How mean can you get?

Honestly I can't see why anybody is harking back to the days when they earned 5/- an hour. etc Does that still rankle
Maw, yes, sometimes it can, if it has hurt you.
please don't overthink someone else's feelings. You have had your own share of unhappiness, it won't go away, and you talk about it, but the GN's on here have supported you, on the whole.

I was au pair in a French family 2hen I was sixteen. The husband was a nuclear engineer, so not badly off, and his wife also worked.

For drinking glasses, they always used the french mustard containers made for that purpose but out of very cheap, recycled glass, that broke very easily.

During my year of washing up for them they calculated that I had broken six so when it was time for me to leave they said I had to buy them six new glasses before leaving.

Giulia, IIRC French women used to be renowned for thriftiness.
In the 60s neighbours of ours had a French au pair. They knew the girl's family and our neighbour told my mother that the au pair's mother could 'literally' make a family meal for threepence.

Being extremely careful and frugal (from necessity) my mother was exceedingly sceptical and said she'd certainly like to know she managed that!

When I was in hospital after having my daughter, my in-laws brought me a bunch of flowers picked from my own garden

This thread has just made me remember my first school holiday job!!

There was a corner shop near to where I lived and the owners seemed to lack any incentive to stock shelves, rotate goods or generally clean, so at the grand old age of 11 (1977) the role was bestowed onto me. Working 9am till 5pm with no breaks, for the princely wage of £2..........A WEEK!! ?

I think I lasted about a month, before my parents twigged I was being used as slave labour!!

30 years ago I was asked to price up a very complicated job for a rich expat. When I went to see her, a 40 minute drive away she was boasting about the days they lived abroad and how generous she had been to their house staff. She didn’t want them living in, so she gave them surplus army issue blankets so they could make themselves tents to live in away from the house and didn’t even charge them.

No I didn’t get the job which I thought I had priced quite low. When I rang with my estimate, she screamed down the phone saying it was a redicoulous price, I obviously didn’t want the job, why had I wasted her time, etc, etc. Next day I arrived at her house to return photos etc. She was furious, saying she was too busy to see me and to go away and ring to make an appointment! Naturally I just dumped the bag and left. The point was really about the army blankets, but I needed to rant.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Opps - missed a vital word - my sons EMPLOYER.

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.

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.

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 ....

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 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 !

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 my o level results. (They were posted in those days ).I got my results a day after everyone else !

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?

Apologies for posting twice - slip of the finger !!

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.

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

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