Tales about "stingy" guests and hosts.

Vito

silverlining48

We travelled a total of nearly 5 hours round trip on public transport to visit friends.
It was a long tiring journey, and our meal , when it finally arrived was mashed potato on a slice of toast. . 😮 .

You win silver silverlining, 🤣🤣🤣.loving this thread.

Must have been a long time ago if avocados hadn’t been invented!😂

I'm not a Northerner but am currently living in the North of England. People here don't just pop in for a cup of tea and a quick chat. They get themselves settled and stay all day, expecting to be included in all meals. This is why I don't encourage people to visit me!

I don't remember ever having mean hospitality but I do recall overstaying our welcome when our host said goodnight and retired to bed leaving his poor wife to make excuses. We hurriedly departed.

When I visit DD I always bring food which she can either serve us or keep for another time.

Irish hospitality was a revelation to me when I called unannounced on a cousin in Sligo.
It was a Sunday afternoon when we tapped on her door.
"Come in and sit down while I put the kettle on."
She then brought out a newly iced chocolate cake and freshly baked soda bread and butter and told us to tuck in.
DH was going for another slice when I asked my cousin who she had been expecting?
"Oh you know how it is" she replied "its a Sunday and you always have food to offer in case someone calls"

silverlining48

We travelled a total of nearly 5 hours round trip on public transport to visit friends.
It was a long tiring journey, and our meal , when it finally arrived was mashed potato on a slice of toast. . 😮 .

This has got to be the strangest offering yet!

I've read all the posts on this thread but Silverlining48's post about the mash potato on toast really made me laugh.
The first thing I do when anyone calls is a brew and biscuits even any workmen that come. I've always been offered the same when I've been anywhere. Never gone hungry either.
One of my DH sisters was coming to visit with her daughters so I made a buffet with sandwiches, pork pies and a whole host of other stuff. An hour before they were due they rang to say they weren't coming. My DH texted his BIL who didn't speak to this sister to tell him as they constantly text each other on a Saturday about football. His BIL and wife dragged their daughter out of bed and told her they were all coming to ours for a buffet. We were delighted to see them and all the food was eaten.

My story is the opposite. DH always had a large appetite and, in the days when we didn't have children and ate with friends more often, he used to complain about the small portions he was given. Because of this he got into the habit of eating something before we left home. This was fine until we visited my old school friend. She and her husband always ate a lot and had laid on a massive meal for us. It was quite amusing seeing DH struggling to eat it all.

I often wonder how it is that people sit quiet through examples of meanness and poor hospitality without saying anything. I think many people get off with being stingy because no one will challenge them.

Like the people who go on a group night out to a restaurant, have the most expensive meal on the menu and lots of drinks. Then suggest that they "split the bill" with others who have had simpler meals or no alcohol. This kind of meanness assumes that everyone will be too embarassed to disagree and will simply subsidise their expensive dining choices. In these circumstances I would certainly be saying something along the lines of "Well my meal cost ££ and I wont be splitting the bill with those who have more expensive tastes." Ive been in these situations, left my money on the table (plus enough for a tip), and left them to argue it out. Or Ive begun the evening by asking the waiter for a separate bill, thus indicatiing that I wont be subsidising anyone else.

Moonwatcher1904 I think nothing ruins a meal more than penny pinching over the bill, it sucks all the joy from the event.

This post reminds me of a meal me and DH went to a few years ago. It was my BIL birthday to be in a restaurant an hours drive from us. His sister, and us were surprises that he didn't know was going. Altogether there were 13 adults and a toddler. It all went well until my BIL's wifes dad got the bill. Everyone had either a starter and main or a main and dessert. All had a couple of drinks some alcoholic and some just soft drinks. Well it got quite embarassing as this dad set to work trying to work out each couples share and it went on for so long it was unbelievable. It would've just been as easy to divide it by 13. Some might have paid a little more or less whatever they had but it wouldn't have been much either way. I'll never forget that.

I went to an evening wedding do 18:00 - 22:00. Everyone was starving, desperate for the food to appear and when it did, it was cheese and biscuits. Beautifully presented but there were people there who didn't like/eat cheese.

JenniferEccles

Talking of offering refreshments I know some folk on here will remember a poster called Gabriella who used to regale us with tales of her generous food offerings to tradesmen.

Even the DPD driver was sent away loaded up with goodies after dropping off a parcel!

I still miss her posts.

Ha ha, I do that but not on such a grand scale.

Talking of offering refreshments I know some folk on here will remember a poster called Gabriella who used to regale us with tales of her generous food offerings to tradesmen.

Even the DPD driver was sent away loaded up with goodies after dropping off a parcel!

I still miss her posts.

We know someone like that Tenko. In the days of large parties here outside we had a beer bin outside with ice in it, all the beers brought by people went in. This couple came with the cheapest beer available, popped it in, drank the expensive stuff and theirs was always left.

On the theme of stingy people I heard about an ex boyfriend of mine. A woman I know and her husband are friends now with him and his wife.

She says when they go out for a meal as a foursome they always split the bill down the middle. She says that’s fine but then my old boyfriend and his wife then split their bill down the middle again right down to the last penny. 😱

I think I had a lucky escape. 😉

Primrose53

Just remembered another one …..

A friend invited us and several other people to her garden for a BBQ. I filled a couple of cool boxes with burgers, sausages etc and cold cans. Other people did likewise with chicken legs, bread, salad etc.

Her OH was in charge of cooking and thanked us all for bringing stuff then he asked his wife where their contribution was so he could get started. She produced ….. and I am not kidding ….. a small tupperware bowl half full of leftover potato salad! he thought it was a joke but it wasn’t and he was very cross and embarrassed all afternoon and apologised as we left. It was like water off a duck’s back to her and she just got drunk on other people’s booze! 🤣🤣

This reminds me of visiting a ‘friend’ on a very cold winter Saturday. We went for a very long walk and got back to her place about 2pm to be offered a cuppa soup with the promise of some coleslaw ‘that probably needs eating’ afterwards.

When I first met my OH we went to his parents for Christmas.

Christmas dinner was a small roast chicken with cabbage. My future MIL announced with great ceremony: "I have made a Christmas pudding." Out came a spotted dick!

I vowed then that I would never waste one of my children's precious childhood Christmases there.

Oh - and MIL handed me a pair of her gloves that had been lying on top of the piano and said: "Here, you can have these for Christmas" - and FIL went upstairs and rifled in a drawer and found a pair of pyjamas to give my then boyfriend.

They were a very eccentric lot! But had brains like planets, having met cracking codes at Bletchley Park.

Delila

I remember an opposite scenario too, Callistemon. We visited relatives near Dublin, and had the most sumptuous meal. We said our goodbyes & went on to visit more relatives round the corner, as arranged, where we again sat down to a wonderful feast. Their hospitality knew no bounds!

I did warn that Irish hospitality is legendary! Delila 😉

When my cousin’s husband had a massive heart attack he was hospitalised and not expected to recover and sadly he didn’t. It may seem odd to some but relatives all turned up with mountains of food to wait for the inevitable. Apparently this is quite usual in Ireland as a way of showing their love for the family. The nursing staff are used to it and just say they never knew so many people could fit into a room.

silverlining48

We travelled a total of nearly 5 hours round trip on public transport to visit friends.
It was a long tiring journey, and our meal , when it finally arrived was mashed potato on a slice of toast. . 😮 .

You win silver silverlining, 🤣🤣🤣.loving this thread.

FannyD

Many years ago a single female colleague asked me and DH for a meal. When we sat down to eat, she lifted the lid of a casserole dish containing less than I would normally give my husband! The vegetables and potatoes were similarly frugal. It was all delicious, but when we eventually went home a couple of hours later we called at the nearest chippy.

Similar story here, we once got friendly with a really nice couple, they came for a meal with us, a simple meal but plenty of it and they ate quite a lot.A few months later we were invited to theirs for lunch.No smell of cooking in their house and a pristine kitchen should have warned us😖
Some time went by with a coffee and chat, then they brought out the smallest salad you’ve ever seen, plates with one slice of ham on and a couple of boiled, cold, new potatoes and that was it.
Time passed and we asked them to ours again, this time a hearty hot lunch and a dessert, which they polished off.
More time passed and we were invited to theirs again, on the way we joked about the last meal there, surely a one off?
Lunch was a cheese sandwich and a few crisps this time, on a cold wet day in Winter.
They weren’t hard up and it’s hard to understand the reason for it.They were pleasant people but OMG that had to be it.
We saw them a few times later but always in a pub or cafe to make sure we got fed.

My sister told me that her husband's family were planning to come over to the UK for a visit from South Africa.
Her husband's aunt said that when they came the whole family were invited to hers for food. The day came and my sister and her DH went to the 'do'. She rang me to tell me about it. She said the 'food' was one cream cracker with a slice of cheese on it for each person.

Once a work colleague invited some of us to over to her brand new house to see it. She told us to arrive for seven. We all lived about an hour’s drive away, the house was way out in a country village. It was a beautiful place very large and expensive with a stunning kitchen diner. 1 bottle of wine was extracted from the massive American fridge and we were all given a small glass and a bowl of crisps appeared. There was no sign of any other food and we were all starving. That was it. Whilst she was showing people around I looked in the oven, it was sparkling and still had a cardboard label hanging inside She certainly did not think entertaining included food. We all left and headed to the chippie.

We’re friends with a couple who are big drinkers but they turn up for a bbq, party or dinner with a 4 pack of beer and one bottle of wine and then proceed pile into our drinks cupboard or fridge when they’ve finished theirs.

I had a neighbour who would give a party and when he wanted people to go he would turn off the heating.. sometimes at about 10ish

We had a friend who did the same…but usually in his pyjamas! 😂

I remember an opposite scenario too, Callistemon. We visited relatives near Dublin, and had the most sumptuous meal. We said our goodbyes & went on to visit more relatives round the corner, as arranged, where we again sat down to a wonderful feast. Their hospitality knew no bounds!