dad would make us walk the whole length of the promenade at the seaside (a 40 min walk) to save 2p on the price of an ice lolly .

[ProfessorBranestawm]

I admit I am more germphobic than the average person but there's no way I could eat anything from a switched-off-all-winter fridge! 😷

[Badders123]

I really do think some of these extreme examples are evidence of MH problems 😞
Pissing in bottles?
Showering in clothes?
I would make you all weep with my wastefulness!
If the last 3 years have taught me anything
It's that life's too fucking short
No pockets in a shroud...

[expatinscotland]

Everyone should watch Extreme Cheapskates ! The lady who went to launderettes for mismatched socks to use as san pro.

[scampimom]

Blimey, I thought I was a tightwad! Some of these people steal and then give as a present take the biscuit!

[ZilphasHatpin]

badders I agree, I think it is probably a sign of mental health issues.

[redshoeblueshoe]

Punt

[BorpBorpBorp]

What do the people without the fridge for half the year so with their food??

If they live somewhere cold they might leave it in a box outside? My PILs leave bought veg outside in winter so there's more room in the fridge for cheese etc.

[Badders123]

My pils can make me roll my eyes at times with their penny pinching ways but nothing on some of these!

I can just imagine if my mil was on mn!

"My dil buys foils trays to cook things on to save washing up the lazy bint THEN she throws them away!!"

[BuckinghamLass]

Agree that the bar was set high with the coat hanger story!

I used to work on a checkout. A man once came through repeatedly, "buying" a single mushroom each time. He'd realised that individually, they were so light they'd be rounded down to zero, making them free. From memory he only got away with it twice and was collared the third time.

[RaptorInaPorkPieHat]

JustHere

I think that's genius he must have the gift of the gab or the hide of a rhino to get away with it though

[DontBeASalmon]

Not anywhere as good as above, but the most painful cheepstake I've ever met was the owner of a small so very small business.

-Refused to employ a cleaner, and expected the staff to clean the office, toilets included. The money saved was used to generously offer them a Christmas lunch. That office was FILTHY.
-Had huge rants about the level of milk used in the office, there's only so many drops you are allowed in your tea people!
-Paper had to be used and reused, and someone had to regularly waste hours in the archives to pick up stationery from older files.

Funnily enough, the penny saving efforts did not cover the never ending collection for birthday presents, special day presents, mandatory evening drinks, where the boss was given twice the amount as a thank you for being such an amazing boss.

Apart from a couple of her best friends, the staff turnover was ridiculously high.

No one ever told her it would have been more cost effective to treat staff right and retain them, instead of forever employing people who kept making mistake, wasting times and losing clients.

[Astro55]

My gran once paid to get a coach then train then boat - total 9 hours travel to save £10 for a 20 min flight!

She will also walk 3 miles with shopping bags to buy beans 2p cheaper -

[BalloonSlayer]

Things like cheese, bacon, butter and eggs don't really need to be kept in the fridge, so long as you use them every day and each pack gets used up fairly quickly. Maybe the old couple have milk delivered every day.

My Mum didn't drive and never did a "big weekly shop" at Sainsburys. She would bring home what she could carry every day, and decide most evenings what she wanted for tea and buy it on the way home from work.

This is what people used to do before they had fridges and she never got out of the habit. If you are older like the couple in the post above, then if you do that then you can manage quite nicely without a fridge in winter.

[AntagonyAunt]

JustHereForThePooStories
Now that is a stroke of genius, paticularly if he thought of that when drunk.

[ShouldHaveListenedInBiology]

As a student, a family member used to take a penknife to the supermarket to cut the extra stalk off heads off broccoli before weighing and paying.

[BlooBagoo]

Had huge rants about the level of milk used in the office, there's only so many drops you are allowed in your tea people!

This reminded me of an ex-co-worker. To save money when it was her turn to bring in milk, she would bring it in an old juice bottle, not too bad really I know. Except she refused to wash the bottle out first so the milk always tasted of whichever juice had been in the bottle beforehand. Made for some very weird tasting coffee. It got to the point we would throw out her milk, wash the bottle, then replace it with milk we'd sneaked in instead. If she caught us washing the bottle she would bin it and bring a different one the next time.

[FaithAgain]

Okay - once again, the plug thing. Yes, you should unplug electrical items when they aren't in use. I am one of those MNetters who had a significant house fire because something I left plugged in caught fire! (It was a food processor).

I had a house mate who had obviously been raised to look after the pennies. She insisted on washing basic dish cloths. The ones that cost 90p for 10..I said I didn't want them in with my washing (cos yuck) she was a bit surprised and suggested washing them separately. I pointed out that would cost more than just buying new ones!

[Vagabond]

My MIL would not light the fire until it was 6pm. We'd all be sitting in our coats all afternoon in that miserable front room. The room never heated up to being reasonable temperature til it was 9pm when we all went to bed, still in our coats.

Miserable.

I hate misers. I would divorce anyone who turned off all the switches at night.

[Elendon]

When my ex goes shopping when his children visit, he insists on them carrying the items to the car. They have reusable bags, but he always forgets them.

I used to be a on a water meter. Thankfully, no longer, I'm saving £300 pounds pa, but I still am conscious about saving water.

I will use a tea bag for two cups of tea (Yorkshire).