Meanest/ thriftiest thing you’ve ever heard of

We've not long down-sized to a bungalow - to say a lot of work is required is an understatement.

Apparently the previous owner used to forbid his daughters from having more than 2 inches of water in their bath! He used to actually measure it.

His meanness is, I assume, why the bungalow is in such a state.

Oreo

There’s thrift and there’s miserliness isn’t there?A certain amount of thrift is a good thing, miserliness never is.

Absolutely - being thrifty is good for the pocket and the planet, but miserliness is just being mean for the sake of it.

The meanest thing I ever saw was a woman who strained a tin of Heinz vegetable soup, drank the liquid as soup and put the vegetables in a sandwich for her husband's lunch.

As newly-weds, mostly teachers, so with similar incomes, we took turns to host meals and all brought wine; when their turn they would take the wine gratefully, put in away and serve only their awful homemade wine.

During our first Christmas party the husband discovered a bottle of good whisky given as a gift from a grateful parent, drank half of it without pause, then was sick down my kitchen sink.
Strangely, we lost touch with them.

whyDelilahwhy

does anyone remember a tv programme probably bbc, YEARS ago now, interviewing people, couples, nutters
taking frugality to obsessiveness?
the one I particularly remember was a very self satisfied woman in Prenton, who made all the family clothes, collected bits of soap, melted and reformed them, etc., an extreme version of Little House on the Prairie without the charm and bonnets.
Ive just tried to find it but couldn’t.

This is a little different to being careful, prudent or parsimonious even,
then there is meanness, which is
irredeemable.
A malaise of the purse.

Conversely, I remember a prog. where a woman on a bicycle went around advising people on how to stop wasting money.

I particularly remember the 2 gay blokes who were binning perfectly good bananas etc. but the best from a comedy POV was when she found what looked like a brand new jacket in the bin.
Of course she asked the bloke why on earth? Nothing wrong with it!

‘Oh, but it’s SO last season!’ 😂😂

butterandjam I have unravelled jumpers occasionally in the past - and once I bought a hideous jumper from the "cheap" rail at a charity shop. The wool itself was stunning and the jumper had obviously not been worn.
It unravelled beautifully!

Speaking of parties. Where I lived before I was used to the idea of communal meals and/or parties. The idea being "bring a dish and a bottle". I was gobsmacked at how many married/or equivalent couples interpreted that as "between us". So there was single me - bringing a dish and a bottle. Then there was some couples only bringing half a dish and half a bottle (as they were "sharing" the donation between them).

The meanest couple was the ones who brought a smallish dish of pate - between them - and I think they "forgot" to even bring half a bottle each (ie a bottle between them).

Those couples like that just "rode on the backs" of everyone else - as they were deliberately bargaining on there being enough food for all (courtesy of single people and the non-meanie couples).

I certainly learnt to recognise who would take advantage of "couple rates" and "family rates" entrance fees for things - and never ever ever acknowledge that singles were being made to subsidise them. In fact they'd be the first to put an innocent expression on their faces and ask with as straight a face as possible and not a shred of embarrassment and even sitting right in front of low-waged single me in a "take it for granted it would happen" tone of voice for others to subsidise them in that way.

It used to be one of my litmus tests of character - that and the "Are they going to take advantage of the way Society hasn't yet banned people from smoking anywhere/everywhere and light up a fag in front of (non-smoking) me". If they didnt care my nice clean clothes were going to reek of fag smoke after having them near me and that I was being charged more than them for anywhere they could blag cheaper rate couple/family tickets = that told me all I needed to know about their character ....

At least all that public fag-smoking has gone these days - thank goodness......

Olivia51

Oh and I should add that neither of the party givers were short of money!

Now you know why!! 😂

fancythat

Dont get me started.
A relative used to be jumpy if he cut off too much string!

When I was a child, parcels came wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. One of our jobs was saving, smoothing and folding the paper to be re-used. The other, was collecting all the used string, tying the ends togegther and rolling it in to a ball, to be re-used. Nothing was ever thrown away, everything recycled. A rag and bone man used to drive round in a horse and cart shouting his trade, and if you had any rags or bits of metal you couldn't make use of, he'd take them and pay with a few pennies or a bar of whiting for the step.
My grandmother made all her rags into rugs on sacking ( the only coverings they had on the floors). Old clothes worn out by to adults were often cut up so the less damaged bits used to make smaller clothes for children. By the time Granny had finallt "retired" the last scraps of material, we cut them into strips for her to make rugs. Knitted jumpers with holes in, were unravelled , the wool rolled into balls and re-knitted into something else.

There’s thrift and there’s miserliness isn’t there?A certain amount of thrift is a good thing, miserliness never is.

*Casdon" no I didn't. He was a great one for writing the date on things he bought! He would probably have said he was just interested in how long things lasted. (After he died we inherited a huge stock of light bulbs. That was 6 years ago and we've still got some!)

up?
Where did that come from?

Scribbles

I was certain I posted this yesterday evening but it's disappeared so I'll try again.
When I was around 4, just before I started school, we moved house.
We arrived at the new place on a dismal, dark winter afternoon and I can remember my parents' outrage when they discovered thae previous occupants had removed all the light bulbs and the loo roll.

When we moved up into our first house the vendors (same ones who took the plants with them), had not only removed all the light bulbs but the ceiling roses in some rooms too, leaving bare wires.

You may have it NotSpaghetti, as he did start recording in the late 1970s. I wish now that I’d asked him. Did you ever ask your dad why he did it eddiecat?

Oh and I should add that neither of the party givers were short of money!

I was invited to a 60th birthday party in an ex-colleague's garden a few years ago. We were all asked to bring whatever we wanted to drink, something for the BBQ and either a pudding or a salad. She would provide the garden! More recently, I was invited to a friend's anniversary in a village hall where we were asked to bring whatever we would like to eat and drink, our own table decorations and even our own crockery and cutlery.

Casdon

I don’t have any idea why he did it*DollyRocker*. He was ex army, and very organised in every aspect of his life. My guess is that he wanted to buy the best bulb, and calculating how long it would last enabled him to buy the next one at the right time in the life cycle of the old one, so the light was always kept on - but I could be wrong.

My dad did the same thing Casdon. He also wrote the date on every battery he used

Casdon I wonder if it was at the very beginning of long-life domestic bulbs?
The ones that were looped tubes - I assume they were compact fluorescent lights.

I remember buying two of those at great expense and not believing they would last x years. I wrote on mine the date I fitted them. One went on way past the 10 years or whatever it was. The other went within the year and I wrote to the company.
They sent me a free box of 6 which was worth a fortune then. I actually gave one to my mother and father and also my father-in-law!
I think it must have been the late 1970s. I bought them in an upmarket shop at a “green” event.

They were the sort that had to “warm up” like strip lights used to and then they grew brighter over a couple of minutes.

I don’t have any idea why he did it*DollyRocker*. He was ex army, and very organised in every aspect of his life. My guess is that he wanted to buy the best bulb, and calculating how long it would last enabled him to buy the next one at the right time in the life cycle of the old one, so the light was always kept on - but I could be wrong.

*
My father in law recorded every time he changed bulbs, we inherited an electric fire from them when they moved house and over a 15 year period he had recorded every single time he’d changed the bulb, and the make of the bulb he had replaced. He was not short of money*
Casdon That's bizarre, why? What a waste of time and effort. Would he complain to try & get a refund if the bulbs expired in a certain time frame or was he testing which makes of bulbs lasted longest?

I've just remembered another, when was moving overseas, the Packers told me about a bloke in New Zealand living in a hoarders hovel/shack who was moving to Australia. When they asked what was to go he said 'just the whole heap of sh*t guys'. The packers said 'yeah mate it is sh*t and we ain't wrapping it up'. He agreed & took everything including bathroom fittings, door handles, light bulbs, cups with mould in, old wood, threadbare carpeting, literally the whole shebang.

I was born during the war, and when we moved from a flat to a rented house, my parents could not afford to run a bath, so we each had to have a strip wash at the kitchen sink.

This also happened when I shared a flat in Dundee with three others. We could not afford the money.

Our flat was two doors away from M&S, and during the years I lived there, I never entered the store once because I couldn't afford anything. It would be rather different now.

My share of the rent was £6 a month without bills and food. I was not earning £30!

When I was in my late teens, I went out on a date with a lad who I knew was a bit ‘tight’ We went to a nightclub and he grudgingly bought us both a drink. I’d finished mine after a short time but he still had most of his in his glass. I watched what he did the next time he took a drink and he was regurgitating it back into the glass to make it last longer!

Needless to say, there wasn’t a second date….😳

I reuse my hand soap bottles but never wash them because I never get to the bottom. And, it's soap.

My bottles are all pandemic years old.

It gets to me only one other person in my group leaves a tip when eating out. They have the money. I like their company
and if I didn't see them my social life would suffer. They are out frequently and make a starter do as a main, it makes me feel mean. I leave a tip with one other, but when its 6 or 8 eating out it looks and is paltry.

i reuse my tin foil..wipe it clean or, rinse it under tap...its fine! And I rinse out my handsoap bottles and top up the new

I think what this thread highlights for me is that sensible “thrift” is a far cry from out and out “meanness” which is often accompanied with a certain kind of meanness of spirit. Most of us will have known folk like that in our lives, it’s not an attractive trait! Though for some it’s become that way due to awful times of deprivation in their past.