How mean can you get?

My boss bought a pack of 4 lip balms for £1, and gave one each to the secretaries for Christmas.

Opposite end of the scale.
The vet I worked for before I had children, so 30 yrs ago, brought in 2 cases of wine for us to choose from and took all 5 staff out for a meal and drinks every Christmas. We always clubbed together to buy his present costing about £50.

Reading some of the comments about old money has reminded me that in the late 1970s I received a letter from the DWP telling me that a particular pension enhancement I was entitled to was being discontinued and when I retire it will be added to my pension and worth 2 1/2p adjusted for inflation. I wonder how much that will be worth when I retire in 18 months time but I guess about 20p. I can't remember if that was per week or per month. If the former it could be nearly £1 a month! I can't wait!

My house is one of 6 and we all share a communal court yard. A few years ago, all of the neighbours decided that it was looking a mess and the uneven flag stones were dangerous for all of us. We had regular meetings to decide what we all wanted from the shared space. A contractor gave us a fixed price and, between us, we all agreed to pay an equal share. Except one. She decided that, as she was only here for 5 days a week (she has a weekend caravan), her share should be proportionally less. This was vetoed. As the day drew near for completion, neighbour decided that she didn't want to pay for a rotary clothes drier and so, once again, she should pay less. The rest of us, reluctantly agreed and so we paid more for her share.

Guess what? Neighbour now goes from house to house asking for the use of our rotary clothes lines because she "only has one or two bits". Strangely enough, she never asks me!

Where I last worked there was a tradition of buying cakes when it was your birthday. One of the 'big wigs' always used to bring out of date supermarket own brand cakes.

I think that is probably how they became millionaires Jaye53

Can't stand mean stingy people......I have mixed with millionnaires/and the poorest.give me the poorest every time! Millionnaires were tight with money.strange but true

Giving does not impoverish us and withholding does not enrich us. Mary Baker Eddy

When I was going out with the guy who became my husband I had a car which broke down and was not economical to repair. I was pretty skint at the time and as the spare wheel had an almost new tyre on it I kept it to sell on. Boyfriend advertised it on a card at work and sold it for me. I'd asked for £10. I found out later he sold it for £11 keeping the £1 as 'commission'! I should have seen the signs but ended up marrying him. He s now my ex! He wasn't mean when it came to spending on himself or even on the family as long as it included him, but anything that didn't interest him personally was a different matter! Thankfully my son hasn't inherited his meanness. He came home after a weekend music festival with only one of his two pairs of shoes as he'd given one pair away to a girl who'd lost hers while crowd surfing. He was worried she might cut her feet on broken glass! He was only a sixth former at the time so it was me who had to replace them but at least I knew his priorities were right and he got his values from me rather than his dad! He has been know to buy trainers for a homeless man in more recent years.

Apologies for posting twice - slip of the finger !!

oh Gillybob I know how you feel. I too had a micro business, bought staff specially chosen Xmas gifts, gave them M & S vouchers instead of trying to organise a day when we could all go out to lunch, wrapped it all nicely and apart from one team, I did not get so much as a thank you or a card. This is one of the many reasons why I am glad I have packed it all up. It is great being self employed but dreadful being an employer. I just felt that a Xmas card was not too much to expect, but hey what do I know?

My father gave me a second class stamp for my o level results. (They were posted in those days ).I got my results a day after everyone else !

My dad's sister and her husband had their own Grocery/fruit and veg shop. Also they did Fish and chips in there 3 nights a week. When the chipping machine broke my dad mended it for them and was rewarded with a 1/4 pound of mushrooms!

My father gave me a second class stamp for the envelope for my o levels results. ( They were all posted in those days ) . I got my results a day after everyone else !

Telly my employers gift at Christmas (a big supermarket) was a selection box - I was delighted with it! Being a temp I didn’t expect anything, and I love chocolate! Yum yum.

My long-term partner (dumped 15 years ago, I hasten to add) once gave me a matching teacloth and oven glove for Christmas. He gave his mother a new all-singing, all-dancing microwave oven ....

My FIL kept a box full of old Christmas and birthday cards in a cupboard. When it was MIL's birthday he would dig out an old card and gave it to her again! He did this every year. But the box also contained cards he'd given his first wife and several times he just scratched out her name replacing it with MILs. He saw nothing wrong with this, just said "So what, it's a nice card isn't it." MIL said nothing.

He also insisted that his first wife's clothes stay in MIL's wardrobe, so she effectively had only half a wardrobe. His first wife had owned a lot of fur coats, good ones, and when DH and I were getting married FIL kept insisting I have the coats. When I declined his (repeated) offers saying that I didn't wear fur because I prefered animals to keep their skins he was furious, saying I was an ungrateful and opinionated little hussey! In his eyes women were just there to look after the home and children and shouldn't have opinions of their own. Thank God his son (my DH) is nothing like him.

When groceries were still sold "loose", my father went to buy a pound of sultanas from the little shop near his office. The owner put them on the scales and cut one sultana in half to get the exact weight.

Opps - missed a vital word - my sons EMPLOYER.

My sons Christmas gift to all staff was - a selection box. A small one at that. I thought it was probably best not to bother if that was all they could afford!

My exMIL was a wealthy woman by inheritance and had never really done a job of work but she was extremely mean. My eldest daughter's first Christmas present from her was a two pair pack of plastic pants to go over her nappies. Not the frilly kind but just plain plastic and the first time of washing they felt apart at the seams. Her meanness continued and the children would get 60pence books for Christmas. But she topped all that when my girls were grown up she gave them a parcel containing towels as she had too many in her airing cupboard. Not new towels or hardly used ones. They were very washed out looking and almost threadbare. The look on my girls faces was a picture.

I had an aunt who would make a pot of tea for herself in the morning, and any hapless visitors for the rest of the day, if they foolishly said they wanted a cup, got the increasingly watered contents of that pot. Incidentally my first salary was around £550 a year, working out to about £11 each week. I was delighted with that - most of my friends were earning about £8 or £9, and a pound went a very long way! When first married I had £6 for housekeeping, and we lived very well - that fed our cat too.

I worked in a hospital once and was given the job of collecting from various doctors for a colleague who was leaving. All the doctors were of course well paid and most gave £5 or £10, except for one, a consultant, who donated 50 pence.
He was the same doctor who waited for me just inside the doorway to the mortuary at night when I went to collect my car and then told me how much he desired me and how pretty I was, as he escorted me to the car park. I was so embarrassed. Next day he apologised. I never felt comfortable again when I saw him. I think he must have been drunk.

My second husband used to take the fuse out of the immersion heater so that my son who did a very dirty job couldn't bath when he got home from work, pretending it was faulty to save money. Not admitting it of course. It always worked when he wanted a bath. He soon became my ex.

When my son was about ten a friend came round with a pile of chocolate bars which he proceeded to demolish without sharing any. He then asked my son if he would like to lick the wrappers.