Really mean things people do to save money.

Words fail me.

Might be she had a 'frugal' upbringing.

MIL dried out teabags to reuse them.
DH's godmother was infamous for having mince every day for lunch - boiled, grey and made your teeth 'bounce', with boiled potatoes and cabbage.
Christmas Day was boiled tongue....... I don't think anyone ever went back for a second meal!

I won't tell you what I have added to mince to "spin it out" for shepherd's pie in the past, well actually I will. Grated carrot, onions, toasted breadcrumbs (OK just a smidgen) or else a little stuffing mix. I reckoned I could do a shepherd's pie for well under 50p per person back in the day.
If stuffing cabbage or vine leaves or red or green peppers I always add rice. So
#justcallmescrooge

PS I love hot tongue with Madeira sauce!

Shepherds pie always has carrots and a tin of baked beans in this house, ructions if left out

OMG 4 eggs to feed 4 people an omelette each.

When I stayed as a child for a few days with my grandmother she would put the mince on for lunch about 8.30am, it would be "ready" for 12 mid day and it was grey and disgusting with cabbage and potatoes which were slop.

I'm willing to bet that the OP would still have disliked the mil just as much if she had been a spendthrift!

I canmake a fluffy omelette with one egg, if it is a large one but usually choose to use 2 for me and 3 for DH.
Does anybody else still do that think of giving the "man" more protein as if he were going down t'pit or ploughing the 5-acre field before tea?

Perhaps your MiL grew up in the Hungry Thirties daddima. Old habits die hard.
My dad used to talk about how (in the 30s) only my grandpa would have an egg on his toast for breakfast. The rest of them had dripping on theirs, if there was any.
And please don't spit

Soya protein stretches mince! I mentioned this once and had the person doing most of the cooking in a shared house 'fess up that he'd been doing half and half for months to save on the housekeeping.
For Shepherd's Pie and Spag Bol etc. I started doubling the suggested amount of carrots, onions and celery to sneak more vegetables into my grandchildren with no complaints!

I naively thought spits was a pseudonym for the MIL... Oh dear

Alea and Loopylou, you are adding flavoursome foods to the mince, very different from adding rice for bulk!

And MamaCaz is correct, she was a loathsome woman. She thrashed Himself with a leather belt till his legs bled and attacked him with a kitchen knife when he was 20 years of age.

my mum used to have a friend who made delicious broths! of course I ate them with relish when I was at school

it was only in later years that I learned that mothers friend would put sheeps head to cook in the broth oh myyyyyyyyy I ate the juice from sheeps brains, have never touched broth since.......

Yes I know that in some parts it is custom to put sheeps brains in stews etc ..but not for me...(green emoticon)

Crossed posts alea

Have you read Margaret Forster's book Have the Men had Enough?

I've always 'stretched' the mince with additions of all sorts of veg and lentils too. Nothing to do with being mean- but to have respect for food and especially meat.

I've always had a problem with eating offal, ever since I was a kid growing in rural Switzerland- tripe, tongue, liver, kidneys, etc- just can't do it. But I truly wish I did- again in respect for the animal. If we kill animals for food, we should really eat most of it. By the next generation, practicall no-one will be eating offal- and we will need to kill more and more animals, with all the environmental problems raising meat (land, grass, water and methane, etc). Makes no sense. I suppose as we have more and more pets- some of it will go into pet food

I know what you mean about offal, it does taste (or can) taste more of "animal" than suits modern tastes. However, S&K pie or pudding is second to none, calves' liver, devilled kidneys, sweetbreads in beurre noir, pork chops with the kidney attached, oxtail stew, ox cheek or pig's cheek casserole - how much poorer our cuisine would be without them.

I love liverbacon and onions with mash and a gravy flavoured with balsamic vinegar!,

I'm all for offal as listed by you Alea and kittyl, but I'd draw the line at brain and tongue needs to come cooked and ready sliced as opposed to au naturale.

I always think it's rather sad when people scrimp and save, buying the cheapest food and denying themselves, when there is no need for them to do so.

People who have lived through very hard times often behave in this way because they can never quite believe that they won't go back there again. I remember Max Bygraves in an interview saying that he had a poor childhood and even after he became rich he was still very careful not to waste anything and his children and wife found his frugality both annoying and amusing. It's not necessarily about meanness, it's sometimes about a lingering feeling of insecurity.

How about tripe? We used to have it as children and I loved it. As an adult I've enjoyed trippa alla romana in Italy. I always try liver with sage in Italian restaurants. Much more tender than some of the rubbery stuff cooked with bacon as supplied by pubs.

On Mumsnet someone mentioned their tongue and tail terrine. I can't find it now but it would either be delicious to DH or nauseating to me.

I loved my late MIL but she was a terrible cook. God knows what went into her Shepherd's Pie but as it was nearly all potato it didn't seem to matter. She would put jars of pickle on the table which I think was meant to disguise the taste but the pickles didn't look very appetizing either.

I very quickly learned to understand DH's addiction to tomato ketchup.