What's the most cheapskate thing you had a friend or relative do?

[Prince]

At work, when we have pot luck dinners, I swear, the one's that make the most $ are the first one's to sign up for utensils and paper towels.

Why? The office pays for these already.

This past Christmas dinner, one of them walked in, grabbed an unopened roll of paper towels and sat it on the table. One of that lady's ask what that was for, his response, "that's was my contribution."

Of course, he then proceeded to eat more than anyone.

Another time, again at work, we had a wholesaler bring in lunch. It was announced over the intercom.

The guy across from me bolted out of his office and ran down to the kitchen.

Educated, white collar jobs and wealthy...they still are on the lookout for a free meal.

So, what is B&B's take on cheapskates?

 

[mdove47]

Military here....I was out for dinner with a Captain, I am a Non Commissioned Officer. She had placed her order and the server was taking my order. I see this look of amazement on his face. I look at the Captain and she is pouring an envelope of Kool-aid into her class of water. She asks for another glass of water and a class of ice. He leaves. I look at her and tell that is the cheapest thing I have ever seen any body do. I told her I had raised two daughters and never been as embarassed. It gets better. We received a 20% military discount. When it came time to leave, she tipped on the discounted price of the meal, rather than the full price. I said something to her and she made some poor excuse. I told her if she cannot afford a flavored beverage and to leave a decent tip on what the meal would have cost she should just stay home and not go out. I never went anywhere with her again, and after word of this behavior got out.....well neither did anyone else. I still cannot get over it.

 

[Stubblefield]

The GF goes out to the occasional "girls night out" and will generally only order a small meal and ice tea. A few of the other gals will order expensive meals and fancy drinks, then proceed to ask--that the bill be split evenly.

I told my GF to ask for a separate check next time.

 

[rearviewmirror]

HEY, I brought the plates to quite a few forced company parties. They didn't provide ANYTHING. Sure, I got them BOGO, but I was told by the party planners we needed plates, so I brought plates!

 

[Prince]

HEY, I brought the plates to quite a few forced company parties. They didn't provide ANYTHING. Sure, I got them BOGO, but I was told by the party planners we needed plates, so I brought plates!

If it's on the list, then it's not being cheap. When you add it to the list, then get them from the office stocked breakroom, then your are being cheap.

 

[Dave in the basement]

One of my best friends makes really good money. But he only runs his water heater maybe 2 days per week. Apparently he is planning on taking his money with him!

 

[ouch]

I love this thred already.

 

[Nils]

My wife and I are both teachers. She had a colleague who showered only in school to save water and energy at home. He also boasted that he used the school toilets as much as possible to save water.

 

[johnnyxxl]

I am poor but not that cheap life was meant to enjoy

 

[GearHead_1]

I have a relative by marriage. This person has got to me on more than one occasion. It began many years back when myself and a friend were going shooting. My relative invited himself and brought his own AR15. My friend and I both had multiple black rifles of various calibers with us, we both reloaded .223 ammo big time and were out for a fun afternoon. I happened to bring a 5 gallon bucket that was about 2/3 of the way full of quality reloaded ammo. When we get to the shooting area low and behold my relative had no ammunition, said something about forgetting it. He more or less invited himself to shoot my ammo and said something along the lines of, since I reload it's pretty cheap for me anyway. He must have shot 250 rounds that afternoon. Well it is what it is and I let it go after all he had married into the family. A month or so later he invited himself to go with us once again. Believe it or not, he showed up in the same predicament. I never should have done it but I let him shoot with my ammo once again. He shot a ton.

There was never any attempt made to try to reimburse me even at reload price. Fast forward a year or so later, this was back in the day when High Capacity Magazine ban was playing out. He had picked up a new 15 round high cap mag for a Glock .40 for the price of $15 but it just so happened that he had a sub compact Glock. The magazine would actually fit in his gun but about half of the mag hangs out the bottom and just isn't a good fit. He offered to sell it to me as I have a couple of full size Glocks an he needed the money. I said sure, he brought me the mag and when I asked him how much he wanted he said $80. At the time that was about the price for the hard to come by magazine. His poor wife was sitting there in the car and I really felt like she needed the money, I love my niece. I didn't say a word and gave him what he had asked for.

A few months ago, he showed up at my house out of the blue and asked me if I had a pretty target grade .50 BMG round. He doesn't have a rifle that will shoot it but wanted it for a show piece. I said that I had some nice lathe turned brass 700 grain ball rounds. They are a beautiful cartridge. I have a bunch of "plinking" .50 BMG's laying around that cost far less, these are usually what I shoot but he wanted the pretty cartridge. I opened a new box and handed him one. He said what are these? About $3? I said no they run about $5. He reached in his pocket, handed me the only $3 he had in his pocket and said he'd have to owe me a couple of bucks. Once again there were family members standing around and I didn't say anything. Once again, no attempt to repay me.

Well last week, my father wanted to sell a small utility trailer he had and said this family member wanted to buy it. He of course wanted a good price. I told my dad at the time about the situations I had with him and told him that if he was going to let him take the trailer to just give it to him and feel good about it or there would be payment issues. The money isn't an issue for my father. He decided to just sell it to him at a very reasonable price (a couple hundred less than he could have gotten out of it). The price was $300. The relative came and gave him the money in an envelope and joking said you might want to count it, my kids have been holding the envelope and it might not all be there. My father like a true gentlemen did not count it in his presence. Well, you guessed it, it was $20 bucks short. Of course my now 80 year old father doesn't want to raise a fuss. It may have taken me a while but I have learned my lesson with this person.

That's the best story I've got.

 

[legrandfromage]

Back when I was a kid my father had a business partner that was crazy cheap. I was riding in his car with him, at night, and he kept turning off the headlights whenever we were stopped at a light. I asked him why he was doing that and the answer was "to save the battery".

 

[73mountaineer]

There was never any attempt made to try to reimburse me even at reload price. Fast forward a year or so later, this was back in the day when High Capacity Magazine ban was playing out. He had picked up a new 15 round high cap mag for a Glock .40 for the price of $15 but it just so happened that he had a sub compact Glock. The magazine would actually fit in his gun but about half of the mag hangs out the bottom and just isn't a good fit. He offered to sell it to me as I have a couple of full size Glocks an he needed the money. I said sure, he brought me the mag and when I asked him how much he wanted he said $80. At the time that was about the price for the hard to come by magazine. His poor wife was sitting there in the car and I really felt like she needed the money, I love my niece. I didn't say a word and gave him what he had asked for.

A few months ago, he showed up at my house out of the blue and asked me if I had a pretty target grade .50 BMG round. He doesn't have a rifle that will shoot it but wanted it for a show piece. I said that I had some nice lathe turned brass 700 grain ball rounds. They are a beautiful cartridge. I have a bunch of "plinking" .50 BMG's laying around that cost far less, these are usually what I shoot but he wanted the pretty cartridge. I opened a new box and handed him one. He said what are these? About $3? I said no they run about $5. He reached in his pocket, handed me the only $3 he had in his pocket and said he'd have to owe me a couple of bucks. Once again there were family members standing around and I didn't say anything. Once again, no attempt to repay me.

Shoulda' told him it was $80 for the round

 

[tchudson]

A woman I worked with years back would join us all at happy hour at a nearby bar. She would drink nothing but water and scarf down tons of food off of the "free" buffet.

I've got one friend who asks for extra lemon slices with his water, then he proceeds to make lemonade.

 

[tchudson]

In Tucson during the summer, the water coming into our house was so warm we could shower in the water from the "cold" water tap....

One of my best friends makes really good money. But he only runs his water heater maybe 2 days per week. Apparently he is planning on taking his money with him!

 

[commanderkeen]

Shoulda' told him it was $80 for the round

Family price $100

 

[knlgskr]

If affected directly, I let cheapskates know what I think of their behavior; because if I don't, they will continue their behavior and once acquired they are difficult to discard. Most of them depend upon you remaining silent to enable them to continue; when you say you will not tolerate this they will cease and desist or no longer bother you with their company. Do not become an enabler, if you do; you are disrespecting yourself.

 

[BZiel]

About 15 years ago I got a Christmas gift from a friend....opened the box...and saw what appeared to be a nice wooden barreled pen and pencil set.

Upon a closer examination, both of them were engraved, but, instead of my name, they read "Your Name Here." The box was labeled "This sample provided by XYZ Promotions Company."

I still shake my head about it to this day.

 

[saf]

I have a friend who buys $500 dollars worth of jeans so he can try them on at home and then complains about customer service when he returns $450 worth of them.

He also bought a $1500 camera knowing that he could return it within three months so he could try it out and return it when it when it went on sale and buy it cheaper.

Same guy buys books for his kids and returns them after he has read them several times.

He also sits at the bar waiting for others to buy him drinks and will never buy a round.

Then he brags that he is getting a 20k tax refund.

I say friend more like a guy that I am stuck being around at times.

 

[Legion]

My ex housemate used to buy his mother flowers the day after mothers day, when they went on sale. Every year.

The same guy used to steal every product I owned. Soap, shaving cream, hair products, aftershave... anything that was left out. That's when I started keeping Nair in my shampoo bottle...

 

[saltypete]

I have a elderly relative who is notoriously tight. She sent my grandmother a birthday card with two scratch it lottery tickets that she had already scratched. You just know if either of those tickets had won even two bucks she would not have given them to my nanna.


Pete