How mean can you get?

I think that is probably how they became millionaires Jaye53

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 One of the 'big wigs' always used to bring out of date supermarket own brand cakes.

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!

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!

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.

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

A few years ago a lady who owned a takeaway rang our office on 31st January to say that she had forgotten to do her tax return and if it wasn't in by midnight she would get a £100 fine. I offered to go to the shop after work to collect the paperwork and said I would do it that evening to save her the fine. I had my young son with me when I went so suggested that I take a bag of chips for his tea to save me time cooking and she charged me for them , I was so shocked I just handed the cash over !!

chicken that sounded like Arkwright from 'Open all Hours'

I think I fall into the generous category. I've had various gardeners/cleaners over the years. Some when I was working and more recently because I was ill. At Christmas I always gave them double their days pay and bought them wine and chocolates on top of that.

I can't stand stinginess.

Financial stinginess is often accompanied by a lack of generosity of spirit, I have found.

I don't think all well off people are mean but my experience has shown that more of them seem to be mean than people with less money. At a city solicitors where the partners earned astronomical amounts of money and often had both a London and a country property, when collections went round it wasn't unknown for at least one partner to put 50p in.

In the same city solicitora, one Christmas my friend's boss received a large Harrods hamper from one of his clients. A few days later, her boss brought in some items for her which had not been to his and his wife's taste - including a jar of pineapple in creme de menthe - a very strange combination we thought. My friend was not impressed but it did make us laugh. I was fortunate enough to have a youngish female boss who was extremely nice and who was not at all mean.

Me too, breeze. People who are mean with money and mean with love and affection - can't stand them!

My husband has a friend who is an airline pilot. When you go to his house he makes you a coffee using free airline sachets, also the tiny packets of milk and sugar.

Twenty years ago I worked for a Nursery and we were out for our Christmas lunch. The owner said she was buying each member of staff a drink. I asked for a gin and tonic. She snapped "you can have the gin but not the tonic". I could never understand why she wouldn't stretch to the tonic but the other girls were having beers so maybe my drink was too expensive! Later in the evening she said the parents had clubbed together to buy us all a drink. She said to me "I don't think they meant you as they don't really know you". That was me told.

The richest and millionaires are rich BECAUSE they are mean. Obviously.

My cousin won 4 tiny ashtrays on a seaside bingo game and gave one each to her parents and in-laws as their Xmas presents. She once gave me and my sister a twin pack of very cheap and nasty knickers to divide as our gifts. They were size 8(her size) though she knew we were big girls(size 18). She also gave my daughter a plastic brooch that must have come out of a cracker. Her meanness was legendary.

Evidently a newspaper seller tried to short change Cary Grant. He insisted on having the correct change, and when the newspaper seller protested that he was rich, Grant is said to have replied that he wouldn't be if he kept giving money away!

My godmother was rich, or at least considerably richer than we were. One time I remember unwrapping a small gift from her with excitement..I was so disappointed as what I hoped might be jewellery or some little treasure turned out to be a cheap biro.
"That's why she's rich" said my DM. It was an early lesson. ,

My (wealthy) sister and brother-in-law came to our house uninvited one Christmas Eve. They said 'we haven't come empty handed' and handed us four cans of lager. They then proceeded to polish off almost a full bottle of DH's good whiskey.

When I was a child we had a German au pair who would buy herself a Walls family ice cream neopolitan flavour and eat the whole lot in front of us children! Ice cream was a rare treat for us so we were not amused. On the other hand I knew of an oncologist who would take his team out at Christmas to a smart London hotel for tea and then go home after putting money behind the bar si they could have jolly evening

hmm...wouldn't agree with you there. When I was 13 in 1967 My dad was a lorry driver for Schweppes and was paid just over £20 a week. I worked in a hairdressers after school and weekends...having pretended I was 15. I was paid five shillings for two hours after school evenings, seven and six for Friday evening as it was an hour longer...and a pound for Saturday. This was in North West London...so maybe the pay was better.

In a summer job as a nursing assistant, it was my job to make the supper for the other staff. One said she was having beans on toast, and I’d get the stuff in the kitchen. I dashed to her to report somebody had eaten her beans, as there were about six beans and some juice in a can. She informed me that was all that was necessary for one slice of toast!

I agree with you breeze & rosina they go hand in hand. Not nice people.

When I was Guide we camped on an estate in Norfolk. We had been there for about a week when an old lady came up the field carrying a freshly baked pie. “This is for you” she said “I always make pies for the Guides, because you can’t make pastry on a fire”. WOW! How nice,,we thought and the Captain thanked her. We wondered what sort of a pie it was, fruit probably, we thought. So we all sat round after dinner and our Captain cut it. But there was nothing inside! We realised that she had just made the crust, we were supposed to fill it ourselves!?

It’s such a shame that people can be mean spirited, even on a thread like this. I do hope that poor lady did not leave GN, we are certainly not all like that!

When I started teaching in a comprehensive in 1966, my first monthly pay packet contained £39 and I thought I was a millionaire! I used to give my Mum something for bed and board, run a Ford Anglia and still had enough left over to treat myself to some nice new clothes very month! I thought I was the bee’s knees!

I'm sorry Gonegirl. It was not my intent to make you unhappy, or feel bad for him. It was only to show how mean people can be. He was in anger management class when he was in his 80's.

I ate lunch at their house when I was about the same age. My Grandmother told me to be careful with that drinking glass not to break it. It was worth a dime (10 cents US) and more than me.

It's nothing more to me than words and has no sting to it at all. I don't let that kind of thing eat at me. You shouldn't either but I do appreciate the sentiments.

I had a real Grandpa who was very, very good to me.

I too worked for a very wealthy family, as baby-sitter to their three children (12, 9 and 2) as well as cleaning, sorting laundry and ironing and preparing the dinner for the children, putting the little one to bed then making the adults dinner. They would return about 7pm. They went to the gym after work.

I did this 5 evenings a week for over a year for less than NZ's official minimum wage. I also took their elderly mother out on jaunts, and was paid a donation towards my petrol.

When Christmas came round, I was asked if I'd go and help with the food preparation for the 35 guest, all of whom were family, some of them knew me very well and were always polite and friendly.

Christmas is in summer here, so it was a lovely buffet: many salads, sliced meats, smoked fish, seafood, strawberries and cream which the Mother and I prepared between us whilst everyone else sat in the huge garden.

They ate outside, I ate in the kitchen until someone came in and pretty much forced me to join them outside.

Then came the gift giving.
We were all in a circle around the tree. Names were called out and the children 'delivered' the gifts. There was nothing for me.

Someone said, 'Isn't there a gift for (my name) in great surprise and our hostess had to admit there was not.

One member of the family, a lovely man of about 40 who had a mental handicap handed me the beautiful book he'd just been given: 'Scenic New Zealand' and wished me a very happy Christmas. There was absolute silence from everyone else.

Nothing more was said. I got on with all the washing up for 35 people, let myself out and went home.