A Dime’s Worth Of Difference
“I moved in with a friend and we went grocery shopping together the first time. He refused to buy hot dogs at $0.88 because ‘Eff the man’ and ‘how dare they?’ because he saw them a week earlier for $0.78.”
Always Try For The Best Deal
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“I worked at a Sears that went out of business. On the final day, everything in the store was 95% off. We were selling a brand new weed-wacker for $8.
A guy came in and tried to get a manager to sell it to him for $5.”
The Richest Are the Cheapest
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“My aunt is a freaking multi-millionaire who owns apartment buildings in Menlo Park, CA. She is a notorious cheapskate. Just two days ago she gave my daughter a used sippy cup complete with teeth marks (that she had undoubtedly picked up at a garage sale or thrift store) as a 1st birthday present.
In the trash, it went.”
She Won The Battle, But Lost The War
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“I worked for Citibank in the late 90’s. At the time, plain blue checks were $17 for 200 checks. Part of that 200 are 5 designer checks from the manufacturer (clowns, puppies, etc). Lady calls in bent completely out of shape because ‘what would possibly make us think she’d want a check with puppies on it.’ It wasn’t until I offered to refund her the cost of 5 checks ($17/200 = 8 1/2 cents per check) that she finally settled down. I happily gave her her $.43 and sent her on her way.”
He Had Ulterior Motives For Inviting Them
“This guy invites people out to go four wheeling with him and takes his motorhome along to the campground. Some people sleep in the motorhome, some in tents (brought their own four-wheelers). At the end of the weekend, he presents everyone with bills for staying at the campsite which, when totaled, has him making money on the weekend. He got offended when the next time he invited people out, they made their own arrangements.”
Disgusting And Unsanitary And Horrible
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“My roommate in college would wash out his rubbers and reroll them. He’d put it back in the wrapper. Sometimes squirt goop in it to remoisten. Dude hooked up with a different girl every day, used one jimmy a week. His concern was getting a girl pregnant, I never said he was smart.”
Cheapest Person In The World
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“My evil stepmother owns a restaurant and attached convenience store. I will give a few examples of her cheapness.
If she eats breakfast at a restaurant with my dad, she will steal all of the little jams and jellies that she can get. Also sugar packets. These get tossed in her purse and used at her restaurant.
I have seen her eat leftovers from her customer’s plates when she is clearing the tables.
She has charged more for soft drinks if they are taken from the restaurant. This is because she loses the deposit ($0.10).
She is diabetic. Usually, when you get a new blood glucose meter, it is free because you have to buy the strips. She found out that the glucometer comes with ten free lancets to poke your finger for the blood sample. She tried to get another glucometer just to get more free lancets. If you buy the lancets, they are about $10 for 100.
She is originally from another country and still has family there. A couple of times a year, she sends a box of stuff over for her family. She always sends clothing over. This is clothing that she has worn, but she leaves the price tags on so that her sisters think she is sending new clothes. Her last box wasn’t quite full enough, so she took the half-empty bags of cereal from the restaurant (Think corn flakes and Rice Krispies) that will definitely be stale when they arrive.
When my son was little, he accidentally left his wallet in my dad’s car. She was the only person who could have had access. When he got the wallet back, it was empty. It had his name written on the wallet in marker, so it’s not like she didn’t know it was her step-grandson’s.
She got access to my gasoline rewards card. Basically, you get points for every liter of fuel and can redeem them for convenience store items. She used up about $500 worth of points on stuff for her own store. She didn’t tell me that she had done it. Next time I used the card and saw it was cleaned out, I asked the gas station staff what had happened. I was told that she told them it was okay with me and no problem at all.
While my sister was growing up with this step monster, she had a leather jacket she wanted to sell. Step monster wanted to give it to her sister. A deal was negotiated for $50. Step monster never paid and sister got my dad involved. Step monster claimed the deal was for $5 and my dad got mad at my sister for lying, so step monster never had to pay a penny.
Multiply all of the above for the last 27 years and you have a real contender for the cheapest person in North America.”
Who Doesn’t Love A Little Ketchup Soup?
“My landlord. Cheapest person I’ve ever met. He makes ‘soup’ at work mixing hot water and ketchup. He found a sandwich in an old jacket and ate it as to not waste money. He said it tasted like vinegar. Previous tenants said in the past he has turned off the water heater when he leaves the house.”
Stealing Water
“My neighbor hooked a regular garden hose up to our house before it was in our possession and illegally got water for years but my parents put a stop to it like a year after they bought the house.
My partner found the old hose and threw it back on her property where it is now being taken over by blackberries. She still is getting water illegally from our other neighbor’s well. My parents dug this house a new well so we have all the water to ourselves now. No more sharing with cheap old hoarders.”
This Is The Grossest Thing In The World
“Never saw it personally, but on this show, there was this lady who would save the bath water making everyone in the family use it, from her to the son to the father. Once everyone was done, she would clean the dishes in it.
Another lady on the show used one lightbulb throughout the entire house and made her husband take like five minute showers. No more than that she would talk to him through a baby monitor making sure he got out.”
Bargain Hunters Run Into A Pro In The Wild
“My wife and I go to garage sales most weeks, one time I saw a guy trying to get a purse knocked down from a quarter to a dime for like two minutes. I mean, I haggle fairly hard, but that was the most insane thing I’ve ever seen.”
Free Ketchup!
“I always got a kick out of people that rely on condiment packets from restaurants to replace buying said condiments. Had one friend that literally had tupperware bins full of ketchup, relish, mustard, mayonnaise, and of course Taco Bell hot sauce in their fridge. Refused to buy condiments, he’d just get a big handful every time he went out to eat – which was a lot.
I mean – I get the logic and all but a bottle of ketchup was like a dollar back then. How much money are you really saving? Didn’t help that I worked fast food and we’d catch flack for burning through too many boxes of condiments.”
She Made Sure Their Tallies Were Even
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“My husband’s ex-girlfriend would make him pay her back each time she bought him something, even if it was a bottle of coke and even if he didn’t ask for it in the first place. If he didn’t pay her back, she’d have a crying tantrum.
She was in her mid to late 20’s.”
Buy One? Take One!
“I went to Subway with a coworker. I had a coupon that if I bought a sub, I got one for free. I was expecting us to split the difference of one sub but he expected to get a free sub.
I didn’t really say anything cause it was just a few bucks but it just blew me away and I avoided going out to lunch with him again.”
A Rich Woman Too Cheap To Pay $5
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“I lived in Australia for a while.
My wife is the type of person who will talk and make friends with literally anyone from any social or economic class. She is Chinese and while in Melbourne, she met the wife of this guy that owned several Asian media outlets, like newspapers local cable. We were invited to their house and let me tell you they were rich, like, really rich.
She really liked my wife and they had a daughter who was a similar age to mine, so we decided to take all the kids ice skating. We went to the rink and because adults could also skate, they required everyone to pay $5. This super-rich lady was adamant she wasn’t paying the $5 because she wasn’t skating. She made a huge scene then said she wasn’t going in, then later snuck in!
My wife was really turned off by this display from someone who could clearly afford the $5. Decided not to interact with them anymore after that.”
7 Cents Is 7 Cents, Make Sense?
“At my hardware store and I’ve processed a return for a single nail for 7 cents. The guy drove in, parked, walked up, waited in line, and had his receipt ready to go, all for 7 cents. He made a special trip, with forethought, for 7 cents.
I recently had a customer come in for some replacement stepping stones because the ones he purchased before were ‘damaged.’ He had done us a favor and thrown them away at the job site already. So, essentially, he wanted to exchange nothing for a new product.
That’s not how this works. He stormed out, saying he would never shop here again. It’s just so illogical.”
Their Aunt Had A Disgusting Use For Paper Plates
“We had family friends over for a little bbq, just friends and family no big deal. Obviously, there were paper plates and plastic forks. Well after everyone was done, my aunt proceeded to walk around and collect the plates. Everyone thought she was being nice and just picking them up. Hours after everyone had left, we realized she started WASHING the paper plates and had saved them for ‘next time.’
Oh. She’ll also buy a shirt or shoes, probably spending no more than $15. She’ll keep the tags on and wear the item. Then she goes back and returns them just to get her money back. I understand people don’t have the luxury of buying expensive things (tuxedos, dresses etc) so they rent, but if you’re making a big fuss over $10 shoes at Wal-Mart, there are issues.”
These People Had No Room To Complain
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“I drive for Uber/Lyft on the weekends. I can’t tell you how many bartenders, servers, general hospitality service industry people I’ve driven home at 2 am while listening to them complain that millennials do not tip. Only to check the ride later and see they couldn’t be bothered to tip me.
I don’t ever expect a tip as a driver. It’s better to not expect a tip and get one than to rely on them and not receive them. This isn’t even a learned behavior, I went into the gig with this attitude. My complaint is focused specifically on people who are in a similar industry that complained about not being tipped.”
They Made Sure Everything Was Split Right Down The Middle
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“A deaf couple I knew took their daughter and her male friend (not her boyfriend) on a trip. They meticulously tracked all expenses and split everything evenly, 50/50. Parking $20? $10 for their family, $10 for him. Hotel room $100? $50/$50. The thing is, this boy was poor and lived with his single mom, and they were on disability. The deaf couple had the man working, earning $45K, and the woman got full SSI (deaf people can draw SSI since they are ‘disabled’ but max out their benefits by working for 10 years), so total family income over $60K. When they returned from the trip, they did all the math and told the guy he owed them $10. They brought it up every time they saw him for 3 weeks until he paid.
I took a trip with them the next year. They tried to pull that nonsense with me. NOPE
I also took a trip with that guy and my parents paid for everything for him.”
Cheap Lawyers Really Grind Their Gears
“Years ago, I worked at a convenience store and this guy, a local attorney, would routinely empty the take-a-penny tray next to the register. The daily paper was fifty cents and he’d take all of the change in the penny tray and then make up the difference from his own change. If there was enough change in the penny tray to actually pay for the newspaper, he’d keep whatever was left. It used to drive me up the wall. Before long, I started emptying the penny tray into a paper cup and stashing it below the counter when I saw his car pulling into the lot, and only put the pennies back in the tray after he left.
I mentioned him to my shift supervisor one day and she said she’d been doing the same thing (stashing the pennies when she saw him coming) for several months. We bonded over our shared disdain. Thing is, if a poor person had done it, I wouldn’t have batted an eye. But he was just a cheap prick who didn’t want to spend fifty cents of his own precious pocket change.”
What An Obvious Scam!
“I had a woman try to scam a beautiful Pottery Barn sofa and slipper chair set off of me while I was living in Brooklyn. This sofa was my pride and joy because I’d done several favors for this random lady in Manhattan, who said she was getting a new sofa, and if I could arrange for pickup, I could have this one.
When it was time to move away from the city, plane ticket dated for the next day, I had a lady come to buy the set for the measly $300 I was asking for it. She got there and in a way that made it obvious this was planned, she told me she wasn’t interested and asked me where on the curb I was going to dump the set if nobody bought them tonight.
I just told her I’d take care of it and to rest assured these items would not go to waste. At the time she left I had no idea what I was going to do with the giant things, and I really did have a plane to catch the next day. My revenge was secret and undramatic, just the way I like it.
My neighbor just so happened to volunteer for a charity that provides homes for struggling families, so, long story short, a low-income family somewhere has an incredibly beautiful sofa and there is still a contact in my phone saved as ‘Evil Couch Lady Do Not Answer.’
I was happy to give the thing away, but not to meanies!”
Getting Every Last Penny
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“I had a roommate. One day we were at a gas station together. My total was like $8.26. I had $8 and a $100 bill. They couldn’t break the hundred, so I asked him for 26 cents. Three weeks later, when rent was due, he gave me his portion of the rent minus 26 cents. I literally had a jar in the living room full of daily pocket change. He could have grabbed it anytime or more and I wouldn’t have cared, but never said a thing. If you knew the guy, you’d know he doesn’t joke. I mean we were at that gas station, after passing four others, because fountain drinks were 10 cents cheaper. That was the cheapest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Only On The Company’s Dime
“I knew someone who used to take his laptop/phone into work to charge at the office rather than charging them at home and raising the electricity bill.
He also lived on potatoes and wouldn’t turn the lights on before dark. Made the same amount of money as me, wasn’t struggling, just an odd duck.”
Too Cheap For Trash Bags…Among Other Things
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“At one point, my aunt and uncle were so poor (read cheap) that they were reusing trash bags. I became my younger cousin’s hero when I brought them a huge roll that didn’t fit my trashcan right.
I also treated my cousin to her first new bra since she was 13 – at the age of 19. Her parents said it was too expensive to buy her a new one. The poor thing was wearing a B cup bra when she was a DD, and had to hand wash her bra because it had started to come apart in the washing machine.
But it’s cool y’all. My uncle bought himself a new compact bow and arrow set for deer season.”
Not Real Environmentalists
“He comes to work early to brew his morning coffee because he doesn’t have to pay the electricity bill at work.
He would also shave at work on ‘work time,’ sullying our one shared bathroom. We nixed that fast.
Bathing in Lake Superior (it’s cold!) with eco soap to save electricity and water going into his septic tanks longevity. Also encouraged ‘yellow let it mellow’ to save the septic. When I’d stay there, they’d encourage 3-minute showers. When they stayed at my home, they’d take 30 minutes, steaming hot showers. Real environmentalists.”
Cheap Or Lazy?
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“Instead of buying actual ceramic dishware and metal cutlery, they bought a big stack of paper plates and stole massive amounts of plastic cutlery and napkins from takeout restaurants. While they could always get more cutlery and napkins, they would actually rinse the paper plate after each use until it degraded and was unusable. The paper plates were also hidden in their room somewhere so that no one could steal and use them.
Granted, this was in a house with seven guys who constantly left their dirty dishes in the sink so that someone had to do dishwashing if they were wanting to eat on a clean plate, but that was some serious dedication to not wanting to do actual dishwashing.”