Mean

Never heard of anyone doing that before, sounds a bit sad, does your sister in law have any other problems ?

I used to go on holiday with a friend and we took it in turns to pay for coffee, meals etc for a day each. When it was my turn she ordered what she fancied and had wine in the evening. When it was her turn she would refuse to order wine and had the cheapest food on the menu and expected me to choose the same. We then had a communal purse which was marginally better.

When I was sixteen I had a holiday job in a seaside café. The owner had a reputation for being a skinflint and would shout at anyone he suspected of wasting anything.

One day I was clearing tables and picked up a half eaten apple that a child had left on his plate. I was about to chuck it in the bin when Mr......pounced, gave me a lecture on waste and told me to take it to the kitchen so the cook could use it for apple sauce.

That was my introduction to hard core meanness

I suppose that could be considered thrifty by some, merlot

Not sure if this is mean or just a bit batty. Every few weeks 3 or 4 of us meet at a pub for lunch. One friend always has fish and chips. She always removes all the batter and wraps it in a napkin to take home and give to the birds in her garden. We have got used to her funny ways but she does get some odd looks.

Well Ginny she saves on calories, good job you don't go out more often. Her birds wouldn't be able to get off the ground!

I must admit I hate wasting food although I have never taken cold chips or batter home!

Some people like cold chip butties.

And someone who saves batter for birds gets a gold star from me ⭐️ Our hens loved stuff like that: raw pastry trimmings, raw bacon rind. Animals who aren't hung up on food fat love the stuff because they know its high calorifity (!) is a bonus.

I like eccentric people who do what they think is right even when they get funny looks and people moan about them behind their backs.

I hate wasting food as well so, if such "scraps retrieval" is done discretely, it would raise a smile, but not bother me. Love the image of overweight birds, à la Prince Regent, Pamela!

I dislike meanness as a trait, however, whether it is monetary meanness or meanness towards others. Although it is wrong to generalise, it is not the poorest who are mean, usually, but those with the most money. Perhaps that is how they accumulated their money in the first place. Meanness of spirit is worse.

A generous soul is one of the gifts I would bestow on my GC, if I had that power.

I go out with friends every couple of weeks to an Indan restaurant and one of them always asks for leftovers to take home. Not just her leftovers but others as well. Sometimes there may only be a spoonful of sauce but she's off with that. i find it quite embarrassing to tell the truth, and usually have my head in my handbag at that point.

I hate waste and am glad that people are no longer squeamish over requests for doggy bags
DD had her 30th birthday dinner at a well known Spitalfields restaurant one of whose specialities is a suckling pig banquet.
Vegetarians look away now.
There were perhaps 40 of us and we had I think 3 whole pigs. Of course there were masses of leftovers so her MIL who has 2 dogs and I (with Gracie) went to the kitchen and enquired after doggy bags. We got ears, tails, cheeks, trotters, meat in fact so much that while Gracie got an ear a trotter and the tail, we had roast pork for the next 2 days!

I rather like batty eccentric people too.

My late MiL used to carry various pieces of (previously used) tin foil, cling film or kitchen roll in her handbag. Then when she had finished eating her (pub) lunch she would scrat about in her bag and choose whatever she thought most appropriate to scrape the leftovers from her plate onto. Wrap it all up and pop it away again. She once asked for extra gravy with her meal and took and old chopped cup out of her bag, poured the gravy into it and wrapped it up with a used bit of cling film. I couldn't stop giggling.

When my gran died and we were sorting out he kitchen in her little bungalow, I found mountains and mountains of sugar packets, ketchup packets, salt packets and little milk portions stashed away. She must have been collecting them for years.

Chipped cup not chopped cup!

My OH's father and partner liked cooked breakfast ,elevenses,lunch,afternoon snack,cooked evening meal and a good supper,and vodka and a particular type of orange all evening at our expense,when visiting both had bad backs ?? so we gave up our bed and slept on air bed...at this point will say they same age as me as I am older than OH....whinged and moaned it was cold....we moved to a rural location which meant free weekends as poor xxxxxxx was feeling underweather and needed break,neither lifted a finger to even make tea, or if xxxxxxx did would make one for just them....when we visited we had to take our own breakfast ,eat out at a cafe and pay for it, a cup of tea meant dad going into shed to boil kettle on primus stove to make tea to save electric ....not allowed a shower or even wash ..would have to take bottled water and wash in that ...not allowed to pull chain or put on heating.....not mentally ill just mean .....they have about 5 holidays a year and stay 4/5 weeks abroad several times.....I lost my temper during one visit after keeping quiet for several years ....Haven't seen them since....

I am speechless downtoearth - I suspect you visited only once??

I agree with doggy bags, especially at Indian restaurants where there is too much leftovers apart from my co-grandmother's plate . I always ask for leftover rice and naam for our chickens and they are quite happy to bag it up for us.

KatyK it would only be going in their slop buckets anyway so that actually saves their biodegradable waste bins.

DTE that's why they could afford all those holidays. Mean old b****rs.

Why should food be wasted? I bring home doggy bags containing any leftovers for my badgers and foxes - restaurants are always happy to oblige.

Saving food is a virtue we are all abut to rediscover.

My late FiL, when driving downhill, would switch off the engine and freewheel. We were always anxious that the steering lock would engage. He would also start the car in second gear to save petrol (?) but it put quite a strain on the engine; and he would drive miles to get the cheapest petrol, ignoring the fact that he was using petrol to get a whole penny off a gallon!.

that's mild compared to what I called them..

Anno, living in the Welsh mountains I use to freewheel for miles

We sometimes meet at a friends house and order an indian takeaway, lots of different dishes and something that each of us likes. It goes without saying we nearly always order to much and have a bit over. My friend freezes any leftovers and has another day! I must say she is the only one of us who gets an upset stomach and wonders why.

My friend asked for a doggy bag to take home her left over steak in a restaurant once and was told that health and safety regulations wouldn't allow them to let her take it home in case she warmed it up and gave it to her husband. They said she might then complain to the restaurant if he was ill from it!
Fortunately there were seven of us at the table with her and we all complained loudly and asked for the manager. We said she had paid for the food so it belonged to her and she had three dogs at home to eat it and no husband! Fortunately the manager could see sense and was embarrassed as other diners were watching and making comments, so she was allowed to take it. Maybe it was an over zealous waitress, because we eat there regularly and have not had a problem since.