Meanest/ thriftiest thing you’ve ever heard of

''very put out''

Magenta I had a similar experience some years ago. I happened to mention to a friend that I had purchased a Devon Wool mattress topper. When my friend asked me the price I told her £100.00
My friend seemed very out. She said she could never afford that.
I said nothing but noted to myself that she had taken three holidays so far that year. I hadn't been away at all.

I used to work with a person who used to go on about how careful they were and how clever they were at cutting corners and saving money. But they regularly had three holidays abroad every year and quite a few weekend breaks.

One day I mentioned that I had a dishwasher and they exclaimed "Oooh, how the rich live". They clearly considered it an unnecessary extravagance. At the time, I had not been away anywhere for three years.

One thing that is becoming apparent to me is that one person’s “thrift” is sometimes another’s meanness .
Yes there are mean people regardless of income but what many of us (yes, even us) do today would have horrified our mums or grans as being profligate or wasteful. Similarly saving brown wrapping paper, ends of string, washing dishcloths, doing “sides to middle” or ripping up old vests or t shirts to make cleaning cloths would be seen as signs of abject poverty to Gen Z.

Shinamae
A bodach is a trickster or bogeyman figure in Gaelic folklore and mythology. The bodach "old man" is paired with the cailleach "hag, old woman" in Irish legend. Wikipedia

I like weak tea.
I use loose leaf.

I reuse tea bags, not to save money but because I like weak tea so one tea bag makes about 3 cups! 😂

www.notion.so/Smart-Ideas-for-Mums-to-Save-Money-23d6270713c38078a218e7c1bd14b557?source=copy_link

My mother used to do that.

I suppose it was because bed linen was relatively expensive and perhaps more scarce post WW2.

Anyone else do the ‘sides to middles’ sewing with bedsheets? I had to unpick one of my efforts once as it wasn’t straight enough for my mum’s standards.

I suppose it did me a good turn as I can certainly sew in straight lines now. Corners? Not so much!

My Mother came to visit one day. (I'm embarrassed to tell this) She took out a bag and said "I've bought you these. Thought you could use them. I only used them once and then I washed them". What was it? Her face wet wipes. I was speechless.

When we bought our first house the owners asked if they could take the roses as they had been a present . We agreed though were left with a bare front garden little knowing how mean they were . We arrived on moving day with a tiny baby to find all bulbs removed from the sockets, the toilet roll holder removed and , worst of all , the bathroom heater taken leaving a large hole in the wall . We were young and did not know better but were never treated like that again. Sad to say this just confirmed the reputation of Aberdonians of being stingy.

Daddima

We were just talking about two unmarried sisters, friends of the Bodach’s mother who lived the most frugal life imaginable. Cornflake breakfast, can of soup lunch, and often ‘something eggy’ for dinner.
However, the length they went to to save money was incredible! They switched off the pilot light on their gas fire to save money, and had an electric cooker with those solid rings, as they could switch the ring off and let the residual heat finish the cooking!
You may not be surprised to hear they had one nephew, a ne’er do well fellow they rarely saw, who inherited a six figure sum.

I think there is a difference between people who won’t pay a fair share when going out for example, and those who have grown up in poverty or learnt to be thrifty during WW2. I do have a friend similar age to me late 60s who is v comfortably off with 2 pensions, inherited money but who hardly ever pays for coffee when we are out, shops heavily discounted food at the end of the day but doesn’t eat it before it goes off, and who would rather walk 2 miles from the station if there is no bus as a taxi seen as an unwarranted extravagance! “Nowt so queer as folk” as they say!

DH and I went for lunch with friends, a couple who are a bit miserable with money. The bill came to £87.90 and we had agreed to split it equally which meant we each would pay £43.95. DH handed over his credit card in the machine and told him to take £50 meaning for him to have £6.05 as our part of a tip. The server then took our friend’s credit card and advised that there was £37.90 still due. Our friend, as quick as you like said to just take £40 which reduced the tip to just over £2. We were absolutely disgusted but didn’t want to embarrass anyone so said nothing but decided there and then that would probably be the last meal out with them. I suppose it was partly the server’s fault for requesting the lesser amount but our friends knew they had £43.95 to pay. We knew they were a bit mean as a previous lunch had been £100. We paid half each, then they put £2 cash on the table as a tip - we were about to put £5 down thinking £10 would be okay but we left £10 on top of theirs. Miserable beggars!

Welsh Poppy - I know many people who drive from shop to shop to save pennies not realising they spend more on petrol.

I remember the programme about the extreme thrifters that was mentioned upthread. If I remember correctly, it was called Superscrimpers and was on Channel 4. There were one or two pieces of good advice but most of it was bizarre. I remember one woman dyeing her bra and pants the same colour to make a matching set. She was doing this in a large saucepan on top of the hob. I hardly ever wear matching underwear and even if I did I would not go to those lengths. I try to put slivers of soap on the new bar - old habits die hard - and I use a teapot if I am making tea for more than one person. Not only does it mean that fewer teabags are used but I think it tastes better when it is allowed to brew properly
I think the meanest thing that I remember happened around twenty years ago. I was in an amateur orchestra and and one of my violin strings broke. A lady had a spare and let me have it. It was a cheap string and I thanked her and gave her £3 saying that l thought it was the right amount but, if it was more, please could she let me know. I thought no more about it until the following week when she came up to me and told me that the string had actually cost £3.20. She then went on to say that as our break time coffee cost 25p, I could put in the 20p and she would put in the 5p. Of course, I agreed as l did owe the extra money but, if the boot had been on the other foot, l would not have dreamt of mentioning 20p.

My sil and her hubby visit several supermarkets because, they say, they take advantage of the offers in each one to save a pound or two on their weekly shop. Sil couldn't seem to get it when I suggested that it wasn't really saving money because of the cost of petrol travelling from one end of the city to the other to make these 'savings'.

Allira

^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.

Can't you just stick the thin bits onto the new bar?

petalpete

I wondere if its because we are constantly being encouraged to switch banks, switch utility companies, different supermarkets, make 3 meals out of one etc etc and made to feel stupid for not doing so that we then carry it too far. I totted up the amount of time this has cost me in 2 years trawling the internet filling in forms and even with savings accounts it was not worth my time. I find it stressful, time consuming and wonder if I'm doing the right thing and then worry I'm not. Madness.

To me - I take the view that if I see my insurance company is "trying it on" by too big a rise come the annual renewal of my insurance cover I do one or both of:
- ring them and tell them the rise is bigger than inflation and ask if they can revise it (they often do) and/or
- just check the comparison tables and choose a cheaper insurance company.

I basically won't do things that seem like a lot of trouble for a little bit of savings though. Looking back - and I guess my overall rule for moneysaving has been do anything my intuition told me to:
- I opened a lot of accounts with building societies years back and with just a £100 left in each of them and then sat back and waited and several years later got bonus payments from most of them (NB: that has finished years back now)
- Got a large chunk of money (pretty much sufficient for a house deposit) on a scheme run by the housing association I rented from then. I told them I knew the scheme was there and they told me it had been a one-off thing and there wouldnt be any more money given to them. I told them there would be and filled in their form and handed it to their disbelieving faces and to keep my application on file - and there was more some months later and I got just enough (pretty much to the penny!)
- Found a suitable house by walking in the best roads I could afford at the time and I was sussing out a house there carefully from the outside (no sign of it being for sale at all) and got chatting to someone I didnt know lived there - and had had my offer on it accepted 2 days later.

So yep.....it has basically been intuition that's got me whatever extra I've managed to get pretty much - and not "shopping around/squeezing pennies/etc" and I've never got much in the way of savings from that scrimping and scraping. For a long long time I just made a reasonable effort to save money - and then thought "Done that - now I'll get back on with my life now".

Well I got my gas turned off and disconnected.i don't have any hot water.just use a shower and a kettle.washing machine goes on twice a week and on a 15 minute cycle.so no central heating .just convector heating....I don't have carpets either .can't afford it,..

I wondere if its because we are constantly being encouraged to switch banks, switch utility companies, different supermarkets, make 3 meals out of one etc etc and made to feel stupid for not doing so that we then carry it too far. I totted up the amount of time this has cost me in 2 years trawling the internet filling in forms and even with savings accounts it was not worth my time. I find it stressful, time consuming and wonder if I'm doing the right thing and then worry I'm not. Madness.

Many years ago, I used to feed some friends Sunday tea with meats, salads and homemade cakes. Once I gave them a cream tea and the man complained there was no meat and brought the fact up regularly after that! Even one of his children said to me 'Do you remember when you gave us tea with no meat?'
However, when we went to them we were told not to eat it all as he needed it for his sandwiches the following week. Not that there was a lot to eat anyway- and it is the only place where I've had half a spring onion on my plate - they'd been halved lengthways with half for each person.

My mum's pretty thrifty. When her elder sister died, she brought me half-a-dozen pairs of her used knickers for my knicker drawer.
Given they were "old lady" knickers and obviously not unworn, I binned them. She said she'd taken half a dozen for herself too & they were very comfortable.

19:12 Pyjamagardener

I have a friend,no mortgage she works part time,no kids,no mortgage. Her husband sits outside of the shop,while she goes in shopping,so he can charge his electric car for free.

Am I reading this correctly? Free electric car charging ?
Please tell me where. That’s a great way to be thrifty!

Sarahr

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.

I can relate to that - having had to spend decades poor and none of it remotely my fault (ie it was because I was low-paid and single).

What I tell myself these days (now my finances are rather more normal at last) is:
- "I deserve it after decades of having to economise - and it was never my fault or choice that I had to do that"
- "If something will make my life a bit easier if I spend a bit of money on it = then do so"
(eg the nearest bigger town is one I occasionally have to go to for something - and I know that one hour journey will take two hours on the bus). I am not going to get driven up the wall by wasting an hour extra getting there and an hour extra getting back again - and so I book a taxi instead both ways. Well worth it imo - every time I remember I'm used to getting to everything I require in not more than 30 minutes (and that was walking) until I moved here.

I have been given a LOT of grief by neighbours since moving here - and so that's another reason to use money when/where I can to make my life easier (to make up for all the stress they've caused me for instance). It's my little reward to myself for not lashing out and clocking them one - when they've often richly deserved it.