How mean can you get?

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.

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!!

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

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!

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.

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 once given a pair of second hand gloves by my late MiL . They were very obviously well worn too.

Reading some of these posts seems to confirm that those with the most (the richest) are the greediest.

Dh's old aunt was the worst I've ever known. Plenty of money but loathed parting with any of it. Once went with her to a wool shop - she was a keen knitter - where the expensive mohair yarn she wanted came to something like £14.12p.
She told the assistant she'd have it if she knocked the 12p off! Assistant said it wasn't her shop, she couldn't - aunt went on arguing about it. So cringe-making.

Another time she wanted a new mug - poor dh had to trawl umpteen shops with her, where she'd screech, 'HOW MUCH???' and off they'd go to another. Finally found one in a charity shop for pennies.

Then she'd get her lovely,, long-suffering cleaning lady to do her shopping for her, and would have a go at her if she hadn't gone to a separate shop for the butter, where it was 1p cheaper.
I used to call her Queen Midas. At her funeral dh made a little speech where he added that there'd have been another screech of, 'HOW MUCH???' if she'd known the cost of her send off. Everybody cracked up - she was so well known for it.

Oh, and after she finally had to go into a care home, she refused to pay the fees directly - 'If they know I've got money they'll find a way to steal it,' so dh had to pay, then write one of her own cheques for her to sign, to pay us
back.
I'm only surprised that seeing the amount in £££££ - 'HOW MUCH???' - didn't finish her off with a heart attack rather sooner.

When my sister didn't have a car but needed some shopping I said I get it for her.
When I got it back to her, she asked how much it was and it had come to £9.99, she gave me a tenner and asked for the receipt AND the penny change!

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

I never heard of a child actually being given coal up to now, but adults were often quite cruel to children, thinking it was a joke. My parents gave me a nice looking piece of chocolate cake once, that was made of plastic. Another time it was a lovely looking apple, that was wax. The worst was the time my mother put a fake worm in my cabbage!

They weren’t bad parents but just seemed to have a warped sense of humor.

I think children used to be told that Santa Claus would only give them coal if they weren’t good. ☹️

?

That's not as bad as zezi's. A Christmas stocking full of coal!

Katy, your story took the biscuit ?
could not believe folks could be so mean

Luckygirl that was quite reasonable. It was the last one!

Oh dear!
Don’t think I’ll bother with the Brexit threads thank you Gonegirl - too many belly laughs for my Tena lady’s to cope with.
I’ll just watch “Angela’s Ashes - the Musical”
(And please don’t boss me around)

My grandmother was given a box of chocolates by an admirer (whom she later married and gave him such grief that he ended his own life - very sad indeed) and my brother and I (aged about 4 and 5) asked if we could have one. There were 2 left in the box. She put one in her mouth and cut the other in half and gave us half each - thanks grandma!

We crossed posts. I'm sad about izezi's dad.

I'm still here Gonegirl. What were you going to say?

All I was going to say was, izezi I wish I hadn't read that. [sad[sad [bawl]

Mawbroon read another thread.

Go and have a jolly on a Brexit thread.

Come back Littleannie! I was just going to say something.