Meanest/ thriftiest thing you’ve ever heard of

Cabbies. Ditto. After a lifetime of having to be frugal, learning make do and mend, a hundred and one meals from 1/2lb mince, I am now learning how to spend a little, although still keeping a watch on finances. How life changes.

My DM told me that she met her widowed step-mother and her own sister for lunch in London. Both were very well-off but notoriously mean. When the bill came, they started arguing loudly about who should pay. You can probably guess who did foot the bill: my generous (but otherwise thrifty) DM.

I think there are people who are not good with money snd keeping a note of everything they spend helps them live within their budget so it’s not necessarily meanness but more a way of coping.

I've known some right tight wads in my time, but the very worst were two acquaintances (not friends) who were literally millionaires. They weren't connected, but one instance was one failed to pay her builder the final amount owing for a huge job (around £1500, 40 years ago), because he hadn't sent the invoice asking for it. Poor chap must have forgotten. The other, a guy who used to make a display of bringing champagne to events, but drank everybody else's alcohol, then took 'his' bottle home as it was 'leftover'. Looking back I wonder how many events the same bottle made an appearance at. Real meanies.

but stull feel guilty when I throw away perfectly fine but too small bits of soap even now!
So do I! Not mean but it does seem such a waste.

Allira

^collected bits of soap, melted and reformed them^
I read somewhere that Princess Diana used to do that. Perhaps the soap was extremely expensive!

We all used to do that in the 70s/ 80s. Don’t some of you remember? They( ? ) used to sell special round plastic pots where you put all the soap bits in then when you had enough add hot water and crush them with the lid. Out came another round soap of muti-colours, trouble was the ‘new’ soaps broke into bits again quite quickly! I eventually threw the soap’maker’ away, but stull feel guilty when I throw away perfectly fine but too small bits of soap even now!

Oreo - You are right there's a fine line between being careful and being miserly. There's nothing wrong with reusing gift wrap, gift bags and ribbons, there's nothing wrong with unravelling a knitted item and reusing the wool. But I do think going to a party, not taking anything and eating the host out of house and home is rude. Likewise my friend will host and ask everyone to bring some food and drink, she will even specify salad, dessert, wine, non alcoholic drinks etc...and apart from the venue not provide anything herself. As most people bring too much and obviously leave it my friend and family are eating up for days.

Shinamae

What is a Bodach?

Bodach is Scots Gaelic for an old man.

My father went to a little corner shop run by two extremely frugal elderly sisters and watched in astonishment as they weighed out a pound of sultanas for another customer. To balance the scales exactly they cut a sultanas in half!

HowNowBrownCow

I kid you not when we were kids there was a woman by us who used to rinse used condoms out and peg them on the line so as to reuse them! Yuck 🤢 🤮

Don't know how old you are but there have been reusable condoms for ages - here's one from the Science Museum:

collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co96752/paragon-reusable-rubber-condom-london-england-1948-1950

Friends of ours came back to London after living overseas for a while. They stayed with his mother in her rather large house in Chelsea. Mealtimes were a farce (we had a meal there too) with such tiny portions - two tiny tinned new potatoes each - so after the mother had gone to bed my friends would creep out and buy takeaway.

My mother used to use the inside wrapper of the cornflakes packet to wrap sandwiches. She made her own clothes and dresses for my sisters and I. all our cardigans and jumpers were made by her. She came from an extremely poor family (just how poor we didn’t really know until she died) and although dad was fairly well off, she still counted the pennies constantly. She only spent a lot of money when my brother and sister ended up living in Australia and she flew out there nearly every year.

My hubby gets cross when I look through the section of items with use by today's date in supermarkets, but I pick out what I would normally buy and can freeze, so why not?

I add water to the shampoo and conditioner bottles for the last drop and often wash my hair twice this way.

He will not use the last bit of soap and leaves it to me.

I don't consider myself tight but I do resent the pressure to tip, it goes back to when that's all they got but now they are on at least minimum wage but that's all a lot of people are on and they don't get tipped just for doing their job.

I kid you not when we were kids there was a woman by us who used to rinse used condoms out and peg them on the line so as to reuse them! Yuck 🤢 🤮

Oh I forgot. I had two friends who were not in the least mean but genuinly did not like strong tea. So they used one tea bag between the two of them. I used to say you "dont like weak //week tea you have fortnight tea!! "
Some of the people I have read about above would certainly not stay friends of mine for very long!!

Madelieine please make sure you are getting all the benefits to which you are entitled- eg Pension credit.

Madeleine if you are not getting a full pension you will get theWFA this year and as I think you said on the GM thread that you are now 80 you should receive £300.

I know someone very well.off - arent they always - who has the have app on his phone. His son was round while he was out and he rang up.to say have you used the shower ? Because he could tell from the app !!! Another time my husband was at the take away chippy and a couple next to him in their car had brought a flask of mushy Peas from home to have with theirs to save a few pennies !!!

How anyone chooses to live, including how they spend or do not spend their money it their business, not ours.

Presumably these ladies felt that they were doing their duty by their relation by leaving him as much as they could.

It is not my choice OP anymore than it obviously would be yours, but as I said to start with, it really is not our business.

Well I live alone and do not get even a full pension, so there is little money to spare, but we all have our ways. I dont spend money on new clothes and although I think they look pretty the fashion these days for having nails beautifully painted, the thought of the cost of that and you cant even know how long they last, wont let me give them a try. I absolutely hate looking at chipped nail polish, so would rather have just clean nails than spend money on that. However I say I have champagne taste and beer money and am happy to buy second hand cashmere etc.

I once knew a lovely scottish girl, when I lived in a bed sit in london,who had the most awful stingy boyfriend. He was half scottish and half italian and the worst of both sides. Mean and begrudging on the one hand and extremely jealous on the other. She was a lovely generous soul, and if I went to her flat she would always offer a coffee or some home made cake or whatever in the same way as we all were hospitable in those days. It really worried me to see the way he treated her and could already see him measuring up everything and anything and as the radio programme used to say for fun - but he did it for real and say "you'll have had your tea?!!" .
I thought about this quite a bit. It wasnt for me to tell her to pack him in, but I never saw him do anything generous and he was always putting her down, so decided to show him up.

The next time I went up to her flat , I went prepared!! She said come away in, and will you have a drink. I thanked her and then turning to him pulled out a teabag from my pocket, and said. "dont worry you wont be paying for my drink and as far as I know you dont pay for breathing fresh air!" He went red and stomped out. We had a pleasant hour together and I invited her to come with me to some country dancing one evening. Dont know if the realization of what he was like ALL the time, or just she had had enough of him but glad to say he disappeared from her life shortly after!!

As we say here "there are no pockets in shrouds!!" So long as I can manage to pay my bills and not get in debt - which I do have a horror of happening , especially with things like cost of living and now not getting the electricity winter fuel payment, then I care much more about experiences than goods and chattels. Much rather look at going up the dales and taking a sandwich than spending a fortune on some posh hotel for lunch. So sometimes I go to the coast, and love Saltburn a simple place with good sand and a funicular etc. I get a lot of pleasure in occasionally being able to offer the chance to go to a lady with 2 small children and no car. They really enjoy their time on the beach and I enjoy seeing them and remembering my own son at that age going there. He will be 50 in september so a fair while ago!! Happy memories are made from simple times and with people you want to be with, not by how much money you spend.

I was told that a b&b for visiting actors had a notice on the dining table: 'Use of cruet- 6d'. Mind you, that was some 50 years ago.

I made a similar thread on mumsnet as i had a friend who was a right tightwad. saving money - great.
Being mean- not good.

this is what she used to get up to:

i recently fell out with a friend who is known for being exceptionally tight with money.
They have no kids & do anything to scrimp and save so they can afford a champagne lifestyle at the drop of a hat. They buy expensive beauty items with free gifts and then take the items back for a refund afterwards and not return the free gift!
This is a light hearted post about examples of tight friends, partners & family members who have either gone out of their way to be tight or given terrible birthday/ Christmas presents over the years.
NB- This isn’t a criticism on saving money, being mindful of money to stop hardship etc. It is great to collect coupons and vouchers and I do the same. It is more a lighthearted look at how tight some people can be:

Tell me what happened and when & is that person still in your life?

I’ll give a few examples:

this friend requests vouchers from people at Christmas but always buys people “presents”. These presents can be anything from some old used nail varnish to free beauty samples sachets.
Their family now insist that they buy them gift vouchers as they no longer want their version of “presents”

Only orders hot water in a restaurant/bar- so drinks are always free. sometimes brings own tea bag and milk if they fancy a cup of tea.

Insists on walking everywhere and is spitting feathers when they share a taxi with anyone. They would sooner walk home on their own at night and potentially risk their own safety, than hail a cab and get home safely.

Order the most expensive luxury drink at a bar and then complain said drink is flat and that another fresh bottle is opened. They would then complain again and get another drink free!

Arrange to meet for lunch/dinner at the venue of their choice & then not order anything at all from the venue & say they are getting something from the burger van nearby afterwards. Then watch me eat my food that was ordered from the venue while they sip on a free cup of hot water. ( the hot water was free btw)

Insist on always getting a child’s portion at any eatery. whether this is chips from a burger van or a posh restaurant. This person always has to have the cheapest bill at the end of a meal.

Send a sympathy card when my auntie passed away & have the text in the card crossed out!! God knows what the original card said 😂

I once worked with a woman whose husband would take a gas & electric meter reading every week , and if it was higher one week they had to make the effort to be lower the next .

Guesswhat

A previous poster mentioned “squeezing the life out of toothpaste tubes”.
Doesn’t everyone do that?

Lotions, potions, serums - I make sure I get my money’s worth by extracting the last drop.

There's a difference imo between getting one's moneysworth v. meanness.

It's not mean to get "every bit one has paid for" and I still do the making sure I get the last bit of toothpaste, body lotion, etc out of its container (which is something I've had to do for literally decades - and I still do that now that money isn't such an issue at long long last). I also use up paper that hasn't got printing on one side for scrap paper purposes. One is just getting one's moneys worth with things like that.

But meanness is not paying one's way (something I've been careful to do even when unemployed) or buying a cheaper version of something than one really wants when you can afford better. I went against my conscience for years back at my poorest and bought battery eggs - but then my conscience wouldnt let me do that any longer and so I bought free-range instead and these days I'm looking out for organic free-range at last.

Am only too glad I can - finally - buy "my" level of stuff....rather than a cheaper version because of having to economise.

A previous poster mentioned “squeezing the life out of toothpaste tubes”.
Doesn’t everyone do that?

Lotions, potions, serums - I make sure I get my money’s worth by extracting the last drop.